Manga / Laid-Back Camp

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As we talk about the simplest things."

— "Fuyu Biyori" by Eri Sasaki (the first season's ending theme)

Rin Shima is fond of camping alone and frequently visits campsites that allow her to take in views of Mount Fuji. She encounters Nadeshiko Kagamihara during one of her camping trips: Nadeshiko had recently moved to the area and longed to see Mount Fuji. To this end, she cycles to find a viewpoint from which she can enjoy Mount Fuji's majesty. After this happenstance encounter, Nadeshiko takes an interest in camping and joins her school's Outdoor Activities Club, where she meets Chiaki Oogaki and Aoi Inuyama, as well as Ena Saitou, Rin's friend. Sometimes camping alone and sometimes camping together, the girls begin sharing in their camping trips and experiences to enjoy some truly unique moments in the wilderness surrounding Mount Fuji.

Laid-Back Camp (Yurucamp△, or ゆるキャン△) is a manga that is written and illustrated by Afro, who previously worked on Puella Magi Homura Tamura. It began serialization in Manga Time Kirara Forward in July 2015 before transferring to Houbunsha's online brand, COMIC FUZ. The author has another manga, Mono, which takes place in the same universe.

The manga has been licensed in North America by Yen Press.

Laid-Back Camp provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Vehicles are sometimes animated this way in the anime, often when they go around winding roads, from various automobiles to Rin on her scooter. Minami's car in the second season is animated traditionally despite all the drifting it does.
• Ace Custom: Downplayed example with Rin's Yamaho Vino. Her grandfather helps install a windscreen to help with the cold breezes, and a holder for her phone so she can use a navigation app to get around.
• Adventurous Irish Violins: Irish fiddles provide some of the motifs in the anime's soundtrack, which puts emphasis on exploring the majesty and splendor of the outdoors.
• Art Evolution: As a result of changing studios between seasons, Season 3 of the anime takes some significant shifts in art direction. Character designs overall are closer to that of the manga's art style, and the show gains a much more robust compositing system that makes the atmosphere more pronounced.
• Art Shift: The characters periodically shift into Super-Deformed designs similar to their phone avatars, usually whenever they're acting particularly smug or goofy. Rin has it happen to her the most frequently.
• Badass Biker: Rin's mother used to be one when she was younger. She balks at showing Rin pictures of her past as a motorcycle rider, and in The Stinger of "Winter's End and the Day of Departure" she blushes at the photos while thinking to herself, "I can't show her these". The end card shows one of them: Rin's mother straddling a motorcycle in boots and a leather jacket, her untamed hair sticking up, flashing a thumbs up at the camera.
• Bait-and-Switch: In "Camping Alone", Sakura goes to the grocers and has to choose between deer meat and bears' paws. She Googles how to prepare bears' paws, and the show starts one of its folksy interludes where the narrator explains some off-beat dish to the audience. When she realizes it takes nine hours and requires meticulously plucking every single hair off the paw, the quaint soundtrack warps into a dissonant wail and the narrator's voice speeds up until he squeaks like a chipmunk. It cuts to Sakura just asking for deer meat.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: In Volume 14, the members of the OEC begin to despair, worrying that they've failed to attract any new first-years despite their efforts, such as baking a pizza. Two girls come over and say that the pizza was so good they were inspired... to join the cooking club.
• Beach Episode: The OVA released for the third BD volume had Nadeshiko and the others stranded on a tropical island, where they make use of the island's resources to survive and have a camping trip of sorts here.
• Big Ball of Violence:
  • Chiaki, Aoi, and Nadeshiko have a very short-lived, but dusty fight◊ while debating what Christmas gifts to get another one after Aoi suggests that the high-grade meat she's bringing along can be considered her gift to the others.
  • In episode nine of the first season, Chiaki and Nadeshiko spar via Pop-Up Texting over what Rin should have for lunch when the latter stops at a hot spring en route to the campsite, and in the aftermath, their avatars have Instant Bandages.
• Big Damn Heroes: During their trip at Lake Yamanaka, the Outdoor Activities Club are saved by Iida-san and her father as their tent has a wood-fired stove to keep everyone warm due to a temperature drop that they have not accounted for. Minami Toba also arrives to look for them since she was notified by Rin earlier about the temperature drop in the area, to make sure they are safe.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows:
  • Aoi's eyebrows are very prominent compared to the other characters.
  • Afro seems to have fallen in love with this trope at some point, because new club member Mei and her friend Ema also sport huge eyebrows.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Nadeshiko attempts to purchase Orio sandwich cookies in the fourth episode of the first season, with the Nabisco triangle visible on the packaging.
  • The Zebra supermarket that Rin and Nadeshiko visited in the sixth episode of the first season is based on the Selva Food Garden store in Minobu.
  • The Caribou store that Nadeshiko, Aoi and Chikai visit in episode eight of the first season is based on a Casa-SVEN store from Hamamatsu.
  • The lantern that Nadeshiko lights in Caribou is made by Goalman (Coleman).
  • The third season of the anime introduces us to Gurgle Maps, and WeTube.
• Birds of a Feather: It takes a while for them to interact directly with each other without Nadeshiko as a point of commonality, but once they do, Rin and Sakura become quick friends. Both have somewhat subdued personalities and prefer being alone, as well as affection for aforementioned Nadeshiko. Sakura is also a massive fan of a TV series while Rin's hobby is a large part of what's portrayed in said series.
• Bookends:
  • The first season of the anime opens with Rin cycling up to Koan Campground and setting up her gear before settling down, and concludes with Nadeshiko biking along the same route, setting up similar gear and settling down the same way Rin had.
  • The movie starts with a shot of Mount Fuji (done as an Indiana Jones-style Match Cut from the Shochiku logo), and ends with a similar shot of Fuji from the new campground.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: In The Movie, Rin's Thruxton suffers a Check Engine warning, so she has to rely on her old motor scooter to guide all the lost campers to the newly opened campground.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • The girls appear to be able to hear the narrator's commentary while they prepare their camping implements. In episode seven of the first season, the narrator remarks that tents with a short set-up time are pricier, and Nadeshiko's mood sours with this knowledge.
  • Smashed to pieces in episode seven of the third season, as Chiaki, Ena, and Aoi relate the story of their camping trip to Nadeshiko. First Aoi insists on adding Chikuwa to the story because he wanted to come along but it was too cold to bring him. Next they force Nadeshiko climb into the screen insert when she keeps interrupting their story, and complain about her grumbling stomach interrupting one of their meals. Then Chikuwa starts talking...
    Nadeshiko: Hang on. What's up with the wibbly-wobbly backgrounds I'm seeing sometimes?
    Chiaki: We were so caught up in our conversation we don't remember the details.
• Brick Joke: In episode eight of the first season, Nadeshiko shares a photograph of a strange-looking vehicle on her way back home from school with her friends. This turns out to have been a Google Street View camera car, and in the episode's post-credits, Rin finds a surprised Nadeshiko standing at the intersection.
• Call-Back: In The Movie, Nadeshiko is now working at a camping supplies store, and demonstrates a camping lamp to two high school girls, much like the store clerk did for her early in the series.
• Cartoon Meat: Discussed in S3E05. Nadeshiko has sous-vided some hamburger steaks, and Rin suggested they brown them over the campfire after skewering the steaks. During the process, both Aya and Rin realize the setup is just like a "manga meat."
• Character Shill: Played for laughs. At the end of the OAC's Mizugaki camping trip (told as a series of jumbled memories of occasionally questionable accuracy), only the dog Hanpen remains, who rounds things out by encouraging the viewer to like and subscribe to his channel 'Hanpen Days'.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the movie, the playground equipment at the elementary school Aoi was working at is repurposed for the new campground after the school closes.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • The elderly gentleman Chiaki runs into while scouting a camp area during the sixth episode of the first season turns out to be Rin's grandfather. Her mother ends up calling him, and mentions that his love of camping was passed onto Rin.
  • Rin and Nadeshiko run into two campers, an intoxicated lady and her partner who helped them to start fire for their grill. The former is Minami Toba, a new instructor at Nadeshiko and the others' high school who becomes the Outdoor Activities Club's advisor, while the latter is later revealed to be her sister.
