The girls finally set foot on Antarctic soil, in time for Yuzu to learn an important lesson about friendship.
It only took them ten episodes, but now the hard work begins for real. The supplies have to be brought in, equipment to be refurbished, the base to be made liveable. And the girls have to do their share too. The good news is that they’re going to sleep in the “Lakeside Hotel” and they’ll have a room of their own each. Which comes as a relief to Shirase, Yuzu and Hinata, no longer having to share a room with Kimarin and her annoying habit of talking in her sleep. Something I can relate to, as I allegedly do so myself. They also get their first encounter with a real live penguin, which causes Shirase to flip out in excitement to the extend they have to physically restrain her. Through all this tomfoolery Yuzu has been a bit distant, the reason for which is soon revealed.
She’s gotten a text from her mother and agent that she’s been accepted for a part in a television drama, but worries that this means she won’t be able to hang out with the other three anymore. Hinata, ever the most practical of the girls, points out that they’ll be living separately again after the expedition returns home anyway. Yuzu protests and Kimarin tries to reassure her by stating they’re all best friends anyway. When Yuzu doubts this, Kimarin seems at the verge of crying until Hinata stops her. As Yuzu continues to wonder when they became best friends, when they weren’t when she first them, she becomes convinced it was when she was in Hokkaido and starts sulking about it.
As her friends talk her out of it and tell her they didn’t do anything without her, she wonders when they knew they were friends and why they never asked her to be theirs. Their friendship might be obvious to Hinata, Kimari and Shirase, but Yuzu needs more formal assurances. It makes sense. Before she first met the other three after all, she had never had had real friends, her one attempt in high school a failure. There had also been hints that she’s a bit more, eh logical than the others, less able perhaps to understand these sort of things without formal declarations.
In any case, it leaves her friends somewhat bewildered on how to handle her. When Hinata wonders if Yuzu was waiting for them to ask her, Shirase suggest just doing so, to which Hinata replies as above. But no fear, Kimari has a plan. If she’s up to it. In the meantime, they still have work to do, as Christmas approaches and preparations for the Christmas party are being made. Yuzu has some doubts about the importance of Christmas, but meeting a fan of hers at the base puts her at ease and she decides to take the role.
But she’s still anxious about her friendship with the other three girls, something that all their reassurances haven’t been able to assuage. Therefore she asks them for a favour, to sign a formal friendship contract so she can be at ease that they are friend. This time Kimari does start crying, running up to Yuzu and hugging her. Most people would know that something like a friendship contract is doomed to failure, so it says something about Yuzu that she thinks this could be a solution, something that goes beyond her isolation as a child idol. Rather, her seeming inability to read this sort of social clue. her anxiety about not having a message replied to immediately, it may be that she’s on the spectrum, is somewhat neuroatypical.
In any case, her friends care enough for her to prepare a surprise birthday party after the Christmas party has run its course, all organised by Kimari. It turns out that Yuzu’s birthday took place during that part of their trip they were all too busy puking their guts out. So they decided to celebrate it once they were in Antarctica and baked her a cake.
Seeing Yuzu tear up out of gratitude and talking about how this is the first time friends had actually celebrated her birthday made me choke a bit as well. She’s such a pure cinnamon bun and she deserves this happiness. Ultimately the efforts of Kimari, Shirase and Hinata are not in vain and Yuzu accepts they are really friends. In a lesser series this could’ve come over as sappy and trite, but the way Sora yori mo Tooi Basho does it is so well done because it comes straight from the characters themselves, isn’t forced on them and importantly, it’s done with humour.
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