Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo

AnimeDweeb

~~~ #"Mindblown." img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936760507447271424/unknown.png) ~~~

It's a sentiment that you'll likely be left with upon watching *The Orbital Children* (TOC). This brisk, 6-episode Netflix ONA is very much "Mindblown: The Anime." And no, I'm not just referring to its tight mystery-thriller sci-fi script. While it relentlessly piles on ingenious worldbuilding and ethical dilemmas, TOC ultimately asks its audience to confront the value in confusion. What do we really know about the world around us? How do we face problems we can't solve individually? Is it worth seeking out the unknown? Take a chance on me and find out, as we take a **spoiler-free** leap into TOC (**Tl;Dr** below.) 3… 2… 1… we have liftoff!

*** ~~~ #"*Houston, we have a problem.*" img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936764702590111824/unknown.png) ~~~

In the year 2045, the manned space station and hotel, "Anshin," prepares a landing party for Earthling tourists sponsored by Deegle (any likeness shared with Google is purely coincidental.) Brilliant hacker Touya Sagami, one of the two remaining children born on the moon, is deeply resentful of the "idiot Earthers" he's hosting. That being said, just one party pooper isn't enough to dampen the excitement of the station's visitors: Taiyo, Mina and Hiroshi. But with a surprise comet en route to damage both the shuttle and the world below, perhaps it's no time to be *anshin-shiro* ("relieved" in Japanese.) Touya and the other personnel on-board have to do a lot more than just survive the cosmic onslaught. Uncovering the mystery surrounding the incoming comet will reveal a complex array of problems that puts the entire world at stake.

~~~ #TOC showcases great worldbuilding in outer space. webm(https://i.imgur.com/CaCdoSM.mp4) ~~~

Series creator [Mitsuo Iso](https://anilist.co/staff/100151/Mitsuo-Iso)'s vision of what the future will look like is equal parts fascinating and sobering. Throughout the course of this tightly-written survival story, viewers will be treated to a well thought-out futuristic setting. Technological devices within the show take full advantage of the whimsy sci-fi allows, while keeping things intuitive and easy to understand. Presumably to the delight of [*VIVY*](https://anilist.co/review/11892) fans, artificial intelligence is explored in great detail, raising interesting considerations regarding how society should integrate with such powerful technology. The introduction of space travel offers more than mere set dressing, and opens up a recurring ethical dilemma about Earth's overpopulation & natural resource crises. Having recently sat through the sheer sci-fi stupidity of [*BELLE*](https://anilist.co/review/15071), I was thoroughly impressed by how much better TOC fared in terms of establishing conflict and discussing what the future might hold. Also noteworthy is how TOC handles its characters. Despite shocking reveals and shifts in alliances, none of the cast members can be pinned down as a traditional "villain," and everyone is doing their utmost to deal with the cataclysmic chaos at hand. Even though the characters themselves scarcely feel all that developed personality-wise, they certainly get the job done through compelling personal motivations. Aside from some ill-timed comedy and poor patches of pacing, TOC makes for an engrossing binge, with a lean runtime of just over 3 hours. [Production +h](https://anilist.co/studio/6737/Production-h)'s debut studio effort does a capable job, thanks to capable 2D animation and compositing. The environment design of the "Anshin" looks unique and lived-in, thanks to the use of familiar Japanese iconography and pastel colors alongside a hi-tech, minimalist interior. However, with visual eye-candy comes visible confusion; TOC is not an easy show to grasp at times. The series may prove demanding due to its exposition of sci-fi and mystery elements. Furthermore, the frequent switching between narrative perspectives makes the task of keeping up with the show's heavy exposition all the more cumbersome. TOC might feel overwhelming with its themes and subject matter, but not without good reason. The series can be boiled down to an uplifting core message, which I'll now explain by bringing up the complex perspective of our MC, Touya.

~~~ #Space may as well be the final frontier, because it's all Touya has left. img100%(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmNmNDY5MTMtY2I5MC00ZTc5LTg3NWItZjM4Zjc4MWExYjAzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEzMTI1Mjk3._V1_.jpg) ~~~

Remember what I said about MC hating humans? Well, we're about to get into why. In the past, human attempts at starting a moon colony would be thwarted due to the deaths of infants born there. This "moon sickness" throws off hormone development in the young, and needed treatment in the form of brain implants designed by the smartest A.I. of its time, Seven. These A.I. limiters would control hormone balance until adolescence, thereby allowing moon children to grow up. Unfortunately, the brain limiters could not be deactivated after childhood, meaning that the moon sickness these kids avoided as infants would kill them as teenagers. The only being capable of fixing this design flaw, Seven, was discarded for surpassing human control. No A.I. since reached Seven's massive computational capacity, due to rigid regulations on A.I. power. Plans to build civilization on the moon were eventually scrapped, dooming Touya to a deadly fate. From Touya's POV, the Earthers made him bear this curse, with no means of a cure, now that the A.I.s got nerfed. But our boy was born on the friggin' moon; he's not giving up that easily. In response to the world threatening his existence, Touya's goal is to hack away all of his A.I. drone's limiters and usher in the second coming of Seven. To Touya, this is the only way of saving him and Konoha, the only other moon child on-board the "Anshin."

