And so begins the first camping trip of the season (assuming that you don’t count all the technicalities in the previous two episodes…). Ayano and Rin meet up and bike around Ikawa. Meanwhile, Nadeshiko boards a couple of trains to reach the campsite/rendezvous point she and the others agreed on.
I couldn’t help but be a little concerned for Ayano here. She is the least experienced camper in this adventure after all. There is one (admittedly funny) close call early on where Ayano passes out upon meeting up with Rin. Both girls have to deal with some difficult roads for this trip. Rin is at least used to that kind of experience but Ayano isn’t so naturally, the latter needs to take a breather. She recovers though she is setting herself up for disaster by skipping out on lunch to make dinner more enjoyable. Driving a motorbike while famished doesn’t like a great idea to me. If Ayano is going to pass out again, it doesn’t happen in this episode. It’s pretty much smooth sailing for the remainder. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so worried.
Now that she and Rin are together, Ayano decides that the two of them will bike to Lake Hatanagi and check out some of Ikawa’s various suspension bridges along the way. I can’t tell if this is something Ayano researched offscreen or if she’s deciding on a whim because she barely gave Rin a plan before. Either way, this bike tour proves to tide the two over for the day. As always, Laid-Back Camp continues to deliver some pretty locales for the characters to explore. It’s also doing a great job keeping the vistas varied so that adventures don’t get stale. I recall Rin crossing a suspension bridge once in Season 2 but that obviously wasn’t to the extent shown in this episode so this type of location is still very unique for the show to depict.
Rin and Ayano are proving to be a very fun pair in this adventure. I think Rin has solid chemistry with almost every other major character but she seems to especially gel well with Ayano’s chilled personality. The two are often on the same wavelength in a lot of scenes. Probably the funniest one is when the two feel stupid for mistaking some powerlines for another bridge or when they both cross a wet bridge by holding onto the handrails and needlessly keeping their feet off the floor. It’s kind of amazing how they consistently think of the same thing. You of course have a couple of fun moments where they bounce off of each other. There’s a funny moment where Ayano teases Rin for making an unintentional pun regarding one of the locales they’re checking out. Sometimes, Ayano has some thoughts that are too silly or intrusive for Rin to have, making Rin as a sort of voice of reason for her.
Nadeshiko sort of takes a backseat in this episode. It can’t helped since she’s mostly boarding a couple of trains en route to the campsite. She does however become the center of attention in the last third of episode, in which she reunites with her one true love: food. While waiting for the next train, she sets her sights on a couple of foods, gets distracted by another treat, only to then come back to her original plan because her appetite knows no bounds. It’s a typical Nadeshiko comedy routine and it has yet to get old for me. I’m surprised there hasn’t been an episode where Nadeshiko accidentally goes broke from buying too much food. Then again, she knows all too well to be careful with her wallet.
There’s a curious moment at the end, where two girls board the same train as Nadeshiko. That Laid-Back Camp is taking the time to introduce these two implies that they will have a more prominent role in the next episode. These two are not the new girls teased in the OP however, so they’re probably the one-off characters for this particular adventure.
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