So, better start with the winter season in alphabetical order, right?
A place further than the universe
First things first, Guap. If you want more original anime, check the current season's
Hisone to Maso-tan. The first episode was absolutely fantastic and I think it's a strong contender for spring.
I agree that
A place further than the universe was amazing. I don't buy your reasoning too much, though. Particularly because you are probably too focused on establishing the exploration of the Antarctica as a traditionally masculine activity, maybe to form a contrast that is rather uncalled for and is never actually brought in the series like that. In fact, the show in its very basis is built around the idea that the women in it are already empowered, with female characters taking the leading roles both in the story and in the crew and in general a prevalently feminine point of view.
I am not sure either if we should call this an anime catered to males. Certainly being an original script leaves room for discussion. But I think the viewpoint of the show and the focus on its characters is more intimate than observant, and it really does not seem at all that it is trying to sell them to a male audience in specific. Not at least under the codes or the appeal that is usually defined for them.
Speaking of the content and execution, what I liked the most about this, a series about four teenage girls who join an expedition to the Antarctica, is that it may not look like that but it's actually very grounded. Not only on the technical aspects and procedures that are necessary in order to get ready for this journey, which the show decides to treat in depth and taking its good share of episodes, but also because people in universe are aware of it. The girls know that this opportunity is rare and exceptional, they chase it and they make a lot of effort just to be there. People around them call them crazy, the expedition members are initially reluctant to take them, everything is tightly controled with clear rules and even then the scenario looks uncertain and adventurous. It's not just "let's insert cute girls in a crazy environment" but there is a huge narrative effort on the idea of having them there alone.
Where this show truly shines however is in the depiction of the cast and their interrelationships. Kimarin, Shirase, Hinata and Yuzuki are very good characters overall but only Shirase and Hinata come off as really memorable to me. However their interactions are what sells the series to me and the way it understands friendship with its banter, its emotional moments and above all the respect for personal space (something
Laid-back Camp proved to understand as well, but we'll get there) is really beautiful and inspiring. The girls have a lot of genuinely funny and heartwarming moments together and their mutual understanding is a joy to watch.
Another thing that may sound surprising in an anime that seems so positive (and is, actually) is the amount of personal drama it holds. Each of the girls have their own backstory. They are brought in the context of their friendship and their journey, and even more important, they are narratively relevant, get focus and create emotional conflicts. Something that this series handles extremely well in this aspect is emotional climax. It knows really well how and when to apply the high notes of its drama, and it made me cry on an almost routine basis. Particularly the conclusions to episode 9 and 12 made me lost it so much I couldn't get them ouf of my head for a long while.
This was a great ride, and one I loved throughout. But it wasn't without its flaws. Particularly, I was quite negatively surprised by the last episode. It felt dull, it tried to appeal to emotions it hadn't properly built up, and as a conclusion it was nothing more or less than serviceable and okay. One of my issues with the structure of the series that precisely showed to backfire here is the excessive reliance on climax. It was a problem I was pointing out through the series because while the more mundane scenes were all great and worthy of being remembered, they eventually faded and my memory would prioritize the emotional outbursts. So a conclusion without a clear outburst trying to evoke the latent emotions generated by those mundane moments had to face the trouble that what it tried to evoke was forgettable due to its own structure. The finale had other problems, though; it tried to extract emotions from an attachment to the rest of the crew and the Antarctica but it turned out that this attachment didn't exist like that in the narration, because it had been too absorbed in the emotional issues and conflicts of the four girls and had hardly paid attention to its own environment and the external elements. So basically I found myself as a spectator disconnected from the discourse of this last episode, with the series telling me that I should feel this emotion but without a buildup that justified it.
I would nitpick at other issues (the use of music was irregular and at points quite problematic), but overall the show is really solid and it was a fantastic ride. However as an experience it feels fundamentally and structurally flawed, something that I enjoyed and absolutely loved throughout with ease, but in the end doesn't give as much of a sweet aftertaste. Which is why it's not my favorite of the season.