Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

The Orb

If you Google the inventor of the heliocentrism theory, the names that come up are Nicolas Copernicus or Ibn Al Syatir. Behind these two names are thousands of people who likely fought for the same cause, but their names and stories were lost to the ravages of civilization. This anime is a fictional story about those who dedicated their lives to heliocentrism, but whose names are not recorded in history. The story is set in 14th/15th century Poland. This era is called the Dark Ages because the church's views were considered absolute. Any opposing views were considered heretics and severely punished. Therefore, science, art, and civilization were at a standstill during this era. At that time, the church still adhered to geocentrism (Earth as the center of the solar system). Astronomers, observers, and even priests observed the sky every night and attempted to create a model of the planetary system based on geocentrism. However, they were unable to create a perfect model, as the shape became distorted.

Conflict arose when a group of people proposed the theory of heliocentrism. Adherents to this theory were considered heretical and faced execution. They were previously tortured for hiding records on heliocentrism. If any records were discovered, they would be burned. Throughout the show, we're presented with various characters with different and conflicting values. Even within the church itself, values can differ. There are many ideas I admire, but there are also many I find foolish. It made me wonder, if God is the source of everything, why is the world so chaotic? Everyone thinks differently, they're always fighting, and it's all a mess, like geocentrism itself.

There is a quote from the anime that I would like to provide in here:

"Human civilization is like God playing a puzzle. If God is the one who assembles the puzzle, then we are all just pieces of the puzzle representing an era. When we all die, civilization will continue and continue to develop. 1,000 years from now, no one will remember our names and stories; we will all be condensed into 15th-century society."

This quote made me realize that the world is still unfolding because the puzzle is still being put together, and we are the pieces. Even until we die, the puzzle will continue to be put together. Until when? Who knows, God knows. From our narrow perspective, the world will continue to appear imperfect, its systems flawed, the people around us flawed, and even we ourselves are flawed. But even though we're imperfect, that doesn't mean we're worthless. Remember the key word is puzzle. Imagine you buy a 1,000-piece puzzle at your local store. Each piece is imperfect; but if assembled correctly, the puzzle can be perfect. And every piece is important, because a puzzle designed to be perfect in 1,000 pieces will be flawed if one piece is missing. So for all of us, for the people whose minds I admire, for myself, even for those I consider stupid; Like pieces of a puzzle, we are all partners in shaping human civilization, and we all matter. No matter how small our role, no matter how flawed we are, we are all part of God's puzzle.

The Progress and the Truth

I finished watching this show three weeks ago and I still don't really know what I feel. All I know is that I need to share this feelings, not just for what anyone who resonates with me but more so for myself from the future. I'm kind of thinking years from now I might randomly remember this review and come back to it just like my other reviews or maybe I don't. Watching Orb was basically following this one protagonist throughout decades, a protagonist that was not even a character. It was a theory and a theory that is not a theory to us now. It's a fact, it's a truth, it was fascinating to watch how this simple fact was so lifechanging to all these characters that we got to meet throughout the show and looking at it from all these different angles and point of views, all of these philosophies of life and trains of thought that came along that I can't possibly summarize here. But when I think about them, there's this one word that emerges and like comes to my mind and that is inspiration and I've always thought of inspiration as this fleeting thing that if you don't hold on to it or like seize it and act upon it immediately like it could just be lost forever. Maybe that's why I'm trying to make this review because I don't want it to be lost.

But looking back at the story, maybe it's not a spark or like a flame, maybe it's not even fire. Maybe it's water like a river, always going, always flowing, ever changing. You know when you look at a river at every given moment, you're looking at a different thing because it's just going, it's just moving, it's not the same but the scenery is the same and a second from now. That's what the water does, it changes the Earth like it changes the landscape but gradually over time. So it's always there, it's ever present and it's always making those changes.

This anime beautifully shows how thoughts become structures and structures become prison cells and then how we the people try to break out of those prison cells. That is what I think a hopeful view. Its hope is what I'm getting from this narrative but it's not want to shy away from showing the ugly side of of us. I might be just mixing everything up here but you know in every age, in every era that the humanity stays the same. The first thing that comes to my mind thinking about that is, “oh we're making the same mistakes over and over again” and it's so easy to just fall into that understanding. Or like that interpretation seeing how the world is and has been even though that is true.

Another side of it is that us as human beings, we've never stopped this pursuit for something that is more real and true. And the proof of that is hearing the movements of the earth, whether it's heliocentrism books or literature about the language of music, you name it. Generations have been fighting for these to be passed down to us so there's hope in that and also despair because they exist at the same time like inseparable. And through it all there's inspiration guiding us and driving us forward as a human.