Otherside Picnic Volumes 10, 11 and 12 Review

So far, Otherside Picnic has focused on the effects of the supernatural for most of its scares, but in this longer three-volume arc we see that maybe it’s not the monsters that Sorawo and Toriko have to worry about, it’s the other humans who get caught up in the perils of the Otherside.

Volume 10 picks up where Volume 9 left off in Sannuki and the Karate Kid, where Sorawo is called in by her university friend Akari to help her friend, Natsumi, who has seemingly been cursed by a monkey after losing a tooth it asked her to bury. The tooth had to be given to the mysterious apparition of Kanno Sannuki, but because Natsumi didn’t give it back, all hell is breaking loose. Although Sorawo is at first unwilling to help with her finding Akari, like an annoying puppy that just won’t stop following you around, it’s not long before the mystery and danger pulls her in.

This story can be treated as standalone in the grand scheme of things and offers a fun little interlude before we get into the serious stuff which it does link to. It’s not outright scary, so it doesn’t have quite as much impact as some of the other arcs we’ve had in the past, but it is certainly creepy and potentially triggering for anyone that doesn’t like dentists! Its main purpose though is to show more of the worst sides of our characters. This makes it difficult to talk about because although I love Sorawo and Toriko’s adventures, here they feel a little out of character, where they don’t want to get involved. It’s a spooky, scary supernatural thing so you’d think Sorawo would be all over it, but instead she tries to push Akari and Natsumi away. Sure, I get the annoyance of being the “paranormal exterminator”, but the way she treats people here is a little unfair.

Toriko also doesn’t get to do much, which will become a recurring complaint in these three volumes, but it is nice to see the side characters fleshed out a bit more. Akari gets to show off her fighting skills as she goes off the rails laying into the monster at the heart of the mystery, and I do think she is more competent than everyone thinks. However, it’s Natsumi that sets us up with our next big arc, as she discloses that everything started when she watched a ‘watch at your own risk’ video with the name of the uploader being ‘Urumi’.

Thinking that it was linked to Satsuki, Sorawo and Toriko of course start investigating the video and where it came from, but after digging a little too deep, Sorawo and Kozakura end up being abducted off the side of the street. The culprit turns out to be the video’s uploader, Runa Urumi, a high school girl known as Luna by her followers. Just like Sorawo and Toriko, she has experienced the perils of the Otherside and gained a unique power out of it, now being able to use the power of her voice to brainwash and control others. Having become obsessed by Satsuki, Luna has created a cult around herself in order to get to the Otherside (using Toriko’s powers no less) and to attempt to find Satsuki herself.

Continuing across both Volumes 11 and 12, this arc is really the climax of everything that the series has been working towards so far, offering answers to many of the questions the series has put forward, as well as diving into the reasons why our main duo are on this off-the-rails adventure into an alternate dimension.

As such, the stakes are at the highest they have ever been, and at the beginning of Volume 11, you think this might finally be it for both Sorawo and Kozakura. Tortured and imprisoned by an absolute psycho, with no means of escape and no way to contact Toriko on the outside, what in the world are they supposed to do?

They can only try to escape by themselves, which creates some horrific scenes as they have to slip by not just their captors, but also a bunch of those who have been transformed by the Otherside into monsters, kept in captivity by the cult. If this was animated, there’d be lots of jump scares here and creeping down spooky corridors, and I think even in manga form it aces the tension, terror and dread.

It puts our characters into situations that they absolutely do not want to be in. One of the things that has frequently come up throughout the series is whether Sorawo would be able to kill another human if she was threatened in a life-or-death situation. It’s a tense and scary moment; she’s on the precipice as you don’t want her to make that jump as a character you believe in.

Toriko does eventually come into play as things progress, but until that point it allows the story to focus more on Sorawo’s backstory, something that we have seen bits and pieces of, but has never really expanded upon until now. Seeing how those events have prepared her for this day is definitely heartbreaking, but at the same time it makes you glad that she is such a survivor. We also get some development for Kozakura, who has to quickly toughen up outside of her comfort zone in order to survive. I don’t ever see her getting more actively involved in Sorawo and Toriko’s adventures, but at least here she feels an active character who drives the story forward rather than the bystander she has been a lot of the time so far.

The villain here, Runa, is also pretty convincing as she stops at nothing to get to her goal and I think if she wasn’t using Sorawo and Kozakura as bait, she would have demolished them using her mob in a heartbeat.

It’s her intelligence and focus that makes her a threat – the monsters of the Otherside abide by certain rules where you can defeat them if you do the right things, like look at them in a certain way or hit them in a certain place. Runa, being a human, can’t fit into any of those boxes so in that regard I think she’s the biggest threat we have come across so far.

However, as we transition into Volume 12, things spin on their head all over again. The apparition of Satsuki that has been haunting Sorawo for a good while now finally rears her head and basically lays everything out on the table for our main duo. Revealing the apparition is a huge risk for Sorawo that puts her relationship with Toriko on the ropes, but it proves an excellent play, bringing closure for both characters and you as a reader. The conclusion is still left up to your own interpretation, but it puts out a hard statement that’s difficult not to accept. I think it works really well to tie up everything in the story so far, and I’d say brings a sense of achievement that everyone has survived and finally some things can be put to rest. This isn’t the absolute end though, as in the aftermath we see the series turn onto Sorawo’s demons rather than Toriko’s, as real life and the Otherside really begin to tangle.

As we’ve come to expect from the series so far, all three volumes have some great artwork and composition. I do like Runa’a character design, as it’s not quite full “ojou-sama”, but it’s kinda getting there with her circular braids and overall haughty, entitled demeanour. The character art shows their emotions well and it’s easy to understand what they’re feeling, whether that be shock, horror, or relief. With a lot of the Runa arc taking place underground there’s no real need for the backgrounds to be immaculately detailed, but we do get some good panels at times as they start moving around the base, including a shot of Runa and her cronies looking very imposing in an office.

The series continues to be published by Square Enix Manga and is available both digitally and as a physical paperback. Taylor Engel continues to be the main translator on the series, and there are no issues to note here, with everything reading well. The Kozakura-focused bonus stories continue in each volume, with the Volume 11 entry working best where it fills in the gaps for when Sorawo is out cold and Kozakura is bargaining for their lives.

Despite the weaker opening story, overall, this longer story arc is a fantastic read that offers an interesting conclusion to several of the main storylines that we’ve been covering so far. Whether you believe it’s truly over is up to you, but it’s certainly going to be fascinating to see how it continues on from here as it focuses more on Sorawo. Coming across as one of the strongest horror series in recent years, this one definitely deserves a read if you’re into all things creepy and supernatural.

You can read free previews for each volume at the publisher’s website here.

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).