A Place Further Than The Universe

宇宙よりも遠い場所 (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho)

8.5(237,265)

MAL Score

Ranked #168

Popularity #459

Adventure
Comedy
Drama
CGDCT

Episodes: 13
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Jan 2, 2018 to Mar 27, 2018
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Mari Tamaki, a second-year high school student with a head full of curiosity, has long imagined what might exist beyond her everyday world. Yet whenever she considers taking a real step toward something bigger, fear of the unknown—and of her own limits—keeps her in place. Determined not to let her youth slip by, Mari’s resolve is tested until an unexpected meeting introduces her to someone chasing an even more daunting goal.

Shirase Kobuchizawa is saving every yen she can to reach Antarctica, driven by her mother’s disappearance and a refusal to be talked out of the journey. Moved by Shirase’s unwavering determination, Mari decides to go with her, and their plans soon draw in two more companions: the bright, attention-seeking Hinata Miyake and Yuzuki Shiraishi, a well-mannered girl from a wealthy background. With four distinct personalities and a shared need to find something meaningful, they set their sights on the frozen south—toward a place further than the universe.

Otaku Consensus

A Place Further Than the Universe earns its high reputation through Atsuko Ishizuka’s clean emotional direction and Jukki Hanada’s unusually disciplined 13-episode structure, which gives each girl a decisive beat without letting the ensemble sprawl. Critics and fans consistently single out its late-series catharsis and character writing as the reason it plays bigger than its CGDCT label, while the recurring complaint is that some movement can look stiff or less fluid than the show’s strongest visual moments.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want a coming-of-age anime that treats teenage restlessness as something concrete rather than decorative. It scratches the same itch as Yuru Camp’s travel comfort and K-On!’s group chemistry, but with a firmer dramatic spine and a much stronger sense of forward motion. The appeal is not “cute girls go somewhere”; it is watching four incompatible temperaments become a working emotional unit through jokes, panic, money problems, awkward pride, and earned trust. Viewers who like character-driven originals without battle systems, romance triangles, or fantasy metaphors will get the most out of it. Madhouse keeps the series visually readable and expressive, while the writing uses a short run to make small behavioral changes land like milestones.

Key Characters

M
Mari Tamaki(VA: Inori Minase)
Mari is compelling because her arc makes ordinary hesitation feel dramatic, turning a fear of wasting youth into the show’s most relatable source of momentum.
S
Shirase Kobuchizawa(VA: Kana Hanazawa)
Shirase is the fan-favorite pressure point of the series: blunt, socially awkward, and emotionally guarded in ways that make her determination feel volatile rather than inspirational-poster clean.
H
Hinata Miyake(VA: Yuka Iguchi)
Hinata brings comic velocity to the group, but her popularity comes from how the series gradually reframes her cheerfulness as a practiced survival skill.
Y
Yuzuki Shiraishi(VA: Saori Hayami)
Yuzuki stands out by making social polish look lonely, giving the ensemble a character whose maturity is less secure than it first appears.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
It is a Madhouse-produced original TV anime, not a manga or light novel adaptation, which lets the staff build the 13-episode run around escalation and payoff rather than source-material stopping points.
2
Director Atsuko Ishizuka and series composer Jukki Hanada structure the show as an ensemble coming-of-age piece, giving the four leads distinct emotional functions instead of treating them as interchangeable CGDCT archetypes.
3
The production’s visual identity is shaped by Saho Yamane’s art direction, Akihiro Hirasawa’s art design, and Harue Oono’s color design, with the show contrasting everyday interiors, travel spaces, and snowscape imagery rather than relying on a single cozy palette.
4
The reviews’ most consistent technical caveat is not the background work or composition, but character movement: some viewers note that animation can feel stiff or less fluid than the emotional direction around it.
5
Its late-series emotional release is a major part of the anime’s reputation, because the show withholds its biggest catharsis until the ensemble dynamics and personal stakes have already been carefully established.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The series aired as a Winter 2018 TV anime from January 2 to March 27, finishing its complete 13-episode run in a single cour.
Fun fact 2: Its cross-platform reception is unusually strong: the research data lists an 8.5/10 MAL score from 237,265 votes, an AniList score of 84/100, 9,525 AniList favourites, and an IMDb rating of 8.1 from 3.5K users.
Fun fact 3: The core creative lineup pairs Atsuko Ishizuka as director with Jukki Hanada on series composition, a combination that helps explain why the series is often praised for both emotional clarity and tight pacing.
Fun fact 4: Takahiro Yoshimatsu handled character design, while Masaki Hinata is credited for prop design, a useful detail for a travel-heavy show where bags, shipboard spaces, equipment, and everyday objects carry more narrative weight than action set pieces.
Fun fact 5: Yuuki Kawashita served as director of photography and Daisuke Kusaka as CG director, two credits that matter because the anime includes ships, wilderness environments, and Antarctic-scale spatial presentation rather than staying within school-life staging.