Netflix has released the first trailer for The Orbital Children, a new original anime series that is set to be released on the platform next January. The trailer is part of a deluge of new content that the streamer has released this week for anime fans, which also includes Gundam, Aggretsuko, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and YuYu Hakusho. The Orbital Children is set in 2045, when traveling to space is part of everyday life and a hotel is created to house underage children who aren’t born on Earth.
The trailer reveals everything you’d expect from a future setting: abstract creatures, robots, technology literally at the palm of your hand, and a quick look at future society (social media and propaganda have found their way into the outer space hotel, to no one’s surprise). The sentence “you can’t escape the future” suggests that the upbeat imagery might be hiding some dark secrets, like it happens in many dystopias.
The Orbital Children is created by Mitsuo Iso, who has worked in the animation department of projects such as Kill Bill, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, and Digimon Adventure. He was also the creator, writer and director of 2007’s Coil – A Circle of Children, which was also set in a near future. In the story, society was starting to figure out the ins and outs of virtual reality. Now, with The Orbital Children, Mitsuo is once again using a near-future setting to critique our way of living.
The character design and main animation of The Orbital Children are by Kenichi Yoshida and Toshiyuki Inoue, respectively. Kenichi was a key animator on Attack on Titan, 2001’s Cowboy Bebop, and Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart. Toshiyuki worked with Mitsuo on Coil – A Circle of Children, and was a key animator in famous animated feature films like Paprika, Steamboy, and cyberpunk classic Akira. So, there's plenty of dystopic work to go around with these three creators, and we won't have to wait long to discover what they cooked up together.
Netflix will release the first season of The Orbital Children on January 28.
You can watch the trailer below: