Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo

Tl;Dr:

"The Orbital Children" is a high-stakes adventure among the stars. A refreshing take on the disaster movie, TOC regularly introduces well-crafted conflicts 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~

***

"Mindblown." 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. 3… 2… 1… we have liftoff!

"Houston, we have a problem." 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. Series creator 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" 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", 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's debut studio effort does a capable job, thanks to capable 2D animation and compositing. 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. 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."

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. 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.

***

Phew, that was a fun trip. Thanks for joining me! If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present, peace~

Set in the near-future, Orbital Children focuses on a trio of Earth children brought upon a commercial space station to meet Touya Sagami, a young boy who is the first of a number of children born in space undergoing physical therapy on the space colony to adapt to Earth's gravity. However, a collision with a comet leads the computer systems on the space station to malfunction, leaving the children having to figure out a means on their own how to survive without adult assistance.

The animation style and story focus on children and technology for Orbital Children may look familiar to those who have seen or ... heard about the 2007 anime, Dennou Coil. This is because both are directed by Mitsuo Iso, who is well known for his unique style of animation that emphasizes dense motion while working with simplistic-looking character designs. The animation style works effectively to convey the complicated movement of drones, gravity, and orbital vehicles aboard the space station that Touya and others deal with throughout the series, though the look of the character and mechanical designs may take getting used to for some folks looking for visuals that are a bit more detailed or elaborate considering this is a sci-fi title set within in a near-futuristic setting.

For the technological adventure with children in this series, Orbital Children explores interactions with artificial intelligence as the space station staff rely on AI within drones to aid in their operations. AI within the series have restrictions in place with their capabilities to prevent them from becoming too smart and potentially becoming a threat to humanity, a story element that becomes relevant in later episodes of the ONA as far as the issues facing the children and adult space station crew go. The series shows the different paths that can occur when AIs come to different conclusions about the humans they serve as they acquire different levels of understanding on the complexities of humanity.

The adventure in the series has its equal share of engaging story and character developments that drive the children and adults aboard the space station. While attempting to find the means to survive in space, the characters also come to learn more about the mysterious comet that collided with the space station and some shocking facts revealed about some major characters aboard. The series does a convincing job creating genuine and believable suspense out of the ordeals faced by the children as they deal with risky situations in their adventure, including showing how each of the children react differently to their situation. Touya's character does undergo a good deal of character development throughout the series as he learns to get over his prejudice toward humans from Earth and grasping the reality of what his thoughts on Earth have for him.

In short, Orbital Children carries the same engaging qualities that got me to enjoy Dennou Coil with their focus on interactions children have with technologies and getting into an adventure involving them to some capacity. The story here does have some bigger stakes compared to Dennou Coil as the children here are in more risky, life-threatening situations. But the mix of adventure, exploration of its near-futuristic world, and character development still make it an engaging title I'd recommend sci-fi anime fans to check out.

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.

Really nice semi-hard science romp with a sci-fi tech upgrade. All of the characters who get fleshed out are endearing. Pretty much all of the setups pay off. And, as any good mystical sci-fi story should, it goes completely off the rails in the final act. Good times.

I don't have much to say about its themes, because it sums up to kind of a fantasy solution to climate change and those just can't move my shriveled heart as much as they used to. But the earthers and moon children learning to trust each other across their hostile culture gap was classic and fun, with "Dennou ... Coil"-esque robots there to spice it up further.

I think it's a mistake to read Seven's plan as Malthusian, though. Humans going to space to spread out more is an OK solution to "overpopulation" in a sci-fi setting (although, in real life, there is WAY MORE open space than people expect that could be used for denser housing). The caveat is that a space-faring humanity will need to have conquered the capitalist dragon before attempting anything like this. Space capitalism is what leads to "The Expanse". It leads to the suffering of untold future billions. And, judging by the (obnoxious) fake product placement and the business structures mentioned at the end, this Earth has not done so. I hope things work out for them, I guess.

