Anime / A Place Further than the Universe

To boldly go where no cute anime girl has gone before.

"Water collects into stagnant pools. I've always loved watching it spill out all at once. Breaking free, liberated, rushing out. The energy stored up during its stagnation bursts forth. Everything springs into action!"

— Mari

At 16 years of age, Mari Tamaki ("Kimari" to her friends) 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 Missing Mom who apparently disappeared in Earth's last frontier — Antarctica. Shirase wants to go on an expedition to find out how and why her mom disappeared, which makes her the laughingstock 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.

A Place Further than the Universe (Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho, or Yorimoi for short) is a 13-episode original anime by studio 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.

Crunchyroll is streaming the anime for folks worldwide except Asia.

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Tropes found in the series

• All Just a Dream: Yuzuki is awakened in her hotel room during episode 3 by Kimari, Hinata, and Shirase climbing up to her room via a ladder. Though it's very windy outside, she takes Kimari's hand, and they all start falling down after the wind knocks them off-balance. Then it turns out to have been a dream, and in the real world, the three girls do the much more sensible thing and knock on her door.
• Anti-Climax: Zig-zagged with Shirase's million yen. She saved it up through many part-time jobs... only to lose it all at 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 after realizing she had Hinata's passport in her bag the whole time. In the end, 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.
• Amazon Chaser: 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 he never confesses to her, so it goes nowhere.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Although the whole plot revolves around Shirase's Missing Mom, her dad seemingly never existed in the first place. This could be because he would distract from the Ambiguously Gay subtext between her mother and Gin; at one point the two of them are half-jokingly described as Shirase's parents.
• Bear Hug: Yuzuki gets one from Kimari in episode 3 after she reveals her Friendless Background story. She's a bit surprised by it at first, but Kimari tells her she just suddenly felt like hugging her. This moment helps to convince Yuzuki that the other girls actually want to hang out with her because they like her, rather than because they just want to hang out with a famous celebrity. She later does the same thing to Megumi, who was upset that she wouldn't have Kimari relying on her anymore, so spread rumors in an attempt to keep her from leaving.
• Beware the Nice Ones: 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, 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.
• Bittersweet Ending: 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.
• Bland-Name Product: Bottles of "Kola-Coca" appear on the shelves of the store in Episode 2.
• Boring Return Journey: The trials and tribulations of making it to Antarctica take up most of the series, with figuring out how to get there and the various steps of the journey each taking several episodes. The trip back is mostly skipped, taking up only a small part of the finale.
• Brick Joke:
  • While trying to describe to Megumi the person she saw drop the envelope of money, Kimari mentions that she "smelled nice." Later, after Kimari tracks down Shirase, there's a brief scene of Megumi sniffing a girl with Shirase-style hair, while her friend watches in confusion.
  • When Kimari packs for the trip, her sister stops her from bringing a clutter of unnecessary items, including several translation books and a potato peeler. During the expedition, Yumiko assigns the four girls to kitchen duty; specifically, potato peeling.
    Kimari: This is why I wanted to bring a peeler! Stupid Rin!
  • In Singapore, Kimari buys some durian-flavored ice cream, only to discover that it tastes horrible. Later, after Shirase and Hinata create unnecessary drama over Hinata's "lost" passport, which Shirase put in her bag and then forgot about, Kimari and Yuzuki decide to punish them by making them eat actual durian fruit.
  • Kimari stumbles upon a Compensated Dating ad while looking for part-time jobs to earn money for the trip; she doesn't realize it involves much more than just hanging out with boys. Megumi takes it away from her. Later, Shirase confidently shows the exact same ad to Kimari, who then has to explain (offscreen) what Megumi told her (also offscreen). Shirase immediately regrets her suggestion.
• Call to Adventure: Mari has been postponing her answer to the call for years, but Shirase's call ends up being too appealing to refuse.
• The Chase: One happens in episode 2 when Shirase tries to run away with Kimari and Hinata from some older women going on the Antarctic expedition who have tried to tell her not to go before. At first, Kimari isn't quite sure why they're running but later admits that she had fun running around evading the two older ladies.
• Chucking Chalk: When talking about their captain for the expedition, Hinata notes that she might throw chalk at you if you nod off during her lecture.
• Club Stub: Shirase apparently tried to start an "Antarctica Club" with herself as the only member.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All four of the main girls wear outfits that match their color regularly, but especially their arctic winter coats:
  • Kimari: Orange.
  • Shirase: Red.
  • Hinata: Green.
  • Yuzuki: Blue.
• Coming of Age Story: 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. It is lampshaded in episode 13

  Honami:" Those high school girls were so cute at the start.

• Contrived Coincidence: Despite trying to earn enough money to fund their own expenses for the Antarctica trip, it's very unlikely Shirase, Kimari, and Hinata are able to go, due to a past expedition that struggled with their finances and other hardships during the trip. The two older women who are part of the civilian expedition even tell them so in episode 2. Naturally, a girl around their age also happens to be going, though in her case it's part of her job as a celebrity and she really doesn't want to at first. Once they befriend her, Yuzuki tells her agent, who is also her mother, that she'll only go on the condition that the other girls get to go with her.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In Singapore, after Shirase realizes that she had Hinata's passport in her bag all along and that they almost wasted their million yen to buy new plane tickets, both of them are forced to eat durian, an extremely smelly fruit with a daunting taste. Shirase ends up kinda liking it.
• Cuteness Proximity: The normally-stoic Shirase completely loses her mind when in the presence of penguins. Gin has more self-control but shares the same weakness. The two of them originally bonded over watching a TV show about penguins.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each of the girls gets at least one episode that focuses heavily on them, and uncovers more of their backstory and why they wanted to go to Antarctica or not, in Yuzuki's case.
• The Determinator: Can be applied to (almost) everyone going on the Antarctic trip. In Kimari and Hinata's case, it's mostly to experience something new and unique, while for Shirase it's to find her Missing Mom. The older crew who went on the previous trip also want to make it again regardless of how little of a budget and resources they have to work with. The main exception is Yuzuki, who didn't want to go at first, only changing her mind when she made friends with the more-enthusiastic other protagonists.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme is performed by the voice actresses of the four main characters. The insert songs, as heard in many of the episodes, are performed by the same voice actresses, as well.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In episode 6, after Hinata tells Shirase she should go on with the others when she loses her passport and likely would miss any flights that would still make it to the boat, she also reveals that she hated people acting nice around her, but secretly talked about her behind her back. She tells Shirase not to worry about it because she realizes that Shirase's goal was to reach Antarctica at all costs, and didn't want to hamper it. Shirase pulls a What the Hell, Hero? moment on her. The next day, when their economy class seats would take a month to reschedule, she pulls her money out and upgrades them to a business class so the four could leave together. She then tells Hinata her new goal is for all four of them to go together.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Hinata makes a brief appearance in the first episode shown as an unnamed convenience store clerk before being properly introduced in the second episode.
  • A girl is focused on very briefly when Shirase tries to have the other girls crash an expedition meeting with her before they're chased off by two women on the expedition. In the next episode, she introduces herself and mentions that she found out about Shirase from the two women and offers Shirase her spot on the expedition.
  • Pretty much all of the adult supporting cast show up at least once during the second half of the opening credits, though most of them didn't make their first appearance in the show proper until Episode 7.
• Everybody Cries: During episode 12, Shirase completely and fully breaks down seeing the thousand emails she sent her mother are unread, giving her the emotional closure knowing that her mother is gone; Kimari, Hinata, and Yuzuki all cry with her outside the room. Along with most of the audience.
• Face Doodling: In Episode 8, after a strenuous exercise session, Yuzuki finds herself unable to lift her arms to scratch her itchy nose. Upon discovering this, Hinata smirks, prompting a response from Yuzuki that she will kill Hinata if the latter does anything to her. After Yuzuki falls asleep, Hinata promptly scribbles the threat onto Yuzuki's forehead.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Kimari's mother is understandably against her going to Antarctica due to the dangers she faces there. Nevertheless, Kimari persists because she's always wanted to take a trip somewhere, but until recently didn't have the courage to follow through on it. Though she is educated on the potential hazards of such a trip, it still has a mystical feel to it for her and is certainly something few people have done, hence her eagerness.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Episode 5's reveal of Megumi's unwillingness to let Mari go and her subtle attempts to goad her into either staying or retaliating against her had actually been cleverly foreshadowed in several ways:
