In the pantheon of things that get a bad rap, Japanese Anime used to be up there with Professional Wrestling as Coolness poison. Like Pro Wrestling, this reputation came as much from its worst excesses and industry grossness as it did from its most visible fans, especially here in America. Lately, like all other things that people wish were nerdy but definitely aren't, Anime has not just crossed over into the mainstream but transformed many of the performers we hear in our speakers, see on our screens, and cheer on in athletic competition. Megan Thee Stallion gets fifty-six thousand likes on a tweet about Naruto and hot young NBA stars wear custom DBZ sneakers in games, yet still there are countless sad sacks posting on the internet about how they can't get a girlfriend because they like anime. But much like Marvel superheroes and first-person shooters before them, Japanese cartoons (especially the ones with lots of fighting) have been swallowed whole by Big Homogeny.
The truth is that anime has more or less always been a diverse medium full of options for any imaginable viewer. There are educational series for babies, filling similar roles to Sesame Street or The Muppets in the U.S.A. There are, yes, thousands of episodes of shounen (lit. 'young boy') action-adventure series like DBZ, One Piece, and Bleach. There are shows about outlaws fighting to save the galaxy and shows about outlaws fighting to pay their bills. Anime topics have covered nearly any sport you can fathom, many genres of music, almost every sort of workplace, and more hobbies than you can shake a dating profile at. Of course, Anime has also covered Anime, with several well-known series that depict life working at an Anime Studio or sharing one's passion at a school Anime Club.
Among all these many paths that the medium has traveled, it can sometimes be difficult to stand out from the crowd. We are seeing that right now, in a market crowded absolutely to the brim with isekai (lit. 'alternative world') series that mostly fail at setting themselves apart from their predecessors and contemporaries. Despite this, we are still seeing the industry create interesting worlds and characters at an astonishing rate, and 2018 was an incredibly good year with many fun new shows and interesting reworkings of old classics. In the former category, many would argue that no series stood out quite like A Place Further than the Universe, a perfect addition to the canon of Cute Girls shows with a heart of gold and pristine polish. A friend who places as this as her favorite show of all-time said she needed a cry break after every episode, a more than valid response that speaks to the emotional weight of a show that intersperses its fluffy comedy with heavy dramatic reflection.
Its story begins with Tamaki, a goofball high schooler whose transition into young adulthood has not gone quite as she hoped. Instead of having purpose, she leads a directionless and bland daily life in a world she has barely explored. Even when she tries to skip school and go on a journey, she fails out of fear of breaking the rules. Her narrow existence reinforces itself, and she struggles to move on. That is, until she meets Shirase, a hardheaded classmate dead set on reaching Antarctica. Shirase seems the polar opposite of Tamaki, disciplined and direct and with little regard for what others think of her. Shirase's mother Takako disappeared on an Antarctic exhibition several years prior, and the daughter has worked every day since with the goal of making it back to that beautiful yet forbidding place. Shirase's persistence sparks Tamaki, reviving in her that thirst for a world beyond her invisible shackles.
Initially cold and distant, Shirase eventually warms to the idea of Tamaki joining her on the trek. Soon thereafter, two more girls join their cause: the bubbly high school dropout Hinata, and the naive child star Yuzuki. The first half of the series circles around the quartet forming their initial bonds, developing their plans to go to Antarctica, and preparing for the journey. You may well be wondering how a group of high school girls going to Antarctica is believable or interesting; both are valid causes for skepticism, but anyone complaining about plausibility in fiction where it relates to plot framework is a joyless simpleton and the early frenetic energy of the girls made me reminisce on plotting tree house escapades in elementary and middle school. The four students each contain multitudes, and their adorable quirks are just as riveting as their deeply-held fears and sorrows.
It's not much of a spoiler to say that the girls eventually succeed in getting their trip to Antarctica, and the voyage there lays the blocks for the crucial dramatic moments that lie in the icy vastness. There's plenty of comedy about seasickness, but the real heart of the show's second act is the budding tension between Shirase and the expedition's Commander Gin, the woman who Takako called her best friend and the last person to see Takako before she vanished. Gin and Shirase share a determination and purpose, but each is unable to fully push aside the wounds in their heart and truly come to terms with their complicated feelings for the other. It's during this build that the show's central themes of grief and mono no aware truly start to shine through.
Without spoiling anything, the show's final few episodes are some of the most moving things I've ever witnessed on a screen, particularly the penultimate episode. The show thoroughly captures both the intense beauty and dull repetition of living at the edge of the possible world with an attention to detail that deserves praise, but it's the unraveling and respooling of each character's very sense of self that makes the conclusion an all-time great. 2018 had a few great series that grappled with how modern technology can affect our lives, but none captured that power quite like this one. Prepare the tissues.
Aesthetically, A Place Further than the Universe doesn't necessarily set itself apart from the crowd all that much. It has pretty typical cute girl character designs, and some of the supporting cast actually looks similar enough that you could reasonably confuse one adult character for another. This isn't a show loaded to the gills with fast action sequences, so the animation is designed to highlight the comedic bits and is never distracting. The illustrations for things like the icebreaker ship and the various parts of the base camp all show a deep affection for the continent and those that travel there. The penguins are also cute. Spoiler Alert: there are no polar bears.
The music is mostly pretty typical, complementary stuff that nicely accommodates the comedy. There's one particularly funny piece of "scary" music that plays during an early comedy scene that I really liked. The opening theme is just average soaring rock music, nothing to write home about in a medium full of absolute classics. The ending is an uplifting poppy bit sung by the four actresses who play the girls. There is, however, one bit of absolutely perfect piece of music to accompany the series' toughest single scene and the ending credits that accompany it. Years from now, fans will still remember those moments in the same way gamers reflect on Aeris' death in Final Fantasy 7 or Konami's total abandonment of the Suikoden franchise (indulge me this once).
No, what sets Place apart from other good and even great slice of life anime series is the broad palette of human emotions that it digs up and lays bare with no sense of irony or cruelty. Each character is struggling with the weight of the past, trying to set a course for a bright and beautiful future yet afraid of the treacherous seas ahead (indulge me again). We all have the capacity to be cruel and cold and thoughtless, not only to others but to ourselves. But we also can be all the best things, to give aid to those in need and to step back when others need their space. We don't always need to forgive, and we can't always simply forget; instead, we must move forward for a better future even when the memories are as bitter as the coldest winds. Let A Place Further than the Universe into your heart, and you may just start to see how.
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