Mindblown. 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936760507447271424/unknown.png Its a sentiment that youll likely be left with upon watching The Orbital Children TOC. This brisk 6episode Netflix ONA is very much Mindblown: The Anime. And no Im not just referring to its tight mysterythriller scifi 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 cant solve individually? Is it worth seeking out the unknown? Take a chance on me and find out as we take a spoilerfree leap into TOC TlDr below. 3 2 1 we have liftoff Houston we have a problem. 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936764702590111824/unknown.png 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 hes hosting. That being said just one party pooper isnt enough to dampen the excitement of the stations visitors: Taiyo Mina and Hiroshi. But with a surprise comet en route to damage both the shuttle and the world below perhaps its no time to be anshinshiro relieved in Japanese. Touya and the other personnel onboard 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. https://i.ur.com/CaCdoSM.mp4 Series creator Mitsuo Isohttps://anilist.co/staff/100151/MitsuoIsos vision of what the future will look like is equal parts fascinating and sobering. Throughout the course of this tightlywritten survival story viewers will be treated to a well thoughtout futuristic setting. Technological devices within the show take full advantage of the whimsy scifi allows while keeping things intuitive and easy to understand. Presumably to the delight of VIVYhttps://anilist.co/review/11892 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 Earths overpopulation natural resource crises. Having recently sat through the sheer scifi stupidity of BELLEhttps://anilist.co/review/15071 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 personalitywise they certainly get the job done through compelling personal motivations. Aside from some illtimed comedy and poor patches of pacing TOC makes for an engrossing binge with a lean runtime of just over 3 hours. Production +hhttps://anilist.co/studio/6737/Productionhs debut studio effort does a capable job thanks to capable 2D animation and compositing. The environment design of the Anshin looks unique and livedin thanks to the use of familiar Japanese iconography and pastel colors alongside a hitech minimalist interior. However with visual eyecandy comes visible confusion TOC is not an easy show to grasp at times. The series may prove demanding due to its exposition of scifi and mystery elements. Furthermore the frequent switching between narrative perspectives makes the task of keeping up with the shows 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 Ill now explain by bringing up the complex perspective of our MC Touya. Space may as well be the final frontier because its all Touya has left. 100https://m.mediaamazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmNmNDY5MTMtY2I5MC00ZTc5LTg3NWItZjM4Zjc4MWExYjAzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEzMTI1Mjk3.V1.jpg Remember what I said about MC hating humans? Well were 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 Sevens 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 Touyas 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 hes not giving up that easily. In response to the world threatening his existence Touyas goal is to hack away all of his A.I. drones 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 onboard the Anshin. 100https://m.mediaamazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTFhMzEzYzktMjdmNi00NGUwLWIzNjUtNzNhYWQ4ZmI1ZmRmXkEyXkFqcGdeQWxiaWFtb250.V1QL75UX500CR00500281.jpg Now lets 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 lawabiding UN agent Taiyo could not disagree more with Touyas worldview. Sevens deactivation followed after the outofcontrol A.I. instigated several global incidents that cost hundreds of lives. A rogue A.I. megacomputer 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 wouldnt dare risk causing another Seven Saga to occur especially with a situation so critical. Then again perhaps Touyas gambit of fully trusting A.I. may be the best solution which both saves the world and repairs the malfunctioning implants. Touyas and Taiyos ideologies are at polar opposites and their respective resolves are ironclad 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 worlds population thereby preserving mans existence. Whats the right answer? Confused? Same. 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936761635660521582/unknown.png In the beginning of this review I said that this show is going for the mindblown effect. Hopefully Ive demonstrated how the show lives up to that description and we havent even touched on TOCs esoteric stances on ethics religion or predeterminism. The unorthodox climax of Episode 6 consists of quite possibly the most mindboggling conceptual jargon Ive 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 well 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 isnt 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 openminded 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 wont know unless you take a leap of faith and escape your frame. Its a great message for TOC to conclude on as the show relishes the unknown opportunities of humanitys future amidst eminent problems. Watching Touya and the crew escape the frame of conventional thinking is a thrilling cathartic experience one that Im hoping you try out for yourself. TlDr: https://i.ur.com/r5cxVxp.mp4 The Orbital Children is a highstakes adventure among the stars. A refreshing take on the disaster movie TOC regularly introduces wellcrafted conflicts and concepts thatll be sure to impress avid scifi fans. A compelling series of ethical dilemmas accompany our casts survival story which ramps up into a jawdropping climax of eargrinningly 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 STRAY RAMBLINGS SPOILERS The Anshin mascot was probably the funniest gag in the whole show: 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936852176058318879/unknown.png nbspnbspGrandpa even got on the Fredhttps://i.kymcdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/658/236/524.jpg drip too sheesh Episode 3 had a really cool moment involving Taiyous skepticism towards Nasas faith in the Seven Poems. For context the Seven Poems are a series of predictions made by Seven. Nasas belief in the A.I.s prophecies is not shared by everyone and Taiyous frame on this subject was handled in a really cool way. He tells Nasa to leave out the occult which both states his cynical worldview and highlights his possible oversight. Him calling these texts occult may be an implicit reference to Clarkes Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. For all we know Sevens cryptic prophecies could be accurate and everyone else may simply lack the intellectual capacity to understand the robots theories. TOC frequently critiques each of its central characters ideologies in this manner and these robust observations mirror what societys view on advanced technologies could look like in the near future. While were on the subject of magic the big confrontation in TOCs finale showcases whats likely the smartest excuse for writing in a dumb plot contrivance. That scene is a copout of the highest degree and my nitpicking ass is impressed for being unable to argue with it. Incredulous ideas like Science 2.0 and the 11th Dimension are probably a bunch of horseshit assembled in the writers room but I dont actually have the evidence to disprove these abstract concepts. The whole point of that scene was to elevate human thinking beyond what is currently possible so naturally these aspects are gonna sound like utter nonsense to the audience. Well played Mitsuo Iso well played. Everyone I figured out what FiTsZ means: Episode 5 sees the crew decide to let Second Seven observe human presence on the Internet in an unbiased manner. Once again this speaks to the overall message of appreciating other worldviews and is a really sweet way of depicting our interactions on social media... wait hang on 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936856539392790538/unknown.png nbspnbspWell shit. BEST GIRL: Hmm not many to choose from. Gonna go with the Twitch egirl for her comic relief and the best pun Ive heard in a long time: MinaMina mina https://i.ur.com/ACSzY0h.mp4 100https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936763996189638696/unknown.png Phew that was a fun trip. Thanks for joining me Unfortunately space travel isnt quite something feasible atm but lucky for us I do know of something thatll go to the moonhttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/936758687635222600/unknown.png... dont miss out on the DweebCoin doubters. Anyways if you happen to like my verbose rants feel free to check out my other reviewshttps://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates so definitely take a peek if youd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves peace