And, on the other hand, John Doe's plan is closer to Malthusianism, but only because they're so dead-set on following the prophecy. In effect, it raises the same dilemmas of Malthusianism, namely "who is the third of humanity you want to die? Is it the Black people? It's the Black people, isn't it?"

And although the overall aesthetic of the show's technology was cool, I'm sorry, but the "smart" panels that they use are just a disappointment. It's literally an iPhone on the back of their hand with no other evident improvements to the UI. Are we still to be beholden to the bad design decisions of Steve Fucking Jobs in 2045?

I do like me some "My God, it's full of stars" stuff, though.

Mina is an icon. Chase that bag.

Was an enjoyable 6 episode binge, with an interesting take on the whole "AI taking over the world" trope that didn't feel like all the other generic media on the topic. The characters were fun and interesting although it was slightly odd to me for children to be that intelligent, but now that I think about it most anime characters are 15-year-olds with the power to change the universe.

The animation was nice, the soundtrack was great and felt fitting to the sci-fi theme. I'm sure I could find problems with the anime if I was really picky about it, but I didn't feel like ... watching it was a waste of my time.

Science fiction anime, very good. The anime more than anything focuses on AI, artificial intelligence that is the main theme. I really liked anime, I use very interesting and current themes. The animation is very good, it is an anime of only 6 chapters and it does not need more to show you what it wants. The soundtrack accompanies the animation very well. The character design is kind of typical, but visually it's cute so I can't complain. I love how the anime environment is designed, that is very well treated. If you like science fiction you will love anime. It has a group of ... half cliche characters but it still works. I needed a good science fiction anime, I haven't seen something like this for a long time. I liked it, I highly recommend it because it only has 6 chapters and they are very good, easy to watch. Out there in the future something like what we see in this anime, we do not know remember the future is uncertain. The only thing we cannot change is the past.
En español:
Anime de ciencia ficcion, muy bueno. El anime mas que nada se centra en la ia, inteligencia artificial ese es el tema principal. Me gusto mucho el anime, uso temas muy interesantes, y actuales. La animacion es muy buena, es un anime de solo 6 capitulos y no necesita mas para mostrarte lo que quiere. La banda sonora acompaña muy bien a la animacion. El diseño de personajes es medio tipico, pero visualmente es lindo asi que no puedo quejar. Me encanta como esta diseñado el entorno del anime, es muy bien tratado eso. Si te gusta la cienecia ficcion te va a encantar el anime. Tiene un grupo de personajes medio cliche pero igualmente funciona. Necesitaba un buena nime d eciencia ficcion, hace mucho no veia algo asi. Me gusto, lo recomiendo mucho porque solo tiene 6 capitulos y son muy bueno, faciles de ver. Por ahi en un futuro nos depara algo como lo que vemos en este anime, no sabemos acuerdense el futuro es incierto. Lo unico que no podemos cambiar es el pasado.

The director did a great job at showing what a realistic fight between two children is like. This made the whole show and the relationship between the characters more real to me. While it may be irritating to some, I see it as watching a kid make friends for the first time and it was funny to watch and see how they attempt at it.

I was first drawn to the artwork. There was so much expression on each character and I personally like the style.

I also enjoyed the storyline quite a bit. I never got bored and had parts that made me burst out ... in laughter so overall I think this anime was a great watch!

Unexpectedly, Orbital Children felt like a Digimon movie, and that's a good thing, because whenever it dropped that impression and tried to tell a more serious story, it became quite grating to watch.

You have a handful of lively children, pretty much all outfitted with their own personal intelligent, talkative drone pet, trying to survive a hostile environment; digital code is a physical thing you can fight with drones going pew pew, and of course there's barely-explained pseudo-science galore, calling to mind classics like Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game! or Summer Wars. Orbital Children feels like a natural, more high-tech evolution of those worlds, both ... in general feeling and art style, and not to its detriment.
Now, I'm not 10 years old anymore, so of course I found it a bit harder to stomach some of the more... handwave-y science and questionable depictions of anything digital, as well as the utter incompetence displayed by any adult in the show. That alone would have been fine though, it's still fun in its basic, endearing "little kids save the world with their toys" kind of plot and would have been genuinely enjoyable all throughout if it had just stuck with that.

Sadly, Orbital Children was more ambitious than that and thought it could make some grand statements about the future of humanity, the nature of reality, the meaning of life and so on....and falls terribly short on all of it. It throws a bunch of smart-sounding pseudo-philosophical concepts at the viewer but doesn't seem to know itsself what to do with them.
It doesn't help that the audience never fully gains a frame of reference for the future painted by the show, because we barely ever learn anything about the background lore of this world. A few key events are brought up over time, but that's about it. It feels like getting dropped into the middle of a book for just a single chapter. Sure, by the end of the chapter you have a rough understanding of what happened during the scene and the characters appearing in it, but it's still rather unsatisfactory because you lack the context that should be surrounding it.

So, it's definitely a fun watch for anyone feeling a bit nostalgic for that early 2000s era of children digitally saving the world, as long as you can stomach the level of pseudo-science and philosophical wibble-wobble you have to get through for this :)

OK so i went into this anime TOALLY BLIND!! And i can say that- it's TOTALLY WORTH IT! Orbital Children made you want more every episode, plus it had surprising twists too! In the end i wouldn't say i have anything negative to say about this anime. It's interesting, fun to watch, it has comedy and it is exciting to say the least. The story was really interesting, because i couldn't predict the twists AT ALL! The characters were pretty well-rounded. A little more info never hurt tho. That is also why im not giving this anime a solid 10. The style of the anime ... is unique and i don't think i have seen many interesting space sci-fi animes out there these days. So i whole-heartedly recommend this anime.

Mosey out!
- Kris

I disliked the general chauvinist message of this series (that Japan is superior), and of course the capitalist outlines with hints at green washing. aka trying shift the blame on someone else, instead of the rich. Besides shifting the blame to others, it also has another lazy temporary fix.

Then again there was this whole philosophical message of how science is superior, and it asked the question whether the future is deterministic etc, etc. If I would go any deeper about it I would end up in spoiler territories.

So yeah, to keep it short: If you're interested about a sci-fi show without thinking too much ... about the complicated shit, then you will most likely enjoy it. Even with having not likened the general values presented in this series, I nonetheless had a great enjoyment, binge-watching it within hours.

Also the series was great in continuing my hatred for the behaviours of YouTubers.

This is why I gave it the score of around 8.5, rounded down to 8.

I put on this show on expecting a casual adventure series with some comedy, but was positively surprised when it turned out to be a much deeper (and intelligent) story about AI, humanity, and life itself.

While it may start out as a disaster movie with some annoying kids, it eventually turns into something that I can only describe as a beautiful and unique sci-fi story that aspires to be on the same level as Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I'm sure you can spend time breaking down flaws and opportunities for improvement, but honestly? The animation is really well done, the characters are decent, the ... story is extremely ambitious, this is a rare treat for an anime. At just 6 episodes it's definitely worth a watch to form your own opinion.

Story: 9
On the surface, it's a hard sci-fi disaster flick combined with AI rebellion. The space science/technology is done really (save for sound in a vacuum); artificial gravity is generated centrifugally in the space hotel that's the series' main setting. The most interesting part of this was the health issues with children being born in space that main character Touya needs to go through physiotherapy in order to withstand Earth and Mars-strength gravity because he was born on the moon. Also dealt with is the economic and societal issues with space migration; even in the futuristic 2045, sending manned missions up is expensive, together with ... the healthcare Touya receives, the show discusses the kind of discrimination that the space-born might face. We also get real-life space technology (both modern and vintage) featured like a recycled ISS module and a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The level of AI technology, however, is kind of too advanced so the sci-fi here isn't as hard as I wished it was. But one thing about the AI theme in this anime that is realistic is AI ethics; malice is not the source of most AI-related dangers, indifference and incompetence are; the AI doesn't know what it does is wrong, those designing the AI may have been negligent etc. So it's not really an "AI rebellion" like 2001 or Terminator, it's more broadly "AI gone wrong".

