Otherside Picnic Episode 4: Time, Space, and a Middle-Aged Man

Otherside Picnic returns to adapting the light novel with its fourth episode, after giving us an anime original story previously.
One thing I want to mention is that Funimation are now using “Sorawo” in their subs, as intended by Iori Miyazawa. Shame we’re still stuck with “Wiggle-Waggle”, though.
As for this episode, Toriko pulls a vanishing act.

Toriko shortly before disappearing

I thought for sure that this episode would adapt chapter (or file) 3 of the light novel, but nope. Apparently we’re skipping that one, which feels like an odd choice to me. Instead, this episode adapts chapter 4, “Time, Space, and a Middle-Aged Man”.
I recall the chapter being pretty long when I read, so I thought perhaps it would be split into two parts for the anime. Wrong again, they’ve stuffed it all into a single episode.
To summarise: Toriko disappears, so Sorawo recruits an unwilling Kozakura to go to the Otherside and find her. Phenomena ensue.

Sorawo asks Kozakura for help finding Toriko

Whilst I do appreciate getting more Kozakura in this episode, I do feel we lose something things in the adaptation. Spreading this out across two episodes might have been better, but I wonder if they would have had enough script to justify doing so.
There’s an entire scene in the light novel where Sorawo discovers the strange photos she shows Kozakura, but the anime just decides to cut to the chase.

Kozakura screams

At least the phenomena we see in this episode mostly remain intact. There is one that is cut out, but I’ll get to that in due course.
Before that, though, I do want to highlight that skipping the “Station February” chapter is an odd choice. It could be that they are saving it for later, but there is a chronology to events in the light novel.
Said chapter also has perhaps what might be one of the weirdest Otherside encounters. There’s another chapter later on that also follows on from it, too. Well, I guess we’ll just have to see what they decide to do later on.

Sorawo is in the Otherside once more

I’m sure you’ve noticed that both of Sorawo’s eyes are the same colour throughout this episode. This is not something that is touched upon here, but light novel readers know that she invested in a contact lens. Whether the anime is reflecting that or it is a genuine mistake, I couldn’t say. Considering Sorawo does use her vision on a couple of occasions, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Kozakura’s looking a little green

In the light novel, Sorawo and Kozakura have an encounter with multiple Kunekunes, but that’s been cut out for the anime. Have I mentioned how I feel like this chapter would have benefited from being adapted into two episodes yet?

Toriko and Sorawo reunited

I’m sure this episode is fine for those who have not read the light novel, but knowing that there is stuff that hasn’t been touched on is not sitting well with me. To be fair, everything it did adapt is pretty solid, so I can at least give it that.
We also kept the glimpse into Sorawo’s past, which is not a common story despite what she believes.
This episode left me wanting more than it gave us, but that is only because I’ve read the light novel. I just hope this is a one-off case, since the earlier episodes were more faithful.