A review by indigo_kate
ゆるキャン△ 1 [Yuru Camp 1] by あfろ

5.0

I’m going to start with a story to highlight how motivating this series is.

Before this series, I had only gone camping once in my life. I was a senior in high school and it was a youth group event, my boyfriend at the time camped with his family a ton, so when I questioned him on what to bring and he said, “you only need a sleeping bag to camp!” I believed him and my dumb teenage brain didn’t think to google check this pack-list before the trip. It was only when we arrived at the campsite and the other kids, all experienced in this field, were taking out their camping ephemera that I realized I was in for a rough night. I used my jeans as a pillow and spent the night awake dwelling on how to fight the impending black bears and wolves that were probably on their way, alerted by the smell of burnt marshmallows, my city-slicker sweat, and that snitching giant spider guarding the port-a-potty half a mile from the campsite. When the sun rose and I still had all my limbs, I rejoiced, I thought my hell was over until we arrived at the river and the youth leaders just hopped in their canoes and paddled off without thinking to ask if everyone knew how to canoe. My twin and I spun in circles for a good while and by the second capsize into the rocks, I decided that camping was the absolute worst and hoofed it back to camp to wait until the bus came to take us back.

For a whole decade I would recoil when folks would talk about camping, I had determined that I was a day-hiking kind of person who just liked fire pits, anything more was out of my scope and I was okay with that until I was recommended this series.

This series is such a cozy delight, I love the slice-of-life storyline, the tips on camping, and the camaraderie between the characters who don’t all camp the same way, but still support each other and look out for each other. It was so relaxing and fun that my twin and I decided to try camping again and although there is a learning curve (I still haven’t mustered the courage to start a campfire) we had a good time and are looking forward to continuing this new hobby.

TLDR; This series is fun, whether you are a seasoned camper or an indoorsy kind of person, I highly recommend if you want a comfy and positive series; no dramatics here, just a good time!