Anime Highly Recommended
About a year ago, I first heard of A Place Further Than The Universe, but was initially hesitant to check it out. Once I did, I realized why it's considered one of the best anime released in 2018.
The story is about four high school girls who join a civilian expedition to Antarctica. One of them, Shirase, is especially determined to go in order to find her mother, who went missing in Antarctica three years ago. As unrealistic as the idea of teenagers with no prior experience going on such an adventure is, the show does a good job of showing how they manage to get a way in, and that they still aren't nearly as useful as the more experienced adults, which helps maintain the show's believability.
A Place Further Than The Universe isn't easy to fit into any one specific genre, since while it's fairly lighthearted has some Slice of Life elements, it also has a defined goal and a surprisingly high amount of drama. None of the scenes feel wasted, as they generally serve to advance the plot, help the characters develop, or help the viewers learn a little about Antarctica or the characters who are journeying there.
The show is beautifully animated, and displays excellent attention to detail. The soundtrack, particularly the various insert songs, is also quite well-done, effectively complementing the mood of any given scene.
The characters are one of the show's main strong suits. Rather than being stereotypes or cliches, they come off as real people, and generally can't be boiled down to a single archetype or personality trait. Shirase's probably the best example, as well as the show's best and most complex character- part of her is a girl who will stop at nothing to reach Antarctica, another part is a dorky and overly serious girl who struggles with stage fright, and yet another part is a damaged and emotionally vulnerable girl who doesn't know how to deal with the fact that her mother is almost certainly dead. The rest of the main cast is similarly deep, and generally show off a few new layers each time they get a turn in the spotlight.
The show's relatively short, at a mere 13 episodes, and if you enjoyed it as much as I did, you'll probably be a little sad that it's over once you reach the end. That said, it was because the journey to get to the end of the series was an enjoyable one, and one that I'd recommend taking.
Anime 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.