Laid-Back Camp Season 3’s final stretch has more or less been giving us individual vignettes with each of the five main characters. The last character left to check in on is Aoi, who finally gets the spotlight in the first part of this episode. As it turns out, Aoi’s aunt (Kana Ueda) offers to give her an unused bike lying around in her house. Seeing as the bike would be useful for camping and the fact that it’s free, Aoi of course accepts the bike. The bike definitely suits her camping hobby, being equipped with a speedometer, a set of gears, and a very strong pair of brakes. It’s at least more efficient than the bicycles Rin and Nadeshiko used way back in the series premiere.
Aoi’s aunt doesn’t appear for very long though she does provide the episode with one of its better jokes. While handing over the bike, the aunt remarks how Aoi’s father used to be a competitive bicyclist. Later in the post-credit scene however, Aoi’s father reveals that he barely did any sport so the aunt was trolling this entire time. I guess it just runs in the family. I like how this episode takes place on April 1st so you should take the backstory with a grain of salt but it’s very easy to forget to do so as barely anyone pulls someone’s leg in the episode.
It’s kind of funny to see Laid-Back Camp add a bicycle into the main cast’s inventory. The girls use them from time to time but the show has largely pivoted Rin’s moped as its main vehicle and everyone else either carpools or takes the train. To have someone get into bicycling after all this time feels a bit strange at first. That said, it is also another way for the show to keeps things from getting stale. I wonder if someone else will get into bicycling. It’d be a little weird having Aoi and Rin riding their bikes together.
Naturally, Aoi decides to take her bike out for a spin. She decides to head over to the convenience store as Akari (Risae Matsuda) wants her to grab her favorite food, wasabi-flavored potato chips. I don’t I’ve mentioned it before but there is a lot of CGI modeling in this season, particularly when anyone is driving a vehicle. I don’t find it too egregious, I’ve seen worse in other anime, but it does stick out from time to time. That’s weirdly more so in this scene, probably because a person riding a bicycle demands more elaborate animation than when they’re driving a moped. Nevertheless, it’s still fun seeing Aoi figure out the mechanics of her bike and react to its capabilities.
Aoi does get to the convenience store but she decides to hold off on buying the chips and she instead bikes all the way over to Chiaki’s location. Ultimately, we don’t see Aoi go back to buy the chips. It just completely slips her mind. That’s a little funny though I’d argue that Laid-Back Camp doesn’t go far enough with the joke. Like, we don’t cut to Akari asking for the chips and Aoi realizing too late, as if Akari forgot about it as well. Also, poor Akari. She has way less screentime this season. Did she and Ayano make a trade or something?
Anyway, Aoi heads over to Chiaki’s location so now, her surprises appearance last episode makes a lot more sense. Evidently, Aoi isn’t trolling like I predicted. It’s purely an impulsive decision on her part. Sadly, the hangout isn’t given a lot of screentime though the episode does get some last minute material out of it. In particular, you have Chiaki give Aoi a paracord bracelet she made last episode, allowing Aoi to tie the brakes on her bike to compensate for its lack of a kickstand. Being the cheapskate that she is, Chiaki immediately regrets this decision when Aoi discovers that you can buy this kind of accessory with money.
The rest of the episode has Rin tagging along with Nadeshiko and Sakura with the cherry blossom sightseeing. Funny how Rin seems more of a middleman in this scenario. Like, Rin is quicker to play along with Nadeshiko’s silliness so Sakura seems more low energy by comparison. An understated aspect that I really appreciate here is Rin being able to hold a conversation with Sakura. Before, Rin was a bit shy around Sakura and she kind of struggled to talking about common ground. Here, the two are comfortably sharing travel information to each other. I’d really like to see more of their friendship.
You get a little bit more teasing of a potential train-themed trip with Nadeshiko. Rin brings up a couple of trains she’s seen on her travels and that excites Nadeshiko to no end. I admit that the show is kind of cheating here by having Rin check these exhibits offscreen and info dumping it all in this scene. I’m curious to see “Train Camp” but unless there’s a lot of trains in the final trip next episode, I doubt this season will get to it.
After dinner, Rin invites Nadeshiko and Sakura to come along with her to see the Oigatayaki, one of two ceremonious fire displays on the mountainsides. The show does provide a lengthy info dump about these exhibits and I’m assuming these particular displays are real though I couldn’t find any info on it after Googling it. To be fair, I did search in English so that kind of holds back what web pages I’d get.
Aside from fulfilling Laid-Back Camp‘s tourist attraction quota, the Oigatayaki serves as sentimental purpose for Rin. It turns out to be one of the sights she used to check out with her folks. It’s kind of a missed opportunity not to have Rin’s parents present for this scene. Maybe it wouldn’t work logistically but it would’ve been cool to have Rin travel with her parents around the places they took her to when she was little. It’d be a great excuse to involve her parents in a camping trip and provide us with more flashbacks detailing Rin’s past. As a counterpoint however, it says a lot that Rin wants to check this nostalgic view with Nadeshiko. If you need any more proof that Nadeshiko is Rin’s closest friend, this scene can most certainly serve as Exhibit A. Also, and as always is the case with this show, the music and the art direction hits in all the right places. This show’s ability to let you take in the vistas never ceases to amaze me.
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