The Orbital Children (TV Series 2022– ) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
14 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
If you really pay attention.....
babraham-2681121 November 2022
......to what's going on here, you will be amazed at how incredibly well-written the screenplay/storyline is in "The Orbital Children"!

To think I would discover an anime as complex as this, it's as if I was watching an animated version of a film by Christopher Nolan!

The characters were a bit cliche but not completely 2-D as each person played a pivotal role throughout the series as the animation itself literally lights up your screen into a dazzling, awestruck color pallet of light and dark! Meanwhile, the music elevates the mood into the atmospheric proportions that this show is making an effort to achieve!

However, there are some things that hold the show back from gaining steam with the mainstream audience: 1.) It's main subject: To create something as ingenious but complex as this and transform it into a form of mainstream media, like anime, takes guts. That's because the audience can either look at this genre of storytelling two ways; Either it amazes you as you immerse yourself in topics that hover beyond your wildest dreams or it confuses you as complex vocabulary and high IQ screenwriting cloud your sense of understanding as you attempt to figure out what on earth is going here. Thus, this original idea of a complex space voyage turned completely on it's head is ironic. Not to mention, it acts as a double-edged sword in terms of either the idea as a whole sticks with people as they fully immerse themselves for more a breathtaking, adventurous experience or the idea doesn't stick and people find themselves confused, not being able to follow along the story as complex authoring of said context could turn out to appear incomprehensible to some.

2.) The characters: Now, I know I said that this cast as a whole isn't 2-D since everyone pretty much had a role to play when it came to how the show transpired from episode 1-6. However, character development only went so far for Toya, the MC, and Konoha, his fellow partner as the story progressed. There were some other characters that I felt curious about learning as well, such as Chief, when you find out more than what what you originally assumed. Yet, even though it wouldn't be such a bad idea to expand on this, I can't trust that Netflix will continue with this story as they tend to create more new anime shows rather than continue off of some pretty solid content, such as "BNA". Speaking of story.....

3.) Clifhanger?: The story doesn't seem to end by episode 6, even after the story reaches it's main resolution; as long as the staff, actors, and the many people who were originally on board still hang around for a continuation of the series, with the backing of Netflix of course, there could be a chance of them furthering their storyline. However, as I've said before, with the issues of a double-edged plot alongside the inconsistency of Netflix-produced anime, I highly doubt that they would even think about something like this as Netflix moves on with other plans.

Nevertheless, this show is for those who wish to expand their thinking and perspective of how an anime is made as "The Orbital Children" really checks of all the intellectual boxes. Otherwise, if you're looking for something simple that goes off a genre that has already been utilized, this isn't for you. However, it still wouldn't hurt giving this anime a try as you find the moral of this story touches reality in more ways than one!
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Space anime that isn't as good as Cowboy Bebop.
zinemamoviemedia5 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The story is fun. But what is told is a bit complex. But somehow I feel very bored watching it. The story is fun. But what is told is a bit complex. But somehow I feel very bored watching it. Maybe it's reminiscent of The Silent Sea series which is also a little boring. What's interesting about this series is perhaps because it raises issues about the future that are already very sophisticated and need to ask about humanity.
4 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
I didn't like it.
neji-san28 February 2022
Soundtrack, animation, ger dub, Story everything is more than just good. But the best was for me the end i loved it. The idea behind the ai, seven and the second try what is best for humans, I loved it, can't remember something similiar and I'm a Sci-fi lover. But still there were so many things that bothered me, nasa, the limiter, the social Media part and the p2p connection. A 7* Rating is kinda high but for 6 Episodes and the quality it is fair.
3 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Excellent mixture of cerebral and action
Snootz29 January 2022
As some reviews here show, this is not for adrenaline junkies, those looking for giant robot / space battles, or prefer simple plots. This is a rare and well-done mixture of cerebral story-telling along with enough suspense to keep the audience interested. I binge-watched all 6 episodes in one evening.

The animation accomplishes what is required. The story, direction, voices and general plot are quite good. While the concept of an AI predicting even tiny details of the future is a little jump the shark, the story is done well enough that one can easily let that bit of improbability pass. It is after all, fiction.

Overall an interesting series that is a bit different from typical anime. There's no nudity, unnecessary violence, gore, or over-the-top absurdity. The characters stay true to nature. The character of the Net Celebrity added a bit of comedy throughout to help break up the tension, while other characters held the plot together. I really enjoyed the concept of the SMART Internet glove. A simple bit of tech that added to the plot.

For a short 6-episode anime "mini-series", this was well done. I would like to see more anime series like this.
23 out of 30 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
a very weak japanese anime.
salmanbucha-6637529 January 2022
I was expecting so much from this anime after i had seen the trailer but it turned out to be a rather boring anime .a wasted chance on part of the director and producer .this is first anime on netflix that has left me disappointed .so that says alot.
7 out of 35 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
High quality sci-fi space anime. Kid friendly, but very detailed.
gordonthegorilla14 August 2022
I really enjoyed The Orbital Children. It has the adventurous spirit of old fashioned science fiction, but takes place in a futuristic high tech setting. The story focuses on a group of kids who find themselves in a difficult situation inside a space station orbiting the earth.