    • In Episode 1, two older girls try to goad Shirase into giving up some of her saved money. In Episode 4, Kimari's mom reveals "a neighbor" had told her about Mari's plan to go to Antarctica. Megumi confesses to being the one to tell them.
    • In Episodes 1 and 2, there's a repeated Funny Background Event in which 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.
    • In Episode 4 the "camera" lingers on a silent shot of Megumi after Mari leaves, notably framing her next to Mari's empty desk.
    • The credits of Episode 1 shows Megumi in a cafe laughing at a picture Mari sent her. In The Stinger for Episode 4, Megumi is alone at that same cafe, notably silent as she looks at another picture sent by Mari before she puts her phone down. This eventually turns out to be Fauxshadowing—Megumi attempts to stage a "friend breakup" with Mari, after revealing that she spread the unpleasant rumors about her, but Mari forgives Megumi and insists they have to remain friends.
  • Hinata being a former track team runner wasn't explicitly stated until Episode 11, but her talent for running was shown all the way back in Episode 2 during the chase scene. Not only does Kimari flat-out says she's a fast runner, but Hinata has a more proper running stance (most notable in the way she pumps her arms) compared to Kimari and Shirase's Girly Run. You can also see a beat-up pair of running shoes in her closet in Episode 5, as the girls are preparing to set out.
  • Yuzuki's fear of heights had technically been foreshadowed since the very beginning of the series since you can clearly see her cowering as far away from the door as possible in the helicopter shot in the opening sequence.
  • Shirase is seen repeatedly creating a 'Dear Mom' email on her phone, with the payoff in episode 12.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The main girls.
  • Phlegmatic: Kimari. Nice and friendly, but lacks assertiveness and needs to follow others to do anything exciting.
  • Choleric: Shirase. The headstrong, passionate, and hard-working de facto leader of the group.
  • Sanguine: Hinata. Easygoing and cheerful, yet impulsive and very stubborn.
  • Melancholic: Yuzuki. The serious and lonely idol girl who even after joining the group, acts like a stoic Deadpan Snarker.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The second half of the opening has several of them. One of the more noteworthy is a shot of the girls in midair during a jump with the setting sun as a backdrop, their silhouettes spelling Yorimoi in katakana.
  • In Episode 1, as Shirase tells Kimari about how everyone she knows tried to discourage her from going to Antarctica, you can see that Shirase submitted a form for a club that would go to Antarctica, with herself as the president, vice president and both of the other required founding members.
• Friendless Background:
  • Yuzuki, due to being a constantly working child star, never got many opportunities to spend time with girls her age. Hence her initial refusal to go to Antarctica, meant she'd again be isolated and wouldn't be able to hang out with girls her age.
  • Shirase intentionally acts coldly towards others largely because they kept mocking her attempt to go to Antarctica.
  • 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 in secret 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; 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.
• Funny Background Event:
  • In the opening sequence, the girls stage a forced perspective shot where Kimari pretends to eat the other three girls. As she flashes a peace sign at the camera, Shirase sticks her head up, and she's quickly taken back down by the other two girls lest she ruins the joke.
  • During the helicopter flyover in the opening sequence, one of the personnel on the ground falls over while excitedly waving back at the girls aboard the craft.
  • In the first part of Episode 2, two students can be seen having a moment behind Megumi. Notably, at the exact moment when Mari mentions a possible job that involves "talking to boys and goes on walks with them and stuff," the girl touches the boy's hand, causing him to blush noticeably.
  • In Episode 4, Kimari's younger sister Rin listens on during the tense confrontation between Kimari and her mom. Sensing the incoming row when their mom says the word "Antarctica", Rin quickly slides the door shut-◊ but if you look carefully, a couple of shots later you can see her shadow on the other side of the door, showing she's still eavesdropping.◊
  • In episode 7, Shirase is seen playing with a penguin plushie when the girls are in their room. Her usual stern demeanor then gives way to a smile on her face as she plays with it. Later on in the same episode, her extreme stage fright while trying to talk on camera causes the other girls to slap a sheet of paper on her with the word "worthless" on her face while Yuzuki does the actual presentation. The tape on the paper is also stubborn, causing Shirase to accidentally pull a tiny bit of her hair out as well.
• Genki Girl:
  • 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.
  • Also played with Hinata, who is a hyperactive high school dropout, but she's been studying hard on her own time so that she doesn't fall behind academically.
• Genre-Busting: 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 consisting of a main cast comprised of high school girls, it is mostly everything a CGDCT story is not. Having a story with a relatively heavy drama, an aversion to most Slice of Life scenarios, and a clear-cut purpose that needs to be attained in the story (finding Shirase's mother), for example, renders the anime to more of an adventure story combined with Coming of Age Story story than a traditional Schoolgirl Series anime within this category.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In episode 5, Megumi warns Kimari that students were talking behind her back and spreading rumors about underhanded things she did to make the trip happen, such as stealing money from her job to help her pay for it. On the morning Kimari was supposed to head out, Megumi says she's "breaking up" with her. She then breaks down and says she's the one who spread the rumors, in the hopes that Kimari would stay rather than go. However, Kimari refuses to accept the breakup, and still considers Megumi to be her best friend.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Spite is not always a bad thing, and it can even be an effective motivator. Shirase's overt pettiness towards everyone who doubted and mocked her is treated as completely reasonable, and at times even inspiring. Similarly, Hinata not wanting to forgive her former clubmates is portrayed as completely justified, and Shirase telling them to piss off is a Moment of Awesome.
• Heavy Sleeper: Kimari can sometimes be hard to wake up to the point that her mother '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 incites a decisive rock-paper-scissors bout between the three just for them to avoid being Kimari's roommate.
• Hope Spot: After Kimari's mother finds out about the Antarctic trip, she's understandably angry, especially because she was completely unaware of it. Kimari spots her father at the front door as she runs away, and tries to get his support. But after seeing his wife's angry face, he quietly closes the door and holds it shut, leaving Kimari to her fate.
• Important Haircut: Shirase does this in the final episode of the series, symbolizing a new phase in her life after finally getting closure about her mother. She also happens to look a lot more like her mother with short hair.
• Improbably Female Cast: The cast is entirely made of high school girls and women, even though you'd expect to see at least a few guys in a show about an expedition to Antarctica. A few men are seen on the trip, but their roles are rather insignificant compared to the women. Noticeably the vast majority of the background characters working in the expedition team are male, but the focus is put on the female high school members and seniors.
• Inelegant Blubbering: During the beginning of episode one, Kimari ends up bawling her eyes out after finding her diary and the stuff she couldn't do during her high school days in the first year. Later at episode 12, after Shirase finds the laptop of her mother and see through the many unread emails, she began crying tears of regret, knowing that her mother was already gone from this world. Kimari, Yuzuki and Hinata also cried due to hearing Shirase's crying.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Shirase doesn't find her mother in Antarctica, though she does find her long-abandoned laptop, providing some closure. The main value of the trip (for all of them) was in making friends and going on an adventure together.
• It Tastes Like Feet: The durian ice cream Kimari buys in episode 6. Both she and Shirase end up running off to find a suitable place to spit it out, while Hinata wisely rejects it when she smells it before eating it. Yuzuki then says she tried to warn her about buying it in the first place. Hinata and Shirase are later forced to eat one after all the trouble they caused due to Hinata losing her passport, and Shirase forgetting that she had it in her purse, then trying to hide those from Yuzuki.
