Ura Sekai Picnic is a 2021 anime about a parallel world, which can be accessed from our reality. The story eventually sees a four person group of cute university-age girls enter and deal with this world for various purposes.
First of all, many American and Japanese audiences did not understand the title, or rather what it meant. For many, the only way they would know what it was a reference to was if they saw the news when it was announced and I think I am safe to say that the original novel, and therefore the anime, is heavily influenced by the book "Roadside Picnic"(1972), which is corroborated by Wikipedia. Additionally, the news at the time of the announcement of this anime back in 2020 suggested that the anime is also heavily influenced by "Stalker", but it is unclear if that means the 1979 movie by Andrei Tarkovsky (100% score on Rotten Tomatoes) or the game, as the name is the same. In any event, the root influence is the aforementioned book, as both the game and the movie are adaptations of it. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Otherside Picnic cannot match up to even a fraction of the atmosphere, plot, and sheer brilliance of the Tarkovsky movie that it seems to take a lot from, though that is probably an unattainable standard. On paper, it seemed to be Stalker, complete with philosophical exposition, just with cute girls.
The first scene is already somewhat confusing to most people because of the aforementioned influence. The scene is that where the main character, Sorao, lies in a puddle, arms stretched out and looking at the sky. Almost all anime critics that I have seen, if there are such people, thought this was a reference to the painting "Ophelia" and completely ignored that "Stalker"(1979) has a similar scene.
This anime can be compared unfavourably to Girls Last Tour. Girls Last Tour comes closer to the atmosphere and philology of Stalker than Ura Sekai oddly enough. The locations and the actions of the main characters in it also fit the story much better than those of Ura Sekai. The production quality is also something that Girls Last Tour has going for it.
The plot is nonlinear and rather messy. There is no clear progression. A lot of the things happen to the four character almost arbitrarily, though the way they respond to the situation is not so. At the same time, it is not really them just travelling through the Otherside either, as they never spend too long there and almost always go different places. Some events also seem to have no impact on anything, as some fairly serious events seem to have no impact on the story so far. They serve at most as exposition for the Otheside, but it is unclear as to what this all builds up to.
The atmosphere is also a point of contention for this anime. The original Stalker and Roadside Picnic had a very eerie and deep atmosphere of the unknown and existentialism. I expected this anime to be something in between that and a more cheerful slice of life. I also saw the lesbianism tag and I brushed it off, but the atmosphere is just completely different. It is more occult and random than eerie and deep. The atmosphere can be quite tense at one point and then just drop for no reason.
The setting is also a part that I think is off. In the "Stalker", the setting is obscure, but the characters knew where it was. I understand why they made their equivalent of "the Zone" something inaccessible conventionally, but it does complicate the question of what the Otherside really is.
The characters are all cute and that is as much noticeable character development you see. There are no deep philosophical questions like in the original materials. The only thing reminiscent about the characters relative the original materialises that their backstories are all rather shady, but that does not help in such a messy plot, and their characters are revealed very slowly. It is also a bit odd that only few episodes actually included more than two characters for prolonged sequences. In fact, it seems that there is only one episode where all four titular characters actually assemble. Seems they wasted Kozakura (a character that could have been made more reminiscent of a scientist) and Akari, who is introduced only 2/3 of the way into the anime. All other characters are almost completely secondary with barely any impact on the plot.
There was also the character of Abarato (I can't remember if he was actually called that) who was wasted as it seemed like his story was building up to something, like him training the two main characters or if his death complicated things, but he just dies.
While the American soldiers are better voiced than in something like SAO, it is still somewhat subpar. Is it really that hard to get a native speaker to say two lines?
The animation is probably slightly above average in terms of quality.
In general, this show is alright, but disappointing. From the changes and freedoms that the author had made in relation to Stalker, it honestly seemed like the anime was going to be amazing, in the very least on paper. It turned out to be rather messy, very limited in scope, and not that original unfortunately. Above all, it was somewhat mundane. The production quality is also not particularly outstanding. Still, it is a good watch, but do not expect much from it. Having Stalker as the inspiration for any literary work is honestly setting the bar so high, that the bar is now on Jupiter and this anime does not pull off anything close to that. That is probably the most major downside of this anime as people who have nothing better to do in their lives, such as myself, will call it out because of a 1979 movie. But even leaving that aside, the anime still has serious problems in plot and conception.