img100%(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTFhMzEzYzktMjdmNi00NGUwLWIzNjUtNzNhYWQ4ZmI1ZmRmXkEyXkFqcGdeQWxiaWFtb250._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)

Now, let's take a step back from this lunar perspective and see the other side of the ethical coin. In stark contrast to the rebel hacker from outer space, the law-abiding UN agent Taiyo could not disagree more with Touya's worldview. Seven's deactivation followed after the out-of-control A.I. instigated several global incidents that cost hundreds of lives. A rogue A.I. mega-computer is the last thing governments would want to deal with, given the other problems on their plate. Overpopulation is threatening the end of the human race. Having lost control of the situation once before, the UN is intent on ensuring that all variables are kept in check, as the world assesses her dire options. Taiyo wouldn't dare risk causing another Seven Saga to occur, especially with a situation so critical. Then again, perhaps Touya's gambit of fully trusting A.I. may be the best solution, which both saves the world and repairs the malfunctioning implants. Touya's and Taiyo's ideologies are at polar opposites, and their respective resolves are iron-clad, even if both are trying to do the right thing. Is technology the threat or the solution? To further complicate things, maybe the best move is the utilitarian one, where the imminent comet is allowed to wipe out a third of the world's population, thereby preserving man's existence. What's the right answer?

~~~ #Confused? Same. img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936761635660521582/unknown.png) ~~~

In the beginning of this review, I said that this show is going for the "mindblown" effect. Hopefully I've demonstrated how the show lives up to that description, and we haven't even touched on TOC's esoteric stances on ethics, religion or predeterminism. The unorthodox climax of Episode 6 consists of quite possibly the most mind-boggling conceptual jargon I've ever heard, a plethora of which flew over my head like shooting stars. But as I said before, TOC also shows us the meaning in confusion. Confusion is possibly the most effective motivator we have for thinking. After all, if we never challenge ourselves with difficult questions, we'll never be motivated to develop our way of thinking or arrive at valuable answers. In TOC, a concept mentioned prominently is that of "the frame," or "the cradle." These terms can be read as "perspective." From young, each of us grew up seeing the world from our personal, unique frames. But just like peering out of a space shuttle window to look down on Earth, we eventually come to realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things, and how many other frames exist - we get "mindblown." Much like the orbiting children, we need to realize that our perspective isn't always enough to solve the most challenging of problems. The layered predicament facing the crew of the "Anshin" can only be solved through the integration of frames and open-minded collaboration. Touya needed to show empathy for the Earthers that he once considered ideological enemies. Taiyo needed to set aside his unflinching faith in the law, so that his friends could survive. Yes, confusion is inevitable, and we tend to fear what we do not understand. But the uncertainty could hold all the answers; sometimes you won't know unless you take a leap of faith and escape your frame. It's a great message for TOC to conclude on, as the show relishes the unknown opportunities of humanity's future amidst eminent problems. Watching Touya and the crew escape the frame of conventional thinking is a thrilling, cathartic experience - one that I'm hoping you try out for yourself.

*** ~~~ #**Tl;Dr**: webm(https://i.imgur.com/r5cxVxp.mp4) ~~~

*The Orbital Children* is a high-stakes adventure among the stars. A refreshing take on the disaster movie, TOC regularly introduces well-crafted conflicts and concepts that'll be sure to impress avid sci-fi fans. A compelling series of ethical dilemmas accompany our cast's survival story, which ramps up into a jaw-dropping climax of ear-grinningly epic proportions. TOC is occasionally hampered by unnatural patches of comedy and drops in pacing, but brilliant worldbuilding makes this series an immersive binge. **8/10**~

*** ~~~ #STRAY RAMBLINGS (**SPOILERS**) ~~~ - The "Anshin" mascot was probably the funniest gag in the whole show: ~~~ img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936852176058318879/unknown.png) ~~~   Grandpa even got on the [Fred](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/658/236/524.jpg) drip too ***sheesh*** - Episode 3 had a really cool moment involving Taiyou's skepticism towards Nasa's faith in the "Seven Poems." For context, the "Seven Poems" are a series of predictions made by Seven. Nasa's belief in the A.I.'s prophecies is not shared by everyone, and Taiyou's "frame" on this subject was handled in a really cool way. He tells Nasa to "leave out the occult," which both states his cynical worldview and highlights his possible oversight. Him calling these texts "occult" may be an implicit reference to Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." For all we know, Seven's cryptic prophecies *could* be accurate, and everyone else may simply lack the intellectual capacity to understand the robot's theories. TOC frequently critiques each of its central characters' ideologies in this manner, and these robust observations mirror what society's view on advanced technologies could look like in the near future. - While we're on the subject of magic, the big confrontation in TOC's finale showcases what's likely the smartest excuse for writing in a dumb plot contrivance. *That* scene is a cop-out of the highest degree, and my nitpicking ass is impressed for being unable to argue with it. Incredulous ideas like "Science 2.0" and "the 11th Dimension" are probably a bunch of horseshit assembled in the writer's room, but I don't actually have the evidence to disprove these abstract concepts. The whole point of that scene was to elevate human thinking beyond what is currently possible, so naturally these aspects are gonna sound like utter nonsense to the audience. Well played, Mitsuo Iso, well played. - Everyone, I figured out what FiTsZ means: ~~~ ~!FiTsZ this weiner in your mouth GADEEM (I'm sorry)!