This title proves that even kids can save the world.
As a distributor, Netflix Original Anime continues to bring Japanese animation to the world and support its many projects.
The Orbital Children, a six-episode project released in 2022, develops a sci-fi perspective, predicting the life of humans in low-Earth orbit.
The future and the confident expansion of space are an obvious reason to reflect on the interaction with technology and how new devices predetermine both the environment and the person himself.
What Is The Orbital Children About?
In 2045, thanks to technological progress and artificial intelligence, space travel has become commonplace. An accident occurs at one of the stations and children are caught in the epicenter.
Without the support of adults, but surrounded by the Internet, smartphones and robots, they try to eliminate the consequences of the disaster.
The team not only overcomes fears and gradually matures, but also takes responsibility for the future, including the Earth they once abandoned.
The Orbital Children Is Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey
The Orbital Children explores familiar questions posed by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey: AI as an indispensable navigator and servant of humanity, but at the same time a full-fledged subject that has acquired selfhood and independence.
The authors' respect for Space Odyssey is written into the structure of the miniseries. The dual nature of AI – the proud result of technological progress and at the same time its scourge – is presented in the anime with the same questioning intonation as the behavior of Kubrick's HAL9000.
The impossibility of protecting civilization from mistakes, as well as the complete subordination of technology – one of the main cases of the series by Mitsuo Iso.
The spaceship is ordered to destroy most of the Earth's population, the function of saviors is forced to be taken over by children – active users of gadgets and mediators with the world of high technology.
This is the truth not only of a science fiction series, but also of our world: who, if not children, who have been holding gadgets in their hands since childhood, are destined to understand the future in the conditions of technological singularity?
The Orbital Children Is a Rare Example of High-Quality Modern Sci-Fi Anime
The Orbital Children boasts thoughtful space design, high-quality animation, and an inventive hybrid of hand-drawn animation and computer graphics.
A return to space themes is certainly important for anime: some Japanese space operas have become half-forgotten masterpieces, so The Orbital Children satisfies viewers' need for sci-fi anime.