• Club Stub:
  • The Outdoor Activities Club is assigned a small clubroom because Chiaki and Aoi are its only two members. Their status also limits their funding, but the two are unconcerned with the arrangements; they reason that they don't spend much time in their clubroom, and later take on part-time jobs to provide the money for their activities.
  • In chapter 80, first year Mei Nakatsugawa joins and the OutClub finally have enough members to become an official club. It's enough to make Chiaki weep tears of joy.
• Cool Big Sis: Invoked. In chapter 81, when the Outdoor Activity Club finally gets a new member, Mei, Nadeshiko affects a sly smile and a casual posture and speaks in an excessively formal tone to impress their new recruit. Chiaki then tells her to "stop it with the capable senpai act".
• Cool Car:
  • Sakura usually drives a customised Nissan Rasheen with a Blooom CONY grille. Afro's original design in the manga was based on photos of a similar car. For the live-action series, the producers were able to borrow an exact replica from a fan of the manga.
  • In the movie, Sakura drives a Volkswagen Golf Mark II instead.
• Couch Gag: In season two's opening, whenever Rin swipes through the pictures on her phone, they show images of whatever happened in the previous episode.
• Cranial Eruption: In the first episode of the first season, Sakura strikes Nadeshiko for having left her cell phone behind and getting lost, resulting in three lumps stacked on top of each other.
• Darkest Hour: For a lighter shade of "darkest." Midway through The Movie, all the work the girls have put into rehabilitating the campground seem to have come to naught, as an archeological discovery puts a halt to their plans. Fortunately Chiaka puts together a new usage plan to be presented to the prefecture council, folding in the campground with a cultural center to showcase the archeological dig.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Episodes 5 and 6 in the second season is focused solely on Chika, Aoi and Ena during their trip to Lake Yamanaka while Nadashiko and Rin had to stay back due to their part-time jobs.
  • Episodes 7 and 8 in the third season focuses on Chika, Aoi and Ena's point of view of their camping trip during Nadashiko and Rin's trip at the Ōi River.
  • The fourth episode of Room Camp switches the focus from the Outdoor Activities Club to Rin, describing a Saturday when she does not camp.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In episode three of the first season, the anime's ending theme is played on the radio. Rin and Nadeshiko listen to it over a music stream via smartphone.
• Diegetic Switch: Rin and Nadeshiko listen to the ending song on a cell phone while camping.
• Distant Finale: In the first season finale, Nadeshiko imagines camping together with everyone again after ten years have elapsed.
• Dream Sequence: Rin has one in the The Movie, where she's working late in the office, when some tsukapon she's eating start talking and dancing, before her coworkers and boss appears as human-sized tsukapons.
• Edutainment Show: While the series mainly focuses on the characters enjoying themselves while camping, it also provides detailed explanations and advice on camping implements and the equipment involved for new campers.
• The Ending Changes Everything: The Room Camp series of anime shorts involves Nadeshiko going on the Yamanashi Stamp Rally with Aoi and Aki. In the last episode, it turns out that the rally was something that the other girls made up.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Nadeshiko is an excitable Genki Girl who often shouts, while the taciturn Rin is much quieter and more reserved.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: The Movie, taking place about ten years later, has Rin, Nadeshiko, Sakura, and Akari who have shorter hair.
• Evolving Credits:
  • Rin's gradual warming up to Nadeshiko can be seen in the first season's opening credits, through her messages with Nadeshiko. From episodes one to seven, Rin's reply is "No". Episode eight to eleven has her respond "I'll consider it", and in the finale, she answers, "sure".
  • In Room Camp, the credits show the stamp book with all the current stamps (and after Nadeshiko briefly loses it, the notebook she uses to collect the stamps).
• Eye Pop: When Rin sees the price of the top-grade meal at the eel restaurant she and Nadeshiko go to in Hamamatsu (4000 yen each), she's so shocked that her eyes fall right off her face.
• Family Theme Naming: The Kagamihara sisters are both named after flowers.
