Anime stands out because it has curious and interesting premises.While most fiction series try to stay as close to reality as possible, in the world of Japanese animation, they have no problem presenting the most outlandish scenarios. Sometimes, some are truly fascinating. That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that one of the most promising animes of this year we just started has as its subject animal evolution. And that its theory is that the next step after humans will be, once again, the monkey.
The Darwin Incident is a manga written and illustrated by Shun Imezawa that is published in Monthly Afternoon, one of the largest seinen magazines for adult men in Japan. With over one and a half million copies in circulation, winning the fifteenth Taisho Award in 2022 and the twenty-fifth Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival, it was only a matter of time before it was adapted into an anime. And the moment has arrived.
A series about ecology and social relations
But what is The Darwin Incident about? It all begins when an animal rights organization breaks into a biological research laboratory to free the animals they are experimenting on. In the process, they discover something as aberrant as it is strange and fascinating: a chimpanzee is pregnant. What’s so unusual about that? That the result of the pregnancy, Charlie, is a humancè, a hybrid of human (from the father) and chimpanzee (from the mother).
Adopted by a couple of humans who want them to have as normal a life as possible, the story begins when Charlie, at fifteen, starts going to high school. Although it is difficult at first, because he doesn’t know how to relate to other kids his age, there he meets Lucy, a girl who will not only become his friend but will also help him navigate the complex social reality of humans with all its contradictions and unspoken rules.
If this alone would already provide material for an excellent series about a person trying to adapt to a foreign and hostile environment, the reality is that The Darwin Incident is not limited to that. Although there is also much about Charlie’s school life, how he relates to humans, learns their customs, and how being half chimpanzee plays an important role in his relationships, but even more so the fact that he grew up isolated from other children, it soon becomes an intense political thriller as different political groups try to instrumentalize his existence. Leading to various revelations, twists, and decisions that Charlie will have to make not only about his future but also about how society will continue to treat animals.
Directed by the studio Bellnox Films, this is their first anime production. But that doesn’t mean they lack experience. Under the umbrella of Kadokawa Corporation, Bellnox Film is led by CEO Koji Kajita, who was the CEO of David Productions, famous for the anime adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and the remake of Captain Tsubasa. This is evident in the remarkable staff of the series, with Katsuichi Nakayama and Naokatsu Tsuda as directors —directors of Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time and the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series from its inception to Vento Aureo— and Shinichi Inotsume handling the scripts, who was responsible for the scripts of the first seasons of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Sōma.
With the study’s history, which mainly comes from a quality-verified studio like David Productions, and knowing the quality of the manga, it is to be expected that The Darwin Incident will become one of the animes of the season. If not of the year. Therefore, if you are interested in a thriller with a different premise, a story about a protagonist trying to learn to live in a society that feels alien to him, or simply want to be there for what could be the next big hit in anime, you shouldn’t miss The Darwin Incident, now available weekly on Prime Video.
