Upon discovering an old list she made in the last year of middle school, Mari Tamaki, who is now in her second year of high school realizes she is not making the most of her youth. Whenever she tries to do something new, she is paralyzed with inaction. Then one day she meets Shirase, a girl who’s mother went missing when she was in middle school on an expedition to Antarctica. Knowing full well it is close to impossible, she works hard in order to go to search for her mother and invites Mari along for the ride.
Reading any synopsis of this show makes is sound ridiculous. Japanese high school girls going to Antarctica? That is pushing the suspension of disbelief to the max. However, once you watch it, they realistically address this and it becomes something addicting. It is cute girls doing cute things, for certain, but in a very realistic way. For more anime recommendations like this A Place Further Than The Universe, we got you covered.
Anime Like A Place Further Than The Universe
For Fans of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things
Laid-Back Camp
After moving, Nadeshiko decides to go see Mount Fuji. She manages to bike pretty far, but has to turn back because of the weather and ends up fainting. When she wakes up, she finds herself somewhere she has never been and no way to find her way back. It is in this wilderness where she is saved by Rin, a girl who was out camping by herself.
Both shows are new to the Winter 2018 anime season, and both are shows that really celebrate nature. Although Laid-Back Camp is really just about camping, it feels like a sprawling discovery piece. Both shows also feature this great discovery of nature carried out by just adorable girls.
K-On!
Upon entering high school, Yui is immediately entranced by the Light Music Club. The problem is, she can’t play an instrument. Deciding to join the club anyway, the other club members, despite disappointment in her lack of musical knowledge, allow her to join to prevent the club’s disbandment. Today begins Yui’s musical education!
Oh, even in the first episode you both see and feel the similarities here. Certainly A Place Further Than The Universe isn’t about music, but it is about a girl trying something new that turns into something fantastic. Of course, all throughout both journeys, the girls keep things light-hearted and adorable.
Love Live
Chika Takami is a self-proclaimed normal girl with minimal interest in clubs and no discernible talent. However, after visiting Tokyo, she discovers a stage where even a normal girl like her can shine – school idols. Thus, she sets off on a mission to create her own high school idol group, but not without many obstacles along the way.
Love Live and A Place Further Than The Universe are both shows about setting off to do what seems like the impossible. While Love Live plays off anime audiences inexplicable thirst for cute girls to the max, A Place Further Than The Universe keeps in reigned in with a tight core team.
For Fans of YOUTH POWAA!
Rocket Girls
Morita Yukari is on a visit to the Solomon Islands in order to look for her father that got lost on his honeymoon. However, instead of finding a father, she meets a man that recruits her for the Solomon Space Agency. They want to hire her as an astronaut because she is small and light. Is Morita’s future among the stars?
Antarctica…. Space… They are both pretty unreachable goals for your standard high school girl. However, both shows make them seem within grasp. A Place Further Than the Universe does this in a more believable way, but both shows excel in playing up that intoxicating sense of wonder that comes with venturing into the unknown.
Hanasaku Iroha
Ohana Matsumae is an energetic teenager that lives with her mother in Tokyo. However, when her mother decides to run off with a man, she is sent to the country to live with a grandmother she has never met. As it turns out, her grandmother runs a traditional Japanese inn, but due to her frivolous mother, treats Ohana quite coldly. Eager to earn her keep and grandmother’s affection, Ohana begins the hard work that makes sure an inn runs smoothly.
Both shows are about teenage girls that suddenly find themselves in circumstances that stretch their world view. While training to go to Antarctica is harder work, compared to her previous life, so is working at an inn. In essence, both shows are deeply steeped in preaching how hard work and determination get results.
Hanayamata
Naru Seikya is chronically average at everything. She hopes high school will change that, but alas, she has had no luck. However, one day she meets a girl dancing atop a shrine, she assumes her to be a fairy, but really she is just a normal girl too. Transferring from America, this oddball named Hana became enamored with the yosakoi type of dance and seeks to start a club about it.
Excessively average girl lifted from obscurity after she meets another girl with drive to something? Certainly these two start in a similar nature. However, the ultimate goal of Hanayamata is just ever so less ambitious. Still, both shows have you learning about something that you can find in real life and the information is actually pretty factual.
For Fans of Harsh and Dangerous Environs
Made in Abyss
The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold adventurers have descended into it. In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot, kicking off the start of her epic adventure.
The obvious similarity here is that one of the main characters in both shows craves to go to a dangerous environment in order to search for her very-likely dead mother. However, while Made in Abyss is made out to look rather adventurous and light-hearted, it turns rather dark. Alternatively, A Place Further Than The Universe stays rather upbeat.
Girls’ Last Tour
With all civilization dead, only Chito and Yuuri remain. Together they decide to hop on their motorbike and wander aimlessly looking for their next meal and fuel. Despite a bleak existence, they remain each other’s light in this dead world.
The notable difference here is that the world surrounding the girls in Girls’ Last Tour is almost unbearably bleak. Some might say that accents the cuteness of the girls, but it a notable departure from the adventurous and blindingly white world of Antarctica. Despite that, they are both shows about girls in harsh environments that need to lean on each other for support.
School Live
Yuki Takeya is in love with school life. She loves it so much that she joined the School Living Club with three other girls, their supervising teacher, and the club dog Taroumaru. This club makes the most of living at school. However, Yuki’s blissful school life is all a delusion. The real purpose of the School Living Club is to prevent Yuki’s fragile reality from shattering. In reality, these girls are surviving the zombie apocalypse by barricading themselves within the school.
If you enjoy watching cute girls thrive in situations that, in all likelihood, they shouldn’t, then there are certainly some similarities to be found. Yes, School Live is about girls living through the zombie apocalypse, but young school girls going to Antarctica is only a little more realistic. Regardless, they both have great themes of friendship and overcoming strife, but obviously School Live is a little more horror-oriented.
Got any more anime recommendations like A Place Further Than The Universe? Let us know in the comments section below.
