Part 1. It was a 9/10 because 10% must go to Potocki !
This anime felt like pure magic realism to me. It doesn’t really matter who’s from Kingdom P or Poland, or who’s the villain or hero—because all along, Chi (Knowledge) has been the real protagonist. And in the end, truth always finds a way! Resilience of truth rising from one word ! The final minute had such a beautiful, short-film esque feel to it; goosebump moment - just by hearing the title one can ignite the fire and lit the lost research ! It reminded me of the unforgettable ending in One Hundred Years
...
of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, mixed with the one in Star Wars: Andor.
The series itself has become timeless. In one reality Rafal was ready to die for truth—and in one other was ready to kill—for truth, which shows the incredible lengths someone might go to in order to learn something new. That was his exchange offer! and it underlines how powerful these last two episodes really are. Full circle all the way. But what was Albert ready to sacrifice ?
For me, the story points out that coincidence is part of how the universe works—life itself can feel like a miracle. There’s a sense of magic realism in simply existing and asking questions about the world around us. After all, no one truly knows what happened in history, or what keeps the Earth moving, and we often forget those who once searched for these answers or any researh that you beleive in. But the knowledge they left behind—Chi/ orb—remains. We might take truth for granted today, yet each discovery has a deeper story we might never know.
When we think wonderfully and stay curious (that “thaumazein”), our everyday interactions can lead to new discoveries. Truth? It’s shaped by how we think, as the final conversation with albert so perfectly suggest. But the greatest gift of the human mind is that it can always question things and try new methods—our curiosity is limitless, and that’s what Chi stands for, in my opinion.
So here’s my final research thesis for chi:
“The magic realism of humane existence!—Cogito ergo sum, dubito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am. I doubt, therefore I am.”)
It’s a celebration of being alive, thinking, and always staying curious. That’s the heart of this anime’s grand finale.
The first sentence of the pun was collected from youtuber @lauracrqll9148. Credit to them.
However let me correct the rating to a full circle. This is peak literature . This is a timeless examination of the resilience & survival of truth and knowledge . Nothing can be more 10/10 .
There might spoiler from this point onward. So please finish the anime and resume the other parts.
Part 2. Prologue is epilogue – Epilogue is prologue
The ending has been stuck in my head since yesterday, but I finally made a simpler sense of it . Great stories with genuine vision and intention often come together like this.
Episodes 23, 24, and 25 function as both an epilogue and a prologue—what a brilliant way to bring things full circle. This approach also invites the audience to connect the dots and experience that sense of [?] (thaumazein!).
You can immediately start from Episode 1 with the perspective that everything up to Episode 23 is Albert’s own fiction, inspired by the pivotal moment he overheard the Potochki letter—something that bugged his curiosity and stayed for years. Full circle!
Part 3. A strange lie! A magic of reality and belief.
It’s not actually crucial to determine exactly what Kingdom P or Poland represents, or who rafal was. The concept of [?] itself is so magnificent.
However, here is a straightforward interpretation: it was a fiction from albert.
Albert Brudzewski was well known for being a fictionalist, meaning he treats certain ideas as “make-believe” or useful fictions rather than literal truths. When he heard about the “movement of the Earth,” it struck a chord with him. Years later out of his initial respect for his teacher or scientific community, he imagined a backstory of reality where Rafal wasn’t a bloodthirsty researcher, but someone willing to die for truth instead of killing for it.
It’s possible that the first 23 episodes are Albert’s own invention—a fictional tale involving Potochki and Rafal. He wanted to believe that the letter’s story had a remarkable backstory in which his mentor sacrificed himself for the theory he cherished. This idea aligns with what Uoto, the mangaka, said about wanting to tell a strange lie.
So, by looking at Albert’s life, character, and motivations, we can see how the story of “Orb” is interwoven into his personal narrative.
Part 4. Where did the letter came from if everything is fiction?
