WHAT WE'VE SEEN SO FAR
The four main girls of this show remind me a lot of the four girls in K-ON! In fact, you could say that some are more eccentric while others are the opposites of the K-ON girls. Mari and Hinata are practically an upgraded version of Yui and Ritsu while Shirase and Yuzuki are more or less brooding versions Mio and Tsumugi. Then of course we have Mari's sister Rin who's pretty much her own version of Yui's younger sister Ui and then there's the glasses-wearing Nodoko version of Mari's classmate Megumi.
What I like about these characters is that each girl has their own reasons for going on this journey to Antarctica. Mari wants to do something memorable in her high school life before it's too late. Hinata wants to go because why not? Yuzuki is going partly because of her celebrity status but mainly because this is a perfect opportunity to make real friends, something she's never had before. And lastly we have Shirase, who's going to Antarctica in hopes of finding her mother who was lost there in the last expedition. The series shows a lot promise in what will happen when and if Shirase's mother is found.
The art is also something to take into account. The studio so far has done an outstanding job in the art department with both the character designs and the backgrounds. I will go as far as saying that it's almost enough to rival some of Studio Ghibli's films. It's quite amazing especially when you consider that Madhouse is also producing new seasons for both Cardcaptor Sakura and Overlord.
WHAT I HOPE TO SEE FROM HERE
Pretty much more of what we've seen already but with the girls going and having their adventure in Antarctica. I think we can all agree that there's no hope that Shirase's mother survived but if she somehow has, it will be a really amazing plot twist. I'm also curious to see what Shirase's and Gin Toudou interactions will be. It's very clear that Shirase shares some animosity towards Toudou seeing how she was the one to return and not her mother.
WHAT I DON'T WANT TO SEE
The closing shot of the post credits last episode showed Megumi having a difficult moment. This more often than not puts up a red flag for me. While I can understand the character's feeling stuff like this has a tendency not just to create unnecessary drama but ends up slowing the story down significantly. Hopefully we won't see that happen. I also don't want to see the girls forgetting the reason why they came to Antarctica and the series descending into a filler filled slice of life type of show.
As of now, A Place Further Than The Universe has the potential to be one of the best anime of the season and perhaps one of the best of the year.
