Review of A Place Further Than The Universe

A Place Further Than the Universe comes across as an exercise in equal distribution, which is exhibited in character, in setting, and in tone. In doing so, it is able to certainly cover a lot of ground, but despite its wide dispersion of content, it is rarely poignant in its application, and in many ways, it feels simultaneously like both a departure from the conventions of the slice of life genre, as well as a series that overuses certain conventions to its detriment. The elevator pitch of "high school girls go to Antarctica" is one that doesn’t need much further elaboration, at least until one reachesthe question of actually finding enough to do in the continent to facilitate making a whole series around the concept. It is perhaps for this reason that it is divided into exact thirds, with each part involving the preparation, the travel, and finally actually being in Antarctica, although the issue of there not being anything to do can be the attributed cause for how heavily it relies on penguin iconography, with them being shown or named seemingly at least once per episode.
This divided approach does manage to work decently enough, but no greater than that, and one area in which this is made evident is when it is compared to Yuru Camp, which was released the same year. In regards to art direction, the two are far from alike, with Yuru Camp taking Mount Fuji as its landmark and central iconographic feature, and using it as a framework to build its settings around. A Place Further Than the Universe takes a lot longer to settle into its core framework of Antarctica, and it is consequently far less imposing in its imagery. Its soundtrack also comes across as remarkably generic, sounding as though it came from a pre-recorded library that could be used for any series, rather than something that was custom-made and designed with the specific intention of accentuating the specific scenes in which it appears. Its use of insert songs on multiple occasions also ends up being symptomatic of the same problem, almost as though it came from some conception that modern anime are just 'supposed to' contain insert songs, but it ends up being a case of overuse, and one that seems to demonstrate a poor understanding of the purpose of using insert songs to begin with; after it becomes a familiar addition to the episode’s format, rather than adding to the overall emotional impact, it ends up being subtractive and belaboured.

Its writing manages to be a lot more effective than its audio-visual design, utilising a cast of four main characters, who, as with the differing settings, are each given a similar amount of focus and screentime. While archetypal, these characters are not bound or completely defined by their respective archetypes either. They are adequately rounded out, leaving them with enough substance to maintain an interesting presence that manages to provide the series with an important connective thread. Although it does use running gags and catchphrases, it does not overindulge in them, just as it doesn’t seem to overindulge in anything (except J-pop montages), containing a balanced amount of drama, comedy and the character growth that comes from any Bildungsroman. As such, it is able to keep a balanced tone, not compromising the effectiveness of either its comedic or dramatic aspects, and perhaps due to the lack of a school setting for most of its duration, its drama never comes across as forced or overblown, although a lot of it is inarguably predictable – once a point of conflict is established, it rarely diverges from the exact path that dramatic convention dictates that it goes down, and when the attention is entirely on the characters rather than the setting and its demands, a greater deal of originality in this aspect would have gone a long way.

A Place Further Than the Universe may be an exemplification of the Jack-of-all-trades, as while it certainly addresses a large number of different concepts, it is never outstanding in any of them. Only one particularly strong aspect is typically enough to bring a work to the level of excellence, but herein there appears to be a level of hesitation to focus on any particular area to give it the ability to be anything more than a standard potboiler slice of life for that year. Even when accounting for its unimpressive audio-visual design, it is still competently made, the only problem being that, without a properly emphasised sense of place with its principal location, this prevents it from constructing its own iconography to embed itself and give it a sense of identity.