Anime: Sora yori mo Tooi Basho

Review
Silly girls doing silly things is not anything new in the japanese animation industry. We had tons of moe shows in the last decade and some of them hit big popularity marks even with poor presentation. This season, however, seems to have found a new thread within this setting: outdoors activity. Can a bunch of happy young girls give something more just by moving out of school? Definitely. It looks like some of the industry's minds have noticed the high school setting have been inflated for far too many years and now imagination is coming back to their minds.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho (A Place Further Than the Universe) is, in resume, a solid slice-of-life about friendship and coming of age struggles. It all starts as Tamaki Mari, a cheerful high school student, decides to do something about her life before it ends (yeah, japanese lives end at the age of 18, when they all shrink and become mechanical tools of a robotic society). She ends up finding a lot of money dropped by a girl from her school at the train station. Returning the money, however, is the starting point of a journey towards Antarctica, one filled with hardships and life lessons.

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1. It's got an objective
   Although the opening and much of the promotional material can make you think this is about girls in Antarctica, that is not exactly true. A Place Further Than the Universe is in fact about the girls journey towards the ice continent, one where they must befriend the expedition team, find a way for them to allow teenagers into a deadly land, and convince their friends and family circles about what they want to do. The actual Antarctica part happens just as the show reaches its final episodes, so it is interesting seeing the dreamy journey being treated as such.
   
   And it got girls
   Mari is your average moe lead with her genkiness and dumbness. She is joined by co-protagonist Shirase, the only girl with a previous desire to reach Antarctica, where her mother died. Shirase ends up being the main reason the tale exists at all and one of the most complex of the girls as she avoids much of the moe tropes besides being absurdly shy in public situations.
   
   Those two have the major support of Hinata, a somewhat more reponsible and intelligent team member with the spirit of a joker, and Yuzuki, a rising idol star with zero experience at befriending others. Together these four girls start a circle of trust and deepen the bonds of their friendships as they all line their sights towards Antarctica as a mean to either escape their depressive teenage reality or just experience the thrill of something new.
   
   And adults
   Fortunately, this is no shounen garbage and there are adults in the deadly journey towards the most inhospitable place on Earth's surface. The expedition members may all look young and happy, but they fulfill their roles as responsible adults babysitting and teaching the teenage girls during the journey and especially after they actually reach the ice continent. It is upon the adults that most of the deeper emotional parts of the show lies, especially as Shirase faces her mother's best friend, Gin.
   
   And it can be teary
   Although The Place Further Than the Universe is more of a happy journey that ultimately works to forge a powerful friendship between the four girls, it is also a tale about the struggles each of them were facing before embarking on this journey. This is about Shirase's dead mother, about Hinata's decision to skip school, about Yuzuki's lack of friends. It can get emotional at many points, perhaps evoking tears to those more susceptible.
   
   Madhouse
   Although the audio direction may suffer from absurdly screeching voices with the four main girls (especially Mari and Hinata) and just get a passing grade at its typical soundtrack, the animation part is superbly handled by Madhouse. The moe style is there as in any other generic work of the kind, yet it got a deal of identity with the exaggerated light effects on the characters and a majestic background work from the city shots to the white deserts of snow. A beautiful piece of work, especially with the not so common idea of moving away from Japan to give a shot at landscapes of Antarctica and sea-travel.
   

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Comments
Yeah. It is a silly moe show, certainly, but it is a good one. It somewhat relates to Tari Tari as it tackles things far too lightly while giving us simple saddening moments from time to time, but its strength is not exactly in the cast's charisma and personalities this time around, but in their tales. From all those four girls, Shirase is the only one who barelys gets a passable realism to how she acts, while the rest are far too tied to their stereotypes. Yet even with these shackles they got interesting tales to solve and are superbly backed up by adults and a refreshing setting.

I was surprised. Really. After trying a few of the most populars shows of this season and rarely getting excited, I wasn't expecting a silly moe show to be the first one to pick me up and carry me throughout the episodes in such a fashion. After Sakura Quest and this one, I can't simply ignore slice-of-life about silly girls anymore.