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#yama no susume is minimal, suckless moe!

###a gem-along

What were you expecting this to be a regular thing? You thought I'd be pumping out "content" on a "schedule" like some sort of youtube wageslave? We take things slow around here. 

In reality, I just kind of lost interest in anime for a while. It happens. I've been an otaku for many many years at this point, and I kind of feel jaded about anime, in particular I feel like I've watched all the good stuff already. Which is why today I'm going to be rewatching yama no susume season 1! I thought to reintroduce myself to the world of anime I should start with a short show of tiny episodes and work up from there. To be clear, I've been reading manga and visual novels all this time I just got bored / burned out with anime. I think the anime industry is very obviously unsustainable in it's current form and is heading for a huge crash. There have actually been a few good shows in the past couple seasons, but somehow nothing hits the same as the nichijou-kei anime produced in roughly the decade of 2004 - 2014. 

The first time I watched yama no susume I remember loving season 1 a lot. I have a thing for short episode length anime, I think it's a massively overlooked subset of shows. Teekyuu, oshiete galko chan and mahou shoujo nante mou ii desu kara are all some of my favourites. However, I felt that season 2 of yama no susume had gone too far in the direction of melodrama, and at the time, I dropped it. These days, I have a bit of a higher tollerance for melodrama in anime, even if I'm still quite a skeptick on it. So I figured I'd give it another shot. I have always really liked the character designs and general art style of the show, which pushed me towards this choice. Anyway enough chit chat, let the gem-along begin!

I had completely forgotten this character starts of with a fear of heights. Actually it seems I remember very little from this show. 

If I recall correctly, This anime was produced as a sort of training ground for young animators. They really did go all out even within just a few minutes. Also it occurs to me that this post will be short just like the anime. It's good not to try and make every post a masterpiece. I have to remember that I should not be a perfectionist here.

Needless to say, these girls are moe.  

This makes me want to touch grass. Honestly I've considered hiking as something I should get into, since being a hikineet my physical fitness is pretty much terrible. However, I have flat feet and so walking long distances gives me some trouble. I really should figure something like that out.

This is a minimal, suckless anime. They literally debloated anime.

I do really like this show. The fact that it's short means each episode is hyper efficient, pure and concentraded slicing of lives. The cute girls, they do cute things. There's no time for anything else! And yet the pacing still feels relaxed. There are no uncomfy things in this show. 

it also seems like this show has many gif-able moments.

I find the character animation really good. It's somehow fuwa fuwa. The va is also excellent. Man I really do like this first season. Here, they are only climbing simple mountains, and we just see these characters hang out and have fun. iirc in later seasons, the focus shifts onto personal drama over determination to summit harder and harder climbs. I wish it just stuck with simple girls hanging out in nature.

Well, that was yama no susume season 1. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I'll probably title this post somehting like "yama no susume is a suckless, minimal anime" lol. It's a very comfy show. I guess i'll give the second season a try but I think a large part of what draws me to the show is the pacing from each episode being so short. I would say I'll try and watch more short form moe anime but I'm pretty sure I've seen all of them at this point...