Why Would You Go to Antarctica?
On February 1st 2019, Watanabe has finally reached his destination: Antarctica.
A year before, he was struggling with the decision: to spend his 1.6 million Yen savings or not and to ask for a 2-week paid vacation from his work, something that according to himself is unfamiliar to Japanese society.
He actually did not have a plan on what to do with his million Yen savings. Initially. He just thought it would be nice to have savings for his retirement and unplanned bills. He also did not have any history of spending millions on entertainment or pleasure. If he truly wanted to visit Antarctica, he could do it when he was retired and used his savings, he thought.
However, this was the chance of his lifetime.
He did not actually think that he could live until old age, and he did not think that he will be able to go to Antarctica at old age. He also heard that many ordinary people in Japan like himself spending millions or tens of millions for entertainment and pleasure. Why could not he?
Also, this time he had something that he really wanted to do. He never had anything he truly wanted to do before, which allowed him to save millions of Yen. So, why not spent the money this time?
This is the chance of my lifetime, he thought.
But, he had another obstacle to overcome. The stars did not really align nicely for him that year: the time for departure to Antarctica did not match the national holiday in Japan. That meant that he needed to take a long vacation from his work.
It was something unfamiliar to Japanese society, he said. According to several studies, Japanese workers, on average, only takes half of their entitled paid vacation or 10 from 20 days. The mentality of feeling guilty for taking days off appears to be one of the reasons.
Watanabe felt guilty for his co-workers. His career also made him worried since he was one of the middle-level management employees. Some of his co-workers were depending on him.
However, he had decided to make his dream come true. He talked with his boss, apologized first for something that appeared to be a selfish request, and asked for a two-week paid vacation from the end of January.
“I’m sorry, I’d like to have a rest for about two weeks from the end of January.”
“Ok.”
His boss allowed him to do so, surprising Watanabe. It was a prompt decision. With the money and time in hand, Watanabe started to plan his journey to Antarctica.
For Watanabe, this was the first time he ever travelled in long distance. His journey to Antarctica would take at least 3 days: 10 hours from Narita to Los Angeles, then 14 hours from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, 3 hours and 35 minutes to Ushuaia, and finally 2 days to travel to Antarctica by ship. It took him more than 21.000 Km to reach Antarctica.
Watanabe did reach Antarctica. On February 1st 2019, he shared his picture in Antarctica on Twitter:
「宇宙よりも遠い場所」放送から1年！気の遠くなるような準備期間を経て、やっと、やっと、 よりもいの聖地、南極に来たぞー！！！ やったー！ざまあみろ！ざまあみろ！ざまあみろー！！！（≧▽≦）
(One year after the broadcast of “A Place Further Than the Universe”! After a daunting preparation period, finally, finally, You’ve come to Antarctica, a more sacred place!!!!! Yay! Serves you right! Serves you right! Serves you right!!!!!! (≧▽≦ ))
Watanabe had never anything he truly wanted to do before. This saved him more than a million Yen. So, why would he suddenly had something that he truly wanted to do?
The reason behind his dream to Antarctica is the same thing that inspires and touches me and a hundred thousand, or even millions, of people around the world. The reason is an anime called Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (A Place Further Than The Universe).
Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho, or Yorimoi for short, is an original 13-episodes anime that aired in Winter 2018 season. At the first glance, the anime resembles your-other-Cute-Girl-Doing-Cute-Things shows: a show about cute girls doing some-cute-some-not-really-cute stuff that aimed to sell some cute merchandises to earn whatever profits the production team and sponsors can get. It turns there is more than meets the eye.
Yorimoi had been acclaimed as the AOTY (Anime of The Year) in 2018 when it was still airing by some fans. It also received international recognition and received the 8th place on Best International TV Shows in The New York Times. You had to have at least something special to achieve such praise.
What is Yorimoi About
Yorimoi follows the journey of four girls to Antarctica. Yorimoi tells a story about finally stepping outside of your comfort zone and chasing the dreams that we always had in our mind.
Tamaki Mari (the second girl from the right) is a girl who always had a dream about having a spontaneous adventure. She always had a dream of going to places she never visited before. She always dreams of being in a place other than where she was.
Kobuchizawa Shirase (the second girl from the left) is a hard-headed girl. She always stood up for her beliefs. She is a person that will try to take on the world by themselves even though she knows she will be ridiculed by others.
