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Quite possibly my favorite series that aired in 2018, Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho is a tale of adventure to one of the most desolate places on Earth. I’m not going to lie. Part of the reason I stalled this review is that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to write a good one.
The story follows Mari Tamaki, a girl with dreams of seeing the world who realizes that she’s spent the majority of her high school life without any progress on those aspiration. However, she’s given her chance when she meets Shirase Kobuchizawa, a girl determined to visit Antarctica.
Shirase is driven by the disappearance of her mother, who was lost on her own expedition to Antarctica. Desperate to understand her mother’s passion, Shirase is willing to go to any length to go to Antarctica herself. Inspired by her, Mari decides to help her and join her on her trip.
To be fair, this series was bound to appeal to me, as my family is one that travels fairly often. As a result, I’m the type of person who enjoys going out to see the world. That being said, I did find myself identifying heavily with Mari, the character with the most fear when it comes to travelling.
And that’s because I’ve found that I can be similarly hesitant to travel on my own. Despite having been to plenty of places in the past, I can understand her ability to talk herself out of her plans when the slightest thing goes wrong. I am pretty indecisive, after all.
As you may expect, Antarctica isn’t exactly the safest place in the world, so Shirase and Mari face a heavy amount of opposition for their proposed trip. The series itself is largely a story of overcoming that adversity in order to reach their dream. The two are eventually joined by two other girls, and it’s a lot of fun to watch them working together, especially since they all come from very different worlds.
From a technical standpoint, I appreciated how much effort went into visuals in this series. From the vast landscapes in various locations to just general scene layout, it was enough that even I could notice. The screenshot above is one of my favorite moments. It shows Mari after having just picked up a million yen standing in front of an advertisement for winning a million yen. It’s a great visual joke.
While the major plot points in this series tend to have a harsh reality to them, the series is pretty lighthearted overall. I also really liked the emotional aspect of the ending, but I won’t go too much into that. If you’re not into cute girls doing cute things, I can understand, but I think this series has enough going for it to warrant a shot nonetheless.
Marth's Anime Blog 
Possibly the finest coming-of-age anime I’ve ever seen…
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definitely one of my favorites
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I agree with DerekL, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. That last couple of episode completely broke me. It reminded me so much of my brother, who passed away, and I remember it was the first time an anime had made me break down and sob like that. I still can’t see screenshots or gifs of it. When I watched this series, I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting much at all, but it kept getting better and more interesting, and the animation quality never really took a dive either. It’s my fave from last year for sure.
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well, im sorry to hear about your brother. the scene where shirase sees the laptop definitely hit me hard too. i remember it being a tough choice between this series and violet evergarden, since they both incredibly emotional notes at the same time.
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I’ve heard that a lot about Violet Evergarden and I think it’s why I haven’t picked it up yet. Not ready for the emotions that she’ll come.
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but it’s so worth it, though 😀
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Okay, I’ll just have to grab a box of tissues and dive in, sounds like. haha.
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