Review of A Place Further Than The Universe
TL;DR – A fantastic show that excels in everything it does. It does get melodramatic in certain scenes, and the flow in the last few episodes gets confusing. Despite its shortcomings, I would still highly recommend this anime, as the good stuff are just that good. Basic breakdown below ⬎ == Impressions / Presentation: 8.5/10 == The anime immediately grabbed me with its striking visuals and lively animations. Noticeable effort is put into making scenes and characters look and feel dynamic, and it succeeds at an exceptional level. The show's flow is good up until the end of episode 9, with one episode clearly leading into another. But fromepisode 10 onwards, it goes full episodic with no flow between episodes. It feels like I'm missing something crucial between these episodes, and it makes for a very jarring experience.
== Story: 8/10 ==
Although the story of traveling to Antarctica is quite extravagant, the show handles it in a surprisingly grounded way. Their circumstances may be very lucky, but it always feels like all this could actually happen.
Most episodes also have their own self-contained stories, mainly used to further flesh out the characters. Although episode 10 onwards don't flow into each other, they are still good standalone episodes that are otherwise consistent with the rest of the show.
== Characters: 8/10 ==
Due to the unconventional art style, I didn't think I would like the characters. But they've been characterised so well that I can't help but like them; They're bursting with lots of personality, and every episode serves to further flesh these lively characters out more.
== Enjoyment: 8/10 ==
The anime has a lot of great individual things that are fun to watch by themselves. But what makes watching Yorimoi such a fulfilling experience is seeing how they all tie into each other.
The last few episodes irritated me enough that my enjoyment at the end waned towards a 5~6/10. But my experience with the show is definitely an overall very positive one.