Streaming: Netflix
Episodes: 6 (irregular lengths)
Source: Original
Episode Summary: In a time where space, as everything else, has been filled to the brim with consumerism and advertisement, three children have won a contest to visit the first space hotel with facilities that cater to young people. Mina, an internet celebrity, her younger brother Hiroshi, and Taiyou, arrive at Anshin station excited to experience all of the wonders that corporate branding can provide in the world of space tourism. They’re set to join two children who know nothing other than living away from Earth – Konoha and Touya, who were born on the moon. Both Konoha and Touya experience the effects of gravity differently and are under constant medical observation. Touya is also a bit of an AI nut, using semi-illegal means to “broaden” the abilities of his personal AI drone, Dark.
As the contest-winners arrive to the station, a situation begins to unfold from within Earth’s orbit outside. A mysterious projectile is detected, and eventually station management learns that a comet is approaching the planet and the station. As the two groups of children meet and begin to work through some interpersonal and philosophical differences, they’re suddenly forced to brace for impact. It may now fall on their shoulders to figure out how to survive using only the tools and know-how they can cobble together. But will they be able to team up long enough to make this a reality?
Impressions: What do you do when, after 15 years, the creator of your favorite anime series finally returns with something new to share? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me the answer was to completely avoid the new piece of art as though it was some kind of trap. Sometimes loving media can feel like a bumpy road paved with cobblestones comprised of dashed hopes and disappointment, and one of the worst feelings is to go into a viewing with such high expectations that they couldn’t realistically be met. So I set the show aside for a little while, dodging questions from friends and avoiding other reviews of the material until I couldn’t steer clear of the issue any longer.
Friends, this first episode introduces a lot of material. It speculates about the future of technology and its modern, depressing entanglement with capitalistic desires. It discusses the evolution of AI and the way it may augment and intertwine itself in our lives. And it begins a discussion about bullying and disability that I hope it’s able to follow through on. But as I was watching the first episode, experiencing the scene where Touya and Taiyou are fighting with one-another using their AI droids as they begin to fall down the station’s main shaft, I started to feel a little bit choked up – it felt like I had somehow come home.
I think it’s impossible not to compare this series to Dennou Coil, even at its outset. Its focus may be slightly different, but there’s a bit too much of an aesthetic continuity for those of us in-the-know to ignore. The hand smartphones, Hiroshi’s AR glasses, the searchy-like droids… they’re all design choices that assume a continuous thread between the previous and the current. It’s such a mark of confidence that it’s impossible to ignore, and yet this incarnation of it all feels somehow honed even sharper than the last.
I won’t apologize for sounding like a fangirl gushing over something in a way that probably won’t make sense to most people, but in an attempt to bring things back to Earth a bit (ha!) I’ll try to be a little more coherent for a short time. This episode (and hopefully the remainder of the series), seems poised to touch on subjects that seem far off, but which are stealthily relevant in the here and now. I enjoy escapist entertainment as well as the next person, but I truly love entertainment that also serves as commentary – whether on politics, social issues, or other realities of the world. As the wealthy position themselves for space flight while the rest of us on Earth are forced to deal with much more mundane issues of survival, it’s interesting to consider what a future based on this current present might bring.
Go watch Dennou Coil. And when you’re done, watch The Orbital Children.
Pros: From a production standpoint, this is one of the better-looking shows I’ve seen in a long time. The character animation is great, especially considering that at times the characters are operating freely in three-dimensional space. It also reflects what appear to be a lot of well-thought-out design choices, ranging from the branding the dots many surfaces that you might not expect, to the refined (yet thankfully not skin-tight) design of the characters’ space suits.
I also appreciate how this nearly double-length episode manages to be judicious with how it uses this relative luxury (one of the benefits of being Netflix-only I suppose). I’ve complained in the past how most double-length episodes rarely feel justified, yet this one fills every moment with world-building, characterization, or plot – there’s no wasted moment.
Cons: This is mostly my own disappointment rather than an actual “con,” but I’m sad that this series is only six episodes long. While I feel like anime series should be as long as they need to tell a story and perhaps this one only required a short time to get its point across, I feel as though a shorter length limits a series’ opportunity to meditate on its quieter moments.
Content Warnings: Discussion of nuclear weapons. Discussion of disability prejudice. Characters in peril.
Would I Watch More? – I debated even keeping this section in this review, specifically because something really drastic would have to happen for me to skip this series. It’s shorter to begin with, and beyond that the first episode shows so much promise and its creator brings with him so much proven skill that there’s no way I’d miss it. Seriously. I hope that, as unsuccessful as I was for years tooting my horn about Dennou Coil that this new series and Dennou Coil‘s new availability will manage to do what I could not.