Zatsu Tabi: That's Journey

 Zatsu Tabi: That's Journey (ざつ旅 -That's Journey-) is a 12 episode slice of life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Ishizaka Kenta.  The series aired during the Spring of 2025.

 

    Suzugamori Chika is a young manga artist, struggling to produce her first real published work.  After a series of rejections she decides to take her editors advice and take a trip to try and get some inspiration.  Unsure of where she wants to go, she posts a poll online and ends up traveling to a random area in the norther region of Honshu.   The experience doesn't exactly spark inspiration for a future manga, but does reinvigorate her in general.  She falls in love with the thrill of going some place new and unknown and experiencing the sites and sounds, meeting new people and trying new things.  Instead of settling in to try and force her creativity, she decides to go on another trip, and another...and another.

    As Chika continues to take random, poll dictated trips, around Honshu, some of her friends join on her journeys.  Between her friends from school and fellow manga artists she has gotten close to, Chika has even more unusual experiences exploring her homeland.   Each time though, will gaining valuable insight into different approaches to live, she struggles to spark the narrative inspiration she in so desperate to find.  But that doesn't dampen her excitement as she plans the next trip, hoping that this time, something will click along the way. 

    This is a straightforward and cute iyashikei.  The characters are stereotypical, filled with the standard trope of dere type characters common in low key slice of life female cast stories.  You can't help but suspect that the manga and the anime were green lit as an excuse for the author and production staff to take trips across the country on the companies tab.  None of the characters are disagreeable and their adventures are amusing and somewhat informative.  Nothing is out of the ordinary...its rather mundane.  The artwork and character design its self is mundane and inoffensive but not memorable.  This will be something that easily fades into the mists of memory as the next seasons roll in with more impactful shows.

    Though not all of the meh factor for this show is its own fault.  If only it wasn't up against a superior series of a similar vein, Mono.  Mono, by the creator of Laid-back Camp, pigeon holes a secondary character, who is a manga artist, into many of the main casts travel adventures around Yamanshi prefecture.  Comparing Zatsu Tabi to Mono is unfair to Zatsu Tabi, as the other is a far superior product, filled with a lot of life.  Zatsu Tabi is acceptable as a slice of life story but really lacks the spark that Mono carried in its cast and delivery.  That said, Zatsu Tabi didn't feel like a waste of time, Mono just highlighted its lack of quality in comparison.  Or the kinder way of putting it...Zatsu Tabi is a product that could have had more work done to it, to make it more entertaining. 

The series is available on Crunchyroll.