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I watched the first season anime adaptation and was really interested in the story but didn't want to wait for a year for the second season, so I decided to read the manga. Flew threw the main story (I would say ~300 chapters) in one sitting. I was hooked.

It's probably been a little over a year since I began reading, and the chapters that are being released now are just complete trash. There are too many characters to keep track of, so I don't keep track of them and just read on, even if I don't understand a particular gag. There's no more plot. It's ... just a bunch of side stories that have no purpose. I wish Oda Tomohito could have ended the series when it needed to be ended, not just endlessly and pointlessly continue it.

I would definitely recommend it up to a certain point, but stop when the core story has concluded.

There are some spoilers, but it's very difficult to spoil the movie because even I have no idea what the hell is going on.

This might be just me, but I'm finding that the most common theme I hate in anime is when literal elementary school children have emotions and talk and act like adults. Just like Promised Neverland and The Orbital Children, I seriously dislike the uncharacteristic portrayal of children. I won't even mention the unrealistic physics and other stuff that's involved with this anime, but the fact that elementary kids display complex emotions just killed the whole movie. When I was in 5th or ... 6th grade, all I cared about was playing games. I wasn't crying over past events or having deep conversations with my friends. I mean, I'm pretty sure I would be fine if this movie had older people who are more likely to have deeper thought capacity, but hey, maybe that's just me.

There are more issues with this movie. I said I would be fine if the characters were different, but that doesn't mean I still like this movie. The plot sucks. There's just no way around it. What is even going on half of the time? The "spirit" of the apartment building, dark voids in the ocean, glowing stuff, I have no idea what I'm even watching. From my knowledge, the idea is basically these two children who were best friends but split because of one of their grandfather's death. Then, I guess the apartment building "spirit" where they played wanted to bring them back together, or something like that. I don't really care because, as I said before, this plot involves children who should not have the emotional maturity and mental capacity to care about this stuff.

The best part about this trash was the animation/art and the one insert track (Summer Slack by ZUTOMAYO). Anime movies in the 21st century obviously have a lot of visual appeal, which I something I look forward to every time I watch one, and the insert song is just so good. But that's really it.

*on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being lots of spoilers, this review is probably a 2*

TL;DR: The Orbital Children is an anime that is visually stunning but falls short in every other category, like logical concepts, character development, sensible plot, and understandable terminology. Overall, it feels like a waste of three hours. I would not recommend this to anyone who watches anime for enjoyment.


First, let me get it out of the way. The graphics/art/whatever you like to call it is excellent. In the first episode, there's one shot where you see the empty void of space and Earth, and it looks so good. I ... have no complaints there. That being said, art only compensates for a small part of what this anime lacks. Next, I'll go into depth about what I don't like/understand.

1. The concept is poorly thought-out. Please don't ask me why space is even involved in this. I'm not complaining: space concepts are generally pretty cool. However, I don't really understand why it needs to be in space in the first place. Additionally, the anime attempts to become a futuristic-style action/drama. How do they fight in the future, you may ask? Apparently, it's through hacking. Visually, it's as dull as it sounds. The lack of effects during the "fight" scenes failed to give me even the slightest excitement, simply because hacking "fights" are a dumb concept. It's too complicated to create interest in two people typing something into their hands and then having a monitor explode in the background, or something similar to that.

2. If character development was a pool, a child could swim in it. That's how shallow these characters felt. I generally base a good show on remembering the characters' names. I barely remember any of the names, and I just finished it about 10 minutes before writing this review. Here are the recurring characters and their development throughout the show.
- A girl who livestreams and attempts to be Internet famous—no meaningful development.
- Her brother is a timid nerd/genius—no meaningful development.
- A girl with implants in her head who is constantly weak—no meaningful development.
- The most character development seen is in Touya and Taiyou (I just looked their names up, in case you were wondering). Touya initially hates everyone from Earth because he was born on the moon but eventually thinks people on Earth are OK. Taiyou is a strict rule-follower but breaks some rules to save humanity. Insane, right? I think I've seen more growth in withering plants than in these characters.