Aside from the STEM topics in this, it also has themes of theology and determinism. It might be a little out there for some people, but I didn't mind it.

To reiterate, it's clear that writers know the costs of space travel and the limitations of having children living in space. There are a lot of economic, social, environmental, and technological prerequisites that need to be considered before a mass migration into space. The comet disintegrating cooled the global temperature, Touya and Taiyou started up a venture to develop implants lower the hurdle for young people to live in space, and the construction of a space elevator makes transport up to LEO more efficient in the long run.

To many, its message perhaps comes off as preachy or misinformed. I can see where this comes from; the summary of the anime's viewpoint, that humans ruin Earth's environment therefore the solution is to move to space. But taking into account all the nuances in what individual characters say (especially in the epilogue), it's clear to me that alternate viewpoints to and technicalities within the anime's main viewpoint are considered.

The story isn't perfect, I didn't like how they kind of backpedalled on the theme of beating destiny, we were led to believe that Touya broke free from the deterministic Seven Poem but then there's a scene was along the lines of "even this happy ending was predicted", that combined with the "hard- sci-fi but not really", means I cannot give it a 10.

Art: 10
I was sold on this from the announcement that Kenichi Yoshida would be the character designer. This anime has one of the best uses of 3DCG and 2DCG in combination. It especially works in some memorable scenes like Bright and Dakky fighting inside the long padded interior of Anshin. How they dynamically fly inside Anshin is a spectacle to behold. 3DCG has a place in anime, and The Orbital Children is an example of one of those places.

Sound: 6
The sound design was not its strongest point.; from what I remember, we still heard sounds in the vacuum of space, which is a shame given the rest of the realistic detail. I had high hopes since avex is involved in the anime's music production but unfortunately, the background music and ending theme weren't really that memorable.

Character: 8
Some are insufferable at first, Touya just hates Earthers, Taiyou goes full cop and Mina's streaming obsession costs them time and air on the damaged space hotel. Konoha and Doc were sort of just there. (Doc being a yes-man for Touya). But Touya and Taiyou eventually get development. We learn the motivations behind Touya's angst and Taiyou's goody-two-shoes attitude. Both learn to put their differences aside. Nasa's character arc really had me on the edge of my seat. As for Mina, it's kinda frustrating watching an annoying streamer get off scot-free. 4/5 main cast are tolerable.

Enjoyment: 10
It has all the themes I generally like and the action scenes in zero-g were very fun to watch.

Overall: 8.6, rounds up to 9

If you saw Interstellar or 2001 A Space Odyssey and liked them, you'll probably find this amusing. Not great, but amusing.

If you saw Interstellar or 2001 A Space Odyssey and either disliked it, got bored, or hated the ending, you will not like this anime.

The Orbital Children is a Hard Sci-fi in the same tradition as a lot of space stories from the 60s/70s (see also, 2001, Rama, Ringworld, etc.), and is all about navigating a Big Dumb Object (it's a trope, look it up!) until they encounter and enter discourse with some kind of higher intelligence in the third act.

Most of the fun is ... derived from seeing the anime's take on near-future technical accuracy. The characters arrive in space on a rocket that's under development at the time of writing, discuss concepts any Kerbal Space gamer is quite familiar with, and reference parts of space history that any well-read geek would know about. The philosophy is derived, however, from a discussion about AI, which is less technical in its portrayal.

Where Orbital Children struggles is in its character writing. The characters remain tonally consistent in their dialogue throughout, but the author didn't seem to know how to make the majority of them properly grow or change with events, or had them on for set decoration. This means that when the show switches from Science-Adventure mode in Eps 1-3/4 to Science-Philosophy mode in the last two episodes, many characters are left without something to do, or perform actions inconsistent with how they've been acting up until that point.

The result of all of this is that, like its predecessors in the genre, Orbital children is an interesting show with a weird ending, which is fun for die-hard sci-fi fans, but off-putting to general audiences. I liked it and would watch it again if asked by someone else, but I don't see myself returning to it of my own accord or advertising it to other people.