Hinata Miyake (the first girl from the right) is the most mature from the group. She is friendly and social to anyone she met. She does act childish sometimes, to poke around her friends for fun, but she shines the most when acts as the mature and sensible person in the group.
Shiraishi Yuzuki (the first girl from the left) is the no-nonsense person in the group. She grew up largely beside her mother who is also her manager. Her mother tight upbringing influences Yuzuki to be more mature than her actual age.
Their story is more than reaching Antarctica. It is what happened before and after they reach Antarctica that matters the most. It is a story about human relationship and why it is okay to admit our weaknesses.
What Happened in Yorimoi
Tamaki has always dreamt about being in other places than where she was. As a kid, she likes to see when the water inside her sand pool breaks free when she opened a path.
She loves it when everything around her moves: a sense of breaking free, liberation, and rushing out. Yet, she only loves it, never experienced it herself.
Tamaki is still living within her dream. She was trapped in her routine as a high school student. She was afraid that she will spend her youth while achieving nothing.
That is when she finally decides to act, to break free. She abandons her school uniform, takes a train that runs directly the opposite of the school, and decides where she wants to go, only to return to school in her uniform.
Her reason? It was raining that day, she said, and that she is scared if she failed. This is when Tamaki finally meets Shirase through an envelope with a million Yen inside.
Shirase has been the oddball of the school. She lacks communication skills, has no friends, spends her after-school time to work part-time. And she really wants to go to Antarctica, which then becomes her call name.
That is enough to make Tamaki empathizes with her. She joins Shirase to journey to Antarctica. Still, everything has not fit perfectly yet.
Shirase’s lack of communication skills and Tamaki’s fear of failure almost shot down their plan to journey to Antarctica. It was at this moment Hinata joins them in their journey.
Hinata’s social skills and sensible mind helps the group to think clearly. She keeps Shirase’s Antarctica-maniac mind and Tamaki goofiness in check. When the trouble arises, Hinata is often the first one to step up.
There is still big trouble indeed. Shirase’s plan to buy the journey to Antarctica failed. To worsen the problem, they had no back-up plan.
We are introduced to the last member of the gang: Yuzuki. She is the key to help the group reach Antarctica.
Yuzuki is an artist who is invited to take part in the public expedition to Antarctica. However, she refused to do so which troubled her mother who is also her manager. The reason? She does not like cold places.
Hinata, who is the most sociable person on the group, however, does not take Yuzuki’s word at face value. So, the moment Yuzuki’s mother wants the group to convince Yuzuki to go, the group decides to get to know Yuzuki a little bit more. If the group can convinces Yuzuki to go, Yuzuki mother will ask the company to take the group to accompany Yuzuki to Antarctica
The group then decides to ambush Yuzuki at the hotel where she is staying. After an intense exchange of dialogue full of subtext and deceit, which consists mainly of Yuzuki’s staring at each member of the group for 1 minute before Shirase spoils the plan, Yuzuki tells her side of the story.
Yuzuki has been always lonely since she was a kid. She starts her career at a very young age which distances herself from a normal kid and teenager lives. This time, Yuzuki does not want to be alone in school any more and she wants to salvage whatever relationship she had left on her school life.
Yuzuki thinks that Shirase and the others would not understand her worry. After all, the group has become a group of best friends, are not they?
Each member of the group does not think so. It has not been a month since they meet and they never hang out or play together. They just have one common goal in mind, for now at least.
The group failed to convince Yuzuki that night. Yuzuki spent the rest of the night looking at the group chat of her and her supposed friends. She apologizes in the chat for not being able to play with them, again.
In the middle of the night, Yuzuki notices a knock on her room’s window. She opens the window to find the group is climbing a ladder outside her room. In the middle of gushing night wind, Tamaki asks for Yuzuki to go to Antarctica with them.
Like the scene where the brave hero saves the damsel-in-distress, Tamaki reaches her hand toward Yuzuki, promising freedom. Yuzuki hesitates but thinks this is finally the chance for her to be together with someone and doing the things that she always wanted. Yuzuki takes Kimari hands, the strong wind pushes the ladder to fall, the group and Yuzuki fall, and Yuzuki falls from the bed and realizes it was just a dream.
Yuzuki laughs, thinking what a weird dream that was, yet she feels happy. She opens the group chat and finds her supposed friends from the group chat has left her alone in the group. Yuzuki does not know what to think, she just wants to cry.
A knock comes from the outside. Yuzuki looks to the window, just like in the dream. No one is outside.
