I picked the manga up on a whim last week and was blown away. I just had to have more, so I grabbed the novels and read all those too. I was shocked how quickly and deeply the series resonated with me. I feel like I've been walking around with a hole in my heart ever since catching up. Can't wait for the next volume.

Wait, all this happened within a week?

Glad to see more people notice this work, though.

Volume 9 coming next month
https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/17815454/

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! Vol 8 had an 8 month gap between Japanese release and English translation. Gonna be a long wait but I hope it's worth it!!

Yeah I'm not gonna expect the book until new years at least probably, but I'm glad they take their time with it because so far all the official translations have been excellent and I don't want to see that quality drop.

aw reached latest update... wow things are getting somewhere huh hehehe, toriko confessing and being all lovey dovey, sorawo being dense af QwQ this is simply the best slowburn action yuri ive ever seen omg i love it so much

Chapter 70 spoilers, available on Mangadex
Yeah like I thought, it was awesome to see Toriko this upset over Sorawo not talking to her about it. Kozakura jumping on Sorawo and how she just flopped to the side after she saw it was just Toriko was so funny. The art is getting so good

Sorawo and Toriko are operating on such different assumptions it's hilarious.

"oh im sure toriko (who is mad at me because I didn't tell her about the problems I am having) doesn't like people coming over to her house, let me assuage her anxiety by not accepting her offer and pulling away from her :)"

All the girls (except Ichikawa) are after Sorawo.

Sorawo being totally oblivious to why Nattsun is being harsh towards her is also funny.

I was wondering how the red man would look in the manga and I guess this is about as good as you can do. To me it always seemed like an entity that was so alien that the human mind couldn't comprehend it so it just sort of auto corrected it into a red man shaped thing.

Every time a scene like the one in this chapter happens, I'm immediately reminded of that commenter that said once that Sorawo x Kozakura must be the author's guilty pleasure.

Every time a scene like the one in this chapter happens, I'm immediately reminded of that commenter that said once that Sorawo x Kozakura must be the author's guilty pleasure.

Mine too, honestly.
I'm sure if Otherside Picnic was more popular, there would be fanart of these two.

Toriko's astonished face when she saw them was funny. There were some great expressions in this chapter, overall. Angry Toriko is always such a blessing, I absolutely love her. And her awkwardly trying to ask Sorawo to stay over was incredibly cute. Watching Sorawo trying to come up with excuses and then realizing that she made a mistake and can't back out was fun as well.

last edited at Jun 3, 2024 11:15AM

I was wondering how the red man would look in the manga and I guess this is about as good as you can do. To me it always seemed like an entity that was so alien that the human mind couldn't comprehend it so it just sort of auto corrected it into a red man shaped thing.

I always imagined it as a big mascot costume or muppet tbh. A big adult person sized Elmo outside Sorawo's door.

Every time a scene like the one in this chapter happens, I'm immediately reminded of that commenter that said once that Sorawo x Kozakura must be the author's guilty pleasure.

I think they really intend Kozakura to be pining a little bit. Clearly she's got the same type as Toriko, since she also liked Satsuki.

Poor Kozakura. Absolutely doomed. (although there are some poly fanfics, I don't ship it despite being a huge Kozafan)

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Now I'm thinking it's possible that she is projecting the feelings she had for Satsuki as well? They did work together after all, but she didn't manage to keep her there. So she wishes to help them avoid the same fate?

That being said, I do love to think of Kozakura as having a bit of a crush on Sorawo. And Gabinomicon makes a good point about her and Toriko's tastes aligning...

last edited at Jun 9, 2024 5:54PM

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Yeah, I saw it the same. In that same conversation she was talking about how focused both Sorawo and Toriko are to the otherside and how necessary it is for them both to find and maintain a connection to the real world. I don't know about motherly, but definitely friendly, since she's close to both of them. A really nice gesture. It's also a reasonable worry considering how reckless and driven Sorawo and Toriko can be.

last edited at Jun 9, 2024 5:58PM

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Yeah, I saw it the same. In that same conversation she was talking about how focused both Sorawo and Toriko are to the otherside and how necessary it is for them both to find and maintain a connection to the real world. I don't know about motherly, but definitely friendly, since she's close to both of them. A really nice gesture. It's also a reasonable worry considering how reckless and driven Sorawo and Toriko can be.

Yeah, I was on the fence about motherly. I just see her acting as sort of a protector towards them? She often seems to consider them as two kids she needs to look out for and she's the voice of reason in the group. Which Sorawo and Toriko definitely need. I'm honestly surprised these two are still alive.

Kozakura to Sorawo: I wish I could be your anchor to this side.

This is basically a love confession and Sorawo has zero reaction to it lol

I didn't read that as a romantic confession necessarily. I thought it was more in a motherly(?) sense. Besides, I thought it referred to both her and Toriko. To me it read as: I wish I could be the one you both would want to return to, but I know you are that person to one another, so you need something else to to keep you in this world.

Yeah, I saw it the same. In that same conversation she was talking about how focused both Sorawo and Toriko are to the otherside and how necessary it is for them both to find and maintain a connection to the real world. I don't know about motherly, but definitely friendly, since she's close to both of them. A really nice gesture. It's also a reasonable worry considering how reckless and driven Sorawo and Toriko can be.

Yeah, I was on the fence about motherly. I just see her acting as sort of a protector towards them? She often seems to consider them as two kids she needs to look out for and she's the voice of reason in the group. Which Sorawo and Toriko definitely need. I'm honestly surprised these two are still alive.

I submit "Onee-chanly" for the court's consideration.
TL Note: Onee-chanly means sisterly

You can't just translate it that way, since Satsuki was Onee-samaly :P. Clearly extremely different from Kazakura.

If I had known that this story could be as goofy as it could be scary, I would have given it a chance way sooner.

If I had known that this story could be as goofy as it could be scary, I would have given it a chance way sooner.

By goofy, are you referring to Sorawo's various "antics" that usually stem from her being dense, a girl failure, or disaster lesbian?
Kinda like this:https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/otherside_picnic_ch65#6

We still love Sorawo though, flaws and all. Hell...maybe we love her because of those flaws.

The character flaws are so important to this story and to each other, the core of the romance is Sorawo and Toriko being weird in ways that make them seem unsuitable for most 'normal' people but make them ideal for each other and for the Otherside. The only reason they even met is that they're both the rare kind of person stupid enough to dive into hell cuz they wanna explore it lol.

the romance is Sorawo and Toriko being weird in ways that make them seem unsuitable for most 'normal' people but make them ideal for each other and for the Otherside

Totally agree and I'm a sucker for these types of romances. When there's at least one girl in the couple that's a disaster it makes me smile and think "Thank god she loves her because ain't no way anyone else is putting up with her shit".

Though in this story, Sorawo could totally pull Akari if she felt so inclined. But I think just about every reader would agree that Sorawo and Toriko are so much better together (and not just because of Otherside).

It's honestly very funny how lowkey Sorawo could be a harem protagonist but she's 100% incapable of recognizing that. I don't know about Akari (she's got Nattsun) but definitely Kozakura and at least one other character who's currently in the manga but I won't name because I'm saying this based on future events from the novels :P

Honestly just in general one of my absolute favorite aspects of Otherside Picnic is how our perspective character has a terribly poor ability to accurately perseive herself, but she's got the right kind of people around her to reflect her back to us in the audience in various ways so we know when the things Sorawo tells us about herself are wrong. It's probably a difficult thing to write well and to translate well, but thankfully everyone involved is extremely good at what they're doing for both the manga scanlation and novels :)
(not the anime or the official translation though. Can you believe those morons really translated "The Whispered Voice Requires Self-Responsibility" as "The Whisper is At-Your-Own-Risk"? Absolute clowns.)

last edited at Jun 19, 2024 10:56AM