Rolling Review – Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (06)

Episode Synopsis:

The girls land in Singapore and get a break before the next flight to Fremantle.  They explore the scenery and relax a bit, but trouble strikes when Hinata’s passport goes missing.

Episode Review:

Episode 6 is the closest this show has gotten to “filler”. Considering that we are pretty much halfway through the show, I was hoping I would get the first proper Antarctica episode. Despite this not being the case, it was nice to see the show spend some time on character development. We all know how obessessed with that I am.

I absolutely love the dynamic between these four girls. They banter with each other, they act like a real group of newly formed friends, and they conflict the way real women do.

I like how each girl is developing her own little role within the group. Mari is kind of an idiot but she breaks tension and is the one who usually glues the group together.  Shirase is crazy but without her passion and drive, we wouldn’t even have this show. Hinata is the energetic one that doesn’t sweat the small stuff and Yuzuki…

Yuzuki is the one who can see into your soul.

This episode features girls trying to hide things and follows up quick with Yuzuki going, “You’re hiding something aren’t you?” This girl is sharp, I’ll give her that.

Hinata and Shirase are given the spotlight this time around. I love that the writers realized that “fiercely independent loner” and “fiercely passionate loner” are bound to collide. When Hinata’s passport goes missing, my stomach immediately hit the floor. When I traveled out of the country I guarded my passport like it was the key to unlocking the universe. Hinata on the other hand, just kinda shrugs it off. When the quartet realizes that they can’t book another flight in time to catch the Shirase icebreaker, Hinata says that she’ll find her way to Fremantle later on, or heck, she’ll just have to turn around and leave the group. Her “whatever” attitude causes friction with Shirase (hey writers…just to toss this in there it’s REALLY confusing to have a ship and lead character with the same name) who always needs to have things in order. These girls collide in a subtle yet intense way.

It’s hard for me to describe in words just how real these girls feel at times.
There’s so many sequences where Shirase and Hinata are talking to one another that I realized that as a female, I could read about 1000 more lines of dialogue than my fellow Con Artists ever would. This series writes women like women. It’s not two girls yelling at each other while crying. There’s tons of unspoken context to what is being said here and it all flows in a way that feels real.

Hinata’s outgoing exterior hides a person who just…isn’t very good with people. Shirase’s trying to help, but struggling with her own standoffish tendencies. Both girls want to pull away from each other, so watching Shirase make a bold and uncomfortable move to bend inwards was a big step. I like that at the end, these girls still aren’t great at talking to each other, but they have taken a step to becoming closer to one another, and still stayed true to themselves.

The rest of the episode was environmental eye candy, and some fun travel sequences. I have to admit I love hearing Japanese people say “Merliopon” in English. It’s just too funny. I also loved the part where the gang orders waaaaay too much food at a restaurant because they didn’t anticipate the dish sizes. Priceless (or potentially hella expensive. I’ve never been to Singapore). Artistically this was one of the most impressive episodes. Madhouse just knows how to paint a background and the scenery is gorgeous.

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For those of you fearful about Hinata’s future, don’t fret, the passport is found, but I won’t tell you how. Here at the mid-way point I can safetly say that Sora Yori is a show worth following so please watch it. I will however, tell you it involves a punishment game.

Summary:

I was really hoping we’d be in Antartica by now, but I enjoyed this episode, and love seeing our quartet interact. The dialogue is strong and it’s nice to see female characters who act and speak like real females do. I laughed quite a bit in this episode. It’s nice to have a show in my week that has that ability. In other news, Yuzuki is officially best girl because I lost it with this part.

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