In my life there have been various anime and manga that touched me deeply.
Be it the story, characters, soundtrack or the just the animation itself.
There are many aspects that can make me emotional and feel connected.
But for an anime to move me this much and to actually make me tear up, is very rare.
"A Place Further Than The Universe" managed to do exactly that.
It is an anime that combines dreams with hopes, youth with adulthood, the past with the future and most importantly
gives us a reason to look forward to something in our life.
"A Place Further Than The Universe" or "Sora Yori Mo Tooi Basho" is an anime by Studio Madhouse
It has 13 episodes and aired in the Winter Season in 2018..
It is an anime about a high school student called Tamaki Mari, who wants to make the most out of her youth
She wants to do something special and something where she can explore the world and do things no one else is doing.
But she is too afraid to actually do the step forward and reach her dreams and goals.
When she meets a girl called Hirase Kobuchizawa, she finally finds the motivation and the needed support
to actually fulfill her dreams and do something special.
Together with Hirase and two other girls, called Hinata and Yuzuki
they are planning to join an expedition that's headed toward the Antarctic.
What a premise for a show.
Having a bunch of high school girls come together and have them visit the Antarctic, is a very interesting idea.
In a way, it kinda screams like the very common "cute girls doing cute things" trope,
and that's certainly not a wrong way of describing certain events.
But to just limit the show to that, would be underselling the creativity, meaning and ambitions the show is portraying.
Right at the beginning, the show is starting with our main character Mari,
who wants to do something with her life
I'm sure this is a feeling that many of us can relate to, no matter the age.
I'm not a high school student anymore, but this feeling is something that I also felt before
and actually still feel.
Wanting to break out.
Wanting to just leave home and see a different side of the world.
But what's stopping us from doing exactly that ?
Why am I not actually meeting these dreams and thoughts that I have in my head ?
It's probably a combination of many different things.
You are starting to remember the reality of your situation.
Maybe you don't have enough money,
maybe you have a family and friends waiting for you.
What I believe is the biggest reason that is stopping us,
is simply fear.
The fear of being in a situation that we are not familiar with
Being surrounded by places and people, you simply do not know.
It's a scary thought.
Mari was also feeling like that.
She had many dreams that she wanted to pursue,
but whenever the time and chance came to actually do that
she backed off.
At the end of the day, she was too scared to actually take the step into the unknown future.
But this changes when she meets a girl called Shirase.
Shirase is planning to go to the Antarctic, in order to look for her mother,
who went missing during an expedition.
This was the needed support and push that Mari needed
to actually decide to fulfill her dreams.
Going to a place, she never went before.
During their planning they meet Hinata and Yuzuki who join them on their goal to visit the Antarctic.
This part of the story would have been interesting enough to make a fun show.
But "A Place Further Than The Universe" isn't just about the journey,
it's about characters and emotions.
Each character has their own motivation and reason for visiting the Antarctic
and they are reasons that are understandable
Each character is given their own character arc,
that describes their problems and personality.
This way, each character gets the chance to be written properly
and just radiate with personality.
You get to know them better and better as the show is progressing
and you never find a moment that feels wasted or out of place.
What I found remarkable, was also the care that was put into the side characters of the story.
Characters that were introduced later in the show got enough attention,
to not make them feel like strangers.
One of the big reasons why this worked so well,
was also thanks to the character interactions.
I admire it, when the staff manages to make the characters feel like actual humans.
Of course I'm aware that this is a fictional story and the main focus, even in this anime,
is not necessarily to be as realistic as possible.
But when I talk about realism, I'm not comparing it to the real world,
but the realism in the world the fictional story is playing in.
Seeing characters having different conversations and dynamic with each character is beautiful to see and feels real.
It gives me a reason to actually care and take them seriously.
It also gives me a reason to look forward to certain character interactions.
And it wasn't just happy times,
there were also conflicts.
Not big conflicts, that the authors had to make happen, to make the series more interesting.
No, it was often just small moments of arguments and silly conversations.
But that's exactly what a show like this needs,
to help to build a world that is believable.
The girls had multiple fights, some serious and some less serious
but that's all part of growing up.
It just shows the flaws of their characters and how inexperienced they are.
But that's the beauty of growing up.
You cry, you laugh, you fight
but you always gain more experience
You never stop growing up,
no matter if you are a child, a teenager, an adult
Growing up is always part of our life, and that's why I believe, this series to be relatable to people from all ages.
This being an anime, a huge part to determine the quality of a series is always going to be the animation itself.
Madhouse has a fantastic reputation, when it comes to animation and their art style.
For me personally, Madhouse wasn't as good as they used to be, in recent years.
Some of their recent projects had rather disappointing animation, and also the choice of their projects was not something that I enjoyed.
But they absolutely nailed it with "A Place Further Than The Universe".
It's even more impressive, considering that this an anime original, meaning that this is an Studio Madhouse original.
There were a lot of talented people working on the project, like Ishizuka Atsuko, Hanada Jukk, just to say a few names.
But not only does it have a great story and fantastic characters, the animation is consistently great.
I personally haven't noticed any off models, and aesthetically, they really manage to maintain the atmosphere that this series needs.
The color palette of this show mainly consist of lighter colors,
with a huge focus on using the light itself.
Be it the the white outline that is frequently used on the character designs
or just the amount of camera angles that focus on the sunshine,
this series obviously feels very bright.
That's something that fits the series very well that is about hopes and dreams.
I also loved the backgrounds, and especially the use of real life locations and structures.
We even get to see the popular Merlion Park from Singapore, that really caught me off guard.
Even the ship itself is clearly based on the real Shirase Icebreaker Ship.
While the animation itself does a fantastic job of setting the atmosphere for this series,
what really makes it perfect is the soundtrack.
The soundtrack consist of mainly cheerful and happy songs,
that are a great way to show what the series is about.
The songs are being used in great moments, to build up anticipation or just joy.
Both Opening and Ending are also extremely enjoyable to listen to
"A Place Further Than The Universe" is a great title for this anime,
because that's exactly what the message of the anime is about.
Enjoying your life to the fullest and getting to this place, that is so far and yet in our reach.
This is an anime that moved me so much, that it actually managed to make me cry.
Something that rarely happens,
but the emotions that this show managed to create is fascinating and makes me respect it a lot.
I haven't seen every anime of 2018, but from the anime that I have seen, 123 00:07:46,760 --> 00:00:00,000 this is definitely my Anime of the Year 2018.
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