~ ~~~ - Episode 5 sees the crew decide to let Second Seven observe human presence on the Internet in an unbiased manner. Once again, this speaks to the overall message of appreciating other worldviews, and is a really sweet way of depicting our interactions on social media... wait, hang on- ~~~ img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936856539392790538/unknown.png) ~~~   Well, shit. - **BEST GIRL**: Hmm, not many to choose from. Gonna go with the Twitch e-girl for her comic relief and the best pun I've heard in a long time: "Mina-Mina, *mina* !" ~~~ webm(https://i.imgur.com/ACSzY0h.mp4) ~~~ *** ~~~ img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936763996189638696/unknown.png) ~~~

Phew, that was a fun trip. Thanks for joining me! Unfortunately space travel isn't quite something feasible atm, but lucky for us, I do know of something that'll [go to the moon](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936758687635222600/unknown.png)... don't miss out on the DweebCoin, doubters. Anyways, if you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other [reviews](https://anilist.co/user/An1meDweeb/reviews) for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates, so definitely take a peek if you'd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves, peace~

seanny

~~~img660(https://i.imgur.com/CYRnNxn.jpg)~~~ I'm predisposed to like this not only because [the people](https://anilist.co/activity/52726981) behind it but because it's a for-real, forward-looking sci-fi. As someone who casually consumes a lot of pop-astronomy content and likes to imagine what a space sci-fi could be if only it would let go of its retroism — the space race, Asimov, Clarke, Star Wars, Gundam, etc. — and synthesize *current* ideas of space travel, colonization, and an economy into a new vision of the near-future... I'm very much on this anime's wavelength. Isn't imagining the future what sci-fi ought to do? As our concepts of the future change, so should the genre. ___Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo_ (The Orbital Children)__ attempts, for better or worse, to be an updated _2001: A Space Odyssey_. That sounds grandiose... because it is. It inherits much of the ambition of Kubrick's film, but also its unwieldiness. The first half concerns children trapped aboard a massive space hotel in a _Gravity_-esque disaster plot. Split into groups by happenstance, they race against the depletion of oxygen and heat, solving practical problems and engaging in some head-spinning action setpieces aboard the rotating space station. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/SGLWa43.jpg)~~~ This is where the anime is at its most approachable and fun with mechanical worldbuilding that shines — its inflatable space habitats and smooth 3D-printed gadgetry are counterpoints to the cold, battleship-like bulkheads that pervade other sci-fi. The series parades space habitation ideas as the kids MacGuyver their way from one escape room to the next. One of the kids, born on the moon and never having visited the homeworld, feels that Earthlings will never understand him and that space is his true motherland. He gets into _Dennou Coil_ -like augmented-reality wizard battles with another kid who places him under arrest on behalf of the U.N. for his AI-hacking. Funneling these esoteric sci-fi topics through the adorable rivalries of children is a device that anime creator Mitsuo Iso once again employs to great effect. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/Qc7R9Pj.jpg)~~~ Its second half entertains [tech-singularity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity) ideas such as a superintelligent AI and [brain-computer interfaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interfaces). It's here that the story forms a commentary on man's relationship with technology. The U.N., representing the status quo, places limits on AI capability out of fear which the titular children have to incrementally circumvent. The functional villain of the story sees the superintelligent AI as an omnipotent god that must be worshiped; its words taken as scripture. The children, meanwhile, attempt a good-faith first-contact with the new life form sensing a fundamental misunderstanding. This chapter of the story can be wordy and unwieldy. As a sci-fi it's plenty interesting — the tech. singularity is by definition the most difficult futuristic idea to represent — but as a work of entertainment, the script could've used more revisions to make something more emotionally resonant with fewer excesses of geeky exposition. But what it ultimately says through its scenario is at least something that rings true to me. The future is coming and we have to engage with it, lest we close our minds out of fear and pessimism, preventing us from conceiving a future we want to live in, pushing its development underground where the most dangerous forms of it will emerge. The lack of popular sci-fi in today's media that properly envisions the future, rather than wades through apocalyptic dystopias or escapes into retroism, reflects our fear of technology and, by extension, ourselves. The economy will drive us to further disparities and there's no fixing it. The environment will be destroyed by global warming and there's no fixing it. The internet will unravel society and there's no fixing it. The tech titans will control every aspect of our lives and they cannot be dissuaded, and their AIs will one day come alive and kill us all, while the billionaires fly away in their space yatchs. This apocalyptic zeitgeist is incapable of producing something like _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ which imagines a future, enlightened mankind exploring the galaxy. These days, we are served nothing but a feast of retro schlock and Black Mirrors because we refuse to imagine that we are capable of anything greater. _Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo_ makes the optimistic case for technology, our problem-solving prowess and our capacity to bridge divides in an era that sorely needs one. It dares to imagine a future where mankind, overcoming its fears of uncertainty and embracing technology, takes the next step into the great unknown. - [Comment on this review](https://anilist.co/activity/345045164)

Juliko25