Delightful! It 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Concisely, as a very big fan of Sci-Fi literature and movies in general, I was pleasantly surprised by this anime. As other reviewers has mentioned, I think it shows a very deep and detailed sense of worldbuilding, showcasing a realistic (read: believable) depiction of the near future of space travel. Especially in its depictions of engineering and local networking, it shows both creativity and adherence to previous works in the genre. It also touches upon some space-related philosophical dilemmas including transhumanism and humanity's perilous relationship with artificial intelligence.

If there's anywhere this anime falls short it would probably be in the characters department. This is above ... all a story driven through its setting, every plot element occurs simply to lead us to a new place in the space station, meaning there is little room for meaningful and diverse character interactions. As such, most of the characters can mostly be described as mostly straightforward archetypes, with some interesting spins such as a social media-obsessed skytuber. Another downside in the otherwise detailed worldbuilding is the comparably simplistic depiction of hacking. I also think some of the scifi concepts might be confusing to viewers not familiar with the genre (or subjects such as P2P networks), as some concepts are only briefly explained in passing or lampshaded. Still, for anime fans who are interested in scifi or space in general, I think this ONA will prove a worthwhile watch. It's nothing mindblowing, but the creator's love clearly shines through.

The Child Frontier.

Orbital Children is pretty good. A six-episode Netflix anime based on a light novel about children trying to escape a space station on a collision course with a meteorite is a concept I’m into and I’m glad to say that the overall show was pretty satisfying and enjoyable.

Production +h did a fantastic job on the presentation, making all the futurist gadgets and tech feel as authentic as possible. I personally really want one of the smart gloves which allows you to do anything as long as there’s an internet connection. The animation is crisp and pleasing to watch in motion, probably helped ... by the team's lowered work schedule thanks to this story only being six episodes.

The overall story presents some pretty interesting futurist concepts alongside all the gadgets and tech. The widespread use of and reliance on artificial intelligence, children being born and living in space to the point where they don’t identify themselves as “earthlings”, humanity looking to colonise the moon and more are put forward to the viewer and were made interesting, but logical enough to where you’d think “Yeah, that concept could be real in the future.”
However, the problem with the show only being six episodes is that a lot of the finer details related to the story are either touched upon briefly or are too densely delivered to take in which does make this a hard show to just binge through. A lot is going on that needs explaining and by the time the climax of the story happens a lot of the reveals feel like they come out of nowhere.
Also, the main antagonist of episode 5 gets preachy out of nowhere and it just made me roll my eyes rather than feel invested in their cause.
I’m also not a huge fan of “The 7 Poem”, a prophecy for the future of humanity made by a super A.I. which is continuously referenced throughout the show, but the answer and resolution to that prophecy feel too easy to be completely satisfying. Apart from those nitpicks I did enjoy the thrilling escape.

I liked most of the main cast. Touya, one of the children raised in the space station is brash and stand-offish at the beginning, but he's also intelligent and a good hacker. He’s a space Tsundere, but I found myself warming up to him the more the show went on and he mellowed out as he worked alongside his escapees.
Nasa is the only supervising adult on the station plus Touya’s and Konoha’s carer. I relate to her when she says she doesn’t like children.
I couldn’t stand Taiyou who is a child hacker cop. He and Touya clash a lot as his goal is to arrest Touya for hacking-related reasons, but Taiyou’s constant meddling when Touya is trying to help everyone survive was incredibly irritating considering the situation they’re in. Taiyou constantly harps on about his hacker cop status as it matters, but as a viewer, the cop system isn’t elaborated enough on to give us a sense of what his rank or role is in the organisation so his behaviour just comes off as childish posturing.
I also flip back and forth between liking and hating Miina the wannabe famous live streamer. Although she does have some fun, comic relief moments, her selfish behaviour and constant need to live stream everything happening around her got grating. I did like her helpful brother Hiroshi though.

Orbital Children is pretty good. I think having everything squeezed into six episodes wasted some of the show's potential and made the exposition dumps feel like a speed run rather than a natural integration for the story, but I did enjoy my time with it and I think it’s worth a watch.

7/10 Good.