First Impression: The Darwin Incident

The Animal Liberation Alliance is an extremist group that takes direct action—using guns and violence as necessary—to free animals from places like labs. The ALA is conducting one such mission when they discover a chimpanzee having a miscarriage, and decide to take her back with them as they escape. Sometime later, a baby is born that’s a hybrid of human and chimp, created through genome editing technology—and fifteen years after that, this “humanzee” is attending school for the first time. Charlie, who is well-known for being a hybrid, quickly becomes the center of both curious and hostile attention. But the students around him aren’t the only ones interested in Charlie…

The first episode of The Darwin Incident is one of those anime episodes that are meant to grip you by making you curious and a bit uncomfortable. The subject matter of a “humanzee” is strange, but the entire episode is a bit weird; the characters kind of move and talk in a slightly stilted way, and the ALA is a group that might be evil (possibly), might be good (sometimes), or might have once been good and is now evil (probably). Charlie himself is a little unsettling—there’s a kindness and innocence to him, but his matter-of-factness and misunderstanding of cues adds a tension to the story; it’s as if the anime is telling us Charlie may not be a hero, though the hoppity OP shows us otherwise, as does his sort-of-friendship that he quickly develops with Lucy, who’s more clearly a good person than any character so far in the series. There are a lot of questions here, too, including what exactly is this series all about and what point of view does it want us to take about animal rights? I think some people will dig this type of show, but it’s a little too cold and awkward (perhaps purposely or perhaps not) for my taste.

The Darwin Incident can be streamed on Prime Video.

Twwk
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