• Fancy Camping: In one of the manga omakes, the girls discuss the merits of camping with more creature comforts. Chiaki vehemently decries the idea, seeing it as a diminished form of camping, but then remarks that if she could afford it, she'd do it every weekend.
• Food Porn: From grilling meat over a portable stove, to onsen fried eggs, nabe and campfire curry, food is rendered with great detail. The food evidently tastes as good as it looks, given the characters' enjoyment of their meals. Lampshaded in Season 3, Episode 8 which is literally titled "The Food Porn Begins!"
• The Foodie: Nadeshiko most of all, but the rest of the cast aren't far behind (considering how varied their cuisine is, across the series as a whole), particularly the narrator/Rin's grandpa (given the enthusiasm with which he describes recipes).
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Nadeshiko is an energetic ditz, while her sister Sakura is a taciturn Cool Big Sis.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the very first episode, Nadeshiko's sister scolds her for the harebrained idea of going to a camping site to watch Mount Fuji in a winter night without her phone or any equipment other than her bicycle despite the distance involved, calling her a "dump pig" as she throws her into the car. Much later on, in the third episode of season two, it's revealed that Nadeshiko used to be overweight and that she got into shape before entering high school thanks to her sister's Tough Love forcing her to do laps around Lake Hamana (about 50 km per lap) on her bicycle while she followed on her scooter, which resulted in Nadeshiko's ridiculous stamina during the series.
  • In the Room Camp anime shorts, there's a bit of foreshadowing regarding the ending.
    • Aki and Aoi always find the stamp stations before Nadeshiko does, and in the third episode, they discourage Nadeshiko from going on ahead to get to the stamp station. One would assume that it's because they know the area better, but they actually have to hurry ahead and set up the stamps. Unbeknownst to them, Nadeshiko actually caught them in the act, but went along with it.
    • Episode eight shows that Aoi sometimes enjoys making up stories for the fun of it. She and Aki made up the story about the stamp rally.
  • In one of the manga extras, Nadeshiko has an Imagine Spot about the girls meeting up and going camping together once they're all working adults. In it, Rin has a short haircut rather than her long one. Late in the series, Rin does indeed end up getting her long hair cut up to her shoulders because it makes it easier to care for while camping and is less likely to get tangled up or messy while on her bike.
• Gag Censor: Played for laughs (maybe) in Season 3, Episode 10. Apparently uncooked frog is gross enough looking to warrant a cartoon frog's face to block the sight of it.
• Gossip Evolution: In chapter 80, the Outdoors Club bake delicious pizza out on the school grounds to attract new club members. And they do attract new club members ... for the culinary research club, thanks to a big game of telephone where the student body as a whole can't figure out what club they were representing.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: The main duo falls into this. Nadeshiko is an energetic, extroverted Rose-Haired Sweetie who is new to camping, while Rin is an experienced camper who is laconic and reserved, and has dark blue hair.
• Harsh Word Impact: Yen signs stab into Nadeshiko when she reads about the price of higher-end camping gear.
• How We Got Here: The first episode of the anime's first season opens with the main characters roasting marshmallows over a campfire. It turns out this is a part of their Christmas camping trip, as seen in episodes eleven and twelve.
• Human Mail: The Outdoor Exploration Club girls attempt to devise an inexpensive means of insulating their sleeping bags for winter camping. After layering several methods including bubble wrap and a cardboard box, Chiaki (the one who's in the bag) wonders "Am I being shipped somewhere?"
• Idiot Ball: In episode ten of the first season, experienced camper Rin fails to anchor her tent to the ground in high winds just so the narrator can lecture the audience on how important it is, over scenes of Rin chasing her flyaway camp gear.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Ena is skilled at styling hair into a variety of objects including a bear's head, a pagoda and saguaro cactus.
• In Medias Res: The anime opens with all the girls camping together and transitions to the events that lead Nadeshiko and Rin to meet.
• Irony: After Rin tells Nadeshiko of a spectral bull that is rumoured to appear by nightfall at Lake Shibire, she follows up by reassuring Nadeshiko that nothing of the sort will appear. However, when Rin returns from the facilities later that night, she runs into what looks to be the bull and bolts in terror; she ends up spending the evening sleeping in Nadeshiko's tent, and the "ghost" turns out to be the drunken lady they met earlier, who was having a Vomit Discretion Shot at the time.
