The second season of the Japanese animated television series ''Laid-Back Camp'', based on the manga series of the same name by Afro, sees the adventures of

Nadeshiko Kagamihara , also known in Japan as ''Yuru Camp'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Afro. Set in and around Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, the series chronicles the adventures of Rin Shima, Nadeshiko Kagamihara, and their friend ...

and

Rin Shima , also known in Japan as ''Yuru Camp'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Afro. Set in and around Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, the series chronicles the adventures of Rin Shima, Nadeshiko Kagamihara, and their friend ...

in their next camping trip following their first group camping with members of the Outdoor Activities Club last Christmas. Animated by

C-Station is a Japanese animation studio established in 2009 as an extension of Bee Train Production and chaired by Ryoji Maru, a former producer and production manager for Bee Train. In 2012, C-Station split from Bee Train and in 2013, it was announced t ...

, the season is directed by Yoshiaki Kyogoku from a series composition by

Jin Tanaka is a Japanese anime screenwriter. He has served as the head writer for such anime as ''Go! Princess PreCure'', '' Kirakira Pretty Cure a la Mode'', ''Laid-Back Camp'', ''Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club'', ''The Misfit of Demon King ...

. The season sees the return of cast members Yumiri Hanamori,

Nao Tōyama is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with the agency Intention. Before joining Intention, she was affiliated with Arts Vision. She debuted as a voice actress in 2010, and played her first leading role as Kanon Nakagawa in ''The Worl ...

Sayuri Hara Sayuri may refer to: People * Sayuri (given name) * Sayuri (musician) (born 1996), Japanese musician * Yakob Sayuri Yakob Sayuri (born 22 September 1997) is an Indonesian professional footballer who plays as a winger and full back for Liga 1 ...

, Aki Toyosaki,

Rie Takahashi is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with 81 Produce. She had a leading role in the anime series ''Seiyu's Life!'', where she became part of the musical unit Earphones. She voiced Futaba Ichinose in ''Seiyu's Life!'', Megumin in ''K ...

, Marina Inoue, Shizuka Itō, and

Risae Matsuda is a Japanese voice actress from Takatsuki, Osaka who is affiliated with I'm Enterprise. She is the twin sister of voice actress Satsumi Matsuda. She is known for her roles as Hakumei in ''Hakumei and Mikochi'' and Noella in '' Drugstore in Anot ...

, with

Tomoyo Kurosawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from Chichibu, Saitama. Her major voice acting roles include ''Yuki Yuna is a Hero'' as Itsuki Inubozaki, ''Arknights'' as Amiya, ''Sound! Euphonium'' as Kumiko Ōmae, Rebecca in '' Cyberpunk: Edger ...

joining them as the voice of Ayano Toki, a childhood friend of Kagamihara.

Akio Otsuka is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from the Tokyo Metropolitan area. He is attached to Mausu Promotion. The astringent and calm quality of his deep voice has landed him many roles in films, dubbing, animation, and video games. He is ...

reprises his role from the first season as the narrator. A sequel to the 2018 anime TV series ''Laid-Back Camp'' was announced in October 2018. The second season aired in Japan from January 7 to April 1, 2021, and consists of thirteen episodes. It is followed by a third season, which is set to be released in Japan in April 2024.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Production

Development

Initial talks for a second season began during the airing of the first season of ''Laid-Back Camp'' due to its positive feedback, but the staff stated that another season was not possible "right away" due to their work schedule, while director Yoshiaki Kyogoku felt that it was "impossible" to happen. In July 2018, producer Shōichi Hotta was offered by FuRyu to lead the second season project despite being no longer affiliated with the company. Hotta then approached animation producer Ryoji Maru with a "big new" project, which consisted of the second season, a short anime, and a film, and discussed the season with writer Jin Tanaka and Kyogoku in an

izakaya An () is a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks. are casual places for after-work drinking, similar to a pub, a Spanish tapas bar, or an American saloon or tavern. Etymology The word entered the English la ...

near

's office. In October 2018, the season was greenlit at the Yuru Camp Secret Society Blanket Enrollment Explanation Meeting, an event for the anime series. The returning staff included Kyogoku, Tanaka, character animation designer Mutsumi Sasaki, and

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

Hiroaki Tanaka. The season was produced by DeNA and animated by C-Station. In March 2020, the premiere of the season was announced to be in January 2021, with the date later revealed to be on January 7. The anime's official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account confirmed that the season would consist of thirteen episodes.

Writing

The staff based the second season of ''Laid-Back Camp'' starting from the fifth volume of the manga series and included the concept of "family", which was found in those volumes, to complete its story. The season covered until the ninth volume. In an interview with ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'', Hotta explained that unlike the first one, which focused on the characters meeting each other and becoming friends, the second season would explore their individual "journey as they began to think about what they wanted to do, particularly Nadeshiko Kagamihara becoming interested in solo camping. This idea was based on a line from the fifth volume: Hotta created two catchphrases for the season, which are "It's lonely, but also fun" and "It's fun, but also lonely". Hotta, Kyogoku, and several other C-Station staff went on a camping trip to locations that would be featured in the season as part of their research and managed to complete it before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

worsen. More than 10 scouting trips were conducted to various locations in Yamanashi and

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

s, and other places that the characters would be visiting in the season.

Casting

Yumiri Hanamori,

, Aki Toyosaki,

, Marina Inoue, Shizuka Itō, and Risae Matsuda reprised their respective roles from the first season as Nadeshiko Kagamihara, Rin Shima, Chiaki Ōgaki, Aoi Inuyama, Ena Saitō, Sakura Kagamihara, Minami Toba, and Akari Inuyama, with

also returning as the narrator and voice of Rin's grandfather. In August 2020,

joined the cast as Nadeshiko's childhood friend named Ayano Toki. Tadahisa Fujimura and Masamichi Ureshino, directors of '' How Do You Like Wednesday?'', made

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

s as a

smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...

fisherman and the manager of the campsite at Cape Ohmama.

Music

Akiyuki Tateyama returned as the

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of the second season. Asaka performed the opening theme music titled "Seize the Day", while

Eri Sasaki is a Japanese musician from Fukuoka Prefecture who is signed to 5pb. Records and Sony Music Publishing. She made her music debut in 2015 with the release of her first single "Ring of Fortune", which is used as the opening theme to the anime tele ...

sang the ending theme music titled , which both released on January 27, 2021. Sasaki revealed that the song was already recorded when she did a recording session with Hero Nakamura, co-creator of the first season's ending theme music, in September 2018. She also performed the insert song in the seventh episode titled

Marketing

A teaser trailer for the second season of ''Laid-Back Camp'' was released on September 21, 2020, followed by the second trailer on November 20. On November 29, 2020, advanced screening for the first episode was held in Marunouchi Piccadilly in Tokyo and streamed live in other 36 movie theaters in Japan. In December 2020, the Shizuoka Prefecture created two maps featuring model locations and campsites in the prefecture that would be introduced in the season. A full trailer for the series was released on December 23, 2020.

Release

Broadcast

The second season of ''Laid-Back Camp'' began airing in Japan on AT-X,

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

, BS11, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto on January 7, 2021, on YBS on January 9, on Mie TV on January 10, on Hokkaido TV on January 11, and on SBS on January 12.

Home media

Ani-One began simulcasting the second season on their official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel, while

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

began streaming it on June 30, 2021. In November 2022, the season became available to view on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

in Japan. The first volume of

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

for the season was released in Japan on March 24, 2021. The second volume was released on May 26, 2021, which contains a new

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

(OVA) titled ''Mystery Camp''. The third and final volume was released on July 28, 2021, which contains the second OVA titled ''Traveling Rin Shima''. Each of the volumes contains an episode of the

director's cut A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...

version of starring Otsuka and the camping program starring Toyosaki.

Reception

Critical response

Steve Jones of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

reviewed the first three episodes of the second season of ''Laid-Back Camp'', stating that the series was not just about camping but also a "travelogue about the sights and experiences of Japan outside of the major metropolitan areas", while Jones' colleague Theron Martin found the first episode "nothing... quite as funny as the better moments in the first season" but lauded the scenes, attention-to-detail camping tools, and "low-key" music. Stig Høgset of '' THEM Anime Reviews'' rated the season a complete 5 stars, stating that it was an "absolute masterpiece of a relaxed zen winter camping endorsement". Writing for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

'', Julia Lee lauded the second season for being a "semi-educational show" like the first one and how it provided "fun looks into some cool areas of Japan", and dubbed it the "most comfy anime" in the last decade.

Accolades

In December 2021, the second season of ''Laid-Back Camp'' was among the Top 100 Favorites nominated for the Anime of the Year at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2022. , - ! scope="row" , 2021 ,

Shanghai Television Festival The Shanghai Television Festival (), abbreviated STVF, also known as the Shanghai International Television Festival is the first and one of the largest television festivals in East Asia. Held since 1986, STVF has become one of the most influential ...

, Best Animation , rowspan="2" , ''Laid-Back Camp'' (season 2) , , , - ! scope="row" rowspan="3" , 2022 , rowspan="2" , Setsucon Anime Awards , Sequel of the Year , , rowspan="2" , , - , Best Ship , Rin × Nadeshiko , , - , Location Japan Award , Special Award – Approval Rating , ''Laid-Back Camp'' (season 2) × Shizuoka Prefecture , , , -

Impact

The number of visitors to tourist facilities in Iwata, such as the torii gate at Fukuda Beach, Ryuyokaiyo Koen Auto Camping Ground, and Mitsuke Tenjin Shrine, had seen a significant increase due to the city being featured in the second season of ''Laid-Back Camp''. According to Shizuoka Economic Research Institute in February 2023, an economic

ripple effect A ripple effect occurs when an initial disturbance to a system propagates outward to disturb an increasingly larger portion of the system, like ripples expanding across the water when an object is dropped into it. The ripple effect is often used ...

of million was generated in Shizuoka after the prefecture collaborated with the series to hold a stamp rally featuring the locations visited by the characters in the second season, which was held from November 12, 2021, to March 21, 2022.

Original video animations

Notes

References

External links

* * {{C-Station 2021 anime television series debuts Anime series based on manga C-Station Camping in anime and manga Crunchyroll anime Iyashikei anime and manga Medialink Television shows set in Yamanashi Prefecture