Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite

Twelve-year-old prodigy Rafal believes in living rationally, so as to earn praise and respect from society while not being led astray by his emotions. To this end, he publicly states his intention to study theology—the academic field held in highest regard in early 15th century Poland. However, an encounter with a mysterious man upends Rafal's life, sparking an illogical desire to instead pursue his passion for astronomy.

Rafal is determined to prove the beauty and rationality of heliocentrism—the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. This belief is considered heretical by the powerful Church, which promotes geocentrism—the Sun revolving around the Earth—as the sole truth of the universe. Those whose beliefs do not align with the will of the Church suffer unfathomably gruesome consequences.

In pursuit of evidence for a heliocentric model of the universe, Rafal grapples with obtaining precise calculations and building empirical theories. His greatest challenge, however, lies in conducting this research discreetly—lest he wish to meet the same fate as other heretics.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Rafal Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Badeni Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Oczy Main

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Nowak Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Jolenta Main

Hitomi, Saya Japanese

Hubert Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Schmitt Supporting

Heretic Supporting

Sanpei, Yuuki Japanese

Draka Supporting

Piast Supporting

Fukumatsu, Shinya Japanese

Naeshiro, Kenichirou Producer

Yamazaki, Yukari Producer

Yoshida, Yuuki Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Reviews

Oct 24, 2024

SgtRohn

Recommended

Well-written

Preliminary (4/25 eps)

Tired of isekais of the season (Re:ZERO) that, even great, no longer provide the same satisfaction, either due to being predictable and repetitive or after watching countless of them every season? Or perhaps you're tired of the endless floodgates of rom-coms that halt all progress beyond will-they-won't-they shenanigans? Maybe you're tired of an anime being so anime-y with high speed movements and action scenes that are full of flashy effects (Dandadan) for the sake of the rule of cool? Boy, do I have the perfect show for you!

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the animes I mentioned above. I myself watch them. ... But sometimes, you know how you're just looking for something with a bit more "Oomph!" that offer something new and unique in this era of repetitive isekai and action/battle shounen animes? Well, move aside Re:ZERO/Dandadan, because a new competitor joins the race for best anime this Fall 2024!

An unexpected and possible Anime of the Season material (perhaps even AotY if it can stick the landing, otherwise it's still too early), Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is an anime that goes against the tides of common anime genres of the season. The story takes a page in ancient history (15th century Europe) depicting a battle of truth: to prove the truth of the cosmos while facing the possible prosecution from the church and its inquisitors, and leaving behind footnotes for future generations to build upon and continue the legacy of the collective human knowledge.

First, the story isn't something you'd expect to come from an anime. Like Vinland Saga, the author knows the story it wants to tell. Every scene thus far doesn't waste the audience's time with pointless monologues and flashbacks. It doesn't treat the audience as idiots, laying out all the details in front of you and handing it on a silver platter. No, this anime wants you to figure it out for yourself using the characters' motivation and their actions and goals. The structure of the storytelling relies on the atmosphere and tension you feel for the characters, and the pacing makes you easily forget that each episode runs for 24 minutes, with those 24 minutes only feeling like 3 minutes because of how engaging it does its dialogues and conversation between each characters. It's very well-executed and balanced, a stark contrast from most animes these days.

Secondly, speaking of characters, the author knows how to create them, and knows when to write them out of the story. You know how animes kill off a character, but before that happens, they show you a flashback of that character's past with their happy memories? *cough* JJK Season 2 *cough* It's as if to say "Go on! Feel bad for this character and cry as I kill him/her off." Or even worse, when they kill off that character for the sake of developing another character? *cough* JJK Season 2 again *cough* Well, screw that! This anime will punch you in the face when you least expect it. Writing a character, and a compelling one at that, is half the battle in writing a good story. You have to know when to write them off the story too (a lesson I wish Tensura would learn with how much useless characters it has). The author certainly knows when it wants to up the ante, whether by killing off its characters, or by introducing new ones. Plot armor? Nope, we don't have that around here! What we do have are unexpected twists you won't see coming a mile away.

Lastly, it's done by Madhouse! What more could you want? Of course, don't expect Frieren-levels of animation. This isn't that kind of anime. If you're looking for an action anime, then this might not fit you (HOWEVER.. I request that you at least watch the first 3 episodes. This anime deserves it, I swear). It's art style resembles that of Attack on Titan or even Vinland Saga, so no cutesy anime girls here or moe character archetypes (certainly no -dere character archetypes either).

Overall, this is a fantastic anime (on its way to be a masterpiece if it sticks the middle and landing). If you're looking for a unique story that is as far from the usual anime tropes as possible, Orb is an anime I simply must recommend. I will glaze it as much as possible and ensure that it rises from being a dark horse anime of the season to being an anime that is well-known for its quality storytelling and compelling characters. And if you liked it, remember to suggest it to your friends or acquaintances who watch animes as well. As I've said, it doesn't have the usual anime tropes of moe/loli/dere characters, so this is a pretty safe recommendation that won't get you side-eyed by your friends.

PS: Do note that while this anime might seem historical, and it does borrow elements from Late Medieval Europe, you shouldn't treat this anime as a way to get educated about 15th century Europe, nor should you treat this as historical fiction, as it plays fast-and-loose with the actual history concerning the conceiving of the heliocentrism theory and inquisition. They don't even name drop Europe itself, and they avoid mentioning where exactly this anime takes place on Earth. So just treat this as you would any fiction, and enjoy the quality anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 1, 2024

prongloaniweeb

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Preliminary (7/25 eps)

Extremely boring for anyone who isn’t an armchair intellectual. Look at the other reviews, bunch of turbo nerds. It’s just like those super low budget historical reenactments that you get in high school history in anime form.

For real tho, it’s a historical drama with very little “action”. If you find the subject of christianity vs science to be unbelievably boring (like me because I learned more than enough about the subject in school) and you can’t care about characters that only exist for 10-20 mins, then this show will probably be very boring to you too. The story, characters, and art are top tier, but ... I couldn’t possibly care less about the story, characters or the “think about this” dialogue lol.

If you really like the origin of astronomy subject then this show will probably be 10/10 to you. If you want a similar show with a far more interesting story (imo) watch Monster or Pluto.

I’ve fallen asleep while watching TV 3 times in my life and 2/3 times were while watching this show. I have to put it under the “impressively boring” category. Maybe I just have the wrong mindset, but I really tried.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 11, 2024

Gsarthotegga

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (5/25 eps)

Spoiler

By anime standards, Orb: On the Movements of This Series into the Garbage Can has a unique story and setting. There are, unsurprisingly, not a whole lot of medieval European period piece mangas out there—set in 15th century Poland in this case—and even fewer of those get adapted, except for the more popular action-packed or fantasy-based ones rather than old school (a)historical fiction, with realistic situations, no magic or monsters, and plenty of moral quandaries and philosophical musings.

Certain characters or events seem loosely based on figures such as the Italians Giordano Bruno or Galileo Galilei, who are associated with astronomy and dabbled in a ... number of other things, with the former finding himself knee-deep in a grab-bag of "heresies" that put him at odds with the tyrannical church inquisitors and led to him being burnt at the stake. Here, too, there will be many heretics sizzling like bacon, a smell as sweet as charming quotes from the bible, such as "happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." The characters navigate through a society not at all dissimilar from a tattletale spook state like Soviet Russia, doing a convincing job of making Christianity look like a forerunner of communism.

The focus on proving heliocentrism in a world of geocentric orthodoxy, enforced by ruthless inquisitors of the church, makes for a fearsome clash of worldviews, and there are thriller, even quasi-spy, elements on display that could be plumbed for added tension, though the formula chosen by the author inevitably curbs what could be exciting and compelling. The ideas explored place this story within history, though many liberties are taken albeit maybe too few. However, emphasis must be placed on Orb as a science/philosophy-based drama series influenced by history rather than being historical fiction. There are already solemn tears being shed over "historical inaccuracies," yet the author seems to have set the series in Poland with no references to location or significant dates, doesn't feature any of the famous astronomers, and is using all original characters and events. The author realized there was a perception that the church heavily persecuted heliocentrism and saw an intriguing story to tell. While the church was prone to censorship or authoritarian measures in a number of ways, they were not burning people at the stake for heliocentrism. Yes, there were executions related to heresy, but they were usually theologically rooted. This is fiction, the basic dynamic and how it's influenced by history makes for a potentially good story, and critiquing it based on historical inaccuracies is simply poor criticism. Besides, the more important point should be how hard this series fails as entertaining fiction or as an artistic achievement.

Orb is, at heart, a Monster-like mature™ series in the seinentard realism school of anime: "Wow, no waifus, lolis, no cheeky tsunderes to treat me like a doormat, nor any other deres in sight (let alone women, so far... quite the sausage fest), no tropes, no rainbow hair, and no shonen shining justice fingering. The characters are contemplative and ask probing questions about existence. omg, omg, this is so deep." With the bland character art, blonde main in the first arc, the extra dopey character Oczy, and medieval European setting, I also thought of Crappa's near-slideshow Vinland Saga S2, yet Madhouse, apparently having tucked all their cash under Frieren's bra strap, is more stingy here with their seasonal budget, out crapping even Crappa!

To compare Orb to other series and give a better impression of what it's like, there's the red flag tone and philosophical nature of both Monster and Vinland Saga S2, but further aspects can be illuminated with the inclusion of the medieval manga Wolfsmund and the adapted Fumetsu no Anata e and Bokura NO More Cryporn, Mommy, Please! Orb is, of course, not cryporn by any stretch, as there is a way of engaging with death and the world that questions where meaning is derived from and whether or not there is an afterlife. There is often a detachment from the material world and the hope of salvation in the hereafter, with many characters questioning or doubting the potentiality of the latter and becoming nihilistic. From this state of despair, some of these characters, having bumped around like blind beggars, lost within the dark corridors of their copypasta medieval town, find the glorious light of our lord and savior Heliocentrism or some other truth, hidden away by the big mean bad men of the church.

The reason to address the last few series above is because they feature a large cast of barely developed characters who are killed off every arc, much like Orb. There's an inspirational quality to Orb, with the main character not so much being a human but instead an idea, a representation of the indomitable "spirit of man," yearning for truth. This "spirit" inhabits each rotating individual or cast of characters as if they were mere vessels, selflessly passing on knowledge and ambition to the next empty vessel(s) and filling them with the Divine Spark of Heliocentrism. There's a similarity to this setup that harkens back to Fumetsu no Anata e, which possesses a lot of the same problems.

Similarly, Wolfsmund is an apt comparison not only due to the medieval setting and backdrops, but there are a number of ways to interpret the often vague, skeletal stories, featuring numerous groups of characters attempting to make their way by various means of trickery into the lands beyond a fortified mountain pass. Why they want to do so or what is the significance of one plot of land versus the other is not clear, but the lack of information and the presentation of the author attach a sort of mystical fervor to risking life and limb for an unknown land, and Orb tackles the same thing in a more clear-cut, prosaic manner.

In fiction, it's not uncommon for there to be a tension based on your anticipation of whether a character will die or not, yet this tension is absent or greatly diminished in these titles because misfortune is telegraphed by design, and what we're shown in a preceding arc is foreordained in the subsequent arcs, unless the author later decides to subvert expectations. These works lack the poeticism of a tragedian, as one would expect to find in a "deep work" with so much persecution and death, and only echo hollowness. In some sense, Orb is worse than these other titles because it takes the characters to the formula's logical conclusion and depersonalizes them even further by making the main character, in essence, an idea. In theory, a conventional setup of a core cast that we follow throughout the series or one that has a "disposable" cast can both be emotionally resonant and serve as compelling fiction, yet the latter formula requires a much defter hand than is on display to be convincing and is the obvious reason why it's seldom used. The former is tried and true, but the latter can quickly become sterile, contrived in its determinism, and has a tendency to use the characters as barely concealed mouth pieces for the author's ideas, which might even work if those ideas are grand and the artistic vision lofty enough. Orb is a failure on both counts, acting as another knock against this formula, along with the other deficient works I have cited.

Many assume that the budgetary constraints are not an issue, for this is a title concerned with characters, story, and, perhaps most importantly, ideas and themes. It's somewhat true, for there doesn't appear to be a need for heavy amounts of animation to convey these ideas, yet the problem is deeper than needing better animation or sakuga showboating. Most artistic slideshows have a more creative use of imagery compared to Orb, so it's not a matter of animation alone. The aesthetic is the problem, and it's a severe one. Artwork and composition can easily make up for a limited but wisely used animation budget. Instead, we have lots of static frames and pans over bland artwork, like any other seasonal. They let you savor those super-stinky ultra-cheesy pans over Rafal, him being the talk of the town, shining against a star-studded backdrop, set to self-aggrandizing music, and sporting a flat closed-eye expression that renders the character art even shoddier looking than it already is. This type of vile stylization reigns supreme. Lastly, the cinematography and compositions are subpar. Animation is a visual medium, so you don't get a free pass for neglecting the visual component to the extent that it might as well be a radio drama. Nonetheless, there will always be a market and endless trumpeting for anything with the appearance of being "mature and sophisticated," especially if it quotes a couple famous people (hey, you guys heard of Socrates?) and asks a few questions about existence now and then.

I can hardly believe Madhouse, a company behind many excellent titles and co-founded by legends such as Osamu Dezaki and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, both of whom had a powerful visual style, could put out something so lifeless. Madhouse placed most of their animation assets into physical conflict, such as the sword fights with the duelists. The only images that come close to being effective are the night time sequences; there's minimal light pollution from the cities, so the sky teems with bright stars, indicating the author should have framed this work as a nocturnal mood piece or at least had a stronger contrast for day and night, lending the daytime scenes a harsh, oppressive, and well-calculated brightness. The closest this series came to possessing an effective atmosphere so far was when the duelists fought with the noble in episode 4 and wandered around the city. Once they set foot into the brightly lit bar, the flat lighting and lifelessness returned, the characters hamming it up. The day time scenes are just as bad or worse. Clearly, there was a missed opportunity for visual storytelling here, as the two times of day to some extent represent the status quo and the rebellious heretics.

The author may have been able to make this series function if he used a more conventional storytelling method, but there's an immediate "oopsie" by the end of episode 3. Orb is plagued by being too big for its britches with its tepid grimdark attempts at profundity. Yet it's not that deep. These are basic questions we've grappled with for millennia in art with more rigor and artistry. Just because this presents more philosophical musings than your average seasonal slop doesn't mean it's profound. Is there a god? If not, where do we find meaning? Is truth worth pursuing despite all odds? And there's a whole lot of ignorance and gas lighting that makes that pursuit of truth all the more difficult. This is a linear and simplistic infotainment story line with no replay value, let alone viewing value. While I wish I could say I enjoyed my weekly twenty minutes of hate against D-g and the church, dying for the sake of our lord and savior Heliocentrism every few episodes is not at all compelling. Honestly, reading about the history of astronomy from beginning to end is both more entertaining and enlightening.

Maybe the writing seems serviceable at first, but the execution of numerous scenes is horrendous and what could be compelling themes are rendered as ham-fisted by the ineptitude of the drama, with these "mature" series so often seeming to engage in hokier shenanigans than even many trashy isekais, made all the more obvious by the oh-so-serious, one might even say "edgy," nature. One character quote mines Socrates and numerous historical figures so as to justify a questionable sacrifice, as if the author were Urobutcher at his clumsiest. It's not at all a fantasy, but the way the author strings together his cornball contrivances, playing out like divinely inspired Heliocentric prophecy as the author connects the dots in a deterministic fashion, one might be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The Heliocentrism cult, their symbol being the wood medallion, come across as creepy to the extreme and behave like mystical, know-it-all shamans, going against the presumed rational schtick they have going on in the series amongst many of the dissidents otherwise. One of them even abruptly rises from the dead as if he were a zombie, sacrificing himself for another character, leering at him like a deranged coomer as he does so, passing on the torch ("One of us! One of us!")! The author reinforces his dichotomy of truth and belief by juxtaposing the "peaceful" deaths of the followers of Heliocentrism against the tortured faces of D-g's followers upon death; this is dishonestly conveyed by a scene where one of the dueling dunces muses about the latter situation after having shish kebabed a noble in a duel and assigns meaning to it, yet who wouldn't die in agony during an adrenaline-soaked battle to the death? It doesn't prove any point at all, leaving one to think the character is a madman, yet, if so, the script corroborates his madness! Meanwhile, the Heliocentrism cult acts as if they've transcended death altogether, the author making them look so relaxed upon passing that one might mistake them for having wet their pants while asleep.

There's no subtlety or respect for the audience. There's even wince-inducing dialogue about the obvious passing of the torch or baton (subtext this blatant should be left as such) to the next person. In episode 5, There's a scene so heavy-handed as to be embarrassing in the way they use symbols and themes: That pivotal scene, another such passing of the Holy Light of Heliocentrism, resembles an absurd Rube Goldberg machine of crumbling architecture and various items used as symbols and reinforcing the themes, which the characters are directly grappling with; is this a comedy? Because the scene sort of reminds me of and is actually way worse than the old cliche of the guy putting a bible, pocket watch, or lighter in his chest pocket and surviving what should have been a lethal pistol shot to the heart. There are many such scenes, and Heliocentricism is a ravenous, Jealous God who needs to be renewed with the blood of its proponents, with Orb oddly resembling the deterministic horror of schlock like the Final Destination franchise over anything serious.

The most hilarious thing about this series is Christianity is known for having concocted a new form of writing, which one can call martyr literature, yet the oppositional IFLS crowd in this show all come across as having the same zeal. I respect the efforts of those who were persecuted by the church and tried to maintain or further knowledge, but this story has an awkward and preachy way of depicting the characters and events. Much knowledge was lost to the hands of Christian scribes, who often declined to copy many inconvenient texts that critiqued their ideology (made pretty obvious by how we often only have counter-criticism of writers like Marcion and Celsus, rather than their original texts, the horrible treatment and contempt for the ancient world, defacement of statues and pagan shrines, etc.), but I wouldn't be complaining if they tossed this turkey into the funeral pyre.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 14	103 replies	by davidyodo24 »» 22 minutes ago
	Poll: Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 21	56 replies	by what-is-animu »» 30 minutes ago
	This anime looks GREAT & LOW BUDGET at the same time Mackyreels - Dec 24	15 replies	by Baranka02 »» 6 hours ago
	Poll: Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 7	101 replies	by gyanburubii »» 11 hours ago
	Poll: Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Oct 12	243 replies	by iamnameers »» 12 hours ago