• Iyashikei: The combination of wilderness adventures and friendship create an immensely cathartic atmosphere.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Both Nadeshiko and Rin are surprised to learn that Minami's partner at Lake Shibire was her sister, and she admits that with the way her sister acts, it's not hard to make that mistake.
• Literal-Minded: In "What Are You Buying With Your Temp Job Money?", Ena asks Rin what she'd do with a hundred million yen. Rin's answer? Camp on top of it.
• Location Theme Naming: All characters' surnames are based off the names of Japanese cities, and this is briefly mentioned in episode ten of the first season.
• Loophole Abuse: When camping at Lake Shibire, Toba's sister worries about the likelihood of Toba drinking beer during lunchtime. Toba considers drinking non-alcoholic beer at school instead, but her sister retorts that it's still unacceptable.
• Lost in Translation: Both Yen Press and Crunchyroll gives Chiaki's Outdoors Activity group as a "Club", but it was originally a "Circle", as it had not satisfied the school's requirements to be a club.
• Lucky Charms Title: The delta symbol at the end of the title is a tent, and it is retained in the cover of Yen Press's translation as the "a" in "Camp."
• Medium Blending: Season 3 Episode 7 has Aki retelling the camping trip she went on with Aoi and Ena to Nadeshiko, and all the of the backgrounds are real-life photographs composited under the characters.
• Mood Whiplash: Chiaki, Aoi and Ena realize that what was originally a relaxing camping trip could turn into a survival ordeal, since they'd not adequately prepared for the colder conditions at Lake Yamanaka. Their phones are dead, the camp site administration office is closed, and the temperature is dropping fast. They're seriously worried about freezing to death. Fortunately, someone else is camping at the same site with a warm tent big enough for all of them, on top of that, Minami Toba came to check on them because Rin warned her of their situation and was worried about them.
• Motorcycle on the Coast Road: Rin's trip into Shizuoka has her travelling along a coastal road, and while she greatly enjoys the scenery, she finds the wind to be very cold.
• The Movie: Laid-Back Camp Movie is set several years after the anime. All the girls of the Outdoor Activities Club have graduated school, have adult jobs, and not much time for camping or seeing each other anymore. Until Chiaki (working for the local prefecture administration) finds a piece of abandoned property that could be used as a public campground, and is inspired to bring the members of the club back together to rehabilitate it.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: In the tenth episode of the first season, Nadeshiko exclaims in Engrish, "One for all, hole in one!"
• New Year Has Come: The first episodes of the second season are about the cast's new year activities: Rin camps along the southern coast of Shizuoka, right south of Yamanashi, while the rest of the cast visits the temple (which is most likely the important Kuon-ji right there in Minobu) in the midnight of New Years, and then attempted to see the "Diamond Fuji." After that, Rin and Nadeshiko meet at the latter's hometown in the Mikkabi area of Hamamatsu.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In the first episode of the first season, Nadeshiko wakes up after dark after falling asleep near a camp bathroom for a catnap after biking over 30 km from home without her cell phone or having told anyone in her family exactly where she went. Her first meeting with Rin was while she was in total panic mode.
  • In season 1 episode 9, Chiaki decides to cook houto noodles for Nadeshiko, who had a cold. When her parents show up and ask Chiaki to cook for them an authentic Yamanashi houto, the pressure on Chiaki becomes visible in her expression.
  • When Rin oversleeps at the restaurant on her way to her campsite, she is shocked that it's late enough that the sun has set.
  • When Nadeshiko tells Rin at Hamamatsu that they're having eel for lunch, Rin is in constant shock for awhile, since she certainly doesn't have the money to pay for it. Turns out that lunch is on Nadeshiko's family.
  • Episode 6 of season 2, Saito, Inuyama and Chiaki realize that their campsite is much further above sea level than they realized and therefore much colder as night falls.
  • On the opening day of the new campground, there's a collective Oh, Crap as they realize they forgot to put up signs directing visitors where to find it.
• Old School Building: Partway through The Movie, the elementary school Aoi is teaching at becomes this as it closes permanently at the end of the school year. ^note The reason why isn't mentioned, but probably is because of Japan's ongoing demographics shift.
• One-Steve Limit: Defied. The series has Ena (Rin's best friend and confidante) and Ema (Mei's best friend and confidante).
• Only Six Faces: Visually, Mei looks a lot like Aoi except with her bangs flipped, so Afro gives Mei a giant bow to make her stand out.
• Only in America: In chapter 83, when Chiaki and Toba-sensei are watching foreign dramas, Chiaki reacts with shock at how often American convenience store workers are robbed and shot. Toba-sensei remarks that it's just a trope.
• Out of Focus:
  • When Nadeshiko gets a job in a sushi restaurant mid-season two, she pretty much disappears while Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena go camping together. Once that arc is over, Chiaki and Aoi are reduced to non-speaking cameos while Nadeshiko goes solo camping for the next few episodes.
  • When Nadeshiko and Rin are invited to camp in a remote area of the Ōi River by Ayano, Chiaki, Aoi and Ena do not appear aside from a brief cameo.
  • Rin is almost completely absent during Chika, Aoi and Ena's memories of their camping trip at Mizugaki.
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: The Japanese title is Yurucamp△, using the upper-case delta to represent a tent. This is somehow retained in the English translation, as the covers always replace the "a" in "Camp" with the same delta, as Laid-Back C△mp.
• Pixellation: In chapter 83, Chiaki and Toba-sensei discuss why non-alcoholic booze can't be sold to people under the legal drinking age. Toba-sensei says it's to discourage young people from wanting to drink the real thing. Chiaki then pictures a drunken, happy Toba-sensei censored by pixellation, and wonders if they'll need to start censoring her so kids don't think drinking booze looks fun.
• Pop-Up Texting: The girls' communiques are frequently shown on-screen. In their messages, the girls share their pictures, conversations and experiences as high school girls are wont.
• Product Placement: Kikyo Shingen Mochi, discussed in the S1E02's Stinger, is considered one of the most well-known gifts from Yamanashi. However, that name is a registered trademark, with the trademark owner Kikyoya showing up in that episode's credits.
• Properly Paranoid: Both Rin and Sakura get nervous the moment they learn Nadeshiko is going to start solo-camping, knowing how her clumsiness gets her into trouble; Rin even starts spiraling thinking of the dangerous scenarios she could end up in. Thankfully though, the two are at ease seeing that Nadeshiko has prepared well and is able to take care of herself.
• Puni Plush: The art style is very rounded. The best indicator is in volume five, when Nadeshiko's Childhood Friend Ayano showed Rin some photos back when Nadeshiko was fat. To the reader she wasn't that much fatter that how she currently is, the shock from Rin notwithstanding.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Part of the plot of The Movie is Chaiki persuading the other members of the camping club to help her rehabilitate an abandoned piece of property into a new campground.
• Real-Place Background: The series is set in and around the Minobu area of Yamanashi, and the camps the girls visit are real-world locations.
  • Rin camps at Koan Campground on the shores of Lake Motosu in S1E01. Nadeshiko returns to the same location in episode twelve to camp alone and runs into Rin.
  • Nadeshiko meets Rin at Fumotoppara Camp in S1E02.
  • S1E03 and S1E04 has Rin visiting Mount Takabocchi in Nagano, while the Outdoors Activity Club visit a hot springs and fruit museum in Yamanashi before camping at Hottarakashi.
  • Rin and Nadeshiko camp together on the shores of Lake Shibare.
  • The Outdoors Activity Club travel to Minobu to visit the Caribou store.
  • The Christmas camping trip is located near the Fujisan YMCA Global Eco Village.
  • Rin and Nadeshiko spend their New Year's in Hamamatsu, while the Outclub visit Mount Minobu.
  • While Nadeshiko solo camps at Nodayama Health Green Space Park, Rin visits Akasawa and Lake Amehata.
  • Rin and the Outclub visit Izu Peninsula for their March camping trip.
  • Rin's home is located near a small town along the Tokiwa river.
