History Anime / APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Penguins (along with tanukis) are one of the many animals featured around the series, whetever they appear as plushies, a movie or even IRL, it doesn't change of how cute they're.

* ComingOfAgeStory: It's the story of four teenage girls, one big trip to Antarctica, and the exciting adventures that help them learn the importance of companionship, independence, and perseverance.

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Penguins (along with {{Tanukis}}) are one of the many animals featured around the series, whetever they appear as plushies, a movie or even IRL, it doesn't change of how cute they're.

* AmbiguouslyAbsentParent: Although the whole plot revolves around Shirase's MissingMom, her dad seemingly never existed in the first place. This could be because he would distract from the AmbiguouslyGay subtext between her mother and Gin; at one point [[HasTwoMommies the two of them are half-jokingly described as Shirase's parents]].

''Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho'' (''A Place Further than the Universe'', or ''Yorimoi'' for short) is a 13-episode original anime by studio ''Creator/{{Madhouse}}'', directed by Ishizuka Atsuko and written by Hanada Jukki, with character designs by Yoshimatsu Takahiro and music by Fujisawa Toshiaki. The series aired in the Winter 2018 season.

* ProductionThrowback: Were you aware of a little anime called ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife''? If not, the constant bombardment of ads within the world of the show will surely clue you into Studio Madhouse's prior work.

* GenkiGirl: Played with Mari. She's a very energetic and expressive girl but has trouble breaking away from her daily routine, however much she'd want to.

At 16 years of age, Mari Tamaki ("Kimari" to her friends) [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife laments that she's been doing nothing with her life so far.]] Every time she's about to try anything risky, she chickens out at the last minute. That is until she has a fated encounter with another girl, Shirase Kobuchizawa, looking for her MissingMom who apparently disappeared in Earth's last frontier — UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}}. Shirase wants to go on an expedition to find out how and why her mom disappeared, which makes her the laughing stock of her classmates, but upon hearing her story, Mari eventually jumps at the call and decides to follow her on that journey. Soon, their efforts attract the attention of the bubbly Hinata Miyake, who is eager to stand out, and Yuzuki Shiraishi, a polite girl from a high-class background. Together, they set sail towards the frozen south.

''Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho'' (''A Place Further than the Universe'', or ''Yorimoi'' for short) is a 13 episode original anime by studio ''Creator/{{Madhouse}}'', directed by Ishidzuka Atsuko and written by Hanada Jukki, with character designs by Yoshimatsu Takahiro and music by Fujisawa Toshiaki. The series aired in the Winter 2018 season.

* AntiClimax: Zig-zagged with Shirase's million yen. She saved it up through many part-time jobs... only to lose it all in a train station. Luckily, Kimari returns it to her, and they become friends. Shirase intended to use the money to pay her way onto an Antarctic expedition team, but they refuse to take it, and she ends up on the team through unrelated means. Later, she uses the money to buy new plane tickets when Hinata loses her passport, but she soon returns the tickets and gets her money back [[spoiler:after realizing she had Hinata's passport in her bag the whole time]]. In the end, [[spoiler:she never spends the money, and decides to leave it in Antarctica for someone else to find. Ultimately, she only made it there because she ''lost'' her envelope of cash, leading to her friendship with Kimari, Hinata, and Yuzuki; the latter convinced her mother/agent to let Shirase and the others come with her]].
* AmazonChaser: One of the younger male crewmembers has a crush on Gin, the female leader of the expedition; he admits to having a habit of falling for strong women who seem like they could protect him. This is mostly played as a joke, and [[spoiler:he never confesses to her, so [[ShaggyDogStory it goes nowhere]]]].

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Yuzuki does this twice in episode 6. The first is when Hinata acts suspicious and doesn't want to reveal that she lost her passport. The second occurs when Shirase also hides something near the end of the episode, [[spoiler:in her case, she forgot she was holding Hinata's passport but had just spent all of her money upgrading their plane tickets so they could reschedule a few days later, rather than a month later in their economy class seats]]. Both girls get creeped out by Yuzuki's monotone voice.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Shirase is forced to come to terms with the fact that her mother is dead, but gains some degree of emotional closure in the process, as well as making dear friends]].

** In Singapore, Kimari buys some durian-flavored ice cream, only to discover that it [[ForeignQueasine tastes horrible]]. Later, after Shirase and Hinata create unnecessary drama over [[spoiler:Hinata's "lost" passport, which Shirase put in her bag and then forgot about]], Kimari and Yuzuki decide to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment punish them]] by making them eat actual durian fruit.

*** In Episode 1 and 2 there's a repeated FunnyBackgroundEvent in which [[spoiler: a couple of flirting students can be seen standing behind Megumi as she talks to Mari in class. In Episode 4, however, the couple seems to be fighting- specifically, the boy is grabbing the girl's arm while she turns away, hinting at Megumi trying to keep Mari from leaving her.]]

** Choleric: Shirase. The headstrong, passionate and hard-working de facto leader of the group.

** Yuzuki, due to being a constantly working child star, never got much opportunity to spend time with girls her age. Hence her initial refusal to go to Antarctica, which meant she'd again be isolated and wouldn't be able to hang out with girls her age.

** Hinata reveals in episode 6 that she dropped out of high school because she got tired of people acting nice around her, but then talking about her secretly behind her back due to her tendency to unintentionally ruin people's plans. She figured it would be easier if she didn't have to spend a lot of time around others. It's later revealed that there's more to Hinata's story than she lets on; [[spoiler:she was a promising member of her track and field team, but her friends threw her under the bus after she was picked to run in a competition over the third year members, letting her be bullied by the third years and spreading rumors about her even though they suggested that she take the offer in the first place.]]

** In Episode 4, Kimari's younger sister Rin listens on during the tense confrontation between Kimari and her mom. [[{{OhCrap}} Sensing the incoming row when their mom says the word "Antarctica"]], [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DURUqXVX0AEYek_.jpg Rin quickly slides the door shut-]] but if you look carefully, a couple shots later [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DURUr2QXcAErfTn.jpg you can see her shadow on the other side of the door, showing she's still eavesdropping.]]

* GenreBusting: The most common consensus regarding the anime's genre categorization. While it undeniably has an atmosphere of a typical "cute-girls-doing-cute-things" (CGDCT) story consisted of [[SchoolgirlSeries a main cast comprised of high school girls]], it is mostly everything a CGDCT story is ''not''. Having a story with relative heavy drama, an aversion to most SliceOfLife scenarios, and a clear-cut purpose that needs to be attained in the story (finding Shirase's mother), for example, renders the anime to be more of an adventure story combined with ComingOfAgeStory story than a traditional SchoolgirlSeries anime within this category.

* HeavySleeper: Kimari can sometimes be hard to wake up to the point that her mother [[WaterTorture 'waterboards']] her occasionally with a damp face towel just to wake her up, and also tosses and turns in her sleep. This came to a head in Singapore, when the girls reveal this to her after she complains about it, and then reveal that they found it out during their camping trip. This ensues a decisive rock-paper-scissors bout between the three just for them to avoid being Kimari's roommate.

* NoAntagonist: Some minor bully characters notwithstanding, nobody in the main cast is openly antagonistic. It's a story about the ''bonds'' between people, after all, not the conflicts. [[spoiler:Megumi]] does perform some questionable actions against the girls at one point, but it's not out of malice and leaves no impact on their plans otherwise.

* PerformanceAnxiety: Shirase is extremely camera shy, and not only does her face turn completely red, she's also unable to act with any excitement while being recorded. Justified, however, in that she's not used to it, though Hinata does poke some fun at her when she later asks why Shirase couldn't act naturally at all on the camera like Yuzuki.
* PrecisionFStrike: In this case, the 'F' is 'fuzaken na' (politely, this is 'stop joking around', but in this context, it is clearly taken to mean something closer to 'fuck off'). Shirase drops one of these [[spoiler: when she slams Hinata's former friends for their disloyalty.]]
* ProductionThrowback: Were you aware of a little anime called ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife''? If not, the constant bombardment of ads within the world of the show will surely clue you in to Studio Madhouse's prior work.

* ShaggyDogStory: The drama surrounding [[spoiler:Hinata losing her passport in Singapore]]. After a frantic search for it, she says [[GoOnWithoutMe Kimari, Shirase, and Yuzuki should just leave without her]], but they refuse to accept this. They can't figure out any solution that doesn't require expensive first-class plane tickets for the four of them, so Shirase spends her million yen to buy some. And then, [[spoiler:it turns out Shirase had the passport in her bag the whole time]]. She gets her money back, and the trip continues as originally planned.

