What They Say:
Aoi and Hinata set up a tent in Hinata’s backyard, then Kaede and Kokona join them for cooking curry rice and having a tent sleepover!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first season of Encouragement of Climb was a real treasure when it hit because in just a few minutes time each week we got a great little adventure, beautifully animated, with a subject that just isn’t done hardly at all. The show has thankfully come back for a second season, seemingly giving us a continuation of events, where we get to have thirteen minutes of material instead. The show focuses on a couple of middle school girls that have a love of hiking and mountain climbing where we saw a lot of the first season exploring the simple climbs, the equipment and building together a couple of acquaintances over it that was simply utterly charming to watch.
This episode has the childhood friends of Aoi and Hinata setting up for an overnight adventure outside camping, albeit in the safety and comfort of Hinata’s back yard. This serves as good way to get used to things, figure out the gear and have fun at the same time. To make things even more fun, Kaede and Kokona end up getting invited as well to it and that means more fun for everyone. Amusingly, Aoi’s mother is pretty worried about all of this, since it’s a group of girls that won’t be safe by themselves, but she relents a bit upon learning that it’s at Hinata’s house and her father will be there. There’s not quite a montage sequence here, but it’s fun to watch as Hinata and Aoi get everything together before the other girls arrive and they get into the whole sleepover fun of it all.
When it gets to the sleepover side itself after the fun of dinner and just goofing off a bit, the girls get to have even more fun in the small space as they do what you’d expect. Talk. And more talk. Along with a little singing as well. There’s a nice and charming feeling about all of this as it goes on and they even get their mountain climbing song going together. While we don’t get any deep or meaningful material out of it in a way with big plans, training or anything else, what we get is to see the good bond that these girls share and how well they do get along – or don’t at times as well, which is important to see. There’s a simplicity to all of this that makes it fun and appealing an watching the girls deal with it all and having those small moments of just enjoying the hills and the idea of climbing really is heartwarming.
In Summary:
With the shift from short form to something long, but not quite a full length episode, Encouragement of Climb manages it well. It’s not a show that brings earth shattering events to the forefront but rather works to paint a good picture of young girls enjoying time with each other while exploring their interest in mountain climbing and all that it entails. What this episode shows is that the charm and warmth that we got with the first season is very much apparent here and that it’s building off of the first season rather than repeating it in a bigger form. There’s a lot to like here, and I’m curious to see where it will go, but it takes a particular mindset to be able to settle into and enjoy.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