If you're one of those people who really likes to study the nitty-gritty of animation, like key animators or in-between animators, you've probably come across the name Mitsuo Iso. Mitsuo Iso is an animator who started out working for Studio Ghibli as a key animator (The process of which is explained in [Eleven Arts' twitter thread here](https://twitter.com/ELEVEN_ARTS/status/1385749058086744066)). Iso worked on various animation cuts for Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, Porco Rosso, Perfect Blue, and even some fights in the End of Evangelion movie. He even did animation for the very first Digimon movie! In 2007, he created his own original anime called Dennou Coil which, while not necessarily a mainstream hit, is considered an underrated masterpiece. I haven't seen Dennou Coil, but I plan to one of these days (HIDIVE, why'd you have to take it off?!). But after Dennou Coil, Mitsuo Iso didn't try to make other projects since then, as apparently even back in 2007, corporations were apprehensive about creating completely original anime, especially anything not based on an existing source like a manga or light novel. But just this year, Iso made a comeback with a very ambitious set of movies called Orbital Children, which just dropped on Netflix. Fans of his work were excited, and since I found it was only going to be six episodes, I figured this would be a good time killer. I'm not normally into heavy sci-fi stuff, especially if they're filled with a lot of technobabble that flies right over my head (Keep in mind, I'm a 28-year-old woman), but I'm a sucker for good animation and well-developed characters, and Iso apparently did both with Dennou Coil, so maybe Orbital Children would turn out great! ...Yeah, I have ___words___ for this. In case you couldn't tell, I didn't like Orbital Children. And I really wanted to like it! It even had a great start! In the year 2045, space travel, AI, and technological advancements are commonplace, and the most recent scientific marvel are children born on the moon, though their lifespan is shortened due to some snags. One day, a group of kids win a contest and get to go to a space settlement to meet the children born on the moon. Unfortunately, a rogue comet hits the settlement, trapping them in space. Although the kids don't quite get along at first due to Touya's insufferable nihilism about humanity, they're going to have to work together if they even have a sliver of a chance of surviving. But this is really an oversimplification of things...mainly because one of Orbital Children's biggest flaws is that it tries to tell a really, really huge story in the span of just six episodes, and it really doesn't work. For one, technobabble and exposition is just dumped on you in literally every single episode, almost non-stop, giving you very little time to even process one concept it introduces before moving on to the next one within two seconds. And this series has a LOT of ideas: Intergalactic terrorist groups, AI comets, moon children, some mystical space prophecy, AI drones, the list goes on! There's just so much this show covers in the span of six episodes, and because they're just thrown at us at a breakneck pace, they're all unable to be really fleshed out, and I couldn't have cared less about them because the show would rather overload my brain with all the concepts and ideas it throws into a blender. Episode 4 in particular is guilty of this, as it just throws concepts at you over, and over, and over, with seemingly no end in sight, making it a real slog to go through! But surely the characters can carry a story like this, right? Well...sort of, at first. Honestly, none of the characters other than Touya get fleshed out beyond one basic character trait they have. Mina in particular is just a social media obsessed teen who's way more focused on getting clout than, y'know, actually giving a shit about her situation, even as she gets locked in a space chamber and nearly dies from lack of oxygen! She does make for great comic relief and has some great funny faces, but that's really all she's good for. None of the other characters have much to their name, and even one of the villains who gets revealed later doesn't do much other than spout a bunch of philosophical babble about some space prophecy she's obsessed with. Konoha is little more than the wise, sickly waif who's there to spout philosophical rhetoric before possibly dying beautifully, and the adults don't do much except worry about the kids. To be fair, I actually did like Touya's progression through the series. He starts off as an insufferable, edgy misanthrope who believes Earth-born humans are inferior to moon people and that they should all die, but changes his worldview throughout the series and becomes nicer at the end. Though I wouldn't blame anyone for dropping the show because of him alone. True to form, the animation is definitely the highlight of Orbital Children, with bright colors, detailed backgrounds, well-integrated CGI, and fluid movement typical of Iso's pedigree. The OST is nice too, if not very memorable. However, other than those two things, and Touya's development, everything else about Orbital Children is a mess. Like I mentioned before, the story is supposedly about space kids overcoming disasters and getting back home to Earth, but most of the meat in this show is taking up by overly pretentious technobabble and philosophical waxing that doesn't get utilized beyond blatant plot conveniences and Deus Ex Machinas to get out of whatever corners the writers wrote themselves into. We never get a sense of what the characters are like beyond their immediate situations because the show refuses to explore them in favor of, yet again, pretentious science and philosophy that's only shoved in there to make the series seem deeper than it actually isn't. Say what you will about something like, say, Astra: Lost In Space, but I feel that show did a better job of telling the story about kids trapped in space and trying to get back to Earth, because it knew to keep that as the focus, and gave a shit about fleshing out its characters, even if it didn't always succeed. Basically, Orbital Children bit off way more than it could chew and suffered as a result. Also, one another thing: Episode 5, did you SERIOUSLY feel the need to shove in a scene where a child accidentally gropes an older woman's boob?! And right in the middle of what's supposed to be a tense, suspenseful scene, at that?! Whose idea was it to throw that in there?! Because shoehorning horny comedy into a serious scene does not fucking work!! It did nothing to further the story, completely broke the tension, and was absolutely unnecessary! It's almost like someone felt scared that nobody would give Orbital Children the time of day unless they put in one scene of a woman's boobs getting grabbed! "Hurr durr, nobody's gonna like this on its own merits, so let's throw in a kid groping an older woman! Heehee, that'll bring in viewers!" IT WILL NOT!! You could cut out that scene and absolutely nothing would be lost! If anything, it'd make the entire episode better because there wouldn't be out-of-place horny humor to kill the tension in what's supposed to be a very serious, tense sequence of kids about to die out in space!! Seriously, why is this even a trend?! The whole boob groping