Darwin Incident, The
Entry updated 18 May 2026. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2026), based on the Manga by Shun Umezawa. Directed by Naokatsu Tsuda and Katsuichi Nakayama. Written by Shinichi Inotsume. Voice cast includes Masaya Fukunishi, Mitsuho Kambe, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Akio Otsuka, Rina Satō, Takuya Satō, Atsumi Tanezaki and Yōji Ueda. Thirteen 24-minute episodes. Colour.
In 2005 the Animal Liberation Alliance raids a US laboratory experimenting on animals. Discovering a pregnant chimpanzee having a miscarriage, they take it to an animal hospital where the baby is found to be a human/chimpanzee hybrid: a "humanzee", the result of Genetic Engineering. The mother, named Eva, is exceptionally bright for a chimpanzee (see Intelligence); the father is biologist Dr Grossman, the experiment's supervisor, who has gone missing. The humanzee, named Charlie (Tanezaki), is adopted by primate expert Dr Bart Stein (Morikawa) and his wife Hannah (R Satō); at 15 he starts his first day at school. Fellow student Lucy Eldred (Kambe) tries to rescue a cat stuck up a tree; when the branch breaks, Charlie speedily and athletically rescues both. Ozzy (Fukunishi), another student, observes: "Guess he really is half-chimpanzee." His friend disagrees: "Even chimps can't move like that. There's no animal on Earth that can do what he just did." (Heterosis is mentioned.) On learning Charlie is a vegan (because his adoptive parents are) Ozzy charmlessly asks him what he would do if his life was in danger from a disease-ridden mouse; when Charlie replies he'd shoot it, Ozzy is initially pleased and makes some Social Darwinist remarks, until Charlie adds if Ozzy was the one carrying the disease, he'd shoot him. Lucy befriends Charlie and wants to help him socialize, which he goes along with – more to make her happy rather from any desire to make more friends.
The ALA has been quiet for many years, but now sets off a bomb in a restaurant, killing many. Wanting Charlie to become the animal Spartacus they try to "awaken" him by murdering his parents and Lucy, but he easily stops them: his intelligence, hearing, agility and strength can be considered Superpowers. The ALA then triggers a mass shooting in its name by a student at Charlie's school; the bombing and shooting lead to public hostility towards Charlie, as well as attacks on vegans and animal rights activists nationwide. The ALA kidnaps Lucy, with their leader Rivera Feyabend (Otsuka) revealing his own agenda, wanting to "accelerate mankind's Evolution to lightning speeds". The second in command admits he thinks Rivera's as crazy as Lucy does, but their interests regarding the emancipation of animals coincide. When Charlie arrives to rescue Lucy, Rivera tries to engage his interest, but Charlie responds "if another species could suddenly speak English there's no guarantee you could actually communicate ... how can I put this? ... I don't feel any responsibility to this world at all. I just got kind of tossed into it, after all" – he just "wants to go to school with Lucy".
Rivera intends to find Dr Grossman – "With a genius like that, we could boost humanity up to the next level." – adding that the doctor had paid the ALA to attack the laboratory where Eva was housed; Charlie also wants to find his father, to learn why he was created. Then Bart and Hannah are murdered: Charlie wants to kill the perpetrators, not for revenge – an emotion he's read about in novels, but considers futile – but as a warning to anyone who might want to hurt those he cares for (he then ponders whether that is how revenge evolved). Charlie is taken in by Philip Graham (Ueda), a police deputy, and his wife; Graham was initially hostile to Charlie but is now supportive. The first season ends with Feyabend talking to Omelas (T Satō), the murderer of Charlie's parents. Meanwhile, the dying Eva, using cards, reveals Charlie has a sibling: it is revealed that Omelas is a humanzee.
The remark by Charlie, quoted above, echoes Ludwig Wittgenstein's comment "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him." in Philosophical Investigations (1953). The Darwin Incident does attempt to make him something more than a human who looks chimp-like, but not entirely successfully; he mainly comes across as introverted. This is one of the Anime's main flaws: interesting ideas are discussed by broadly-defined characters. The plotting can be pulpish, with ex-military eco-terrorists led by a madman and the end-of-season reveal of an evil brother who murdered the hero's adopted parents. Nonetheless, there is much to enjoy: the story moves along in a reasonably exciting manner and covers intriguing topics (though the ALA are the villains, the case for animal rights is treated sympathetically). Should there be a season two, much will depend on how the loose ends are handled (these include Lucy being conceived through artificial insemination and not knowing who her father is) and whether a little more depth can be achieved. [SP]
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