Review of A Place Further Than The Universe
Have you ever felt that there’s something missing in your life? That you don’t have any real complaints, but everything just feels meh? Like you want to go far, far away and leave civilization behind, to a place where you can just be free? No? Me neither. But that doesn’t mean I can’t relate to Kimari and the others on some level. Kimari is a girl who wants to stop aimlessly meandering through life. She makes the intial decision to go to Antarctica on a whim – a spur of the moment thing – but after that the determined face comes on and she tries herhardest to turn the decision into a reality. She’s a bit of an airhead, carefree, and clumsy with words, but also deeply caring and forgiving. She injects life into the party and when she laughs it’s for real.
Shirase is Kimari’s opposite in a lot of ways. Seemingly stubborn, aloof, brusque, and an intellectual to boot, at some times she’ll be the most immature of the group but at other times show a maturity far beyond her years. Her reason for going to Antarctica is to do with her mother, whose footsteps she’s trying to follow in. That’s already a very different reason to the others. They came to escape, she came to discover. Which she does. On the journey, the wall she’s put up around herself begins to crack, and a sensitive and fiercely loyal person emerges. Shirase’s development is in my opinion hands down the best in the anime.
Hinata is essentially the mother of the group. She supervises the others, knows what to say in most awkward situations, tempers Shirase’s stubbornness, and acts as a buffer between Shiraishi’s stick in the mud attitude and Kimari’s carefree one. This isn’t to say she never makes mistakes (which she does), but she’s the kind of character who is very hard to dislike. As with most perpetually cheerful characters, there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye, and seeing her open up to the others and finally move on as a person is one of the most sweet and satisfying scenes in the anime.
Shiraishi, the last member of the party, is a little different. Barring the ridiculous circumstances in which she meets the others, she seems the most unnecessary of the four. All the girls are insecure on some level – which is fine because in life most people are, and that’s what the journey’s for – but Shiraishi’s insecurity goes beyond theirs. It is understandable, given her background, and she does have quite a lot of screen-time devoted to her development, but there’s no closure in the same way there is for the others; no real sense of moving on. Or maybe that’s just how I felt about it. Either way, she’s a business-like, shy and sweet but lonely girl who just wants friends.
A lot of the drama does feel more like melodrama, especially when Shiraishi is involved. There are some maturely handled moments (in relation to Shirase’s mother, for example - those scenes were brilliant) but it does seem to switch between heavy and lighter topics less than gracefully in some cases. There are a few heavily dramatic parts that are immediately followed by comic relief parts, but rather than serving to lighten the mood they lessen the impact of the drama and make it look silly rather than deep.
All the technical stuff in relation to Antarctica – the voyage, the equipment, the techniques used by explorers – seem pretty good. I don’t know enough about it to say whether it’s accurate or not, but I understood it well enough all the same. It does feel like the creators have researched at least.
Most of the storyline consists of switching between focussing on the journey itself and focussing on the drama in the quartet. It’s mostly well thought-out and well-paced but does include one completely unrealistic plot point compared to most of the story. I get that they needed to find a way to bring Shiraishi along, but surely there could have been some other way to bring the girls together? I mean this here was a MMO Junkie level coincidence. I won’t spoil exactly how it’s done, and after all it is only a means to cause them to meet, but I will say I watched that part in sheer disbelief and with a large amount of cynicism.
The art and animation are fantastic, and the music changes in all the right places to match the mood shifts. The Op is really catchy and feels like the prelude to an adventure.
My one caveat is that, despite the many good aspects of the anime, I could never really get that into it. I liked the characters, but in a more detached way – I didn’t generally laugh or cry with them. I think that’s partly because of the major tone shifts (drama to comedy and back), partly because I found some of the technical stuff a bit boring after a while, and partly because I’m just not that into travelling. No guarantees that you’ll feel the same though, for all I know one of these aspects could be the best part of the show for you. 😊
To sum up: if you like series about self-discovery through adventure, complete with a lot of drama and an actual end goal in sight, try watching this. The cute girls are just a bonus. XD