Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (チ。―地球の運動について―,) is a 25 episode historical drama based on the manga of the same name by Uoto. The series ran between the Fall of 2024 and the Winter of 2025.
The story takes place in the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th century, a time where the Catholic church controls most aspects of life. An ex-mercenary named Nowak is employed by the local Bishop to hunt down heretic and bring them to justice, particularly a specific branch of heresy, heliocentrism. The contemporary position of the place of Earth in the universe at this point is that it is the center of everything, with the glory of Heaven above and the torment of Hell below. The wonders of Heavens circles the Earth, casting their mysterious splendor on humans who were not worthy in this life to experience them. Questioning this and analyzing Gods majesty and wonder was punishable by death as an affront to his majesty and benevolence. To do so would constitute the sin of pride in a person thinking they could judge that which is celestial. Yet as Europe begins to expand its experiences to the wider world once again, knowledge and ideas largely lost to them begins to return. With it the age of reason begins and those with the ability to access books and the time to do so begin to study the world around them in empirical ways. The idea that the Heavens do not rotate around the Earth, that the Earth is just another celestial body and it, along with other objects, rotates around the Sun is counter to the Churches dogma. Nowak is working to stamp out this poisonous thinking before it grows out of hand and threatens the order of their lives.
One particular heretical case haunts him through his career, the case of a boy who had the entire world in front of him but defied logic and refused to refute his heretical thinking. The boy, named Rafal, had become involved with a reformed heretic named Hubert and was helping the older man with continuing his heliocentrism research. Huburt is arrested again and executed as a repeat offender with Rafal falling into Nowaks hands. The man tries to convince the boy to recant but instead the boy chooses a symbolic death at his own hands instead of betraying his own convictions. Ten years later, remnants of Rafal and his heresy once again appear before Nowak, this time threatening his own family. Again he reacts in a manner befitting of his duty to the Church and God, but 25 years after that the specter of Heliocentrism and Rafal return, poised to destroy everything he has ever worked for in his life. With all of the effort he has put into this solitary task, why has it persisted in the face of judgement?
Historical drama's are not exactly common in the sphere of anime and manga, many of them are localized to Japanese history, for a number of reasons. Orb is written by someone who has either a deep knowledge of Europe during the enlightened era or did a lot of quality research in preparation for writing the manga. It is astonishing how cognizant this story was in relation to what things would have been like in Poland in the 1400's. Keeping a wary eye on the accountable timeline while spinning a decades long tale of the pursuit of knowledge. This is in stark contrast to the blunder in the Vinland Saga where Denmark is shown as being mountainous...which is pretty far from the reality of things. The story its self is divided into 4 segments and while I presented Nowak as the main character, each section is not told from his narrative perspective. Nowak is the constant character across all of the arcs. The stories narrative perspective is of the heretics that cross his path. Each arc, even after the span of years or decades, carries the burden of knowledge forward, even if the characters had no intention of taking the path they ended up on. I can't express enough how finely crafted this story is and the way it seamlessly connects these disparate individuals. In that path it showcases various aspects of life in this time frame, moving from aspiring philosopher to sell sword, to monk, to social outcast and revolutionary idealists. However there is one sticking point in the time line of things. There is a 'slight' problem with the timing of one event at the very end of the story...that I need to actually sit down and figure out if is real or perceived. But this one error is the only bad mark in an otherwise amazing story.
The story is on the caliber of recognized timeless classics such as Monster but what about the animation? The characters are not realistically detailed but they are realistically designed. They are realistically portrayed Europeans with dress to match the period. The only sticking point and oddity, especially present in the third arc is that some of the characters hair style choices are not exactly period accurate. But that's a miner quibble. The art at times can be a bit jarring when its 3d base becomes apparent, particularly in some of the characters walking animation but it doesn't negatively impact the anime over all. There is no humor in this story, it is a dramatic tale of perseverance and defying authority. There is not a lot of action as well, as the majority of the characters are intellectuals. The few action scenes are brief and well done. It may be due to that old adage of something being better when its done sparingly but the few scenes of sword play were amazing! I can't stress enough how good this story is and how finely it was executed. This should be considered a timeless classic and a model of perfection in the industry. I fear however, that it will be lost to most people due to the nature of its story and the presentation. Its hard to gather a lot of momentum around it when a large portion of the anime viewing populace wants something more flashy and stylized. Orb is not that, it tells a very realistic and grounded story in a way you don't see very often. Well worth the viewing.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment