A Place Further Than the Universe—I love friendships

So the really funny thing about being a Gemini is that literally we start things, and then sometimes, we never finish them…. whats new? I decided once again, to put my Crunchyroll account to good use. I’m also taking a short break from some of the anime I have been watching because I don’t know, I guess I’m in the mood to try something new and unheard of (to me).

Girl what is goin on with you????

Not gonna lie, these past couple of weeks have been a little hard. Weather changes really impact my mood, and I’m definitely feeling a depression episode creeping up on me. My job is moving at a very slow rate right now, as well and being indoors. Working from home seems nice at first, but it’s starting to slowly get to me.

My work life is very unstructured right now, and I’ve basically been playing this waiting game of when I can start actually doing my job. *Update: at the time when I started writing this, my work life was moving a bit slow. Now it’s picked up, I’ve had to join a lot of class zoom sessions, assess some little humans, and I have found that during my free time, I just want to sleep. The toll of having to look at a screen for so long each day is very taxing and it’s starting to physically impact my already failing eyesight*

Anyways, that was just a small update on my life in this pandemic right now. As I was saying, I was scrolling through Crunchyroll, looking up new shows and stumbled across this one, A Place Further Than the Universe. It peaked my interest just from the title. If I could literally leave this planet without dying, I really would.

The show follows the story of 4 girls who are friends, making a journey to Antarctica. I’m not kidding, that is the entire storyline. It is a drama with lots of comedy thrown in, but sad moments to counter it as well. While I am not a fan of drama’s at all, I found myself really enjoying the show. It follows a story of friendships, grief, acceptance, harsh realities, and the extreme climate of Antartica! Classical drama aspects I suppose? I actually cried at certain moments, because they were just so heartwarming. I really am a sucker for genuine friendships. It’s a fairly short show, although it did take me a while to finish because of work.

Meet the girls!

We first meet Kimari. She’s a second year high schooler, who wishes to make the most of her youth. I found her to be my favorite character, from literally the very first episode. She has a very child-like nature, which I could not relate to, but she had her mature moments, and she was okay with showing her vulnerability to her friends. Kimari wants to go on a journey without a plan. And to essentially, live her best life while she is still young. However, she is a slight over-thinker. While Kimari wishes to explore her youth and live life as best as she can, new things scare her. She often talks herself out of doing things she’s never done before. And when she does that, she tends to have those “what if” questions or feelings of regret, for not doing something she’s really wanted to do.

This reminded me of myself so much, because I have that same issue. I’m still working on it, but sometimes I too, can talk myself out of doing something I really want to do. Granted I am only 23 years old, there’s so much I wish to still do in this life, while I’m still here. I wanna travel to another country and try new foods, or even drive to a different state. The things that have stopped me most of the time, from doing things when I was in my earlier years of college, was mostly doing it alone.

It’s not so much as doing something alone, but rather being secretly judged for it. I am a loner. I have been since I was in highschool. It was very hard for me to make friends, so I stopped trying. Now in my early 20’s, I am pretty okay with doing things by myself. In fact, I prefer it. But my earlier college years were difficult. I found myself being embarrassed to sit in the cafe alone during lunch rush, or dinner on campus, because I didn’t want people to think I was a loser.

There were times where I refused to go to campus events by myself. I was afraid to sit on the yard by myself. It was bad. It probably wasn’t until my second year, I broke out of that habit. I found myself being able to enjoy what I was doing, once I realized that no one probably even cares that I’m doing it by myself. It’s okay to do things by yourself.

And while I do enjoy doing things by myself 90% of the time, I would be a liar to say some of my best college experiences, weren’t from being around people I care about. I remember junior year, me and two of my step sisters (I stepped for my freshmen dorm and university at one point) spent literally three days in my small college apartment room, watching movies, scrolling twitter, and eating leftover spaghetti I had made until payday. Nothing screams broke college kid, like eating spaghetti three days in a row. And while nothing is worse than waiting for payday, I wasn’t as miserable cuz I had my girls right beside me getting me through it. Beauty in the struggle I guess?

Another time, I had pulled an all nighter writing a research paper in the computer lab. My entire computer shut down unexpectedly, and the tech support guy told me it was gone. I remember one of my step sisters had been there with me. And I recall putting my head down on the desk, then looking at her and us busting out laughing. It was honestly laugh or cry at that moment, and I was choosing to laugh. but I had her there with me. I managed to save my paper, and we literally slept in the ilab until our 9am class. It’s things like that, that really made me appreciate having friends around be there for you. And that’s why I really liked this show, because these girls despite coming from different backgrounds came together through one common interest, and supported each other.

Shirase

The next character we meet is Shirase. A very strong headed girl, who has a dream to go to Antarctica, so that she may find her missing mother. Shirase gets picked on a lot, because she is majorly obsessed with all things Antarctica. She doesn’t care what others think of her however. This draws Kimari-chan to her. While Shirase seems like this head strong girl, she’s actually not as strong-willed as we think, and is called out on her cowardice by her friends quite often. When I look at Shirase-chan she also reminds me of myself a little.

She has this wall up, due to people not believing in her, to get to Antarctica despite all her efforts. She was talked about to no ends, and even bullied. It would stand to reason, why she wasn’t willing to let people in. She really wasn’t even trying to give Kimari-chan a chance at first, because Shirase thought she was all talk. And that’s understandable. When you’re used to people talking about you, or letting you down constantly, or even demeaning you, it’s easy to build this tough girl exterior to keep people away. And that’s how I am.

Shirase is described as slightly rude to others. That’s how I’m often first described by people who do not know me very well. I am not outwardly rude, but I do make a habit of trying to beat people to the punch, before they try to insult me. Kind of like an “I get you before you get me” type of thing. I’m working on it. I’ve also got a bit of a tough girl exterior as well, and often times, I do not let others get to know me. Once you do get to know me though, I’m actually not so bad!

As the story progressed we see Shirase start to unthaw (no pun intended). While she does have this mean girl demeanor, she’s actually a very nice girl with a good heart. She seems shy in certain situations, but she will ride for her friends, and stand up for them when she needs to. And I liked that a lot about her!

Hinata

The next character introduced is Hinata. She’s a quirky girl, working at a convenience store. One day she overhears Shirase and Kimari talking about Antarctica, and wants to join them on their journey, and so they become a trio! Hinata was a very fun addition to the group! She had a very positive nature about her, always lifting the girls up. She also pushed each girl out of their comfort zone. At times, she imparted “wisdom” to the group, despite being the same age as the other girls.

But even the most positive people, can have personal problems as well. We learn that she left school after being sorta bullied by her track teammates. She doesn’t like for people to make accommodations for her screw-ups. Hinata is very accepting of her mess-ups, and has a strong “can do” attitude when facing failure. I enjoyed her presence in the group, and I think no friend group is complete without at least one friend who is always positive, and willing to motivate you to do new things.

Yuzuki

The last girl of the group is Yuzuki, or “Yuzu” as Hinata calls her. She is a year younger than all of the girls, and is a very popular Japanese teen actress. She’s quite reserved due to her upbringing, and has an even bigger chip on her shoulder, than Shirase. Yuzu unfortunately learned early on, that girls only wanted to be her friend for status, and not for genuine reasons. Because of this, she has had a hard time making friends. When she meets the three girls, she is initially envious that they are so close. She is shocked to learn that Shirase, Kimari, and Hinata have only just met each other.

Yuzu has no desire to go to Antarctica at first, to film a show, but suddenly has a change of heart, proclaiming she will only go if the three girls can come with her. Throughout their journey and even while in Antarctica, Yuzu struggles with the concept of what a friendship is, and doesn’t consider the others her friends because no one has asked her to be their friend.

This at first hurts Kimari’s feelings, because to her, no length of time should determine friendship, but rather feelings should. Yuzu eventually understands, and realizes that the other girls are indeed her friends, and that they will stay friends even when they go their separate ways, when they get back.

Megumi…grrrr

The last girl was not officially part of the group. But in the first episode we meet Megumi-chan, a long time friend of Kimari. She is basically a terrible friend to Kimari. If you ever met someone who constantly doubts you or makes you second guess yourself, this was the dynamic of Kimari’s and Megumi’s relationship. Kimari was basically Megumi’s punching bag, as well as support. She leaned on Megumi too much. And while Megumi was often annoyed with Kimari, she let this continue. Talk about co-dependecy.

When Kimari starts to get excited about Antarctica and going with Shirase, Megumi starts to get jealous. She even goes as far as to spread made up rumors about how Kimari got the money to go (I googled it and its actually super expensive to go to Antarctica). On the day Kimari is to leave, Megumi tries to break off their friendship, but Kimari says that she rejects it, and runs off.

Throughout her trip, Kimari sends Megumi pictures and texts. Megumi rarely responds. She was a player hater highkey. When Kimari is finally home, she texts Megumi, only to learn her ‘friend’ has gone on a trip to Antarctica. Kimari cries out “why” and the show ends.

Overall

There are other characters we meet, but they aren’t really that essential to the storyline besides one person. Overall, I give it like a 8/10. When finishing up the last episode, I didn’t feel much. You know how you finish an anime, and you feel so much sadness when you watch that very last episode? That “where do we go from here” feeling? Or hoping there will be another season, and the story never ends? Didn’t feel that at all. And that’s not to say it wasn’t a good show, but most of my favorite anime shows that are concluded, I’ve experienced intense sadness because the story finished. But I’m very satisfied about how the show ended.

I liked that the initial story was literally just getting to Antarctica. But the show didn’t end there, we actually got to see the girls do different activities in Antarctica, for a couple of episodes. There would be no reason for a second season, as the initial goal was reached in the first. It also wasn’t overly dramatic or too heavy. We do witness moments of Shirase’s grief and anger from losing her mom. It really was a cute show overall, despite sad moments. I would not watch it again. Mostly, because I don’t wanna tear up again. Drama anime’s are always so bitter sweet.

Hope you all enjoyed the post as well as learning a bit more about me! I realize I never really share what I’m like, as a person, on here. Well, until next post (hopefully) 😄✌🏾