Contents
- Introduction
- Story and Themes
- Art and Animation
- Audio Components
- Character Writing
- Personal Enjoyment
- Overall Score
Introduction
If you like stories that make you stop and think about the world and your place in it, Orb: On the Movements of Earth may be the perfect anime for you. Whether it’s philosophy, religion, history, morality, society, or individual human nature – Orb has something to say about the deeper parts of life. This anime combines stellar storytelling and interesting character dynamics with fascinating themes, well-written dialogue, and a soundtrack that inspires awe.
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is a 2024 anime directed by Kenichi Shimizu and animated by studio Madhouse. It was based on the manga by Uoto. So far, Orb is my favorite anime of the 2020s. It’s the best this decade has to offer. This could change in the next few years as my perspective shifts and I see more anime. But for now, it’s difficult to realistically imagine a better anime than Orb appearing anytime soon. So, why is this anime so amazing? We’re about to find out by addressing the main strengths of the show in this review.
Please note that this review was quite difficult for me to write because I find it harder to write well about shows that I believe are masterpieces. I struggled for weeks on this review after months of procrastinating. It’s still only a basic introduction and does not get into all the particulars that I find so amazing. But hopefully, this post can at least convey my feelings about this anime. It’s truly my favorite of the decade.
Warning: Spoilers may be present
Disclaimer: This post is subject to future edits and revisions
Story and Themes
Score: 10/10
Orb is about a set of characters who become involved with heliocentrism – the true idea that the Earth revolves around the sun – in a time when it was not proven nor acceptable believe. A work of historical fiction, Orb is set in Poland in the early 1400s. Though certain Christian apologists find it difficult to accept these days, the Catholic Church was easily as evil and insane in reality (if not more so) than it appears in this anime. That being said, not everything the Church does is backed up by known fact. The story inevitably takes some liberties or makes some mistakes – so don’t expect complete historic perfection. Each character in Orb encounters heliocentrism and ends up embracing it despite it making them heretics. The show is not about heliocentrism, but it may be about the way the world moves in a symbolic sense. It’s about life, history, faith, and how it all forms our constantly changing world as humans.
Without giving explicit spoilers, the story moves through several main characters, beginning with a child genius named Rafal. Despite being only twelve, he’s slated to attend university soon. His life abruptly changes with the appearance of the heretic Hubert, who was tortured into recanting, but who now continues his forbidden research – and wants Rafal’s’ help. Hubert is also being investigated by Nowak, the local inquisitor for the Church. What will become of Rafal if he stops being purely rational and instead embraces the insanity of heresy? The first arc is highly compelling and serves the overall story well by setting the tone and the way the characters will be treated by the narrative. There are three other arcs in the series, each one following a new viewpoint character. Though it’s hard to make this work, Orb proved its prowess at changing perspectives.
Orb boasts several strong storytelling elements that can be narrowed down to four points. Firstly, as explained above, it switches perspectives with proficiency. Secondly, the narrative ties together seemingly unconnected points into a compelling, smooth story, even if it takes time to see how it all connects. The third major strength would be the surprising and unexpected directions the story sometimes takes – in other words, plot twists. Fourth and finally, this anime’s story is strong because it includes profound themes about life and humanity. Many examples of these four points can be found by watching Orb.
Although I personally think the story category for Orb is top-tier, there are a few potential criticisms to mention. The ending is unusual, somewhat divisive, and throws a lot of people off. The twist in the final few episodes – which I won’t spoil here – is difficult to explain and left largely up to viewer interpretation. Whichever interpetation of the ending you believe, it may feel anticlimatic or different from what you expected. It can feel like you were tricked. I don’t think this is bad writing, but it’s a style that not everyone will enjoy. Other criticisms are similar in that they do not point out poor storytelling, but differences in preference. For example, if you cannot tolerate deaths of central characters, Orb is not for you. Or, if you dislike heavy, lengthy dialogue, then do not watch Orb. Some people may eventually point out criticisms to me that I don’t currently see, but for now, it seems that the crafting of story in Orb is absolutely masterful.
Art and Animation
Score: 8/10
The visuals for Orb are not spectacular, but they are more than adequate for a serious seinen anime like this. First, look at the character designs. I like the general art-style and its more realistic take on characters. The people in this anime don’t have colorful shounen designs with spiky pink hair, but rather, they look more like real people in terms of proportions and colors. The brightest character design is probably that of Rafal with his striking yellow hair and contrasting blue clothes and eyes. The character design for young Jolenta was also cute and bold, with her fierce gold eyes, dirty blond hair, and lilac-purple shawl and gloves. But in general, the characters are more bland, with natural hair and eye colors like brown and black, and more muted outfits. Though it may be off-putting to some, I appreciated the realistic art style.