3. Terminology and story are significant flaws that ruin the entire show.
"The satellite is closing on the orbital of Mars with a comet approaching at -20 degrees while the gravitational pull is continuously breaching the warp gate continuum."
See what I did there? I mashed the mumbo jumbo vocabulary that I know from my limited knowledge of aerospace engineering and tried to make an understandable sentence. That's what this show feels like, albeit there probably are some real space-related scientific terms. But as someone who is absolutely terrible at physics (ironic with the name, right) and has no experience whatsoever with space engineering, I have no clue what is going on in the show. It seems like there's so much that's explained/mentioned, but none of it is actually explained well. Generally, some things in the first episode often go unexplained, and that's OK. I've come to realize that in most shows, they will come back to explain it. Not in this one. You will have tons of questions that are either completely left unanswered or explained poorly. Now, I might be able to attribute some of my incomprehension to the notoriously bad Netflix subtitles. However, in the end, I still think the terminology and the story plot are way too complex for many people. It could have been an average show if it made sense to the average viewer. Unfortunately, because almost zero percent of the show made sense to me, it was dreadful to watch. It made me question why I was watching the show in the first place. I even skipped in 2-5 minute increments in the last episode, and I hardly ever fast-forward when watching an anime.

There are some other things that I had issues with, such as the attempt at a deep and meaningful conclusion. However, I have already gone long enough. The one element that sticks out like a sore thumb from the surrounding garbage is the art. If you're into making the beautiful anime AMVs and that sort of thing, this would be a great source of content. Otherwise, avoid at all costs. Don't watch for enjoyment.

*some slight spoilers, but I only got to episode 7, so it shouldn't be too significant*

Wow. I really had high hopes for this show, and it kind of just fell flat.

Mirai Kakehashi gets these godly powers in his attempt at suicide, which are supposed to be used to become the next God. However, even though he discovers that his aunt and uncle, who constantly abuse him, killed his parents and sister for monetary gain, he has no sense of revenge or hatred towards ANYONE. Now, I don't think I'm mentally ill for wanting him to see get revenge on his aunt and uncle. I mean, ... c'mon, they are textbook definition villains. But instead of getting revenge, he just doesn't do anything (of his own will, at least). In fact, he's basically a complete coward and somehow hopes to become the next God without killing anyone. And that's where the largest problem of this show lies. The main character just has no purpose. He is utterly flawed in every aspect.

The concept is intriguing: the idea of angels and a competition for the next God is pretty new to me. That initial hype is instantly killed due to the fact that they shelter in Mirai's school crush's room (who inexplicably also got godly powers) for about 3 or 4 episodes. I watched these episodes weekly, so waiting a month for them to be still hiding and not utilizing any of these insane powers is annoying. Additionally, the introduction of another god candidate and the main antagonist, Metropoliman, is insanely powerful and skilled. So, what you have is this wildly deranged power disparity between the protagonist and antagonist that seems impossible to bridge.

Some merits that this anime had in the seven episodes that I watched were the art, which was very appealing to the eye, and, as previously mentioned, the opening, which is one of my favorite. However, every time I listen to it now, I'm scarred by this absolute dumpster fire of a show. I just couldn't bear to watch another episode of Mirai shivering in fear of killing/controlling someone.

In my opinion, the show would have highly benefitted from a wild or purpose-driven character, like Killua from HxH or Lelouch from Code Geass, who could fully utilize the powers from episode one. I don't really care if it gets better past where I stopped. I don't often just stop a show halfway through. Hell, I pushed through the final season of Seven Deadly Sins even when I thought the show had already peaked several seasons ago. Just don't watch this anime and save your time and sanity. I honestly should have rated it lower but I'm generally pretty generous with my ratings.