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Season 1 – The Orbital Children

Play trailer Poster for Season 1 – The Orbital Children Jan 2022 Sci-Fi Anime Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 62% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
On a trip to space, children born on the moon and children from Earth meet at the Japanese-built Anshin space station.
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The Orbital Children — Season 1

Critics Reviews

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Kate Sánchez But Why Tho? A Geek Community 04/15/2023
Heartfelt, adventurous, and a wonderful look at humanity and technology, The Orbital Children is a great series to watch. Go to Full Review
Rafael Motamayor Slashfilm 03/31/2022
The Orbital Children is a dense and complex show, but one that covers a lot of thematic and genre territory, resulting in a sci-fi adventure the likes of which we have not seen in years. Go to Full Review
Melissa Camacho Common Sense Media 02/28/2022
3/5
The Orbital Children offers anime fans a solid story, and one that is sure to entertain. Go to Full Review
Toussaint Egan Polygon 02/04/2022
It’s a triumph of imagination and craft, one which confidently asserts itself as one of the best anime to come out this year and further proof of Iso’s estimable yet understated brilliance. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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LABEL 2 @RT75584273 06/29/2024 前篇:8/10。好!非常的《电脑线圈》。有部分3D做得有点丢手艺(比如众人在舱外时登矢的侧脸),但是整体素质还是非常不错的。在人名中加入各种跟航空相关的地名/机构名非常的生草。接着看后篇去喽! 后篇:7/10。那沙的塑造有点迷惑。主题无外乎就是人迈出人的摇篮、人类迈出人类的摇篮、AI迈出AI的摇篮以及三者之间的联系(在对方的框架之中)。还是值得一看……不过后篇得要电波对上吧,反正我是没太对上…… See more Joel B @RT26486760 05/22/2024 It is just a piece of art, and it keeps you thinking. Really well done. Especially these days, the technology and scenarios in the movie are becoming more and more real. See more Spencer P @s_plewe 01/28/2023 While this is a fine choice for those looking for young-adult space stories, with fun futuristic antics and an agreeably entertaining cast of characters, "The Orbital Children" can get quite clunky in its dialogue, especially with mechanical jargon in the first episode, and overwhelming cyber-philosophies in the finale. See more chris f @RT52347836 08/27/2022 Delightful! Orbital Children 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. See more Read all reviews
The Orbital Children — Season 1

My Rating

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Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Jan 28, 2022 Extraterrestrial Emissaries Born on the moon, Toya half-heartedly welcomes three kids from Earth to his home in space; a terrifying accident occurs during the welcome party. Details Episode 2 Aired Jan 28, 2022 Mist and Darkness Toya and Taiyo make their way through the station to find their friends after the shockwave from a passing comet knocks out oxygen and the internet. Details Episode 3 Aired Jan 28, 2022 Lunatic Seven The rabbit mascot comes to aid the children who are trapped in a room leaking air; to escape, the kids must walk outside in space to reach a ship. Details Episode 4 Aired Jan 28, 2022 Seven's Pattern Toya makes contact with his uncle, the captain, but another disaster threatens the kids and humanity as a whole when someone takes over the station. Details Episode 5 Aired Jan 28, 2022 A Story Ends The kids learn the truth about the harrowing prophecy of Seven and the extremists who support him as comets continue to hurtle toward Earth. Details Episode 6 Aired Jan 28, 2022 A Story Begins Mina, Doc, Taiyo, and the crew try to evacuate everyone from the space station; meanwhile, Toya makes one last stand to save them all. Details
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Season Info

Director
Mitsuo Iso
Network
Netflix
Rating
TV-14
Genre
Sci-Fi, Anime
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date
Jan 28, 2022
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