Otherside Picnic Volumes 7 and 8 Review

At the end of Volume 6, we left Toriko and Sorawo at the Beach at the End, as what was supposed to be a relaxing holiday turned into a living nightmare as night fell, unleashing the Otherside’s surreal and creepy monsters.

Volume 7 follows straight on from this as they face down a ghastly green baby and a horde of faceless silhouettes. While their guns may protect them for a little while, there’s only a finite amount of ammo so the only realistic thing to do is to either run and try to survive until daybreak or find a way out, back to the real world.

Over the past couple of volumes or so, I’ve started to notice a pattern where each one would build to a really good cliffhanger for a particular story, then not really follow up on it in its closing chapter in terms of satisfyingly closing out the mystery or whatever dangerous situation Toriko and Sorawo find themselves in, often just having them running away as a final solution. It’s a realistic choice (after all, what can just two people do against a horde of monsters?) but at the same time there’s something anti-climactic about them turning tail and the plot not really exploring the nature of these monsters. Where there’s a mystery, I want them to solve it and that’s something I’ve felt has been lacking over the past two or three stories, including Resort Night at the Beach at the End.

However, this is where Volume 7 really shines, as we get to The Attack of the Ninja Cats. Here we get a brilliantly told, self-contained mystery, as it transforms the cute and ordinary into the surreal and bizarre. There are some follow-ups and a post-mortem on the girls’ adventures in Resort Night, but largely this story places a focus on Sorawo and her new “friend” Akari Seto, who is being stalked by a bunch of ninja cats. While she’s at first reluctant to get involved, after some pushing from Toriko, Sorawo decides to help and investigate.

This story is super fun and is definitely one of my favourites from the series so far. It’s relatively light-hearted and a little bit silly, and I think it makes it a great palette cleanser from the eldritch horrors that pervade the rest of the series. Akari is also an interesting addition to the cast, as while delving into the mystery is a fascinating point, she opens some important character development for Sorawo and Toriko’s relationship. There’s definitely an element of possessiveness to Sorawo’s feelings and not wanting anyone else to “have” or get to know Toriko, so she can feel a bit bristly as Akari starts to be pulled into their circle, but what’s more is that we see Sorawo’s fear that if she starts making friends with others, then that might distance herself from Toriko, or worse, give Toriko a reason to run off and disappear into the Otherside just like Satsuki did.

Speaking of Satsuki, it feels like a while since we’ve had a mention of her, particularly as the series has been focused on dealing with other people’s paranormal experiences, and it does feel like it needs a reminder from time to time to say, “Hey, exploring the Otherside is cool and all, but what about the main reason we’re here?”

As we head into Volume 8, we start to get back into this main plot point as Satsuki’s hooks are in more places than Toriko ever knew.

The Little Birds in the Box starts to explore Satsuki’s past, introducing us to the Dark Science Research Encouragement Association, or D.S. Research for short. A new-age cult that slowly evolved into a secret research institute to help and protect victims of the Otherside’s deadly and transformative effects, the place holds Satsuki’s office where she conducted her research before her disappearance. While the gang go there for answers, they soon find themselves in another life-or-death situation as a mysterious apparition of Satsuki herself drops on them a box filled with tiny birds that rip out women’s reproductive organs. As they come under attack, Sorawo and Toriko must solve the mystery of the box before it is too late.

This is a very tense and satisfying volume that raises as many questions as it gives out answers, but it does start to reveal the kind of person Satsuki is, and as much as Toriko seems to idolise her, I don’t think she’s that great of a person. From the details we can glean here she’s dark, mysterious, and secretive, and who knows what she might be hiding. There are some questions about whether the Satsuki that Sorawo is glimpsing is the real one, but even so, some of the stuff she inflicts upon our leads here is absolutely awful and it’s like it’s actively trying to make us hate her.

There’s also plenty of shock value in seeing the research lab and how people who touch the Otherside without knowing what they are doing end up. It’s genuinely horrifying, and it makes you worry for our two leads as even with the powers they have gained it makes them feel a lot more vulnerable when you know that most don’t make it out in the same way that they went in. Kozakura tries to serve this to them as a warning, but if there’s anything we have learned about our protagonists is that they just can’t stop, and I don’t think the ending is going to be pretty.

We have another fantastic cliffhanger to end things here, and I’m hoping that we do get some answers out of this one as it feels about time that we got to see if this apparition of Satsuki is the real thing.

Eita Mizuno’s artwork holds up well throughout both volumes, continuing to excel when things get weird, delivering fantastic depictions of Shirakaba’s character designs that are full of emotion. I also loved the depictions of the ninja cats in Volume 7 as they’re simple in concept, but they actually look like a threat with their blades drawn.

The series continues to be published by Square Enix and is available both digitally and as a physical paperback. These two volumes are translated by Taylor Engel and they read well with no issues to note. Out of the two bonus short stories on offer here, I found Volume 7’s to be more entertaining as it’s a cute exploration into Kozakura’s growing insecurities after being assaulted by otherworldly beings in her own home. Volume 8’s builds more context around her relationship with B.S. Research but doesn’t add much to what we see in the actual volume.

Overall, both Volumes 7 and 8 of Otherside Picnic are a great read, with Volume 7 offering a brilliantly told, light-hearted mystery and Volume 8 focusing back on the core plot of the series, delving into Satsuki’s past, and offering both tension and peril. While it still needs to do better at bouncing off its cliffhangers, the thrill of this series is the chase, and I can’t wait to see if they’ve finally caught up with Satsuki at last.

Our review copies from Square Enix Manga were supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).