• Iyashikei: Subverted. With its all-girl cast and cutesy promo art, it's easy to mistake it for this genre, especially when it aired in the same season as Laid-Back Camp (they even have similar abbreviated titles, "Yorimoi" and "Yurucamp" respectively), but it's actually a relatively drama-heavy Coming of Age Story.
• Jumped at the Call: Kimari at first is too scared to skip school and go on a trip to a nearby city. But when Shirase starts telling her about Antarctica, she immediately jumps at the opportunity and overcomes various hurdles in order to make it happen.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Near the end of the final episode, is the message "The real thing is ten thousand times more beautiful" concerning the Aurora Australis to Shirase from her mother, or is it to the audience from the writer? Shortly after this, the narration by the protagonists about the life-experience value of going on adventures has a similar quality; and if you look closely while this is happening, you can spot the anime's promo art—the image for this page—posing as a storefront ad for Yuzuki's documentary of their trip.
• Missing Mom: Shirase's mother was on the expedition 3 years prior, and never made it home, hence her motivation to go to Antarctica. Many of the original crew who promised to go on the next trip also showed up despite the hardships. Episode 7 strongly hints that this mission is to find Shirase's mother, who likely died on the last expedition, and give her a proper burial.
• Mysterious Antarctica: Mari's initial plan was to go on a journey far away. And how much farther away can you get than the South Pole?
• National Animal Stereotypes: The opening and ending themes contain shots of the four main characters as penguins.
• No Antagonist: 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. 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.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: A slight variation of this is used by Hinata in episode 2. When one of the ladies chasing her passes by some women sitting at a table, she's seen sitting motionless with two drunken women as if she's with their group. However, her cover is quickly blown and she starts running away. The two drunken women tell her goodbye as she runs away, unaware of what was going on.
• Performance Anxiety: Shirase is extremely camera shy, and not only does her face turn completely red, but 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.
• Precision F-Strike: In this case, the 'F' is 'fuzakenna/ふざけんな' (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 when she slams Hinata's former friends for their disloyalty.
• Production Throwback: Were you aware of a little anime called No Game No Life? If not, the constant bombardment of ads within the world of the show will surely clue you into Studio Madhouse's prior work.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: 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. 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 as Kimari and Yuzuki back Shirase up.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: Hinata, Yuzuki, and Shirase do this in episode 6 to determine which one of them will have to sleep in the same bed as Kimari, who tosses and turns in her sleep. Yuzuki loses, and later when she tries to shift Kimari to one side of the bed, the latter ends up turning back and occupying the middle. Yuzuki then comments that she'll kill her in a half-joking, half-serious tone.
• Running Gag:
  • Shirase and her love of penguins.
  • Shirase again and her over-the-top anxiousness whenever she has to play a role in one of Yuzuki's videos. Eventually has a dramatic purpose when she overcomes her camera-shyness for Hinata's sake, angrily lecturing the latter's former trackmates for their ostracization of her.
  • Hinata quoting herself.
• Scenery Porn:
  • Episode 6, which features Singapore in beautifully rendered detail.
  • Many, many shots of the Antarctic 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.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The drama surrounding Hinata losing her passport in Singapore. After a frantic search for it, she says 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, 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.
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point, one of the girls makes a reference to a crashed UFO in Antarctica.
  • In episode 6, Shirase appears to be watching March of the Penguins on the plane.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The girl's trip to Singapore in episode 6 accurately highlights several of the landmarks and attractions, right down to the appearance of the food served.
  • In episode 10, the girls are warned to stay 5 meters away from penguins. This is based on 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's particulars are copied in great detail, inside and out.
• Sleep Cute: Kimari and Shirase nod off together on the train at the end of Episode 1.
