Is what I had THOUGHT this anime would be about. I need to preface this review by letting you know that I saw this airing in 2018 and made the conscious decision to NOT watch it, simply because I thought it was gonna be another mediocre moe-type show. Please, please, please do not make the same mistake I did. I personally don't enjoy moe as much as other genres, but this anime really speaks to people who feel like they're wasting their youth, and even if you don't relate to that, or enjoy the moe/slice of life genre, I promise you'll still enjoy this.
Now, if my word alone doesn't convince you, I'll be going into the specifics of what makes this anime great. There will be very, very minimal spoilers, but nothing that would ruin your experience of the show. I'll start this review off with the pros, and follow it up with the cons.
This anime focuses mainly on the topic of friendship, adventure and the work needed to make your dreams come true. It's about the parts of friendship that are hard to put into words. How we appreciate what friends do for us, how we miss them when they're gone, and how we look forward to them coming back. When we look at each of the 4 main characters, they all feel like 4 pieces of a puzzle, fitting tightly and perfectly with each other, but being incomplete without the rest.
Shirase's goal serves as an objective that we can follow along with. This is a notable problem in a lot of moe or slice of life anime, that being the lack of something to strive for. The anime lays it out crystal clear that these girls want to go to Antarctica, and will do just about anything to achieve their goals.
The animation and soundtrack are absolutely phenomenal. The insane shot compositions and environmental storytelling make this anime an audio-visual masterpiece. The director, Atsuko Ishizuka (director of Pet Girl of Sakura Hall and No Game No Life), truly has a knack for what she does. The subtle metaphor shown in the very beginning of episode 1 of Mari playing with a puddle of water surrounded by sand, and enjoying the way the water bursts open when the sand walls collapse is indicative of Mari's personality. The landscape and surroundings are incredibly immersive, and in a certain scene (no spoilers), the running animation is silky smooth, with buildings and rails rotating in contrast to each other to give off the impression that the entire world is moving when the characters run. 10/10 animation, no questions asked.
Now, there's a reason it's not quite a 10/10, so I'll be going over a few cons.
First off, we have CGI. They don't do a terrible job at it. In fact, I would argue it's pretty great CGI, but perfect CGI should be almost indistinguishable from the normal animation, and quite frankly, it's a bit noticeable.
Secondly, we have slow pacing. Now, this is only a problem (a mild one, at that) for the start of the anime. The pacing isn't mind numbingly boring, but there are a couple instances where cutting to the chase would have been best. After the first couple of episodes though, it gets right on track.
Third, we have repeat songs. The soundtracks are amazing, each and every one of them, and they use their insert music so unbelievably well. But there are only 5 songs with vocals, and 1 is used for the ED, so really, there's only 4 songs with vocals. They try to reuse them as best as they can, but no amount of masterful musical execution will perfectly mask the fact that songs get played over and over again.
And lastly, we have a predictable story. This isn't actually as big of a problem as it may seem. It's kinda par for the course when we're talking about moe/slice of life anime, but whether or not it's the norm. It simply has to be said that you can see a lot of the scenes coming. It typically doesn't take away from the emotional impact, nor does it really put a damper on the story, so it's not that big of a deal.
These cons are pretty nit-picky and are pretty easy to turn a blind eye to. This is still EASILY, the best moe/slice of life anime I've seen to this day, and I'm not even really the biggest fan of the genre. In my opinion, they're pretty good, but never amazing. This anime is the exception. I urge you to give this a try, don't make the same mistake I did.
9.5/10
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