Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
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Daidan12
Posts: 60 |
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I really loved Rafal's last conversation:
Rafal: - "Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?" by Epicurus "To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessing for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of evil." by Socrates "Life is long if you know how to use it." by Seneca Nowak: "Those words are from Heathens from more tan 200 years ago! Their words would not be of use to you" Rafal: "Their words can move hearts, they moved me. I think the inspiration gifted by others is something more precious than life, I want their words to live on." Nowak: "You are giving up your life just for some words. That's insanity" Rafal: "Maybe, but I believe I will call it Love" It's the perfect way to kick the story into high gear. I loved the manga and I am extremely happy that it got a high profile adaptation, both the OP & ED are great. |
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Pino_the_pink_rabbit
Posts: 1 |
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At the moment I am disappointed with the way the anime shows the realities of the Middle Ages and later the Renaissance. Most people in those times could not write and read, here however it seems that even city guards and boys raised by the church could. Another issue is paper, an expensive and desirable commodity in those times, Rafal uses his notebook and tears out pages as if he had an excess of them. In general I do not judge the story presented in the anime and manga (it is fiction), however I think that since the author set the action in Europe in a specific time frame, it would be necessary to take care to properly describe the realities of those times. These are just two examples of many that can be seen in the first three episodes. I am afraid that the next episodes will be similar.
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Nemu Asahi
 Posts: 22 Location: Iwate |
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I don't mind all the things that are not accurate because it's a fiction, not a documentary. It's a manga, not a live TV series.
I'm writing a police plot 30 years in the future in a dystopian Japan. I take liberties with the reality in order to write a better manga scenario, more engaging to future readers and I think that it's a good choice the author of Chi (orb) made. The most important thing is to write an appealing story to the readers for them to enjoy the manga. If accuracy needs to be lower, so be it, up to a point though. What point might you say? The point where a lot of readers stop enjoying the manga and stop reading it. |
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Daidan12
Posts: 60 |
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The author was 22 when he started this work, I would cut him some slack. He gets a little better on understanding the realities of the time later on the story but overall he will always put emotion/story over historical accuracy. |
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writerpatrick
 Posts: 680 Location: Canada |
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There does seem to be some confusion about what was happening at the time. For one thing, there were multiple inquisitions. While the Spanish Inquisition was known to use torture, Poland doesn't seem to have used it, at least not to any significant degree. The Inquisitions were more legal in nature.
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Eilavel
Posts: 134 |
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I think the fundamental problem is it wants to paint what is many of us in the modern day, the post-enlightenment materialist, as the victims of historical religious persecution. Which has been true in times and places, but the counter-reformation catholic church was more about repressing religious wrongthink. Its victims were most often actually more religious than average. But thats harder to either win empathy with or build a progressive narrative of conflict in history around.
Still, it means the anti repression message isn't totally misplaced. And its not a bad message to have. Personally, for my own enjoyment I can overlook ahistorical elements and enjoy a "period flavored" show. But, a significant netflix release about a historical period is going to set a huge number of peoples understanding of what happened, which is a bit unfortunate. |
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benzone
Posts: 35 |
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No one expects accuracy from anime. Even more so when the setting isn't Japan and the subjects aren't Japanese. More still when the people, places and institutions aren't named. Also, narratives where very devout people get oppressed because they have the wrong religion from the majority are all over the place and gets tons of empathy. Instead, what you actually don't see much fiction about is state repression, unless said states are monarchist or fascist. |
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Otohiko
 Posts: 33 |
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As a historian (and amateur astronomer, too!), I was initially a bit cautious approaching this anime - but now that I'm caught up, I'm honestly thrilled with what it's doing and have no real bone to pick with historical inaccuracies. Granted, yes, there are plenty here - and this is probably easier for me to say since this is not at all my area of specialization - but if we're comparing it to say, Vinland Saga, it's really doing a lot of similar things. The big difference where Vinland Saga does "better" is really in the small details, and it does show deeper research, but that's really just masking about the same level of invented narratives - and Orb is easier to call out in part because it's working with a period that is far better documented.