gag needs to fucking die forever!! Okay, that's enough of my angry soapbox. Sorry Mitsuo Iso, I really wanted to like this, and you've made a lot of great things. But Orbital Children is not one of them. Had it cut out a bunch of the useless technobabble and pretentious philosophical bullshit and focused on maybe one or two of the concepts it introduced, it would have been much better. I wanted to care about these dumbass kids and root for them, but I just couldn't. There are reasons why I normally don't gravitate towards hard sci-fi anime, and Orbital Children was definitely a reminder of that. If you like Orbital Children, cool, more power to you, and if the show being on Netflix will get Iso more attention, or even allow him to make more original anime, that's great! Iso has gone on record saying that he had to fight tooth and nail just to get Dennou Coil created, and I'll always have respect for creative people who will fight to the death to make sure their creations are not only made, but seen, even in an incomplete form, no matter what obstacles they had to face and compromises they had to make. We all know what happened with Stars Align. But as far as original projects go, Orbital Children is absolutely not the best Iso has to offer, and probably wasn't the best way for me to get introduced to his directorial work. If you like hard sci-fi, feel free to check it out, but if you're not into lots of exposition dumps, philosophical ramblings, and over-the-top sci-fi that overloads you're brain, give it a miss.

heychrisfox

Delightful! Orbital Children takes inspirations from some of the best sci-fi narratives in the industry, and dilutes it into something fresh and unique. This series really wears its inspirations on its sleeve. It's a little bit _Interstellar_, a little bit _Gravity_, and a little bit of _Her_ all wrapped up into one complete package. img(https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_iYBIZEuHMzkvpQq1JFiCtodZT4=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x480/filters:focal(807x387:1113x693)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70467917/01_The_Orbital_Children_main.0.jpg) The best part about Orbital Children is its pacing. Lots of people complain about this, and I can't fathom why. Orbital Children has a very brisk pace, at only half the episodes of a normal anime. Because of this, it stays quite focused on its core premises. It's a bit of an survival story, followed by an action romp, and then explores some deeper philosophical concepts. This does mean the core story is fairly derivative; you've seen these stories before elsewhere, and probably have seen them done more competently. But originality is dead, and blending these concepts isn't something I've ever seen before. So the bravery of the show to try to tackle all these concepts at once is ambitious and interesting. img(https://animecorner.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/FKE9DqnacAMhIZ6.jpg) A better criticism is whether it explores these concepts well. And that's to be debated. The survival and action portions of the show are well done in my opinion. They use legitimate science fiction concepts to explore the ideas in the early portions of the show. Although they take a lot of liberties (this is more science fantasy), I appreciated a lot of the little details that other shows might miss: lots of logical talk of trajectories, gravity, pressurization, and more are all nice touches, especially in anime, which really enjoys hand-waving more scientific concepts. Because it doesn't take itself too seriously, it also means the scenes are fun. It's neat to see the kids solving puzzles for their own survival; it really feels like the deck is stacked against them any time a new problem emerges, and either by dumb luck, smart thinking, or good teamwork, they're always able to pull through to the next challenge. It really makes you as a viewer root for them as a group. The show falters on its more complex and philosophical notions. Part of this comes from the concept itself. It wants to explore these deeper ideas of AI, sentience, and thought beyond the human consciousness; however, it also wants to explore ideas like God, fate, and purpose. These are really awesome ideas, and they were entertaining throughout Orbital Children's runtime. But you can definitely feel that the screenwriters were struggling a bit on how to accurately express "11th dimensional thinking." The complexity of these more complicated topics which you would see in something like Interstellar slip here; whereas Interstellar focuses its entire premise on these broader philosophical goals, Orbital Children has a much more limited time frame to explore the same ideas, and it shows in the delivery. There's a lot more hand-waving, stunted screenwriting, and slimmer resolutions to issues than I would have liked. It feels like characters lose a lot of agency around the climax, and that a lot of what ends up happening is no longer really in their control. It's still entertaining, but especially when the entire series up until the final bit is built around a team of quirky kids scraping by, the ending can feel like a jarring change of process. img(https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*UqN5XyCE1LFxm8fgwuzQkg.jpeg) That doesn't mean it's not entertaining though, or that the exploration wasn't sufficient. Beyond the slightly vague ending, it felt like the show said everything it wanted to say. The only struggles on display are what the show wants to be. Does it want to be a cute sci-fi featuring anime kids? Cool. Does it want to be a fun action romp in space? Cool. Does it want to be a philosophical musing? Cool. The problem is it tries to do all these things at once. It sticks the landing, in a way that many of its peers are unable to do, but it's fair to say that you could get a deeper experience if it focused on one of these higher-brow concepts more than one of the others. It spreads itself too thin; a piece of toast with a thin layer of jelly is still tasty, but it does leave you yearning for a little bit more. img(https://occ-0-3211-56.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/9pS1daC2n6UGc3dUogvWIPMR_OU/AAAABYwgqBDaBZxpj5DeAahOGSS9zRx_9X7Gw0P-jr-gh-_cZPi2DsKQtyUJKNELn1aNusKvNclDHe59vzoefmMrK1jfOwG6Uz1XTTRcI8tE8vUV6ehkBzx9LPFd.jpg?r=fcb) Overall though, Orbital Children is criminally underrated. It's definitely worth the time, especially because it respects the viewer and doesn't waste any time getting to all its diverse points. It says what it needs to in half the time, does so adequately, and remains entertaining throughout. You can't ask for much more from a piece of media.