The same knock comes again from the outside. It is from the door. Yuzuki opens the door to find Shirase and others have been waiting for her, this time for real.
The group wants to accompany Yuzuki to Tokyo for her job. They plan to visit the Tokyo Polar Science Museum, a museum about everything about Antarctica in Tokyo, together with Yuzuki.
Yuzuki breaks down. She could not hold back the tears any more. She let a big cry, but this time she feels happy.
The group spends the rest of the day exploring the museum together. Yuzuki’s mother fulfilled her part of the promise. Now, the group is able to journey to Antarctica.
This is how Yorimoi starts with their three episodes. There are still 10 episodes to follow where we can follow the girls’ story to Antarctica.
Beyond What Happened in Yorimoi
Looking back at what happened in the first three episodes, one might think that every character has got their characterization done. In your usual Cute Girl Doing Cute Things (CGDCT) anime, characterizations do exist. However, those characterizations are often finished in one single episode or treated as a side or additional story.
Yorimoi puts an emphasis on the characterization of its cast. It is the strong point of the show that makes people fall in love with the show. What happened after the first three episodes is what truly develops this anime to be more than your usual CGDCT show.
It is when they are preparing their journey to Antarctica that the seed of conflict starts to appear. It is when they start their journey that they realize they have no choice to take care of each other. It is when they land in Antarctica, a place further than the universe, that they realize they have no choice but to rely on each other.
Why I Loved Yorimoi
Yorimoi is, as some of you probably has realized now, a story about chasing your dream. This is something that sells really well when done right. Indeed, Yorimoi did this type of story right.
However, I do not think that Yorimoi is wholly about chasing your dream. I think that does not give justice to the show.
I like to see myself as your usual sceptical guy with a little bit of cynicism here and there. I do not loathe all the “if others can do it, you can also do it” and “you can be whatever you want to be” mindset. But, I do think it is better to keep a healthy dose of scepticism and cynicism in our daily life.
Yorimoi could easily be the anime that I feel indifferent about and probably dislike a little bit. Yet, I am here talking about why loved this anime.
The story in Yorimoi has been probably repeated many times throughout our lives. But, I find that Yorimoi treats the story a little bit more different than the others.
I love the fact that Yorimoi started with our character already had a goal in mind. Tamaki, who many viewers relate to, has already a dream in mind. It is just that she is afraid of failure.
It is not your “find your passion and sticks with it”-kind of story. It is a story about accepting your fear and failure.
I love that the story, through Shirase, empathizes with people like Tamaki, and probably, most of us. It is normal to fear failure, it is normal to afraid of making the first step. The story acknowledges that it is normal for people to give up their dreams because of the pressure from people around them.
The story does not simply solve each of the character problems because the story requires so, the story also justifies why each character had the problems in the first place and empathizes with them. I feel this is why I love this series which had your usual “positive can do and will do attitude” story.
I believe we all wish to have the insanity that these girls had. We all wish we are brave enough to make the first step towards our goal, brave enough to rely on others, and brave enough to accept our weaknesses.
I wish I was brave enough to start that one article about a linguistic phenomenon that I find interesting, or about that one anime or manga that had a big impact on my life. I wish I was brave enough to chat stranger on the internet that I met in a Linguistics room to have a discussion about Linguistics. And I already did.
No, I am still your sceptical guy with a little bit of cynicism who is still scared of starting new things. But now, I know it is normal to feel scared and I know I can conquer that fear.
Where Can You Watch Yorimoi
Even if my writing has not convinced you to try A Place Further Than The Universe, it is still one of shows that you have to try whether you hate it or love it. And you do not have to worry about finding any fansub or website to download it. You can stream it on Ani-One channel on Youtube
References:
Ben, K. Anime Fan Is Now Reporting From Antarctica, Furthest Anime Pilgrimage Site On Earth. Accessed from https://grapee.jp/en/109814 at February 3rd 2021
Gatayama, M. Japanese workers take only half their paid vacation, survey finds. Accessed from https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japanese-workers-take-only-half-their-paid-vacation-survey-finds at February 3rd 2021
Hale, M. The Best International Shows. Accessed from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/arts/television/the-best-tv-shows.html at February 3rd 2021
Logipara, W. よりもい聖地 南極の旅(1) 「中年にひゃくまんえん」. Accessed from https://logipara.com/trip/yorimoi-antarctic/yorimoi-cruise-01 at 3 February 3rd 2021.