• Retool: Parodied in chapter 80. After Aoi becomes obsessed with bicycling and ropes a first year named Mei who is also obsessed with cycling into joining the OutClub, she and Chiaki have a skit about changing the premise of the manga into the Outdoor Cycling Club. Although they're only playing around, given the emphasis the manga starts placing on bicycling around that point in its run, it may not end up being merely a joke.
• Sailor Fuku: The main characters' school uses sailor fuku for the girls' uniform, though it includes a yellow sweater that's worn over it.
• Scenery Porn: The landscapes surrounding Mount Fuji are intricately and beautifully rendered, bringing the natural surroundings that Rin and her friends frequent to life.
• School Club Advisor: While Minami Toba became the Outdoor Activity Club's advisor just because she's new (and thus having no other advisor duties), she starts taking her role as the Outclub's advisor more seriously over time, especially after Chiaki and the others' Lake Yamanaka trip almost ends in hypothermic disaster due to lack of preparation. To avoid a repeat of that incident, she asks the Outdoor Activity Club to run their plans by her first from now on. She also starts cutting back on her alcohol consumption so she can be more alert and able to get the girls where they need without designated drivers.
• Schoolgirl Series: Laid-Back Camp follows in the adventures of Rin and her friends both in the wilderness, as well as their everyday lives as high school students.
• Second Episode Introduction: While two of the five main characters, Nadashiko and Rin are introduced in the first episode, Chika, Aoi and Ena are only properly introduced in the second, although they make brief cameos in the first.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chiaki thinks to herself how the Cool Old Guy camper she meets (who later turns out to be Rin's grandfather) "looks straight out of a coffee commercial"; she refers to Tommy Lee Jones's series of Japandering coffee commercials from the 1990s.
  • When Chiaki explains what outdoor film viewing is, the familiar faces of Marty McFly and Doc Brown appear in the film shown.
  • The "Blankie Monster" Running Gag is a nod to Kamen Rider's Showa era; the phrase Rin uses ("There you are, Blanket Monster!") would commonly be used by Riders when they encountered the Monster of the Week, while "Secret Society BLANKET" is a play on Shocker, the Nebulous Evil Organisation from the original 1971 TV series.
  • When the Outdoor Activities Club girls buy color-coded sleeping bags, they give themselves Super Sentai-style code-names, such as the "Mushroom Rangers" and "Santaclangers". There's also a brief shot of some "Mushroom Rangers" in the ninth episode of the first season.
  • In manga's tenth volume, Nadeshiko is shown performing Dhalsim's Yoga Flame, complete with the button combination, in a between-chapter illustration.
  • When the Outdoor Activity Club is practicing laying out a tarp during the fourth episode of the second season, Chiaki notifies Nadeshiko and Aoi that she forgot the tarp poles at home. Immediately a spoof of the NHK's sign-off phrase appears on the screen.
  • During Rin's dream where she can hear the pine cones and kindling screaming as she lights them, one of them says "Hidebu!".
  • In "Izu Camping!! On the Way", Akari suggests watching Zombie Gurashi, a riff on fellow Manga Time Kirara Forward title Gakkou Gurashi. The one shot we see looks an awful lot like Miki Naoki walking down a school hallway, bathed in sunset.
  • When Nadeshiko suggests they play "moon landing" in humanoid sleeping bags, the Imagine Spot shows a rocket landing on the Moon just like in A Trip to the Moon and music resembling the opening theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • In chapter 83, Toba-sensei says her #1 foreign drama is The Dentalist.
  • In season 3, episode 9, a camper describes policing your campsite as "Leave no trace when you go. Pretend you're being hunted down by a hitman." With John Wick appearing behind them.
• Slice of Life: Laid-Back Camp divides its time between Rin's excursions into the mountains and the Outdoors Activity Club's experiences, focusing on the girls as they make the most of their travels.
• Snowed-In: Inverted in the new year's arc. Rin isn't planning to visit Hamamatsu, but it snowed in Minobu over New Year's while she's camping in the Shizuoka seafront, causing the mountain roads to her house too dangerous to be negotiated by her moped. This means, Rin was snowed-out of her house.
• Start My Own: The Outdoor Activities Club was born of Chiaki and Aoi's desire to experience the outdoors at a much more relaxed pace than the athletically-focused Hiking Club.
• The Stinger:
  • In the first season, the "Room Camp" segments after anime's ending sequence are light-hearted humor about the cast, adapted from the manga's bonus materials.
  • After the ending sequence of the fourth episode of the second season, Sakura leaves for her car early in the morning, only to find Nadeshiko put a fuel hand warmer on the car, bought with the latter's first paycheck.
• Super-Deformed: The cast is drawn in this style when they appear as smartphone app avatars.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Given the overall light-hearted tone of the series, the (thankfully, only potential) consequences of OAC's misadventures to Yamanaka Lake (when Chiaki fails to account for the campsite's elevation combined with the time of year and their effects) are treated very seriously by the cast, to the point Toba-sensei intervenes and thereafter plays a more active part as their club adviser.
• Suspicious Missed Messages: Downplayed when Nadeshiko goes on her first solo camping trip. When Nadeshiko stops answering her text messages, Rin cannot stop worrying about her, and goes out of her way to check on her friend...only to discover that Nadeshiko's older sister Sakura had the same idea. While Rin and Sakura's fears aren't completely unfounded (Nadeshiko can careless) she was never in danger and her lack of communication really is due to the poor reception in the mountains.
• Tastes Like Chicken: Said word for word by Miss Toba, when she buys raw frog from a specialty meat shop to fry at a campout and says she chose frog meat since the butcher told her it tastes like chicken. The girls in the club are not so sure.

  "Then why not just eat chicken?"

• Time Skip: The Movie is set an unspecified number of years after the end of the series. It's long enough for all the former members of the club to have graduated high school and started adult jobs^note Yumiri Hanamori (voice actor for Nadeshiko) says it takes place ten years after high school, while director Yoshiaki Kyogoku says the characters are in their mid 20s.
• Title Drop: Room Camp #46 (published in Volume Six) has Chiaki bring up the subject of low-stress camping, AKA "laid-back camp". Aoi responds "I feel like I've heard that somewhere before..."
• Trademark Favorite Food: Instant Curry Ramen for the characters of the show.
• Two Lines, No Waiting:
  • The fourth and fifth episodes of the first season (corresponding with chapters six to eight of the manga) sees Rin and the Outdoors Activity Club camping at different locations. They keep in touch by means of text messages and share their experiences with one another.
  • The Ōikawa trip in the first half of the third season is also structured this way: Rin and Ayano bike to the intended campsite, while Nadeshiko takes the train. Their different experiences on the way are portrayed separately.
• The 'Verse: The author has another series about a high school photography club, Mono, that is set in the same universe as this series. For example, the Kagamigahara family won a Mega Meal Challenge in that series.
• Unreliable Narrator: Lampshaded, invoked, and played for laughs when the OAC recount their camping activities to Nadeshiko (who was camping with Rin and Ayano). Chiaki jokes their memory world is falling apart because Nadeshiko keeps asking questions or commenting, while Ena insists on recalling that she brought Chikuwa along (even though it was too cold for him), and they somehow add a (at the time) mystery white samoyed dog, Hanpen, to their group, amongst other embellishments.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The first half of the second season's first episode is primarily dedicated to showing the very first time Rin went camping. It ends on showing Nadeshiko during her time biking to lose weight, transitioning to the present day while she's riding.
• World of Technicolor Hair: While some characters have realistic hair colors, others have unusual colors that no one ever comments on; Nadeshiko has pink hair, Rin has blue hair, and Sakura and Chiaki both have purple hair.
• Year X: In the anime, the trip that Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena in Season 3 was said to be on Saturday, March 21st, 20XX. Given enough information about the date was given, the 20XX seems unnecessary. It's 2020, which makes the most sense for the series to take place in. It might've been written that way to avoid it being too soon to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• You Never Asked: Rin's mother pulls this excuse in the second season's ninth episode, after Rin complains she was never told her mother used to ride a motorcycle.
• You No Take Candle: Invoked with Japanese in season three, episode seven as Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena are grocery shopping and find a package of garlic preserved in "syoy" sauce.