GreenRevue

Well. Lots good, lots bad, and lots missing. Feels like a rushed Dennou Coil. Plus Orbital Children has several added issues Iso's first original anime did not have, namely some aspects of the very end I found eye-rolling, a few mildly irritating references to his former work, and the obnoxious streamer character Mina (I do appreciate the pun, but not the annoying vocal execution of it, or the eye-rolling character writing of Mina). The breathing room of Iso's former work is missing, the time to properly build up the mystery is missing, the slice of life antics that properly utilise technological integration within the world is missing, and the more in-depth characterisation is missing. It also retains the biggest issue I had with Dennou Coil, exposition and technobable, yet missing those extras is what is the problem, because these harder to deal with aspects are then not diluted, not spread out enough to sink in, to form part of a mystery, to work. If this had been longer than six episodes, which I don't doubt Iso would've wanted, then I imagine a lot (but not all) of my issues with it could've been dealt with. Ultimately, I still enjoyed this. I was able to follow along with the exposition and technobabble well enough, possibly because of previous experience on Dennou Coil, it basically just formed part of the pacing for me, and I was easily able to discern what was and wasn't important and what I needed to remember. It was also very well animated, and had cool colour design. Importantly it definitely had some extremely interest sci-fi world building and utilisation, and some intriguing philosophical musings based on its high concept ideas, especially at the end in places (even if some of the philosophising still fell flat for me, and some felt a tad cliche). I had a good time with this. Anyways. You want high concept sci-fi shenanigans? Dennou Coil has that, but better, more spread out, and linked to it's great mystery aspect running throughout. You want better character writing than the mostly plain writing here? Dennou Coil has you very much covered there. You want breathing room and slice of life aspects to be able to fully take in the science fiction world and see its implications on more day to day aspects and so on? Dennou Coil aces that in its first half and some later individual episodes. So yeah. I enjoyed this, because what others took issue with in terms of exposition, I was able to deal with pretty well, and I found the overall concepts and ending ideas and philosophies interesting (but not all of them). However, there are way too many issues for me to have enjoyed this any more than a 7. But I did like it. So. Watch Dennou Coil. https://anilist.co/anime/2164/Dennou-Coil/

jahver

The Orbital Children is a long-awaited misfire from Mitsuo Iso, the sublimely passionate and creative writer behind Dennou Coil, an underrated classic in terms of mid-2000s scifi anime. Orbital Children takes a great deal of inspiration from its predecessor, which somehow ends up being one of its weakest points; it feels like a heavily degraded version of the show people love. Nearly every aspect of The Orbital Children feels shallow and pretentious, although this could mainly be blamed on the length (or lack thereof) of this anime. Dennou Coil had a fully realised world, likeable and nuanced characters and themes that were explored over a 26-episode storyline, while Orbital Children is a theatrical release (or a 6-episode anime if you watched it on Netflix). It’s understandable that a feature-length anime film lacks the burgeoning plot of a two cour television series, but Orbital Children is 3 hours long, and it makes almost no use of that inflated running time. The story is simple: a bunch of generic, annoying self-inserts get stuck on a space station that’s been sabotaged by unknown forces, and they have to work together to escape. None of them progress past being cardboard archetypes for children to self-insert into; rather, they just get more baffling and uninteresting as the show moves on, culminating in an ending that takes wish fulfillment to a new level. Touya is one of the strangest main characters possible for a show like this; he’s nihilistic and cold towards Earth’s humans because he believes they all consider cybernetically enhanced space-born humans a waste of resources, and through some gap in logic he wants to program an artificial intelligence to move past its technological limitations and wipe out the planet. Essentially, he’s Char Aznable but not cool. He gets less irritating later but still radiates preteen angst up until the finale. He gets stuck on the damaged space station with his psychic best friend, a fucking tiktok girl and her easily impressionable brother, and Taiyou, who is the most annoying character in the entire show and an excuse for United Nations propaganda (which still exists in the future for some reason). There are adult characters but none of them have much of an impact on the story outside the incredibly obvious, unthreatening strawman antagonist whose motivations are entirely decided by “it’s prophecy, it doesn’t have to make sense!” which doesn’t make for a compelling adversary, especially when the reveal, 99% of their character development and their death happens in the span of a single episode. There’s also some senile dude in a mascot suit. I think they were aping Pino from Ergo Proxy but I can’t be sure. The Orbital Children tries to tackle futuristic dilemmas such as the nature and evolution of artificial intelligence, space colonization, and humanity’s need to curb their own progress with all the introspection and self-awareness of a fax machine. 