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Minutes ago I finished watching the anime Sora yori mo Tooi Basho (A Place Further than the Universe) and boy am I happy that I decided to pick this show up on a complete whim. It's an anime that's pretty deceitful, as both the synopsis and cover for the show doesn't do justice to the sincerity of the story being told and the extremely relatable cast of main characters. It looks and reads like a dumb moe show with a goofy setting they decided on just to try and stand out, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In my five years of watching anime I've consumed exactly 400 tv anime/movies/OVAs and out of those 400 there are about a dozen of shows I consider true 10/10 shows. A Place Further than the Universe manages to make that list pretty effortlessly. I was calling it at episode six that this show was going to be amazing. A Place Further than the Universe is an anime original show consisting of 13 episodes of 24 minutes. It is a completely self-contained story that has a solid beginning and ending. I always really like watching anime original shows because so many adaptations of manga or light novels end up being bait for you to buy the original source material to get a solid conclusion to the story, leaving the ending of their anime versions with something to be desired for the sake of more manga sales. Not the case with this anime, it manages to have a completely satisfying ending, which for me personally is the most important thing for a show. So what makes this show a 10/10 in my books? To put it simply it manages a perfect score because the show is just really solid across all categories. The animation is really solid, the soundtrack is the perfect match for the tone of the show, the voice work for the characters is impressive, the story has a clear red thread all the way throughout and doesn't linger too long anywhere and it's very compelling on the whole. It touches on a lot of pretty tough subjects when it comes to being a human and the main cast of characters all have their own circumstances, some more tough and traumatic than others, but the circumstances all feel real. These characters all come together from their own independent backgrounds to experience the bond of true friendship together and it's a very emotional watch for someone like myself who's dealt with a lot of similar bullshit in his life. There were at least four separate scenes in the last three episodes that made me tear up... Doesn't help that the main characters have a tendency to cry a lot as well, but they ARE teenage girls at the end of the day, so I can't really blame them for that one. I want to sing the praises of A Place Further than the Universe in more detail, but I'm afraid I'll spoil something. I don't really know if there's much to spoil, but I think the emotional impact of the show is better if you go into it completely blind. As such I can only seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY recommend that you give A Place Further than the Universe a watch.