I'll concede that the show could have been a couple episodes longer to show more of Antarctica, but I don't think there's enough material for a 2cour anime. Each of the four main girls got some resolution to their plotlines, so I'm not entirely sure what more needed to be done. If nothing else, the amount of episodes spent on the pre-Antarctica part of the story gives that part an amount of screentime proportionate to the amount of in universe time, and it effectively builds up to the arrival at Antarctica, rather than having the protagonists arrive there in Episode 3 or so.
I think the fact that the high school girls never become as capable as the experienced adult crew members who have been to Antarctica before is a healthy bit of realism. They aren't completely useless, though, since Yuzuki's there for PR purposes, with the other girls helping with the recording, and they eventually get to the point at which they can pull their weight with the chores.
"Apathetic" isn't the right word to describe Shirase's feelings about her mother's demise. She realizes her mother's almost certainly dead, as Gin points out, but isn't able to move forward until she realizes that her mother hasn't read a single one of the 1,101 emails she's sent.
Perhaps there isn't all that much resolution to Kimari and Megumi's relationship, but Kimari never gets angry with Megumi even after learning about what Megumi did, while Megumi goes off on a journey of her own, implying that she's come to emulate Kimari, so it's natural that the two will eventually reconcile. Perhaps this plotline could be continued if the show gets a second season, but for now, it has an appropriate implicit resolution. If nothing else, she's more honest to Kimari than Hinata's "friends" were to her.
I'm not saying you're wrong to be less than impressed with the series, but you may have missed the point of some of the story elements you criticize.
It's not like I'm "less impressed". It just left me feeling kind of empty ... just like the girls in ep 11 or so when they realized that actually getting to Antarctica didn't feel such awesome as they imagined.
And I actually do appreciate the healthy bit of realism.
Also I forgot to mention my approval of avoiding blatant fanservice.
Humankind is like a train. No matter how powerful the locomotive is, it can only travel as fast as its slowest car allows it to.Leave a Comment:
Not enough Antarctica
This show managed to fairly surprise and entertain me but also left me slightly disappointed. When I began watching I didn't expect much. Your average schoolgirl wants to get the most of her youth but can't manage to achieve anything by herself. Then by some chance she helps another schoolgirl get back a literal fortune she dropped. In return she offers the protagonist to join her on her endeavor to achieve a rather unrealistic goal to get to Antarctica and discover the whereabouts of her missing mother.
The turning point comes when the characters do realize how complicated it is to achieve such goal but despite that keep putting effort into it, adapt to the changing situation and come up with new plans despite all their personal flaws.
As I watched the protagonists (whose number expanded to four) put up with the challenge and achieve their goal I gradually grew curious about what is going to come. Even though I basically knew that in the end they're going to make it, I still remained curious about what a quartet of rather unskilled and arguably more troublesome than useful teenage girls is going to do in such harsh and inhospitable environment.
The problem is it took good two thirds of the series until they actually got to the place. I'm not saying it wasn't a fun ride - especially the "vomiting episode" - I totally enjoy this kind of humor. And sometimes it's more about the journey than the goal.
The actual Antarctica part only takes the final 5 episodes which is not much. I was kind of expecting the protagonists to put to good use everything they've learnt during the training course. They didn't really do much besides getting in others' way except serving as some kind of comic relief and improving overall mood. I didn't want them to shine or anything. But it seems to me that actually going there didn't do them any good - they hardly learnt anything about surviving in such place.
Of course the series overall has pretty strong but believable emotional impact. Especially the final part. But that's also the reason why it felt kind of disappointing in the end. Their quest didn't seem to have much significance and kind of felt like "just a phase" despite their vows to return. It was like, "hey they already achieved their goal so what are they going to do now, huh?". What really doesn't help the situation is the fact that Shirase was already partially apathetic about her mother's demise.
This is why after finishing this series I felt kind of disappointed and unsure if even rewatching it would soothe me.
In the end Kimari didn't even seem to really reconcile with her childhood friend Megumi despite the emotional moment just before the departure.
Technical part: I appreciate this show's rather lucid art and fluid animation. And also the fact than unlike similar series the girls don't sport excessive blush 24/7. Such feature really gets annoying after a while.