The Orbital Children

Crua9 Feb 1, 2022

9.5

This is one of the few anime that is worth while that Netflix has made so far. As someone with an space background and that worked with NASA. I find much of the space stuff in general to be interesting and I never heard of a concept of having nano bots around a commet to control where the commet goes. That is highly interesting. But as someone who also has a background in technology (network engineering) I found there basic understanding of networks after the AI comes is .... well stupid. But prior to that it was pretty good. The overall story is interesting, but sadly i don't think we will get a season 2. The story doesn't really set it up to allow for such a thing.

ToBeAFan Feb 13, 2022

8

I almost dropped this show during the first episode, but I am glad I didn't! There is a lot of terms used that aren't explained at first, which made things confusing, but as you stick with it, things get explained more and more. It is very meta and (at least to me) something that seems like not far off from what could happen in the future. Really enjoyed the character development along the way as well.

Aetherloutz Jan 29, 2022

7

Its been some time since netflix realized the potential of making animes of its own. Successfull works like castlevania opened a flow of high budget anime with teams of ultimost pedigree and orbital children is its lastest shot. directed by Mitsuo Iso who has a pretty long resume as key animator of many great works like flcl, cowboy bebop movie and mostly notably evangelion. Orbital children is a tale about utilitarism, progress  who deoesnt shy to integrate all the elements of our century in its despection of the near future. Everithing is smart, everything is conected and social midia values have central spotlight in this tale, and its works pretty well for most part. Animation/Sound:There is nothing anyone could complain here, the art is gourgeous, the use of CGI is perfect. When it comes to visual MItsuo is a master. There is some really beatifull takes specially in the beggining and in the end. The inside of the space station reminded me a lot of cowboy bebop's stations even if the rulling reference is completely diferent. the visual is enough to justify watching it. There is nothing as noteworth when it comes to sound, but it does its job without any problem.Story:Its not the most original tale, but lets face this is not really a problem when it comes to anime, speacieally one this short. Ita carries the same themes as evangelion and Den-Noh: tecnology, progress  human evolution and the price that comes with them. But with rather positive eyes on it. So dont worry you wont get another great yet depressing trip to the future like bebop or evangeliont. The biggest shortcoming is that action scenes with hacking  are not near as fun as action scenes with guns or giant robots. characters:Here is where everything falls apart, for a anime with so many modern elements orbital children carries some rather ancient character archtypes. The MC might not be as anoying as Shinji, but has close to negative charisma i would actually say he is worse, since at least Shinji made you care, cuz either you simpathize with him or hate him. I coudnt give a damm about Orbital MC or his motivations, nor the rest of the cast, that barelly do anything noteworth for most of the show.  The dinamic between the MC and its rival its what makes a bit of character tension through the show but its not that great since everyone exist solely as plot devices to make the MC shine and since he is boring that doesnt really work. The younger boy pretty much serves no purpose you could erase him and it wont make any diference,  one of the girls is a plot device for the MC, the other is a weak comic relief. This lat one is the biggest waste, the political influence of social midia is a hot topic and could be explored through her, making her  meaningfull on the plot context yet she is just a futile girl who wants likes, that flaw made me loose a lot of interest in the most important parts of the end i would have droped if it was longer. Funny thing is that the only one who is not one dimensional is the antagonist who blends genuine care and good intentions with a cruel utilitarism.veredict:even with its pedigree  orbital children is not a legendary anime, not even one of the great anime of the season. But its totally worth its 6 ep. Even with its shortcomings on characters the solid execution makes it a decent watch. It has visual, it has some nice reflections. On a side note i just wonder why anime never calls stuff by its name, why never adress utilitarism by name, why defend humanism while never stating that you are defending humanism. but i digress. Go and watch you wont regret but no need to rush or get overly excited with this anime.