Some might compare the visual style to a series like Attack on Titan, but the visuals are slightly inferior in Orb due to the relative lack of fluid action sequences and the generally less detailed designs. The lighting also shoots for realism, but this means it’s often too dim or muted for my poor eyes. This was a downfall of the visuals to me. Despite these issues, I still think the art and animation were excellent overall. One of my favorite things to look at in anime are the face expressions. In Orb, we always have interesting and emotive expressions for the characters. Though simple, these expressions are also deeply and quietly dramatic.
As someone who hasn’t truly studied any form of visual art, I never have as much to say about the art and animation. I also don’t know much about how specific things work in the animation industry. So, I don’t have much more to say about the visuals. But I do want to note that this anime features many beautiful shots of the night sky and the stars. In addition, the scenery and backgrounds are usually detailed, realistic, and pleasant to look at. Finally, I appreciated the occasional use of creative visuals like the judging eyes in the sky seen by Oczy. Overall, the visuals were great.
Audio Components
Score: 10/10
The audio category for Orb was spectacular. We’ll start with the music. The OST was composed by Kensuke Ushio, who also wrote the music for Chainsaw Man, Dandadan, and Devilman Crybaby, among others. Ushio is one of my favorite composers and he outdid himself on the soundtrack for Orb. It’s usually gentle and melancholy, using mostly piano melodies and strings. Many tracks are ambient and unsettling, reflecting the constant tension and fear of heretics being hunted by the Church. Some of my favorite OST tracks include “Thaumazein,” “Hope,” “Intellect,” and “Thrill.” In particular, “Thaumazein” is the main theme of the show, and it perfectly captures the feelings of awe and curiosity about the universe. If a starry night sky could make music, I think it would sound like “Thaumazein.”
Next, we’ll discuss the songs in Orb. The opening for both halves of the series was the same song: “Kaiju” by Sakanaction. This song is fantastic! It’s one of my favorite songs of 2024. Not only does “Kaiju” sound amazing on its face – with a slow build to a truly exciting chorus and powerful, emotional vocals – but the lyrics are also meaningful, poetic, and full of creative symbolism. The first ending song is “Aporia” by Yorushika. Though the lyrics have little to do with the characters in the series, the song captures the tone of wonder and hope experienced by the heretics on their personal journeys. The second ending song is by the same artist and is called “Hebi” (“Snake”). Similar to the other ED, its lyrics are whimsical and its sound is calming. The song is written from the point of view of a snake experiencing joy. Though both ending songs are soothing and memorable, the best song is definitely the opening. I just can’t get enough of “Kaiju.”
Now that we’ve been over the music and songs, let’s also consider the voice-acting. I typically only watch subtitled anime in Japanese, so if there is an English Dub, I haven’t seen it yet. But the Japanese voice-acting was excellent and featured at least one of my top ten favorite seiyuus of all time – Maaya Sakamoto, the voice of Rafal. Sakamoto is a singer and a voice actress perhaps best known for playing Ciel in all current anime iterations of Black Butler. I can’t say enough how much I love her androgynous voice and how she brought the character of Rafal to life. The cast also included Show Hayami as Hubert, which was the perfect choice. His deep, wise tone was perfect for the quiet but eccentric heretic. Hayami is most known for his roles in Macross, Bleach, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Dragonball Z.
Every seiyuu in Orb was impressive, but I’ll just name three others who stood out to me. First is Kenjiro Tsuda, voice of Nowak. Tsuda is a prolific VA with many roles including Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen, Kishibe in Chainsaw Man, and Tatsu from The Way of the Househusband. His performance as the sociopathic inquisitor, Nowak, was stunning. Only Tsuda could have pulled it off so well. Then there is a personal favorite of mine, Yuichi Nakamura, who played Badeni. His voice is bold, attractive, and perfect for a confident and self-absorbed character like Badeni. Nakamura is probably best known for voicing Satoru Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen, but he’s had other great roles as well, such as Shigure in Fruits Basket. Last but not least is Miyuri Shimabukuro, voice of Draka. She is a talented seiyuu who deserves more attention. I recognized her vaguely because she played Carole in Carole and Tuesday. Shimabukuro’s performance as Draka was top-notch.
Character Writing
Score: 9/10
The immaculate character writing is another case proving the excellence of Orb. For the main and supporting cast alike, the character development was always skillfully done and intriguing to watch unfold. Most characters go through significant growth and are developed in interesting ways. In particular, Orb excels at making its characters interact with each other, letting them bounce ideas off each other in a way that allows growth. Because the character writing is sometimes a bit too on-the-nose, I gave the character category a 9/10 rather than a full 10/10. However, even if it’s simple and frank in terms of character writing, it still works because each character is genuinely so fascinating, multi-faceted, and full of potential.
