Review of A Place Further Than The Universe

Of course, be wary of spoilers... How should I say this? The anime is good; I've made that clear with the score. Fine, fine, I get it. This is my very first review on MAL, and it's starting with an anime that, to me, feels so different from what I'm used to nowadays but nevertheless, feels so real. From the stunning animation, the adorable characters, and the brilliant comedy made this anime a gem in my library of a hundred shows. Let's sum this up, shall we? Starting from the very beginning, we have Mari Tamaki, a typical high school in her second/third year wasting her days onwell, typical high school girl stuff. Schoolwork, subtle interactions, manga, etc. Well damn, that premise sure is boring, glad it lasted 2 minutes of the first episode. It's about time she did something with her life. Mari, while fighting her instincts to do something so brash as to head off to other areas with virtually no plan at all, finds an envelope dropped by Shirase Kobuchizawa. The envelope was filled with the hard work and passion for a trip to Antarctica in search of her lost mother; we're talking one million yen here.

Mari returns the envelope and learns of Shirase's plan and decides that her youth could be better spent heading to that place further than the universe. To cover for her part of the trip, Mari begins working at a convenience store near her school and meets another ambitious girl, Hinata Miyake. Maybe it's too early to say this, but Miyake was a former track and field athlete, especially prolific for her running capabilities. After being betrayed by her so-called "friends," she took up homeschooling to avoid facing similar incidents.

After Hinata came Yuzuki Shiraishi. Being the center of a commercial enterprise, friends are often hard to come by, and even when "friends" really do come along, they seem to recognize her only for her status celebrity persona, completely disregarding her own feelings. After witnessing the perspiration and zeal of the girls, she comes out of her shell and agrees to join them on their journey.

The goodbye at the end of episode 5, while kind of expected, has enough merit, cuz I still cried LOL. Maybe that's because of personal shortcomings, but I feel that Megumi's apology was a genuinely painful symbol of what it's like to drift away from others because of the changes in mentality and emotions.

"You win, some you lose some." That's how I defined Youth at that moment...

After that, the girls face a series of battles, each one revealing a little bit more of their pasts and the end goal.

That's about it for the synopsis. Now let's talk about the part where I said that the situation felt a lot more real. Megumi's farewell was one thing, but the comedy stands out from any other anime I've watched. Often times, I can't see the comedic aspects of other anime be applied to a corporate setting or in live TV shows and films (which is a genre I'd actually much rather prefer). Once it gets repetitive, it REALLY takes the fun out. Guess what? This anime says otherwise.

The one instance in episode 4 when Maki revealed her trip was what I would refer to as "comedy heaven."

Now let's get to the last scenes of the anime. The e-mails from Shirase, her change in appearance, her smile, not only displays excellent character development but an emotional wave that I believe, not many would be able to resist. Well, that's how it seemed for my friends who've seen the show before I have.

Hell, I haven't watched this in a month, but god damn I'm ready to watch it again. I can't help but remind myself to do something after watching this. Maybe that's why I'm writing this without providing as much detail as possible, cuz I want to get to it you know?

Thanks for reading this review!
I'm open to discussion and criticism btw. As I said, I haven't seen this show in a while and there may be some things that I missed and you guys think that I SHOULD write more in-depth about. Peace-out.