ヤマノススメセカンドシーズン

YAMA NO SUSUME: SECOND SEASON

TV_SHORT

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
24
RELEASE
December 24, 2014
LENGTH
14 min

DESCRIPTION

The second season of Yama no Susume.

Continuing their treks through the high peaks of Japan, the mountaineering girls are back for more! First-year high school student Aoi Yukimura, a shy girl with a fear of heights, and her wildly energetic friend Hinata Kuraue set out once again to conquer the perils of backyard camping trips, summer homework, and even a climb on the mountain of their dreams. Joined by middle school student Kokona Aoba and their knowledgeable upperclassman Kaede Saitou, the squad members are ready to take on whatever slopes and challenges they might face, no matter how steep.

Through their shared hobby of mountain climbing, they bond closer than ever and even make new friends on trails all over the country. Whether it is just a local hill or the tallest mountain around, nothing is too much for Aoi and the crew to handle. They will climb, stumble, and rise to even greater heights together!

(Source: MAL Rewrite)

CAST

Aoi Yukimura
Yuka Iguchi
Kokona Aoba
Yui Ogura
Hinata Kuraue
Kana Asumi
Kaede Saitou
Youko Hikasa
Honoka Kurosaki
Nao Touyama
Hikari Onozuka
Yuuko Gibu
Yuuka Sasahara
Yui Makino
Megumi Yukimura
Aya Hisakawa
Mai Aoba
Risa Hayamizu
Kenichi Kuraue
Seirou Ogino
Makoto Yukimura
Fuminori Komatsu
Susuki
Atsushi Imaruoka
Arai
Yoku Shioya

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO YAMA NO SUSUME: SECOND SEASON

Cover Art for Yama no Susume: Second Season Specials

SPECIAL ComedyYama no Susume: Second Season Specials

MANGA AdventureYama no Susume

Cover Art for Yama no Susume: Omoide Present

OVA ComedyYama no Susume: Omoide Present

TV SHORT AdventureYama no Susume

REVIEWS

FestivalsOfComf
90/100
A surprising sequel that blows Season 1 out of the water. Ignited my desire to go outside and start climbing mountains.
A surprising sequel that blows Season 1 out of the water. Reignited my desire to go outside and form a new desire to start climbing mountains.

Read my rating scale first, before you decide to jump to the bottom of the review and read the score.

Explaining my Rating Scale

A common mistake with looking at ratings is assuming all of our rating scales are the same, while realistically that is never the case.

People rate average anime differently, some rate it as 5, 6 or a 7 depending on their own personal criteria which is subjective in nature. This explains why we all have different tastes.

My Personal Rating Scale (Anime):

4 and below = Considered dropped but I finished it for some reason.
5 = Meh, no rewatch ever.
6 = Meh, would only rewatch if forced.
7 = Acceptable and good entertainment, enjoyable.
8 = Great entertainment, not one of the best though.
9 = Loved the story!! Not life-changing but incredible!
10 = Chills, intense emotional catharsis, perfect, and possibly life-changing.

Setting expectations:
- This is a subjective review and mainly for enjoyment. A very critical opinion will not be found here, my apologies.
- Spoilers will be as minimal as possible with images being all out of context.
- I’ll try my best to explain what worked for me and what didn’t to help you understand my point of view. This will help you come to your own conclusion about what this anime might be like for you.
The preface is because a lot of people online expect reviews to fit a certain mold. For me, I just like to talk about anime I enjoy and want to share my thoughts about it in review-form.

Alright, let’s get to the review already.

Verdict

Yama no Susume Season 2 has 24 episodes with 14 minutes each.

It was animated by 8-bit Studio (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Infinite Stratos, The Fruit of Grisaia) and directed by Yuusuke Yamamoto (B Gata H Kei, Welcome to the NHK). This was airing in Summer 2014.

The anime’s source material is from a Manga with the same name. This is a slice of life anime featuring the outdoors and CGDCT. The one unique thing about the show is how it features Mountain climbing girls.
**[Review Summary]**
[Summary of: Background]
First-time watcher that had very low expectations due to season 1. The COVID pandemic has severely starved my need for the outside and adventuring. Watched Season 2 with Japanese Audio and English subtitles.

[Summary of: Story / Plot / Characters]
A slice of life story that features mountain climbing and travelling. Plot has a mixture of short and long arcs with simple characters that hit that realism aspect.

[Summary of: Visuals / Animation]
Incredible environment shots, visuals have aged well. Animation is great.

[Summary of: Audio / Soundtrack / Voice Acting]
Realistic show audio with a stellar soundtrack. Memorable voice acting from Aoi’s VA, great and adequate deliveries from the other VAs.

[Summary of: Overall]
An incredibly chill and relaxing show that fulfilled my desires and destroyed my low expectations.

[Recommendation / Would you like it?]
I recommend this second season, I believe the first few episodes deserves a chance if you liked season 1. It is possible for your opinion to change after consuming season 2, it is the same subjects and execution but done well. I do not believe you will love it as much as I did but I think you would notice an improvement in quality.
**[Rating]** My rating is a 9/10 which describes it to: “Loved the story!! Not life-changing but incredible!” --- #**Background** This is considered my first-time watch through. I have enjoyed the first season but never found it to be particularly anything special. Just a light popcorn show that was entertaining. During this COVID-19 Pandemic, I have been stuck inside since March 2020. This has impacted me a lot psychologically because I am stuck inside all day, more than I would like. And while I have experienced this lifestyle before and enjoyed it, this has gotten way too excessive. I miss the outdoors and the normalcy of it too before the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I solo-traveled for a few days before, that feeling of freedom and adventure. This is something that, again, I miss. And, so when this show fulfills the needs for outdoors with amazing visuals and the adventure feel of climbing a mountain. You are god damn for sure gonna believe this affected my watching experience very positively. Also, I have a bias for slice of life stories. I like the genre and its stories. I used Japanese dub and English subtitles. Bless the YuushaNi group. --- #**The Review** Now the review. I’ll be talking about the anime in the following categories: **1) Story / Plot / Characters** **[Evaluation of Story]** I really loved the story. It featured mountain climbing and the daily lives surrounding the characters. It is a slice of life at the end of the day, but to see these characters encounter new situations, travel to new places, and grow as people was genuinely heartwarming personally. **[Evaluation of Plot Structure]** From what I recalled, it is a mixture of short and long arcs. Pacing felt quite perfect, personally. **[Evaluation of Characters]** The characters are quite simple in nature but hit that realism aspect and are enjoyable to watch. There is not a lot of depth but that is fine for me. **2) Visuals / Animation** **[Evaluation of Visual Art]** Stellar visuals, all of the environment shots feel godly. For a show in 2014, it definitely does not feel like it has aged to time at all. **[Evaluation of Animation]** Incredible. It was a good mixture of actual animation and slideshow, nothing felt out of the ordinary. **3) Audio / Soundtrack / Voice Acting** **[Evaluation of Show’s Audio]** I really felt that realism with the show’s audio. **[Evaluation of OP & ED]** I love love love the OP and EDs!! **[Evaluation of OST & Insert-Songs]** Certain songs really hit super hard, I cannot recall anything bad besides maybe a weird birthday song but the OG is probably copyrighted lol. **[Evaluation of VA]** Every VA did a great job but I think Aoi’s VA slammed it out of the park with her portrayal. The other VAs did a good and serviceable job in their respective roles. **4) Overall** This show has fulfilled my need for a chill and relaxing show. It also fulfilled my desire for the outside and adventure. My expectations were blown away from season 1 and combining this with my background explains why the rating is so high. I am very glad I have watched this show. --- Hopefully, you learned something useful from the review. Thanks for reading. :)
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AguyinaRPG
79/100
Sometimes more time to climb doesn't make it easier.
Yama no Susume Season 2 is an interesting study in the benefits of extra run-time per episode. Where Season 1 was concise and drifted through the story to individual subjects, Season 2 - while feeling like the same show - has extended deviations into introspective moments for the characters. Even though these episodes are actually only around 12 minutes long, they feel more like they are a full 24 minutes - both to advantage and disadvantage.

Outdoorsmanship is a very broad hobby, which gets touched on a few times here, if not to the extent of Yuru Camp. The continued focus on mountain climbing and its place within the lives and friendship of the core cast remains compelling. Character growth remains at the center of the story, though with plenty of asides about responsible hiking and the growth towards a goal.

The structure of Yama no Susume actually leans me towards calling it a Slice of Life rather than the usual label of Iyashikei. There's much more at risk than in most healing type stories, and more character conflict. It's the difference between Non Non Byori and Dagashi Kashi - both are about rustic life but the former puts more emphasis on character conflict with lasting consequences to the narrative. Yama no Susume uses its mountain metaphor as a symbol for growth, and that it does rather effectively. Being serious about the subject matter is what sets this apart from the usual girls activity fair.

When it's leaning too hard into a purely free and youthful spirit, the show kind of loses its way. With the expansion of plotlines came a lot of hit or miss mini-stories that didn't really seem to do much for the core narrative. Kokona's dedicated episode is cute and all, but I kind of wish we actually learned something new about her to have a dedicated focus. As it is, most of the interesting stuff continues to be driven solely by Aoi, which is enough to provide a satisfying arc - if little more. The pacing was also quite slow, which is part of the reason that each episode felt longer than it really was. I'm fine with that as it gives more opportunity to drink in the atmosphere, if keeps me from enjoying the moment-to-moment events.

For those that were hooked by the first season for its wonderful background art, season 2 ups its game substantially and pulls in some great animation custom top of that. Episode 17 features the talents of Ryouma Ebata going absolutely ham on a bouncy style, which I loved (I had to pause the episode to look him up). Seeing places in Japan which I have only experienced through vlogs makes the whole series feel like a portrait of a particular time and place. That's rare for anime to do and is definitely worth commending, especially when it's all storyboarded so well. They make everything feel as vast as it truly is, which is difficult to do in 2D, even if there should be substantially more crowds.

This season was still enjoyable, but dragged down by extra narrative weight that's a little cumbersome to carry. Perhaps my primary reason forbeing mixed on the seasons as a whole is due to the last episode, which like many anime provides a rather unnecessary epilogue that sort of sours the experience of catching up on anything. Such is the rule of a show calling itself Iyashikei.

My hope to future seasons is that they will take their extra runtime to more confidentially embrace their dramatic aspects and really allow the characters other than Aoi to go places.
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