Though I sometimes enjoy stories with pure-evil villains or hopelessly good heroes, I tend to prefer it when a production presents the characters in a more realistic way. Orb does a magnificent job of this. Rather than having good or evil characters, everyone is a human – and thus capable of both good and evil depending on circumstances. Some of the characters with the wisest lines end up committing morally corrupt actions. In addition, the main antagonist, Nowak, is often humanized by the narrative. The writing for Nowak was superb, by the way. I haven’t seen a villain this compelling and unnerving in a long time. He is now up there in my mind with other well-written anime sociopaths I love, such as Johan Liebert (Monster) and Askeladd (Vinland Saga).
The character category also wins extra points with me, a “woke” humanist, for including two well-written, important female characters, one of whom is an atheist, and interpreted by some to be a young woman of color. (Draka does not look as white as most of the other characters.) Diversity and gender equality in character writing seems to matter to the story of Orb in a way that isn’t true of most anime. Oh- and this almost goes without saying, but there is no fan-service of the female characters in this anime. Though I occasionally enjoy tasteful fan-service of adult characters, that would not have worked well for an anime like Orb. So, if you’re someone who dislikes fan-service, Orb is “safe.” There’s so much more to say about the characters – I think they all deserve detailed character analyses. Maybe I’ll get to that someday, haha. For now, this introductory review will have to suffice.
Personal Enjoyment
Score: 10/10
There was so much I enjoyed in Orb that it would take pages upon pages to explain it all, but I will rapid-fire a few of the aspects I most enjoyed in this anime. First and foremost, the philosophy, themes and messages of the story were what I found most important and meaningful. My favorite themes explored include heresy, personal god-beliefs, pursuit of truth, the importance of thinking outside the box, the beauty and wonder of nature, and the dangers of blind faith. Besides these main themes, I loved almost every character. My favorite at the end of the day is probably Jolenta, but Rafal and Draka are both tied for second. The character writing is so damn good for everyone! The music and voice-acting in Orb also entertained me to no end. These are just a few general examples.
Before we move on to the overall score, it feels important to point out that Orb is not an atheist or anti-theist anime. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I am outspoken about being an atheist (even though that is less important to me than being a humanist – but I’m outspoken about both as much as possible). So, perhaps you will read this review and think I only like it because it’s dissing religion. Actually, Orb is not that black-and-white. The show features only one central atheist character, and it never says that she’s correct. Orb promotes coexistence between theists of all stripes and atheists. Though the Catholic Church is the antagonistic force in the series, personal faith is a crucial trait for most of the characters, and religion itself is not demonized as much as the idea of orthodox religion holding too much power in society.
As an atheist, but also someone fascinated by learning about different concepts of gods, I enjoyed Orb on its face. The show may speak more to people who have undergone a loss or change of faith throughout their lives (I used to be a Christian). The anime also frowns on violent extremism and dogmatic thinking, which are common in traditional large religions. But I’ve read and listened to some other reviews of Orb, and it seems that many god-believers were still able to enjoy the show. Some have even said that Orb is a story about a god’s love for humanity, but I disagree. It’s about some tiny humans looking at themselves and the world. Because it didn’t take a stance on the existence of a god in reality, Orb can be appreciated equally by both theists and atheists.
Overall Score
Score: 9.4 / 10.0
The overall score is the average of the five scores discussed in the previous sections. I think the only series I’ve rated this highly before was one of the seasons of AOT. I also consider Monster, Frieren, Vinland Saga, and a few others in this range, but I haven’t reviewed all of them yet here on Anime Rants. Anyway, a score in the 9s range is all but unheard of in my anime reviews. I reserve it for the best of the best. On MAL, Orb sits with a decent score of 8.71 (as of March 2026), but I believe it deserves even better. It is my sincere hope that more people will find Orb in the coming years and realize that it’s the best anime has to offer.
There are many salient messages and/or warnings we can take from Orb, but I will leave you with just one for today, and that is the importance of learning from each other. Always try to learn from others, whether they are teachers or not. One of the best ways to beat prejudice is to spend time with the people you’re prejudiced against. One of the best ways to make an informed decision is to get as much input as possible. If people would leave their dogma behind and engage with others as equals who have interesting perspectives on life, the world would be a much better place. If you want to move the Earth, start by widening your perspective and engaging others with an open mind.
~Thanks for Reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
Anime Rants 