A Place Further Than The Universe is a really heartfelt show with some beautiful artwork. It managed to tug my heartstrings and made me feel I was on a trip with these incredible four girls.
Plot: The story is about a girl who is feeling aimless and happens to meet another girl who is determined to go to Antarctica for her personal reasons and the other two join them and off they go. This is a very barebones description and within this description is a deeply moving look at the relationships these girls form with each other, with other people on their team and even a look at their personal relationships . Kimari and her high school best friend's relationship even if not related to the main arc really made an impression as I could relate to the situation of friendship and its dynamics changing over time.
The plot moves at a decent speed but a fair warning much of the anime does not take place in Antarctica. The earlier episodes sets up the characters and then we head to the prep for the journey and then the journey to Antarctica and then finally the expedition in Antarctica so while I was interested in the entire arc but if you are someone who is just waiting for them to head to Antarctica you might feel its slow.
I will say I wasn't entirely sold on how these girls ended up going on this journey, they explain it but I just have a hard time believing guardians of high school girls would so easily let them go to such a dangerous place but anyway I could easily overlook that.
Characters: We have four central characters Kimari, Shirase, Hinata and Yuzu, they were all given due importance but Kimari and Shirase are definitely more at the front than the other two. Kimari is the main character who begins and closes the show, her thoughts and emotions are what drive a lot of the essential moments while Shirase is essentially the show's backbone, her drive and motives are what the show rests upon. They are both likable characters, while Kimari shares similarities with other protagonists of this genre who some people find annoying she is not tone deaf emotionally and has her conviction which makes her likeable enough.
Shirase is what defines the show so if you enjoy the show you will most likely like her character as well. Hinata and Yuzu are decent characters and great additions to the team who had their own relatable back stories to them as well. Hinata is the intelligent one while yuzu is the youngest who is experiencing making friends for the first time, I wasn't as engaged with these two, but still I feel all four are great to watch.
Expedition Team Characters: Most of the expedition team characters were very surface level which is fine we mainly delve into the commander and her relationship with Shirase, I really liked this character. They are a couple more characters with some significance who are also likable enough.
OP and ED: The opening and ending songs are beautiful, I never skipped them.
Animation: The artwork was beautiful, at first I thought the people seemed out of place that they made beautiful backgrounds and placed this characters on top of it and that took some getting used to but in general it was a beautiful show to watch particularly the episodes set in Antarctica.
Final Overview: Watch it if you are in the mood to watch a heartfelt show with no action and which makes you explore a place beyond our reach.
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