Orbital Children review: An anime coming-of-age story for the human race

Among casual anime fans, Mitsuo Iso may not be a name that leaps out with the same force of recognition as someone like Hayao Miyazaki, Hideaki Anno, or Shinichirō Watanabe. However, you would be able to recognize his animation work on seminal films and anime series as FLCL, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephonAnd he also made his episode director debut on the show. Blood the Last Vampire. His resume includes some of the most forward-thinking and technologically interesting anime of mid-’90s to early aughts, qualities which would go on to influence his critically acclaimed (yet criminally underseen) 2007 anime Den-noh Coil. Iso is back with his original production of ‘Iso, almost fifteen years ago. Orbital Children, a new six-part original anime series available to stream on Netflix – and it was absolutely worth the wait.

Iso’s latest centers on a group of five children in 2045 whose lives are brought together by a quirk of fate in the wake of a disaster. Touya is a 14-year old hacker who lives aboard the Anshin commercial space station. He was born after a catastrophic event that caused humanity to abandon colonizing the stars. Touya was born along with Konoha his childhood friend and terminally ill child. This artificial implant impairs Touya’s ability to live in safe space. It also fuels his complex resentment towards humanity. The station becomes involved in an accident with meteorite debris after the arrival of Mina and Hiroshi; three Earth-born children who are visiting the Anshin. As they attempt to rescue the station, the three children are accidentally drawn into a plot that could endanger the existence of humankind.

Similar Den-noh Coil, Orbital ChildrenThis could be summarized as a tale of coming-of age, set against the background of speculative literature. Both Iso’s cult classic and its long-awaited spiritual successor are intimately concerned with the intersection of adolescence and technology. Their stories, however, are not the same as day and night. Which? Den-noh CoilThis 26-episode drama was about a group of close-knit children. It explored the interplay of the technologically fantastic and the mundane. Orbital ChildrenThis is an existential story about growing up, not only of Touya or co. but also of an entire human generation on the brink of interplanetary colonization.

Image from Netflix / Production+h

What begins at first as your typical sci-fi survival drama à la 2013’s GravityIt gradually transforms into a quasi-transhumanist tale that can be described only as a horror thriller. Think about what it would look like if Ghost in the Shell, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s CounterattackPlease see the following: Interstellar were smashed together inside a particle accelerator and you’ve got a fairly solid idea of what the final third of Orbital ChildrenLooks like.

Since its premiere, it has seen a lot of changes. Den-noh Coil has been hailed not only for its believable characters and impressive animation, but as an exemplary work of “design fiction” for its depiction of the many practical and commercial applications of AR technology. This is Orbital ChildrenIso, who has now essentially taken up the baton that he had left in 2007, has run a marathon twice with it. He imagines a future where smart glass technology has exponentially developed and has been widely popularized. But also, artificial intelligence, commercial space tourism, and social media. It still feels futuristic, but it’s a future that feels as intimately reflective of the concerns and anxieties of the present as Den-noh Coil Did of the early enthusiasm for Augmented Reality Tech back in the late ‘aughts.

From these elements, Iso weaves together a fictional universe of technical complexity and depth through which to tell a story about a group of children — and, in essence, a generation of people — learning to how to grow and make healthy decisions in the interest of bettering not only their own lives but the whole of humanity. Anshin’s space station is a combination of several different elements that work together. The exterior looks like a mixture of a Bernalsphere and a bathhouse. Get Spirited Away; the interior looks like one of Mamoru Hosoda’s wildest internet-inspired imaginings), which feels like an appropriate encapsulation for the contest of ideologies that plays out within it. Alongside a struggle for survival, the rebellious Touya repeatedly butts heads with Taiyo, a straight-laced “white hat” hacker working for the United Nations, over everything from the role of humans in space to the perceived perils and benefits of uninhibited AI. It’s a series that demands and rewards its audience’s undivided attention, touching on a vast web of seemingly disparate ideas that eventually dovetail into a thoroughly engrossing and touching experience.

Image from Netflix / Production+h

That’s to say nothing of the quality of the animation itself. As briefly mentioned, Iso is considered by many to be an “animator’s animator;” one of several artists to emerge during the early ’90s to earn recognition and effusive praise for his photorealistic approach to animation. If you’ve ever marveled at the explosive tank fight at the end of Ghost in the Shell or Asuka’s desperate final stand in End of Evangelion; you know Iso’s work.

While Orbital Children may not reach the same rarified status in the canon of anime as those aforementioned classics, it’s an ambitious and beautiful series that certainly grazes at that greatness on the strength of the staff involved. Thanks to a team of collaborators including Iso’s longtime colleague Toshiyuki Inoue (AkiraVenus WarsBahi JD, a talented animator like this one (Ping PongVercreek and ),Jujutsu Kaisen, Deca-Dence), Orbital Children’s animation is impressive for its imaginative (and frequently hilarious) rendering of Zero-G movement, its mind-bending shifts in point of view perspective, and a host of subtle idiosyncratic quirks that go a long way in creating believable portrayals of children acting like children amid tremendous circumstances.

Iso is a seasoned follow-up after more than ten years of hard work. Den-noh CoilWith Orbital ChildrenHe revisits his love for dense, speculative world building through the eyes and experiences of a new generation facing new opportunities and challenges as well as existential questions. 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.

The six episode of Orbital ChildrenAvailable to stream on Netflix now