At 16 years of age, Tamaki Mari ("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, Kobuchizawa Shirase, looking for her Missing Mom who apparently disappeared in Earth's last frontier — the Antarctic. Shirase wants to go on an expedition to find out how and why her mom disappeared, which makes her the laughing stock of her classmates. But hearing her story, Mari eventually jumps at the call and decides to follow her on that journey.

Uchuu yori mo Tooi Basho (A Place Further than the Universe) is an original anime by studio Madhouse, directed by Ishidzuka Atsuko and written by Hanada Jukki, with chara-designs by Yoshimatsu Takahiro and music by Fujisawa Toshiaki. The series airs in the Winter 2018 season.

Crunchyroll is streaming the anime for folks worldwide except Asia.

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Tropes found in the series

• Adorkable: All of the girls display this trope from time to time, but Shirase probably takes the cake. She usually seems standoffish, but has moments like when she finds out about a job she recommended to Kimari being a bit too mature for them. And in episode 6, when Yuzuki mentions she went to a pool on top of the Marina Bay Sands resort for a photo shoot, Hinata excitedly asks her if she was wearing a sexy bikini. Yuzuki denies it, but Shirase asks excitedly as well.
• 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.
• Balloon Belly: Hinata is shown rubbing her belly in episode 6 after the girls find out the dish they ordered comes on a large plate and has a rather generous portion, which is much more than what they're used to seeing back home.
• 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.
• Bland-Name Product: The Airbus A380 seen in Episode 6 clearly has a livery based on Singapore Airlines◊.
• 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: Invoked − when talking about their captain for the expedition, Hinata notes that she might throw chalk at you if you nod off during her lecture.
• 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.
• Cry Cute:
  • Yuzuki has a moment of this when the other girls arrive at her hotel room and offer to hang out with her in Tokyo for the day due to a job she had there. Up until that point, any girls that she tried to befriend only seemed interested in her fame, rather than her personally.
  • Kimari's family does this on the day she leaves for the trip, as well as Megumi.
• The Determinator: Can be applied to everyone going on the Antarctic trip. In the high school girl'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.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme is performed by the voice actresses of the four main characters.
• 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.
• 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 Episode 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.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The main girls.
  • Phlegmatic: Kimari. Nice and friendly, but lacks assertivity 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.
• Friendless Background:
  • Yuzuki, due to being a constantly working child star, never got much opportunity to spend time with girls her age. Hence her initial refusal to go to Antarctica, which 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 secretly 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.
• Funny Background Event:
  • In the opening sequence, a gigantic Kimari seems to swallow the other three girls. As she waves at the camera, one of the girls sticks her head up, indicating that they're actually far away from her. She's quickly taken back down by the other two girls lest she ruins the joke.
  • 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 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 teddy bear 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.
• Gainaxing: Invoked by Hinata in episode 2 when the girls are in Shinjuku trying to convince a male expedition participant to agree to smuggle them on board the ship to Antarctica.
• Genki Girl: Played with 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 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.
• 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.
• Heavy Sleeper: Kimari can sometimes be hard to wake up, and also tosses and turns in her sleep. The girls reveal this to her after she complains about it, and they reveal that they found out during their camping trip.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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?
• 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 tells 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, 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.
• Product Placement: In Episode 1, a poster for No Game No Life can be seen just outside Hinata's store. A second poster is seen in Shinjuku's red light district during episode 2, suggesting it will be a Running Gag.
• Reality Ensues:
  • 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 an extensive training, not to mention her mother is less than enthused and demands that she study much harder to compensate for the school she's gonna miss.
  • 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 girl's 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 lack of funds. There are also less people on the ship than they thought, and some of them even openly question how feasible the trip would be.
• 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.
• Scenery Porn: Episode 6, which features Singapore in beautifully rendered detail.
• 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.
• Sleep Cute: Kimari and Shirase nod off together on the train at the end of Episode 1.
• 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.
• Title Drop: The anime's title comes from a book written by Shirase's mother.
• 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.
• 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.