The Orbital Children

The Orbital Children is a 2022 anime sci-fi film series in two parts written and directed by Mitsuo Iso. The first part of the film was released theatrically in Japan on January 28, 2022, which was followed by its second part on February 11. Netflix released the project as a six-episode series on January 28 to coincide with Part 1.

Summary[]

"In 2045, two children born on the moon and three kids from Earth try to survive after an accident on their space station leaves them stranded."

—Official Netflix synopsis

The story begins in the year 2045, when AI has advanced and anyone can travel into space. Children born on the moon and children from Earth who are on a trip to space meet at the Japanese-built Anshin space station. The series will consist of six episodes and will be distributed worldwide!^[1]

Plot[]

Set in 2045 the near-future, a comet strikes a newly opened Japanese commercial space station in geocentric orbit, Anshin. At the same time, a trio of Earth children brought to the commercial space station on a sponsored visit. The purpose of their visit is to meet Touya Sagami, a young boy who is the one of the last surviving children born in space. Touya and Konoha, another space born human, are undergoing physical therapy on the space colony to adapt their bodies to withstand an emigration to Earth's gravity. The collision with the comet leads the computer systems on the space station to malfunction. Isolated from most of the station’s adult staff, the children navigate the early stages of the disaster using local narrowband connections, restricted-intelligence AGI and drones controlled by dermal devices equivalent to smartphones. Their Internet connection is severed, the oxygen supply has been cut off, and they soon discover that the station has been damaged by an impact and is leaking air. Sometimes at odds with each other, they confront difficulties such as decompression, EVA with inadequate plastic suits, and runaway micromachines supposedly designed to retrieve water from comets. Looming over these immediate difficulties is the larger threat of a technological singularity believed to have been narrowly averted in the previous decade.