Review: Camp Camp “Fashion Victims”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

At the Flower Scout camp, Miss Priss is drawing fundraiser ideas from the girls. Sasha attempts to take the lead, as usual, but is interrupted by another Flower Scout, Ainsley, who happily suggests a fashion show (with proceeds that go to retired ballerinas.) Sasha tries to exert her dominance, but Ainsley’s sweet personality has everyone rallying around her. Ainsley also happens to be an influencer on PhotoGlam. She encourages the girls (and Preston) to have positive outlooks, and to “be their best selves.”

Sasha attempts to sabotage the girls’ love of Ainsley by exposing her pre-glow up photos. Ainsley embraces the photos, though, as an act of self-love. She tries to get bots to harass her on PhotoGlam to no avail, and even winds up trying to hire Vera (the Russian spy kid from last season) to help her publicly humiliate Ainsley. However, on the night of the fashion show, Sasha winds up simply having a mental break backstage — pouring red paint on Ainsley’s dress and declaring onstage that fashion show audiences are full of perverts.

When Sasha is pulled backstage, Ainsley privately encourages her to hone her leadership, despite her “having a tough time.” When Sasha asks Ainsley why she’s been nice to her despite everything, Ainsley highlights the importance of being “ruthlessly nice.” This encourages Sasha to be more “ruthless.” She takes over the show and has Vera ship Ainsley to Sibera.

Our Take

Everyone loves a good Flower Scout episode! Sasha, Tabii, and Erin are all fun characters (arguably, funner than certain Camp Campbell kids) and it’s great to see their individual personalities come out when they appear. This was a pretty great plot idea — the idea of a character based on a typical, basic, Instagram influencer is honestly pretty genius. It’s a topical archetype that hasn’t been totally tapped into yet — and there is plenty of real-world inspiration to draw from.

Ainsley’s character? Amazing. It’s especially great that the plot wasn’t predictable (wherein a predictable ending would be the reveal that Ainsley is actually evil.) Patricia Summersett’s voice was perfect for the role, and wonderful to listen to. It gave off some major Lila vibes (from Hey Arnold!) Hopefully, we’ll see Ainsley again in the future (if she ever escapes from the labor camp.)

There’s more proof of Camp Camp’s expanded animation quality in this episode alone. They really made use of all their character assets. Most importantly, they brought back a fan-favorite from last season: Vera — whose very Russian speech about feeding a girl to a bear and becoming the best dancer in her place — was a fun monologue to reintroduce her with. Sarah Natochenny has a way of making this character extremely cartoony without ever having to scream or shout, which is a welcome change from how normal toons operate. It also says loads about her voice acting (and comedy) talent!

Even though September is here, summer clearly hasn’t gone out of style yet.