In the end, neither of those stories is really about its historical period, but very much an ongoing conversation with the Japanese literary flavour of post-WWII secular humanism, which has a rich and storied tradition in manga going back all the way to Tezuka. It borrows on historical settings and themes, but is completely about exploring contemporary social and philosophical themes. I love that it instantly squashes the trope of "people in the old times were stupid/ignorant and our modern knowledge is what makes us superior", and looks at its big questions through the lens of flawed, practically random characters mostly dredged up from rejects of their own society. It's not really trying to point at what's different in that world - it's instantly prying at our shared humanity, looking for the elements that connect us living today to the struggles of those characters. In a way, it's a manga about itself, a parable for carrying on the torch, and who better to tell it than a mangaka just picking it up when he was 22? (I have not yet read the manga, but am pretty excited to now). Also, I couldn't hope but notice a few Chekhov's guns here and there. Oczy's name, for example, meaning "eyes" (and if this gets an English dub, I hope they consult a Polish speaker so it gets correctly pronounced as "Ochy", not "Oxy" as they very incorrectly say it in the Japanese dub). Or, more intriguingly, Nowak's name literally meaning "new man" - is that hinting towards later developments? After all, Rafal had hinted that whether Nowak wants it or not, he is going to be an instrument for truth in the end. Or the fact that his daughter hasn't been mentioned since episode 2/3, even though he makes it clear that she is a major motivation for all he does - and I'm certainly willing to bet that, now that 10 years have been skipped, we'll be meeting her at some point and she's going to turn out to not be daddy's girl at all... Anyway, genuinely excited for this series. I'll probably end up reading the manga in the next few days. |
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jmckenna15
Posts: 146 |
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Glad it wasn't just me then. I'm watching this on a Sony Bravia Google TV and I had to adjust the brightness setting for these night scenes. It was way too dark to see anything. |
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 502 |
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Seconded, I saw so many video compression artifacts. Lossy video compression has never been good at preserving subtle differences in dark shades. Most things get around this by making it subtly brighter than it actually would be. The sheer darkness is easier to deal with when there's a clear sky of stars as contrast, but it makes a miserable experience when it's cloudy. |
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Otohiko
Posts: 33 |
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Well, now that I finished the manga, I'm only all the more excited about this one. Madhouse are doing an absolute masterclass of an adaptation - I realize that the art has been one of the common complaints here, but if you look at the source... it's easy to see that the anime is actually a big improvement on it. The manga has its share of really excellent panels, and the story is great, but most of it the art in it is pretty rough and inconsistent - where the anime really elevates it and brings the visuals both to a much better consistency and a lot of great cinematic touches. The backgrounds and action scenes are especially a big improvement. And they managed to do it without making it feel like a totally different work, with character designs and key imagery following the original really closely.
The story so far is very faithful - the Rafal episodes are basically a scene for scene adaptation, and everything since has had only very minor edits. If anything, I kind of wish they did more revisions to the script: the final scene with Gras in the recent episode is one example where they could've done better rather than sticking to the source. The manga's writing is brilliant but sometimes a bit messy - it feels like they're taking a very gentle editing approach with it, where honestly I think Madhouse could make it an even better version of the story without losing anything, just as they're doing with the visuals. |
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<('_')^
Posts: 72 |
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Is this anime getting an English dub? It really feels like it should.
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1311 |
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I think you meant that they partially blind Badeni? Great episode. For a series that I began on a whim, I've been hooked. |
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Gem-Bug
Posts: 1311 |
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I'm really enjoying how each episode can be such a bummer and still end on a hopeful note almost every week.
I had assumed that spoiler[Jolenta was likely to be Nowak's daughter for weeks now based the time skip and how her father's face isn't shown in the OP.] Good to see that confirmed. |
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 502 |
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The funny thing is spoiler[I don't think it's supposed to be confirmed just yet. Kenjirou Tsuda has a far too distinct voice to hide who he is, while just keeping him out of sight aside from hands was plenty to hide him in the manga (if that's what the author did).] |
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