** In episode 10, the girls are warned to stay 5 meters away from penguins. This is based off one of the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty, stating that people should not be closer than 5 meters away from penguins and 15 meters away from seals.
** Syowa Station' particulars are copied in great detail, inside and out.

** Episode 4 ends with Megumi in a café, getting an email from Kimari and noticeably being silent.

** As excited as Kimari is to go to Antarctica, she soon realizes there's a ''lot'' of preparation needed for it to even be an option, plus an extensive training, not to mention her mother is less than enthused and demands that she study much harder to compensate for the school she will inevitably miss. Kimari also suggests that missing so much school may catch up to her when the time comes to take entrance exams.

** The girls' enthusiasm in episode 7 starts to get sapped away when they end up having to help move heavy supplies around, along with not being able to get as much stuff as they thought because of lack of funds. There are also fewer people on the ship than they thought, and some of them even openly question how feasible the trip would be.

* TrueCompanions: The girls gradually turn to this trope as they spend more time with each other, and are willing to put up with a lot of problems they face, such as when Hinata loses her passport in episode 6. [[spoiler:Which then prompts Shirase to use her money to upgrade their seats to business class so they could all leave together, rather than Hinata staying behind to get a new passport, and possibly missing the boat because of limited flights to where they were heading.]]

* WhamEpisode: Episode 12. [[spoiler:With her friends' help, Shirase discovers Takako's old laptop at the inland station, and breaks down completely when she finds that every email she had sent her mother since her disappearance was left unread, confirming that she is indeed gone for good. The episode ends with the four girls [[EverybodyCries crying together]], devastated by the revelation]].

* {{Gainaxing}}: Invoked by Hinata in episode 2 when the girls are in Shinjuku trying to convince a male expedition participant to agree to smuggle them on board the ship to Antarctica.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Shirase does this on Hinata's behalf in episode 11 towards her former trackmates when the three girls try to apologize to her on the live web feed. [[spoiler: She basically tells them to piss off for hurting her friend by not sticking up for her when she needed it the most, and that she's moved on with her life, and that they can live with the shame of hurting her feelings for the rest of their lives.]] Hinata breaks down in a rare CryCute moment as Kimari and Yuzuki back Shirase up.

* CryCute:
** Yuzuki has a moment of this when the other girls arrive at her hotel room and offer to hang out with her in Tokyo for the day due to a job she had there. Up until that point, any girls that she tried to befriend only seemed interested in her fame, rather than her personally.
** Kimari's family does this on the day she leaves for the trip, as well as Megumi.

* NoAntagonist: Some minor bully characters notwithstanding, nobody in the main cast is openly antagonistic. It's a story about the ''bonds'' between people, after all, not the conflicts.

* ComingOfAgeStory: It's the story of four teenage girls, one big trip to Antarctica, and the exciting adventures that help teach them the importance of companionship, independence, and perseverance.

* WhamEpisode: Episode 12. [[spoiler:With her friends' help, Shirase discovers Takako's old laptop at the inland station, and breaks down completely when she finds that every email she had sent her mother since her disappearance was left unread, confirming that she is indeed gone for good. The episode ends with the four girls CryingTogether, devastated by the revelation]].

* WhamEpisode: Episode 12. [[spoiler:With her friends' help, Shirase discovers Takako's old laptop at the inland station, and breaks down completely when she finds that over a ''thousand'' of the emails she sent her mother were left unread, confirming that she is indeed gone for good. The episode ends with the four girls CryingTogether, devastated by the revelation]].

* WhamEpisode: Episode 12. [[spoiler:With her friends' help, Shirase discovers Takako's old laptop at the inland station, and breaks down completely when she finds that over a ''thousand'' of her emails were left unread, confirming that her mother is gone for good. The episode ends with the four girls CryingTogether, devastated by the revelation]].

* ComingOfAgeStory: It's the story of four teenage girls, one big trip to Antarctica, and the exciting adventures that help teach them the importance of companionship, independence, and acceptance.

** Many, ''many'' shots of the Antactic landscape are put on full display in the season's second half. No one would blame you for wanting to go there yourself after watching this show.

* SceneryPorn: Episode 6, which features Singapore in [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ja08CBs63TPC5uPwB4afT9peFsol033mGBaMFZH07r0/edit beautifully rendered detail]].

** When Kimari packs for the trip, her sister stops her from bringing a clutter of unneccesary items, including several translation books and a potato peeler. During the expedition, Yumiko assigns the four girls to kitchen duty; specifically, potato peeling.