The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

What's It About? 

In fifteenth-century Europe, heretics are being burned at the stake. Rafal, a brilliant young man, is expected to enter university at an early age and study the era's most important field, theology. But Rafal values Reason above all else, which leads him both to the shocking conclusion that the Earth orbits the Sun, and into the hands of the Inquisition!

A decade later, two members of the Watch Guild, the dour young Oczy and the cynical Gras, find a hidden stone chest that details the secrets of the universe Rafal left behind. Dare they try to change their own stars by selling the heretical texts, or would that only lead to the stake and the fire?

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth has a story and art by Uoto. The English translation is by Daniel Komen and adaptation is by Molly Tanzer, with lettering by Phil Christie. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (November 21, 2023).


Content Warning: Includes a graphic torture scene

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Although I don't know it for a fact, it feels like Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is based on the life of Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. In the sixteenth century, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the universe, which went against the teachings of the Christian church at the time – they favored a version where the Earth was at the center. Set in an unnamed European country where the names are vaguely Polish, Uoto's manga follows several different people as they pursue heliocentrism, often paying the ultimate price for their beliefs. Fair warning: this book includes a couple of graphic depictions of torture at the hands of a lay inquisitor named Nowak.

In this first omnibus, Nowak is the only character to appear throughout the story. We first meet him when he's torturing a scholar by ripping out his fingernails, and he quickly becomes involved in the life of twelve-year-old Rafal, who learns of heliocentrism from a “reformed” heretic named Hubert. Ten years later, Nowak pops up again when an amateur astronomer (whose day job is fighting duels for noblemen) named Gras is given the location of Hubert's and Rafal's research. Nowak isn't around when the volume ends, but since Gras' buddy Oczy and a dangerously academic priest are still pursuing astronomy, he may not be far behind. Nowak is fascinating because of what he's not – an obvious monster. He seems to honestly believe in what he's doing, helping children and talking about his daughter along the way. He's got all the affect of a bored office worker, which makes him feel much more dangerous in many ways. He's not a fanatic on the outside, but he can still send a child to be burned at the stake for his research.

Uoto is trying to tell a story about faith versus scholarship without explicitly pointing fingers, and while I appreciate it, it feels like an exercise in futility. Text is censored, with “C—” and “J—” standing in for nouns we can absolutely fill in, and honestly, since this takes place in about the sixteenth century, I'm not entirely sure what the point of such censorship is. All religions have their problems, but this particular one is primarily relegated to the past and is well-documented, so there doesn't seem to be a solid reason. The art is also not terrific, with a good portion just being talking heads floating in white panels. But the content is more than worth the price of admission, especially if you're interested in the conflict between sacred and secular worlds during the Renaissance.