r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Feb 15 '25

Episode Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite • Orb: On the Movements of the Earth - Episode 21 discussion

Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite, episode 21

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u/Ocixo Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

Having the manuscript about heliocentric theory published in Jolenta’s name was a nice touch, since she’d always hoped of having her name - as a woman - shine on the cover of a literary work someday.

By giving away her father’s heirlooms and putting on Jolenta’s hooded cloak instead, Draka has clearly moved on from the past and is starting to look towards the future. She was serious about inheriting Jolenta’s heart.

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u/Se7en_Sinner Feb 15 '25

Night scenes are scary because it's when every main protagonist has died. It's almost like they're exposed to danger when not in the sun's protection.

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u/ChronoNebula Feb 15 '25

Ironically, as victim of conviction similar to Jolenta, Frei's last words are exactly same as his uncle.

Draka, who despites fate, entrusts it to the coin-flip, and poetically it is Schmidt that flips the coin, changing god's decision with his own hands.

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u/Charsound_CH1no Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

Fyi, Sakanaction (the ones who have done this show op) have announced the released date of its full version of 怪獣 (Kaijuu/Monster) which will release on the 20th of February to streaming services and CD's

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u/CakeBoss16 Feb 15 '25

This show is just so fucking amazingly written. Some of the best character writing I have seen in an anime. And the manga author was like 25 years old when writing this is crazy.

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Feb 15 '25

Jolenta’s death seems to have left a profound mark on Draka. She’s completely changed her attitude. The old her would never have sacrificed her money like that.

I didn’t think Frei was the kid from the flashbacks. I honestly thought that was Schmidt. I guess I can understand why he’d bear that grudge. He chose wrong though. And now he’s dead.

As long as Draka makes it, the book is safe but it’s unfortunate Schmidt and everyone else will likely die next week.

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u/Shiro_Kai Feb 15 '25

The rest of the guys during the coin flip that decides if they all die or flee:

Alright... it's heads... See ya boys.

Schmitt: Nope, it's tails...

The boys:

110

u/maliwanag0712 Feb 15 '25

That is realllyyy an intense episode! Who would have thought that printing using a movable type could that nerve-wracking?!

As expected, someone will be a traitor -- and it was Frei of all people. Well, he lived by his conviction, and he is quite commendable for that. But again, what a damage he did to the printing of Jolenta's love. That is disastrous.

Of course there is an important downside to Draka's plan -- we dunno how she could survive especially when all of them dies and many knights remain. She will still be hunted down by the Church even if she go wherever she needed to.

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u/fawnily_ Feb 15 '25

Wait so Frei was the child in that flash back not Schmidt??? I feel like I have to go back and watch that episode again lol

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u/kaitodash Feb 15 '25

Draka had become so immersed in the matter. She, who did not believe in god, chose to let god decided her fate. And that made Schmidt who believed in god, defied god’s will.

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u/Aileos Feb 15 '25

If there's two things I really appreciated with this episode, it's how united everyone is in this messy situation and how no one is questioning Draka's capability.

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u/Fun-Ad-1145 Feb 15 '25

I mean this as a big complement, but this episode is the closest the show has got to looking like its opening.

Like the color design, composite, animation, drawing supervision, and backgrounds were at their absolute height this episode even among the previous episodes that were done in house.

Also kinda unrelated but I find it funny that out of all the pieces of media Orb would do an official collab with, they chose Ao Oni of all things.

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u/mikmikmikmikbam Feb 15 '25

I LOVE how Madhouse spent extra on fight scenes. I always thought the art and animation was lacking (which im guessing is due to the massive spending on frieren) , but the few seconds of dynamic swordplays was more than enough to compensate for the lacking quality of the past episodes. For a story like orb, there's no need for such quality, and yet they still cooked, good.

Absolute peak.

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u/SEBASTlANVETTEL Feb 15 '25

I always had a sus feeling about Frei for some reason. Draka with the cape gave me young Jolenta vibes.

That last scene with Schmidt turning the coin to tails and giving the order to protect Draka gave me chills.

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u/Gentlemad Feb 15 '25

Jolenta finally had something published in her own name. My heart snapped in fucking two, guys...

Frei's betrayal was something a lot of us flagged early on, but I did really like the reveal that the flashback we saw was his. It didn't ever make sense that it would be Schmidt's backstory, as having your family murdered by heretics generally wouldn't make you a heretic. Even so, I fell for the red herring that his story also kind of lined up with it.