Here comes author's original intention to tell a "strange lie". It is a personality trait in albert brudzewski which made him a fictionalist in real life. A make-believe story from a random event that happened because of hearing a very random conversation between two stranger. It stayed in his mind and later converted into a story. I highly recommend Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Uoto San, the mangaka blurs reality and fictions and believes one influences another to materialize. Its a chicken or egg first situation. Tenet also reflects something similar in story telling. Not everything is 100 percent rationalized.
Part 5. “I must doubt”
Isn't it also creative & beautiful that the mangaka made audience figure out and be part of the "Thaumazein game" with the ending?
I like to think Albert actually figured out the Heliocentric theory but his backstory and desire to doubt and believe in others made him write the theory in a fictional format - only to be picked up by his student Copernicus in later years. Maybe he chose fiction over theory cause he believed someone will pick it up in the future and prove it. Maybe this time there will actually exist a book " about the movement of earth " if he did not take an extreme path and let it publish. Anyway all of this is also guesswork. Best part is our reality is shaped by what we think. Not by truth. For example-
Suppose In the potochki letter , the title of the book could have been " on the pavement of earth" - and albert mistakenly heard movement instead of pavement, the result would have been the same. He would have gone to explore this research and eventually written the book. So what we believe shapes our reality. So i really like this part- " you must doubt" . Maybe thats what alberts answer is on " what to offer to obtain the truth ?" - its the sacrifice of ego or ability to doubt. After all - cogito ergo sum, dubito ergo sum . I think therefore I exist, I doubt therefore I exist.
Part 6: "What we leave behind"
Great Sci fi literatures have always predicted all the modern inventions years before they actually arrived. For example- one of my favorite sci fi TV show is star trek: deep space nine. In this series showrunners often bring various aliens. Vulcan, Ferengi, Romulans , Klingons etc. All of them are alien race however they actually represent different human emotional spectrum. Like klingons are always angry hot head race , ferengi are profit loving traders, vulcans are extremely logical , Betazoid are highly empathetic. The stories that star trek tells are also sci fi in scope but they actually portray serious topic of contemporary world - like vietnam war , cold war , world war 2, racism , discrimination etc . It has always been easy to tell truth , theories and criticism in the guise of story books. Cause you can escape accountability from government, law force etc because its just a fiction.
So what is the best way to pass the knowledge when the society is not ready ? Write it in a way that leaves behind a leagcy. or something that can stay. If you remember one of the episode , badeni was saying looking at ocuzys written book - oh its just a ordinary book about his life , not a theory book ! which means ocuzy was actually writing a fiction. Which further gives a hint on albert's hidden intention of what he was leaving behind. Society wasn’t yet ready to accept radical ideas. So instead of presenting a formal theory, he chose fiction as a way to preserve and pass on knowledge.Alberts backstory—his ability to doubt, to walk alongside others as a “comrade”, and to believe in collective progress—may have given him the motivation to trust in a better future, one where truth could eventually emerge from the stories he left behind.
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Mar 15, 2025
Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite
(Anime)
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Part 1. It was a 9/10 because 10% must go to Potocki !
This anime felt like pure magic realism to me. It doesn’t really matter who’s from Kingdom P or Poland, or who’s the villain or hero—because all along, Chi (Knowledge) has been the real protagonist. And in the end, truth always finds a way! Resilience of truth rising from one word ! The final minute had such a beautiful, short-film esque feel to it; goosebump moment - just by hearing the title one can ignite the fire and lit the lost research ! It reminded me of the unforgettable ending in One Hundred Years ... 
Jun 15, 2013
Bloody Monday
(Manga)
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Well ,its been 5 years since I finished the epic showdown of mind games between l and kira. And I am really bored with those lame tricks that new “deathnote wannabe” mangas are trying to pull off…..speaking truthfully while geas was great but to me it fell short while comparing to deathnote according to those beautifull mind chess between two intellectuals .Keeping aside the adventurous types like one piece and naruto , my expectation from short spanned thriller animes or mangas are actually how much intellectual property is included in the show without being lame on the context and concept .
so far it has done ... |