Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo

The following is an excerpt from the Deep Dive project:

The Orbital Children
Completed September 2022
ONA, 6 episodes
Recommended

The red ‘N’ of doom… doesn’t strike again? Well, that’s a pleasant surprise! For once netflix funded an anime that doesn’t suck.

Orbital Children is an interesting little six episode anime with a shocking amount to say in its movie-length runtime. Well, supposedly the show was originally released as a two part movie in Japan, which makes perfect sense given the pacing and structure of the anime. As such, I advise finishing this ONA in two sittings as was intended. I didn’t, but it’s probably a good idea so the ... pacing doesn’t get butchered any harder than it already has been.
Anyone who views this show will immediately draw parallels between Orbital Children and every other big budget anime film released in the last decade; the structure is similar and the pacing is once again slow and barely passable. The narrative is acceptable but nothing special and does indeed contain a few minor plotholes. Characters would be okay as side characters but aren’t nearly developed enough to be good lead C’s. All in all the whole production side of things seems pretty mediocre.

That is where the similarities start to dry up, however. Orbital Children is ridiculously well animated at certain parts. Even when the scene is more about the spectacle than the animation it is still impressive. Animation and direction would get near-perfect marks if not for the scuffed budget CG used at times. Rarely does it look like it belongs and even more rarely does it look acceptably good. It’s a shame but by no means does it ruin the whole anime.
Overall this film (chopped up into an ONA) is easily recommended to viewers who like spectacle above all else. It is a visual medium, after all, and in that regard this anime is certainly a success. Orbital Children is a much harder sell to viewers who prefer well-written, well-executed anime productions. For those individuals, maybe give it the first episode to grab you or not.
Personally I appreciated the interesting themes and duct-tape-and-spit world building, but would have liked the script to be more polished to better match the sweet visuals.

For recommendations, well, that’s a pretty tough shot since the themes are so unique in Orbital Children. High-level feature length anime films are probably a good start if you haven’t seen them already. For everyone else, Knights of Sidonia will likely be a good watch, if you can tolerate CG anime. The world building is decent in that show and it doesn’t fall into the same pitfalls with its writing and pacing. For a grittier cyberpunk take, go for Psycho Pass season 1. It’s a damn good anime all around. Finally, taking a step in a different direction, mecha fans should try Break Blade, six episode OVA version. It’s a long time favorite of mine and the world building is similar but kicks things up a notch. Good hunting, you netflix-anime-viewing maniacs.

Pretty entertaining, immature some moments but mature at others, there’s some interesting moments and events that happened, the characters are interesting,
I’m not a fan of the art style though. And this anime is pretty
forgettable and just not memorable or meaningful enough.
There’s some weird and wacky stuff at the end though
that made me go “oh wow that sure is happening right now. How and why is the possible I don’t know I’m lost and just can only hope there’s a good ending for the characters I cared about because I’m not interested in skynet and their 2012 plans.”

Entertaining I suppose but I don’t know if ... I would recommend this.

English.
I don't know if it has happened to you that there is a series which starts very badly but as the episodes progress it improves, well that's what happens with this series, if you get past the first 4 episodes you may like the rest and I think that's the biggest problem with the series, you necessarily have to overcome 4 episodes for it to start to get good, it is not a story that deepens its characters but it is quite entertaining after those 4 episodes.
The animation is fine, it is neither good nor bad, I think it is a standard animation in the ... anime genre, the characters are only important, 2 of the young people and the nurse, from then on the others are useless or may not contribute nothing to the plot just his presence.
The truth is that I don't think there is anything else to highlight about the series, finally I will say that it is not worth it because you have to watch almost more than half of the series for it to start to get good and I think that is a great Negative point (I know I said it before but it's to emphasize my point), if you get past it you will find a pretty decent story but nothing more.

Español.
No sé si les ha pasado qué hay una serie la cual empieza muy mal pero mientras van avanzando los episodios va mejorando, bueno pues eso pasa con está serie, si súperas los primeros 4 episodios puede que lo demás te guste y ese es creo el mayor problema de la serie, necesariamente tienes que superar 4 episodios para que empiece a ponerte buena está, no es una historia la cual profundice en sus personajes pero si es bastante entretenida después de esos 4 episodios.
La animación esta bien no es ni buena ni mala creo que es una animación estándar en el género del anime, los personajes solo son importantes 2 de los jóvenes y la enfermera, de ahí en adelante los demás no sirven para nada o puede que no aporten nada a la trama solo su presencia.
La verdad creo que ya no queda nada más a destacar de la serie, por último diré que no vale tanto la pena porque tienes que ver casi más de la mitad de la serie para que se empiece a poner buena y eso creo que es un gran punto negativo (sé que ya lo dije antes pero es para recalcar mi punto), si lo superas te encontrarás una historia bastante decente pero nada más.