• Sneeze Cut: When Kimari blames her sister Rin for not being able to bring along a potato peeler, a quick shot of her is seen back home sneezing.
• Stage Mom: Yuzuki's mother, who is also her agent at her talent agency. She's very strict with making sure Yuzuki does as much as possible to become a famous celebrity. When Yuzuki continues to refuse to go on the Antarctic expedition, her mom makes a deal with Shirase that if they can convince her to go, she would use her influence to try to get them onboard as well. Fortunately for her, once they befriend Yuzuki, she tells her mother the only way she'll go is if the others can as well.
• The Stinger: Several episodes end with a brief scene that foreshadows what will come in the next episode, instead of a usual trailer that tells what will happen next time.
  • Episode 1 ends with a brief shot of Hinata at her convenience store job, looking at Antarctica on a globe.
  • Episode 4 ends with Megumi in a cafe, then getting an email from Kimari and noticeably being silent.
  • Episode 8 ends with Gin bringing flowers for someone, presumably Takako.
  • Episode 9 ends with an email arriving from Yuzuki's mother.
  • Episode 10 ends with a list of the people calling in for New Year's. The viewer's heard of most of them before... with the exception of Hinata's "friends."
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • 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 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.
  • When the girls are on a layover in Singapore during episode 6, Kimari says she wants to see the famed Merlion statue. When they get to see it up close, however, they end up being disappointed that it's not as disappointing as they had hoped it'd be.
  • 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 a 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.
  • In episode 8, the girls get seasick, and spend the next few days trying hard not to throw up. They didn't realize the ship rocking back and forth would cause them to feel this nauseous once the seasickness medicine wears off.
  • One thing they hope to see in Antarctica is the aurora. Unfortunately, auroras only appear at night, and their visit happens during the "summer," when the sun stays up almost continuously. They do get to see one on the way back, though, when their ship travels far enough from the south pole for the sun to set.
  • In arguably the most tragic example of this trope in the series, it's immediately apparent that even with enough determination, Takako isn't going to survive the sudden and harsh blizzard that ensues when she's on her way to her laptop to read Shirase's emails. Combined with the confusion during and after the blizzard and the near impossibility to determine her last location during her trek, her body will probably never be found either.
• Tanuki: They tend to pop up quite a bit in the first five episodes. The characters frequently visit a shrine that has a lot of tanuki statues, and around the city, there are advertisements with tanuki-themed mascots.
• Tempting Fate: Yuzuki is so exhausted from exercising in episode 8 that she can't even lift her arm to scratch her itchy nose. She then tells the others not to do anything funny or she would kill them. Hinata then has a smirk, and the words "I will kill you" is written on Yuzuki's forehead. In the next scene, Yuzuki scrubs her forehead really hard to get the marker off.
• Title Drop: The anime's title comes from a book written by Shirase's mother.
• Title-Only Opening: In Episode 12, the credits are superimposed before the Episode Title Card instead of using the standard opening sequence since it would clash with the drama-heavy mood of the episode.
• True Companions: 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. 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.
• Two Decades Behind: In episode 5, it's revealed that Megumi lent Kimari her video game console....an original PlayStation that's almost a decade older than she herself is.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: The girls get seasick in episode 8 after their seasickness medicine wears off. They then spend much of the rest of the episode throwing up or trying to hold it in as best as they can. Even just talking about eating food makes them nauseous.
• Wham Episode: Episode 12. 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 crying together, devastated by the revelation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Megumi does this towards Kimari at the end of episode 5, telling her about the origins of the rumors, along with other attempts to sabotage her plans. She then berates herself because she secretly wanted Kimari to chicken out from going anywhere yet again, and to be relied on by her again like she's always done.

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