This thing opens by dropping an Apollo capsule in the Mongolian desert and telling you it has been sitting there for 65 million years, and it never once slows down to hold your hand about it. That's the whole appetite: a black artifact out at Mars quietly eating a moon, the Earth ship Davide sent to look at it, and Lila Mochizuki getting swallowed by the vortex before anybody on board understands what they're actually dealing with. It is unapologetically the monolith question rebuilt for a 2099 that still flies rockets, and it asks it in the space of a single episode. You don't get a season to acclimate, you get one sitting and a deep-time gut punch. Fans of the hard-SF one-shot know the deal: no resolution owed, just the vertigo of a crew realizing home is a very long way behind them.

The year is 2099, and humanity has spread across the Solar System. An Apollo capsule from NASA turns up in the Mongolian desert, where it seems to have rested for 65 million years. Near Mars, a strange black artifact of unknown origin is devouring one of the planet's moons. The Earth ship Davide goes to investigate and is drawn into the vortex, leaving Lila Mochizuki and her companions very far from home. A single-episode sci-fi special, it is credited as Japan's first full 3D CG feature film.