Otherside Picnic (Anime)

Otherside Picnic (裏世界ピクニック) is the anime adaptation of the yuri sci-fi novel series written by Iori Miyazawa and is premiered on January 4, 2021. The anime adaptation will be directed by Takuya Satō, who is also working on the series composition at LIDENFILMS and FelixFilm. Yumiri Hanamori will voice Sorawo Kamikoshi and Ai Kayano will voice Toriko Nishina.

Summary
Sorawo has been exploring the strange dream-like world she calls the Otherside ever since she stumbled upon it during her days as an urban explorer, but her most recent trip has gotten her into serious trouble. That's when she meets Toriko, a strange young woman searching the Otherside for her missing friend. Toriko helps Sorawo out of her predicament, and Sorawo falls into helping Toriko in her mission. But each journey into the Otherside brings strange new dangers and skills, and Sorawo isn't sure that the search is worth it.

Announcement
On March 5, 2020, Shonen Gangan, a manga imprint of Square Enix Holdings, announced that Iori Miyazawa’s science fiction Yuri series, Otherside Picnic (Urasekai Picnic) would be adapted into a TV anime. Early February, Shonen Gangan hinted at a possible anime adaptation on Twitter. Additionally, in December, a short PV was released to promote the fourth volume of the light novel.

On September 12, 2020, Otherside Picnic's official twitter announced the anime is set to broadcast in January 2021, along with additional staff and also released a second PV which latest cuts from the anime production.

The anime will be produced at Liden Films and Felix Film. The series will be directed by Takuya Satō (Kase-san and Morning Glories, Fragtime, St'eins;Gate) and will star Yumiri Hanamori as Sorawo and Ai Kayano as Toriko.

Staff

 * Original: Iori Miyazawa (Published by Hayakawa Bunko JA/ Hayakawa Publishing)
 * Character Draft: shirakaba
 * Director / Series Composition: Takuya Satō
 * Character Design / Animation Director: Ayumi Nishihata
 * Creature Design: Kazutaka Ema
 * Effects Animation Director: Toru Yoshida (AnimeR)
 * Art Director: Hiroki Matsumoto (Atelier Platz)
 * Color Design: You Iwaida (Assez Finaud Fabric.)
 * Director of Photography: Takeshi Kuchiba (Assez Finaud Fabric.)
 * 3D Director: Yuya Shiraishi (FelixFilm)
 * Editing: Masahiro Gotou (REAL-T)
 * Music: Tsuyoshi Watanabe
 * Animation Production: LINDENFILMS x Felix Films

Cast

 * Yumiri Hanamori as Sorawo Kamikoshi
 * Ai Kayano as Toriko Nishina
 * Rina Hidaka as Kozakura
 * Miyu Tomita as Akari Seto
 * Takuma Terashima as Abarato

Opening Theme

 * "Minikui Ikimono" (醜い生き物) performed by CHiCO with HoneyWorks.

Ending Theme

 * "You & Me" (ユー & ミー) performed by Miki Sato.

Trivia/s

 * On Episode 1, when Sorawo and Toriko are on the way to the building in Jinbouchou, a sign on a book store says 早川書房 which translates to Hayakawashobō (Hayakawa Publishing), a well-known SF publishing company that published the Otherside Picnic Series.
 * On Episode 3, on the bookstore near the elevator entrance where Sorawo and Toriko frequently meets, an image of the Volume 4 Cover Art can be seen in posted on the wall.
 * Real life locations that were featured and advertised in the anime includes the bookstore Shonsen Grande (Episode 3) and cafe pause (Episode 4).
 * They hired military advisors in order to properly portray the Marine Corps for the adaptation of Station February in the anime.
 * Episode 3 and Episode 10 are both anime originals, with screenplay written by Iori Miyazawa himself.
 * Despite the anime not following the chronological per File order of the original novels, some of the episodes are aired during interesting dates such as, Episode 5 (titled 'Station February') was aired on the 1st of February; The adaptation of File 6: Resort Night at the Beach of the End aired in Episode 7, following the trope of anime beach episodes; and Episode 8 (titled 'Attack of the Ninja Cats') was aired on February 22, which is 'National Cat Day' in Japan, as the date resembles the words "nyan nyan nyan" (meow meow meow), and also 'Ninja Day' celebrated in some places in Japan.