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.

This show is the definition of the meme "Mom i want Evangelion", "No, we have Evangelion at home"

They have the monster patterns and predictions, and mentally ill kids (streamer and grown up in a space station "alone").
I don't really remember what happened in this show, but the pink bunny thing is super creepy thing once it's revealed and that ruined the show for me (also the plot is insane bad trying to be Evangelion mysterious and clever without doing any of that)

The kids are also not really interesting, none of them have any unique things about them or interesting, they are just the ... expected one dimensional group, the main kid is edge kirito (SOA) vibes but boring (more than kirito somehow).

The animation is average, nothing interesting and not really good some times, the 3d is not great also. The sound track is forgettable .

I wish i remembered more about this show to criticize, but it's just so forgettable.