Review of A Place Further Than The Universe

Of Yuru Camp, comfyness and the beautiful landscape seem to be the two universal focal points of the show. The brilliant depiction of food seems to be the selling point of Shokugeki. But yorimoi is something special: this show has provoked so many different thoughts from different viewers on different levels. For those who love this show, they seemed to get hit by it differently. I guess that it all depends on our personal experience so far. Lots of people felt the strongest in ep. 12. Some viewers revealed how this episode was related to them personally in life. Also episode 5 & 6 gotpeople who had similar episodes themselves previously. And the sea sickness part might seem funny to most people but wrecked havoc on certain viewers who are not good on ship.

For me, it was ep. 1 that clicked the most personally. It just reminded me of my own journeys so much, especially my travels to Japan. I felt really first hand what Kimari felt, the whole time: the frustration after we gave ourselves excuses not to make a journey, and the bursty excitement when the mental block was removed and then first time to set foot onto the place that we have dreamed of day and night. And finally at the end of good journey, the gratefulness "I'm so glad that I took the trip" and the sweet memory.

I have then repeated about ten times the following sequence: Kimari in front of the ticket gates, she took one step back and then bit her teeth to go through it, surprised Shirase while Shirase rewarded her the most beautiful smile, and then the Shikansen Nozomi drove through the tunnel, passed Mt. Fuji while they fell asleep leaning against each other. All accompanied by one of the most beautiful Ed "ここから、ここから".

Kimari was prepared to break out from her own shell, and she was lucky to meet Shirase. When Shirase unexpectedly invited her with that "じゃ、一緒に行く?" (Jya, let's go together?), I was electrified. When was the last time that someone you barely knew invited you to take on an improbable journey? And that someone seemingly has nothing concrete at the moment but a strong resolution and an optimistic belief that everything will work out eventually. From this show we learn, when we get invited like this next time, say "yes!".

After all 13 episodes we learned the friendship that the four have developed and how far Shirase would go for her friends, manifested twice on two episodes related to Hinata. We may wish that we all need a friend like Shirase sometime in our lives. Or perhaps, how to become a friend like Shirase ourselves?

From the numerous discussion threads on Reddit, I learned that many things in life, just like the fruit durian in episode 6, are tasted differently from people to people. Since "yorimoi" is also a thing in life, it, too, is subjected to different opinions. Having said that, the show is overwhelmingly positively liked in Twitter, Reddit, Crunchyroll, Niconico, Bilibili, Baidu, Youtube and so on. Every aspects, from story, directing, drawing, camera, music, background, and the all stars VAs have been reviewed and praised. A show that truly touched people around the world.