Have you ever been thinking to do something big, but were hesitant to begin or afraid of failure along the way? Did you ever been chasing something better, but were ridiculed by anyone around you? Did you ever feel that the relationship with your friends seemed alright, but they spoke ill of you behind your back? Or were you sure you had been doing anything worthy to declare that you are person A or person B’s friend? If you are not sure how to respond to all of above questions, maybe [in my opinion] the best anime of Winter 2018 below will help you to explain.
Sora yori mo Tooi Basho, or A Place Further Than the Universe, or Yorimoi, tells the adventure of four high school girls to a place really far away from civilization, the Antarctica. From the first time they did not know each other to the time their daily lives in Antarctica ended, everything was written within one cour or 13 episodes.
Is that weird enough if we heard that some high school girls was suddenly “thrown” to Antarctica? Well, this is anime so of course not.
No, not because it belongs to a certain medium called anime, but maybe the reason is that the premise seems out of the question and silly for many people in general. But, I certainly agree that the team behind Yorimoi’s production really knew what they should do and transformed the seemingly dubious theme to a very high quality show.
The main casts are Yorimoi keys to bring realistic and humane storyline. Four main girls’ characteristics were not molded from any archetypes commonly found in anime such as Tsundere, Kuudere etc. Also, they were not confined into boundaries that always define protagonists as good ones and antagonists as bad ones. They just resemble people we find in our everyday lives, with their own strengths, abilities, weaknesses and faults.
We were introduced with Kimari at the beginning of narrative, one who always has big dreams written in her diary, but also always hesitates to do things because of the fear of unexpected events. And then Shirase appeared, a high school girl with colder and more ambitious personality compared to her peers, but in reality is awkward to speak in front of large audience. The other is Hinata, which although seems very energetic and positive, she actually has distressing past during the school time. And the last of four is Yuzuki, a successful young idol with unsuccessful friendship moments caused by her tight schedule.
Yorimoi is not just about a journey to Antarctica, but also a journey to change themselves into better people and how they break through their comfort zones. Yorimoi is a story of how Kimari left her seemingly boring youth, how Shirase opened up to different people, how Hinata freed herself from the dark past, and how Yuzu understood the meaning of friendship. Every problem they faced was not only resolved by their own, but because they did it together.
The other casts such as Gin and Kanae gave catalysts to the development of the main girls, especially Shirase, the cause of why the premise existed in the first place, to find her lost mother during the Antarctic expedition three years ago. Another notable cast is Megumi, Kimari’s childhood friend, which gave the background of why Kimari is depicted as a fickle and dependent person, though she was not very relevant to the main plot and somehow I dislike how her character was written.
If you paid enough attention, Yorimoi delivered a good amount of subtle hints and details that could bring realistic and emotional reaction to its audiences. There are few points I could observe, but maybe I have not found some of the details yet. *SPOILER ALERT* Episode 1 to 4 briefly showed the change of Megumi’s attitude towards Kimari until eventually the conflict between them was resolved in Episode 5. Third episode gave a small foreshadowing of how Yuzu’s story in Episode 10 ended [ne~]. There are small details in episode 2, 5 and 6 which complemented Hinata’s background shown in episode 11. *END OF SPOILERS*
Finally, here is the one thing that made Yorimoi stood out in my opinion. *SPOILER ALERT* Before episode 12 was aired, IIRC Shirase was seen many times sending e-mail to her mom from episode 1 to 6. I barely missed the moments until the time I rewatched it. Nevertheless, without the details, episode 12 had presented something heartbreaking for both Shirase and me as a viewer, because the hope that Takako, Shirase’s mother, was still alive vanished completely. *END OF SPOILERS* And, I admit that it was my second experience when I shed tears just for a thing called anime [the first was Assassination Classroom S2 episode 24].
Every positive value that created Yorimoi was almost nonexistent without the director’s role, Atsuko Ishizuka, the one who was also involved in Sakurasou, another good anime in my opinion. I didn’t need to question Madhouse ability to provide smooth animation and photographic-esque art style when they showed Shinjuku, Singapore and Antarctica itself. The use of insert songs was suitable with the representing moments even though they seemingly repeated every two episodes. Thumbs up also for the top-tier voice actors i.e. Inori Minase, Kana Hanazawa, Yuka Iguchi, and Saori Hayami that really brought the interactions between four girls lively and natural. They also sang the ending theme “Koko Kara, Koko Kara” which I don’t know how many times I have listened to again and again.
Sora yori mo Tooi Basho is an inspirational story about the meaning of youth, friendship and journey to the more positive way of life. It sounded like that is just for teenager or young adult, but is actually appropriate for all ages or family show because there is [almost] no fan services, sexual undertone or over-the-top comedies. With a simple yet silly premise, the writer could bring a narrative which in my opinion is one of the best during the entire time I have enjoyed fictional works on different media such as books, novels, magazines, western movies, anime etc. Though I don’t really wish there will be a Season 2 since I think every conflict this show had was resolved, I do pretty much hope that they create an OVA sequel about the lives after the girls landed in Japan, or a prequel containing the journey of Takako, Gin and Kanae three years ago. I have no doubt to label Yorimoi as one of the best 2018 anime, maybe together with My Hero Academia S3 and Steins;Gate 0.