The TV anime "Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (Chi: Chikyu no Undo ni Tsuite)", based on the manga by Uoto, which was also selected as the Manga Grand Prize of the 26th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, began airing on NHK General TV in October. The original work was serialized in "Weekly Big Comic Spirits" (Shogakukan) from 2020 to 2022, and became a hot topic as an unusual manga depicting people risking their lives to study the heretical theory of heliocentrism in 15th century Europe. The work is fiction set in a world where the heliocentrism is persecuted, but the characters who attempt to prove the heliocentrism are so realistic that they seem to have actually existed in history, and they are heart-shaking. Why does "Chi.-About the Earth's Movement-" touch the hearts of viewers? We asked the original author, Uoto.
◇Intentionally creating a calm atmosphere
"Orb: On the Movements of the Earth" begins when Rafał, a child prodigy who has been accepted into university at a skip-grade level, meets the mysterious scholar Hubert. The story unfolds as Hubert, who was tortured and imprisoned for touching upon a taboo based on heretical thought, was researching a shocking "hypothesis" about the universe: the heliocentric theory...
Author Uoto was born in Tokyo in 1997. In 2018, he made his serial debut with "Hyaku-e-M." (Kodansha), which is based on the 100-meter sprint in athletics. In drawing "Chi.", his second serialized work following "Hyaku-e-M.", he said that he placed importance on "not using role language," "not having the characters cry for no reason," and "affirming curiosity and ambition."
"Role words are words that express a person's attributes, such as 'that's' or 'that's'. I read an interview with Professor Hanazawa Kengo some time ago in which he said that he doesn't use role words, and that influenced me. I haven't used them since the one-shot days. I think it's more interesting to read when you don't use them because it feels more real. I also thought that it would be faster to absorb the words, so I tried not to use role words. However, I think that's why there are good things about fiction and literary language that can only be expressed with role words."
Regarding the fact that "the characters don't cry for no reason," he explains, "I aimed for a calm and solid directorial expression without getting too heated." "I wanted to create a sense of bleakness, and I tried to portray people who work hard and have passion. I really like passionate works, but I find it hard to handle works that fail to be passionate. That tension was inside me. So I wanted to balance the temperature and make sure it didn't waver."
Indeed, "Chi." depicts people who are passionate enough to risk their lives to prove the heliocentric theory, but at the same time, each character gives the impression of being calm. Uoto said he aimed for a "calm" portrayal, and that he was conscious of this way of portraying them because he chose the heliocentric theory as his theme. Perhaps it is because the portrayal is not excessive that the characters convey a realism that makes them seem quietly passionate.
Regarding "affirming curiosity and ambition," he said, "It was very important that I didn't end the story with both sides of the argument," and added, "I didn't end it with an open-ended story where I tell the readers there are pros and cons and they have to decide which one. I made sure to include my opinion."
◇The power of words: Why Wikipedia is included in comics
"Chi." features many famous quotes, and the power of words is one of its charms. In the first and second episodes of the TV anime, famous lines such as "A wrong answer does not mean it is meaningless" and "'Beauty' and 'logic' meet" appeared. Uoto explains that such lines are "almost contrarian."
"I take a counterargument to commonly held values, and then I take a counterargument again. Then I can come back to something simple. If you just say something simple at the beginning, it doesn't carry weight, and it doesn't feel convincing. For example, we're in a situation where we wonder if someone is going to say, 'Love is important,' so to give it weight, I have someone say, 'Love isn't important,' and then I go back to saying, 'Love is important,' and then I think, 'I knew it.' I think we're in a situation where we can't believe such words in modern times, so I want to make them more persuasive."
The back cover of each of the "Chi." comics features a design of a precious phrase that appears in the work. Incidentally, the back cover of the cover is also unique, with Wikipedia pages for planets such as "Earth" and "Mars."
"I put that information on Chi because the information that the characters in Chi are trying so hard to track down is now very open. So, rather than information from a university library or the like, I wanted information from Wikipedia, which anyone can easily access and edit. I wanted to show that this situation has been achieved. There is a certain uncertainty because anyone can easily access it for free, but I think it's good that it's open."
Chi is so real that it makes you think, "There were people like this in the past," and you can even feel that their struggle is connected to you now. That may be why it is such a moving story.
