The First Season of The Darwin Incident is Not Monkeying Around!

By Dennis Phillips

(review)

The first season of the anime adaptation of The Darwin Incident, based on the sci-fi social

thriller manga series by Shun Umezawa, aired its 13th episode on April 1, 2026. I watched it

dubbed in English weekly on Amazon Prime Video and was immediately hooked. The story

centers around Charlie, a 15-year-old “Humanzee.” Normally, I prefer to watch anime in the

original Japanese audio with English subtitles, but I felt watching this series subtitled would

break the immersion for reasons I’ll explain below.

The first episode briefly goes over how Charlie’s biological mother, a chimpanzee named Eva, was rescued from a lab where experiments were conducted on animals by the vegan eco-terrorist organization known as the Animal Liberation Alliance. Upon discovering that Eva was in labor and in danger of having a miscarriage, the ALA took her to another lab where the baby could be delivered safely. It wasn’t until after the birth and genetic testing was done that it was determined that the baby was genetically half human.

One of the main things that drew me in about this series was its setting. It’s not very often that

mangaka set their stories outside of Japan, but Shun Umezawa decided to have the story take place in the United States. Most of the story takes place in a suburban town in Missouri, withsome events taking place in New York City and other key locations mentioned in California. The voice actors for many of the characters did an amazing job with the midwestern accents on some of the older characters.

Another thing that deeply intrigued me was how moral arguments and their roots are handled. As I mentioned earlier, the ALA are Vegan antagonists. Charlie’s adoptive parents also happen to be vegan, so he grew up not eating meat even though he says he probably could if he wanted to. The ALA carried out an attack at a restaurant that served meat in New York City, and when the news spread over social media, some of the kids at his school questioned Charlie about his ideals. The only known open vegans in the story in the town were Charlie and his family, which caused many people to assume they were connected to the ALA.

Character motivations are handled very well in The Darwin Incident. One of the Deputy Sheriffs in town is very distrustful of Charlie, especially after the attack in NY. There was an incident 10 years in the past in which several officers were badly injured trying to apprehend a 5-year-old Charlie for injuring other children during a field trip at a swimming pool. One of the officers at the scene happened to be a good friend of the Deputy Sheriff and ended up leaving the force as a result.

In a way I feel there are many parallels between me and Charlie. There were a lot of things I

went through that he did when I was around that age. His worldview in the show is very similar to mine currently. Though one huge difference is that he’s way more physically capable than me, and is much more comfortable climbing trees!

If you intend to watch The Darwin Incident be aware that this show does contain very graphic

scenes throughout its run and may not be suitable for children.