Visually it is excellent, as you'd expect from Mitsuo Iso, an absolute legend of Japanese animation. Really nice painterly backgrounds, interesting shot choices, cool designs & high quality animation. Storywise there are a lot of technical details to absorb, but it worked for me. I liked the characters & found it very engaging. Tonewise there was a nice mix of seriousness & silliness.

You could safely show this to kids without worrying about the kind of violence or sexual content which anime often contains, but the only issue might be the density of the story. I imagine it would be hard for the average kid to process. In that regard Orbital Children is similar to Iso's previous anime show Dennou Coil, which is also a brilliant piece of work, but requires a good attention span to enjoy fully.

If a highly detailed, wholesome, space adventure anime is what you're after then Orbital Children is for you!
8 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Good-ish visuals, boring story
znwch3 March 2022
For a six episodes show i would have not expected for literally more than half the runtime to be dedicated to the usual anime tropes such as cute girl constantly streaming on twitch trying to be hip. I cant even hate this, it was just boring and nothing happened and the characters were not fleshed out. I usually wait to watch the whole show before reviewing but i have to watch the last episode yet but i am not sure i will.

Jab to other reviewers: if you really think people cant enjoy this cause they are dumb and adrenaline junkies you really need to get out, get some fresh air and touch grass.

Could have been a better story if it cut down the cast in half and fleshed out more the protagonists, not every piece of media has to cater to every different demographic.
4 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Your head will hurt.
archangestelle2 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I liked it and I though I understood it mostly until the last ep which I had to watch 2X.

I feel duped. I think this whole series is about one message "Leave Your Comfort Zone and Enter Your Growth Zone". Which is not a bad message just not what I expected or wanted.
3 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Sci-Fi and real life
mmsonicbatman30 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
AGI-Drone-Space Adventure - Teenager Love - Emotional part - happry ending - realistic with sci-fi in the same time - nail-biting - thought provoking and many more things in anime If I want to say it short it character design was a new kind as well as their emotion forward the world and each other , If SAO was the revolution of isekai genre this is for the space adventure.

Some parts in the story like when nesa became a terrorist or knoha's close to death as well as dakky and white sacrifice as well getting konoha back to life was amazing , highly emotional , gripping and thought-provoking .

I rate this anime 10/10 and hope that it will get a game and even another season (beside its second which will come in 11th Feb).
14 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
A wasted opportunity
octaviodelser5 February 2022
Great setting but thats it.

Issues: way way way to much branding I get the idea but constantly mentioning it for no reason it felt like i was watching a perpetual ad, this killed any and all setting i mean filler for ads??? Come on!

Very very lazy research: 1.

Ask any child you ger than 12 or so to pretend like they are talking on a phone they dont use the same gesture as us. Pur gesture would not work in this setting.

2. miss use of ai. Systems in this setting would have much more autonomy than what you present, I think even just talking with someone in the industry will have made a huge difference.

Tldr: this is a visually ok flop.
3 out of 21 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
One of the best anime this season
farhanagogo30 January 2022
This show was very engaging, a really balanced amount of actual science and fiction thrown in together to make it the perfect sci-fi shows with also a bit of comedy to relief the show from getting too serious.

Also another thing to mention. The reviews for this show here is prove that the show is not for everybody, especially Americans.
14 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Prophecy like sci-fi space adventure
snoophead30 January 2022
AGI, Drone, Space Adventure... Keywords that makes me exciting all the time are all gathered in this series.

The series focuses on prophesying upcoming future rather than appealing with fancy technologies.

All of the following concepts are covered in the series:
  • Technological singularity of an AI
  • Advent of AGI and human's response (or control)
  • Human race living on extraterrestrial environment
  • AGI's conclusion on the fate of human race
  • Drone fight on the space station


Not only it was visually pleasing, it incites imagination of how our future is going to develop.
16 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Weak? Wasted opportunity?
gsnzxbc1 March 2022
I think not.

I've never gone out of my way to rate a show if it was less than 5 stars, let alone leave a review. And one too many times, unnecessarily negative IMBD reviews tarnish my experience with a series before the half way point.

Don't let it happen to you.
8 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Beautiful, Fun Times With Tech In Space
IslandMyst21 January 2023
It gets to become a bit of a spectacle towards the end. Builds up nicely towards the increasing craziness. Nice concepts of future tech and how ai could become in the future shown in such a visual way that is digestible to the non-tech savvy.

There aren't too many silly anime tropes to annoy the people who don't like them. It covers issues of friendship, prejudice and reluctance to tech which will become far smarter than humans will be able to comprehend. The setting and actions are quite realistic, so that when it gets intonthe more fantastical stuff it's not such a shock to the system that'll makenyour eyes roll.

All in all it's a beautifully animated fun time in the future in space.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed