The Orbital Children

If there's a genre I really enjoy, it's grounded space-based drama. From Kubrick's seminal 2001 to modern masterpieces such as Moon and Interstellar, there's something awe-inspiring about that tangible next frontier - never more so when things go wrong. Passengers in particular was an excellent piece of techno-failure space drama, so I had high hopes for what The Orbital Children (aka Extra Terrestrial Boys & Girls) might offer to the genre, being a grounded exploration of the first children's hotel in space hosted at the Anshin orbital station where things go sideways.

We follow three children making a visit - Mina, a wannabe influencer looking to increase her followers, her geeky younger brother Hiroshi  and the white-hat hacker and UN2 junior official Taiyo Tsukuba. There to receive them are the space-born children Touya Sagami, a hacker and anti-Earth minded kid with a bratty attitude, and Konoha Be Nanase, another child who is suffering as a result of malfunctioning implants which creates a strong protective instinct in Touya.

Touya and Taiyo - constantly bickering!

Things go awry when a rogue meteor shower damages the station, separating the children from most of the adults, save for their nurse, Nasa Houston (yes really). Touya's uncle Mayor Sagami is trapped in a reserve control room with his staff, and between the two they have to try and survive the failing station as they await rescue. We also find out more about the "Lunatic" event in which an AI named Seven became too intelligent and had to be shut down, but not before it released a "poem" that foretold the future of humanity and its demise- up until now it's been frighteningly accurate and the predictions have created a cult build around it called John Doe.

I love the technology on display, it's pure space-porn and I'm all over the ideas presented across the short six episode series. The emergency inflatable rooms, paper bulkheads, spherical station rooms, mecha design and general look and feel are all fantastic. I could read a book on the technology represented here for hours and never get bored. Also an agreeable nod goes to the giant crab restaurant decoration (a clear nod to Kani Doraku Donbori's main branch in Osaka) featured on Anshin's exterior, it's so corporate and Japanese I adore it. There's also plenty of "familiar" brand placement that's just different enough to avoid getting sued - Deegle, Oni Qlo and many others, its fun to spot them. 

The two A.I. drones, Daki and Bright, are also reminiscent of the spheroids and cubes from Terrahawks which is probably coincidental but I like the iconography. 

The level of environmental detail is fabulous

The children are suitably immature and bratty, with perhaps only Mina crossing the line between entertaining and obnoxious as she streams everything she can in a bid for stardom. Touya's cynical anti-Earth stance is not without merit, but his emo nature isn't nearly as off-putting as Touya's "holier-than-thou" stance which gets tiring fast in the early stages. Still, they are children and everything seems bigger and more important at that age - the exaggerated facial expressions are reserved mostly for the kids, though Nasa has some fantastic reactions from time to time.

The nature of the failures and threat facing the station are intriguing, with the results of each often leading to further branching issues that the crew and their guests have to deal with, driving the drama at a swift pace. The classic disaster movie nature of the series is reinforced with elements of the score, which has echoes of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams' sweeping space opera themes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and E.T respectively. It's also hard not to draw parallels between the superintelligence of Seven with its "lunatic" state and that of 2001's HAL 9000 with its own logical breakdown.

Still, if you're going to steal, do it from the best.

The series manages to make some good philosophical points along its journey, the future of humanity, how it can be secured and the sacrifices needed to achieve it are all studied with in the context of the events unfolding across the station. There's a few good plot twists too, with not everyone being who they appear. 

All of this is wrapped up in some beautiful animation - the level of detail, integration of CGI and the excellent direction from Mitsuo Iso (who also wrote the story) makes this one of the most impressive anime series I've seen this year. 

With only six episodes, The Orbital Children never outstays its welcome, wrapping up the story in a very satisfying manner - it feels longer than it is, with so much to digest and the density of ideas crammed into the runtime, but it never confuses or goes so esoteric that it casts itself as superior to the audience. Just like the children, we're all in it together.

The Orbital Children is streaming on Netflix.