A Place Further Than the Universe (宇宙よりも遠い場所, Sora Yorimo Tōi Basho) is a 2018 original television anime series directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, and produced by studio Madhouse. Staff credits also include series composition writer Jukki Hanada, character designer Takahiro Yoshimatsu, and music composer Yoshiaki Fujisawa. The series first aired in Japan on January 2018.
Background:
“Scenery that we have never seen. Sounds that we have never heard. Scent that we have never smelled. Food that we have never tasted. And the surge of emotion that we have never experienced. This is the expedition of recollecting the pieces torn apart and sensation left alone. When we reach that place, what will we think?
Howling, 40 degree angle. Raging, 50 degree angle. Shouting, 60 degree angle. A wilderness beyond the heavy sea. The furthest south, far from civilization. At the top of the Earth. We will find lights through the girls’ eyes to live tomorrow.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, April 2024.
Madhouse has a very strong catalog of anime that has stayed in people’s favourite lists for years, though a lot of them are adaptations of existing materials like Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter, and Overlord. That said they have worked on original projects from time to time like Death Parade, Sonny Boy and also A Place Further Than the Universe.
Now I almost missed out on watching A Place Further Than the Universe during simulcast. It wasn’t on my list to watch during the season but when I heard a lot of people praising the series, I decided to give it a shot and ended up watching the whole series in a couple of sittings. It’s a very entertaining journey about a group of people travelling from Japan to the South Pole for penguins, experiences and also searching for someone close to them. It’s a heart-warming story with a surprising amount of fun reaction shots from each of the girls, and it ended really well with no need for any more seasons. I’m happy to see the series finally make its appearance on home video.
Crunchyroll co-produced the series and therefore owns the streaming and home video rights, though they never bothered to give the series an English dub or release it under Funimation or any US distributor during the years that came by. So it was a surprise to see that Anime Limited stepped up to secure both the UK & US home video rights, which was announced at Anime NYC in November 2022. They even announced an English dub over at Studio Nano, the same folks who also dubbed Girlfriend, Girlfriend and Given.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
A Place Further Than the Universe is a very popular series and since Anime Limited have both UK & US rights and mostly release collector’s editions, it’s a match made for heaven and they did provide more than the usual content for this release.
This release is presented with a rigid box containing an digipack housing the Blu-ray discs and original soundtrack CDs, in addition to a 92-page booklet, 4 art cards and a fold-out poster. The booklet included information about the series, characters, character designs and interviews with the staff for the series.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £79.99. A standard edition Blu-ray is expected to be released later down the line.
The series was made available as an early bird during the month of February, and was on offer for £49.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £44.99.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Digipack packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 2 Original Soundtrack CDs composed by Yoshiaki Fujisawa
- 92-page Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
- Fold-out Poster
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 29th April 2024
The collector’s edition release for A Place Further Than the Universe contains all 13 episodes of the series across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by VDMS.
The audio options available are Japanese with English subtitles and the Studio Nano English dub commissioned by Crunchyroll. The subtitles are using the same font setup as Crunchyroll’s streams which is good in terms of the on-screen translations). The white subtitles are locked during playback and the regions are compatible with Blu-ray players set to A & B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Clean Opening “The Girls Are Alright!”
- Clean Ending Animation “Koko Kara, Koko Kara (From Here, From Now On)”
- Behind the Scenes (English Dub Recording featurette)
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
A Place Further Than the Universe is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through the AllTheAnime Store.
For North American anime fans, the US version of this set is available to purchase through Crunchyroll’s Store and Shout! Factory’s Store.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment