"Yuru Camp" drama: Episode twelve(final) recap

 

 Air Dates: January 9th to March 26, 2020 on TV-Tokyo, Thursday nights at 12:25 am

Subs were mostly done by EcoTV but another team did at least the first show, you'll notice the font difference and the title roughly translates over to laid back camp.

Main Cast: We'll seldom see anyone besides these five, had only watched the first two episodes before writing the character info so may edit things as time goes on. The setting is Nanbu in Yamanashi prefecture which is a little over thirty miles away from Mt. Fuji. Like so many dramas it's based upon a manga and anime.

 Haruka Fukuhara as Rin Shima.... Main star of the show and she's an avid camper. However she has only done it alone as she'd rather not have others spoil her fun. So instead of joining the Outdoor Club at high school Rin is in the library club but that may not last for much longer.

 Yuno Ohara as Nadeshiko Kagamihara.... New girl at high school but had met Rin a few days before her first day. Nadeshiko had no clue about camping until meeting her but quickly became such a fanatic and joined the Outdoor Club on her first day at school.

 Momoko Tanabe as Chiaki Ogaki ... President of the Outdoor Club who had just two members until Nadeshiko joined. They weren't much of a camping club until then and it's located in a very tiny room until they can get to five members.

 Yumena Yanai as Aoi Inuyama.... The other member of the Outdoor Club. To date they've never taken a camping trip but do have various equipment, they spend most of their days burning leaves and keeping the school grounds tidy.

 Sara Shida as Ena Saito.... Rin's best friend who in these first few shows doesn't show much interest in camping though does love nature and animals. She is one kawaii young woman!!!!

Links to the previous shows: 

 Episode seven recap .... Episode eight recap .... Episode nine recap .... Episode ten recap

Think this will be the last of the recaps though am planning on watching the final four episodes tomorrow. That's why I wrote up on January 24th but had a change of mind with this show. discussed why I came back to this series in the ninth recap. As the title says this is it and like the first eleven shows it was an enjoyable view yet not all that much took place outside of eating. 

**** Good news for those half dozen(!) fans of the series. Just checked before publishing this and found out season two will be beginning on April 1st. Don't have any details for now but will in Haruka's next post which should be within two weeks.

 Like most of the recaps need to stretch it out a bit as not much took place save for eating and there was a lot of that! At the end will give  my final grade and thoughts of the series, almost all are positive ones but do have one beef. Even though I did learn much about Japanese geography I wish we saw more landmarks and history of the places Rin and the others visited. For instance in this final show they did have time to do some sightseeing, being Christmas Eve of course it was cold but it was also sunny and no snow. Guess when an episode is only 23 minutes there's not enough time to include other things which is why an extra five minutes would have really helped out.

 The location for the first Outing Club Christmas Trip was never revealed but I'm thinking it's somewhere in Nagano prefecture. Rin has taken two solo trips there and really seemed to enjoy the area, she suggested the site which is why Nagano is probably the location. So as mentioned no hiking or sightseeing but there was plenty of eating courtesy of Aoi, that's her in the top screenshot. She works part time at a supermarket and won a huge holiday meat raffle, enough to feed about ten people. There's just six on this trip but Rin's new 'weirdo friend' Nadeshiko can eat as much as five can so there will be no problem finishing off the meat and it's side dishes. Besides the five girls with them was their new club advisor Toba, that's her in the bottom screenshot. She was on the verge of tears and Aoi asked why, it's because Toba forgot to bring Sake to have with the meat!

 Toba has quickly got the nickname of 'Drunk Lady' as she truly loves the spirits and can really hold her alcohol. Besides forgetting Sake Toba also neglected to bring wine but she did have plenty of beer and rum. When Rin made an emergency run to the store she asked for more alcohol though of course it was a no go as Rin wasn't of age. Up until this trip Rin had been the ace chef but she may be no match for Aoi who overwhelmed the group with her creations. According to Aoi Tsukiyaki is the main dish to make with Grade A meat and to begin off she made a very unique Sukiyaki dish with ingredients that usually aren't in it, Rin was in seventh heaven along with the the other four girls. Even Toba took a time out from her guzzling and she too couldn't get enough of Aoi's dishes.

 There were also many, many other side dishes and besides geography we did learn a bit about food which you'll see in the screenshots. Up next was a special Tomato Sukiyaki creation which of course the group couldn't eat enough of and they were now on a higher level than seventh heaven. There was one minor snag before that as they had run out of gas and Toba's spare stove was also out of it. So off to a store went Rin on her motor scooter to save the day, as you can see above the gals did change into Santa outfits to get into the holiday spirit. However they didn't have any other kind of celebration such as exchanging gifts but Aoi's meat dishes were better than any kind of gift. With their tummies now bulging the girls took a break to submerge themselves at the local hot springs and it had such an excellent view of Mt. Fuji, during that time Toba continues her alcohol frenzy.

 On to the final segment for the series but certainly not the final time the girls partook of eating. After that mini excursion to the hot springs they returned to their campsite and gobbled down the rest of the leftovers and side dishes. For all of the eating they've done none has gained even an ounce! It's getting a tad late so the girls all ended up retiring for the night and they easily could have done this trip in a backyard as eating was their only activity. It was an early awakening for Rin, 5:00 am to be exact as she needed to prepare that morning's breakfast, how can they still be hungry? She was soon joined by Nadeshiko who had overslept and it was actually her responsibility to prepare breakfast. One by one the group arose to the smell of cooking food and even Toba joined them, for all the alcohol she consumes it appears she never gets hung over. Above you can see the six enjoying the sunrise over Mt. Fuji and that brought them to end of their mini trip, really not even 24 hours.

 Not quite the end of the series yet as the final two minutes were of when the girls returned to school after the holiday break. The Outing Club isn't officially a club yet as they need four members and are still shy one as Ena didn't want to join. Neither did Rin who was content to sit in the library which is her club and everyone thought that trip would have changed her mind. It didn't but the main reason Rin says for being in the library club is that she can sit and read all of the new camping magazines. With her glancing out the window at the Outing Club members this series came to it's conclusion.

 For a final grace will give this an 8.4/10, to me anything above an eight is usually worth a view. Gave it a 9/10 for being such a fun and enjoyable drama along with learning much about the geography of Japan. But just a 7.8/10 for the pacing and overall stories. The pacing did improve quite a bit in the final six episodes when the rest of the cast were getting much more screen time. Also wish there were more visits to landmarks or historical locations but being 23 minute episodes there wasn't enough time for everything. All in all though this was a fun show and will definitely be checking out the second season, as mentioned it'll be starting on April 1st. Haruka is one busy young actress as it'll be her third series of the year and and only three months will have elapsed when it begins.