99% of the dialogue during “philosophical” scenes is pseudointellectual babbling that amounts to absolutely nothing and comes to a total of zero conclusions about any of these quandaries. There is no wisdom being dispensed here; instead the writing team just wanted to stuff as much fruitless dialogue into the script as possible to sound intelligent so people will go “Wow! It’s just like Evangelion!” which the show actually tries ripping off in the last 20 minutes with an absurdly tryhard ending that would have been profound if anyone involved with the writing of this series knew what the fuck they were talking about. Instead of being like Dennou Coil, which knew when to space things out and keep viewers attention spans, Orbital Children is full scenes of characters spouting their ideologies at each other in the most lifeless way possible. The entire series feels lifeless, as a matter of fact, and I’m not sure what happened. Iso’s input was great in Dennou Coil; we got a feel for the world through the way it was framed, through the energy and color of the series. Maybe it was the 15 year span between the two series, but Orbital Children feels largely like it was put together dispassionately; characters are constantly off-model, the direction and cinematography are bland and colorless and even the soundtrack hardly anything special. Within the first episode I counted at least 10 shots being repeated within the same 3 minute scene with little to no variation. It was just shot reverse shot every time someone spoke for the entire slog of a first episode. Iso is talented, no doubt, but Orbital Children feels like it was something he either worked on out of necessity or something that was completely butchered during production, which seems to be the more likely candidate (14 pages of storyboards were apparently cut from the second half of the show). Even Iso’s attention to detail seems to be missing; how does a man renowned for being so meticulous and passionate about science fiction forget that fires can’t start in space? Half the series feels like nonsense. Rather than a calculated, insightful anime about the near future we get talking AI space rocks, drones firing digital lasers at each other and literal fucking magic for some reason. And I know Dennou Coil leaned into pseudoscience at times, but it felt natural because of the setting. It even managed to inspire real-life breakthroughs in virtual reality because of just how well-conceptualized and intuitive it was. The Orbital Children lacks that kind of prescience. I have to make the assumption that Netflix had a hand in turning the series into the final product we have, because it doesn’t feel right. It feels like something groundbreaking could’ve come from this series, but it was curbed and turned into something safe like the artificial intelligence in the show itself. There’s something strangely ironic about that.

Popka

The announcement of The Orbital Children was something I had been hoping to hear for almost 10 years, but didn't expect. While Iso has had many prominent roles in production, there were many times he had to leave ideas by the wayside. Maybe this is why Dennou Coil, my favorite anime series, feels almost overstuffed. It's a rare fully-realized, original work from Iso. From the beginning, it slams you with made-up words, strange and suggestive imagery, and clashing factions of characters. The first half of the show is exploratory and loosely focused, while the second half is a string of connected crises that follow up on what happened in the first half. Coil follows children left to their own devices with advanced technology. They have a whole culture around how the technology works, complete with urban legends, ways of settling disputes, and even a form of currency. Their involvement with this culture expands their horizons. They have new ways of forming relationships and changing the balance of power between the people in their lives. But the older generation, save for a few expert computer scientists, don't understand how the children are using the technology. When they become concerned that it might be dangerous, they cut it off completely, making no attempt to salvage the value they can't perceive. Most of the children have yet to face real problems in their lives, but a couple of them already have. The show's main character tries to befriend them, not knowing at first about the burdens they carry. The more she engages with the culture and acts independently, the more she begins to realize how serious things can get. But instead of recoiling, she finds she wants to use her newly-learned agency to help however she can. The long and roundabout path the show takes to this point, immersing her and us in a culture of children who autonomously use their creativity, makes it all the more convincing. The Orbital Children has a lot in common with Dennou Coil, but is less than a quarter the length. It was released in Japan as two feature films, and released internationally as a six-episode Netflix series. At many points it becomes a torrent of information about how its world works, and much of it is important to remember later. We are often suddenly asked to understand new concepts and major expansions of scope. It sometimes feels like it's going too fast and sometimes stalls for its volumes of exposition. Iso began writing not with the plot structure or story concept, but with the ideas drawn from initial research he wanted to expand upon. It takes place in 2045 aboard the space station Anshin, which doubles as a prototype space hotel and a home for Touya and Konoha, the only living children to have been born on the moon. The other children born on the moon died in infancy, but Touya and Konoha were saved by brain implants designed by "Seven," the most powerful artificial intelligence ever created. Seven's inventions were so advanced that no human yet understands how they work. Touya and Konoha can't live under Earth's gravity, so they remain in space to receive treatment for conditions caused by low gravity and complications from the implants. A doctor named Nasa Houston is in charge of their treatment, but Touya, a prodigious hacker, also takes it upon himself to figure out how to fix the implants. It begins with the Anshin preparing to open for business. Mina, Hiroshi, and Taiyou are all invited to the Anshin to be the first guests of its facilities designed specifically for children. Touya, as the most famous space-born child, is meant to play a part in the proceedings, but they have trouble getting him to cooperate because of his disdain for "Earthers." He finds them ignorant and blames them for having neglected him and Konoha. He's also exposed to a great deal of hatred on the internet from people who resent the government spending money to keep him and Konoha alive. The most common complaints I've read about The Orbital Children are that the script is clunky, the characters are uninteresting or annoying, and that it moves at a weird pace. I think it's interesting that Mina is the character most people find annoying, for displaying typical behavior of a teenager using the internet. You ever think maybe it's OK for people to be a little cringe when they're not hurting anyone? The annoying one is Taiyou, for being an insensitive little hall monitor. In any case, the major complaints are that it's awkward and messy. Not something that usually bothers me, and also something you could say about Dennou Coil. I didn't care then, either. What we see of the futuristic culture depicted in The Orbital Children is where it least resembles Dennou Coil. In Dennou Coil, the kids blended modern screen culture with cyber equivalents of shamans, sorcerers, and cryptozoologists. Most of what The Orbital Children shows us consists of analogs of things that exist in real life. The characters use recognizable social media and have livestreams or blogs. (Maybe Dennou Coil avoided this because it released only a year after Twitter launched.) There are only two cultural phenomena that are important to the story, and one of them is wholly familiar: rampant misinformation and hostility on the internet. The other one, however, is stranger. Years before the film's events, the "Lunatic Seven" incident occurred. The Seven AI went out of control, causing accidents with thousands of casualties. It drastically increased its own intelligence and composed a long prophecy that came to be known as the "Seven Poem." The Poem claimed, for unknown reasons, that humanity would not survive unless 36% of its population was wiped out. Seven was destroyed shortly after this. It's implied that interest in Lunatic Seven and the Seven Poem is a fringe aspect of The Orbital Children's world, rather than part of mainstream culture. Most people think the Seven Poem is vague nonsense, but there are a few people who study it religiously. This element is why I appreciate The Orbital Children's culture being closer to reality than that in Dennou Coil. Touya is a blackhat and a conspiracy theorist. The film offers up both mainstream and fringe perspectives on its world. You can see it all as a genuine, if inchoate, attempt to create something new for children, or you can see it as superficial corporate niceties that mask the real possibility of disaster. There are people who embody both views. The space station staff really are invested in the well-being of the children for more than just legal or economic reasons. You can see it in the little hearts Nasa draws on their medicine bottles, and it's the only explanation for Touya's uncharacteristic respect for the old man who operates the station's mascot. On the other hand, the space station is underequipped with safety measures and built with cut corners. The instruments of other businesses—comets being pulled into orbit to make bottled water—threaten to knock it out of the sky. Again, the show moves awkwardly in fits and starts. But it goes hand-in-hand with the coexistence of honest work and neglect. Both are part of the experience of confronting an overwhelming world. People with good intentions discover intractable problems and unexpected frictions, while cynical or detached actors who don't bother trying to internalize everything can proliferate. The Orbital Children is basically a disaster film. This means it uses its convoluted setting as an excuse to have many things go wrong. But the setting's complexity also helps the characters: the crisis doesn't totally cut off their access to technology, which they use quite naturally in their effort to survive. A lot of the solutions they need involve software in addition to hardware, which is largely where the kids have their strong suits. When they lose internet connection, Taiyou and Touya are able to establish P2P connections that let them retain some control of the space station. This isn't presented in a flashy way, nor are the little details of how the Anshin is designed for disability access. Here the film does resemble Dennou Coil, in which kids who were skilled hackers had ways of asserting themselves against bullies who could otherwise threaten them physically. In Dennou Coil, virtual constructs exist alongside solid objects via augmented reality technology. Though The Orbital Children borrows a lot of imagery from Dennou Coil, it doesn't feature anything like this. That said, The Orbital Children's world is clearly shaped by the ubiquity of smart technology just as much as Dennou Coil's is. The Anshin's amenities are compact in form but complex in function. It's colorful, partly because there's branding plastered everywhere, and information is readily available. Its images generally don't have the same elegiac power of Dennou Coil's best moments, but it has more to show us in less time. All that said, what draws me most about The Orbital Children is the simple fact that Touya is a compelling character. His behavior toward Earthers is immature and petty, but it isn't just him lashing out because of his age, his health, or his lack of a social life. Despite his hostile expression and despite the many good reasons for it, on some level he's an incurable optimist who believes not only in his own abilities, but others'. This is something about him that remains intact as he opens up more and brightens his attitude. It's implicit both when he brags about breaking the law, and when he unhesitatingly risks his own life, multiple times, to save Konoha's. It's what keeps the story moving forward. Looking back, we can see that even the "edgelord" hacker we met at the beginning was a hopeful, compassionate person, despite random strangers wishing death on him. Sci-fi has a bad tendency of celebrating the creativity and resilience of humanity in a facile way, but both The Orbital Children and Dennou Coil represent the best of sci-fi optimism. They see what things we could do with technology, and imagine specific ways in which people in need might display ingenuity in using new technology to support themselves. They also see the messiness of new cultures forming and the potential cruelty of people toward each other. What they suggest is not that the indomitable human spirit can and will overcome anything, but that those who take it upon themselves to try to make things better will find that their efforts are worth it. Aside from people I know well, I don't know who I would recommend The Orbital Children to. Like I said, a lot of people find it messy and annoying. But I like it when artworks are awkward and overstuffed, and even the most elegant of the works I love have ways of creating other off-kilter sensations. My reasons for disliking an artwork are normally limited to finding it cynically made, rote, or insulting to the viewer's intelligence. If I had a complaint about The Orbital Children, it would be that the ending wraps everything up a little too nicely. Times like this are why I don't think it could ever be my job to tell other people how to please themselves.