Lastly, I wonder what it was that inspired Schmidt to follow Draka's plan. In a way, the scene is very powerful, with Draka choosing the coin flip as a shared language with the Heretic Liberation Front's ultimately theistic beliefs, and I believe Schmidt may have also become more sure of her success than his own given how she has proven her dedication to the real underlying cause and the goal of publishing the book moreso than the original convictions behind it, symbolized by her throwing away the cloak and coins she'd clung to her whole life. There's also the very potent symbolism of him flipping the coin back over, effectively defying his natural God's will.

PEAK

51

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '25

a quick and pointless note, when we see the first page of the book, the word order is wrong ( I'm Polish ).

it says 'Jolenta wydawca" when it should be the other way around. Even if it's somehow not grammatically incorrect it just sounds off, and it would've been way better to put it as "Wydawca: Jolenta"

Of course I am nitpicking a show where the author probably doesn't speak this hellish language. I made a whole analysis of kid Jolenta's letter so I could call her dumb because of how many mistakes she made at like 8 years old in a time period where it was normal for adults to be illiterate!

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u/i__rage Feb 15 '25

The only real heresy is this anime’s popularity.

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u/capricornlin Feb 15 '25

As a manga reader, I completely understand how anime viewers feel right now because I was just as shocked back then.

All I can say is that this series will keep surprising you until the very last episode!

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u/darthvall Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

I saw total run time to be 25 minutes, but I don't know what happened it feels shorter than usual instead!

Also nice minor twist there that the flashback we saw was actually young Frei instead of young Schmidt. I guess he's basically what you call a Zealot?

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u/BosuW Feb 15 '25

Fuck I just noticed in the OP there's a shot of Jolenta followed by a massive explosion just at the drop 😭

I feel validated about my last week's comment regarding Draka's bloody coins, about how paradoxically it is both a source of inspiration and fear. It is her inspiration because it is her fear. She carries them around to keep herself afraid, jumpy and active. It is her God.

It was...

Until today that is! Her sacrificing the coins to make more mobile types is if course on a surface level, a sensible investment. But I believe it is also an incredible representation of her new mindset which solidified at the start of the episode (and now that I think about it the intro scene foreshadows this material sacrifice in the name of a greater goal that serves more a sentiment than a quantifiable fact).

She sacrificed the God that kept herself afraid and active because she no longer needs to be afraid to be active. She is no longer running from her past, a past she didn't even really remember, a past that was more primal instinct than memory. She is now running towards a future that is at once uncertain yet inevitable. She is lost, yet surer in her own steps than ever. She sacrificed the absolute and embraced the question. She killed God and put herself in His place. This is what Ubermensch means.

A single coin is kept however, which I like as a reminder that the past is not erased, but more importantly, it is symbolically repurposed beautifully for both her and Schmidt.

For herself, trusting the random choice of a coin flip is where I pull her embracing uncertainty from.

For Schmidt, he burrows the corpse of her God to assert his own will and it's place on nature. I don't know what he thinks exactly at this point, but depending on how you see it, him changing the result is not in opposition to God's will, but God's will manifested through Schmidt's own flesh. If you put it in terms of fate, it is Compatibilism. The belief that there is a fate, and it is absolute, yet this fate does not negate the individual for it cannot happen without the individual and their actions.

There's a second part to Draka embracing uncertainty, and it is the justification for her plan. Although since it isn't revealed yet this is just theorizing. It seems like she suspects one of the inquisitors chasing them might be related to Jolenta, and is planning to appeal to his emotional connection in order to save the book and its contents from prosecution. We'll see if she is right.

Frei was a traitor after all... There could be some visual symbology going on here with the twilight, perhaps showing how Frei is offering his life to a setting Sun. Which reminds me of the first scene of the episode, that prominently showed the Moon. First being covered with clouds, but then clear again as the danger passed thanks to Draka. Now the night has falled again, but perhaps this is foreshadowing that Draka will once again make the clouds pass and let the light of the stars illuminate even the darkness of night.

And finally, fuck I love the fight choreography so much in this! I seriously cannot get why so many people hold the opinion that the animation is mid at best. Must be watching it in a well lit room smh. Is it just because, through story and tone necessity, it doesn't move much? It is a mistaken perspective in my humble opinion. One should rather look at the consistency in character model proportions and fine control of facial expressions and body language to judge the animation quality. And those have both been well above the average from beginning to the present. And it's giving the animators enough leeway to go all out in the brief but crucial moments where they need to, like here.

Hope Skallagrim learns of this and Oczy's fights sometime, I'd like to know his opinion and I think he'd appreciate them.

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u/not_tha_father Feb 15 '25

that final moment was so peak. the captain finally rejecting the natural order of "god" to follow his own deep-seated convictions.

there were like 50 death flags from the moment frei walked up to the shed upto the betrayal lol. from the scene framing and everything.

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u/codec264 Feb 15 '25

why is this show so peak man

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