Rin is the kind of girl who prefers solo camping, while Nadeshiko, Aoi, and Chiaki enjoy camping together as part of the Outdoor Exploration Club. What they have in common, however, is their preference for a laid-back kind of camping. These girls aren’t going to spend days in the wilderness looking for a campsite previously untouched by man — they’re going to have fun getting lost, stopping by hot springs, and, most of all, cooking delicious camp food during their weekend excursions.
As the basis for the popular anime adaptation last winter, I found that the anime seems to have been a rather faithful adaptation of the original Laid-Back Camp, although I was struck by how the pacing felt a little faster in the manga than the anime. In truth it’s about the same — the first volume ends around the same place that the fourth anime episode did, but since I read quite quickly it meant that the manga actually felt less laid-back! That certainly doesn’t detract from Laid-Back Camp’s charm however. As someone who enjoys hiking and the great outdoors this “cute girls doing cute things,” almost iyashikei story hits many of my interests, to the point where I’m even thinking about hikes I want to take once the weather cools down.
At this point I do think that I enjoyed the anime adaptation slightly more than this original manga. Part of this is due to the fact that I encountered the anime first, which I have found often makes a difference in which version of a story I prefer, but part of it has to do with Afro’s artstyle. Afro uses a lot of lines for shading, even mixing screentones with hatching where most manga-ka would use screentones alone, and it often gives the panels an unintentional cluttered feeling.
This art style works lovely in the few large panels and double-page spreads that occur in these first two volumes and I would love for Afro to play to their strengths and adjust their paneling so that they can show off their own art in that way. The slightly more moe designs, and less eclectic color choices, in the anime are more to my speed but that truly is more of a personal preference than a critical take on Afro’s work.
I was a little surprised to discover that some of my favorite gags seemed to be anime-original (such as Rin mimicking the funny face she finds on a statue). Overall the humor strikes the same tone in both the anime and the manga, it’s “low-key silly”. I love how the girls are almost constantly breaking into little gags and skits, like mimicking an old grandmother’s voice when serving soup or taking their experiments with sleeping bags to the illogical extreme. It felt rather true to life for how high schoolers actually act (although, when I was in high school I can’t imagine being allowed to go on an overnight camping trip without any adult supervision at all!).
I think that many pieces of fiction overlook or simply forget how silly teens are and the fact that Laid-Back Camp remembered this only added to my delight. Everyone who hasn’t tried this series yet should pick up a copy, kick back, and enjoy this great manga about the great outdoors.