The Darwin Incident - First Impressions

Written by Ross Locksley on 12 Jan 2026

The Darwin Incident was an impulse watch on my part - it popped up in my Amazon feed and with no idea what the show was, I decided I'd invest 20-odd minutes into the strange eco anime.

The show revolves around Charlie, a "Humanzee" that was found when the Animal Liberation Alliance raided a lab and found a pregnant chimpanzee having a miscarriage to a hybrid baby. Charlie is adopted by his liberators and made world-famous, as shown by the floats bearing his name and the fact that everyone at his new high school is aware of him. A chimp attending high school also feels very American as a concept, so it's fitting that the show takes place in the US. 

Being set in the United States makes the series quite rare - sure, there's Gunsmith Cats, The Great Pretender and a few others, but largely the US isn't a major locale for Japanese animation. This makes it slightly amusing to see America through the eyes of the Japanese, especially when certain tropes, like high-schoolers looking like adults, are apparent. The author supposedly learned about the US through television shows, and that really comes through here - the macho bullying of Charlie by some "bro's" and Charlie's fascinated classmate Lucy being an introvert hiding in her hoodie feels very generically American.

I wasn't really sure what to make of The Darwin Incident. On the one hand, it's a charming idea to have an outcast like Charlie try to fit in. Misfits trying to find a place is another common US theme for television, whether it's the maudlin Daria or the cast of Glee. Chimps in TV shows aren't unusual either, from 1975's CBS show The Ghost Busters or even real-life chimp J. Fred Muggs who was brought on to the Today program to try and save flagging ratings. Charlie is a chimp of few words, though he seems to consider them carefully. He in turns brutally honest, such as his discussion with the bullies about killing an animal that would otherwise kill him, and deceitful when he tells his adopted human mother that the day passed without incident. It made him an interesting character to watch, if only to see what his reactions would be to incidents both provoked and incidental.

As a background to all this, the current Animal Liberation Alliance appears to have changed into a more violent organization. A raid on a lab sees the group now armed with AK assault rifles and prepared to gun down lab assistants that get in their way. The leader appears to be a black man named Rivera, who may have been a founding member of the organisation. If so, it will be interesting to find out why the organisation has turned more extremist.

So long as the anime doesn't turn too preachy, there's a good amount to like here. The character designs are definitely interesting, none more so than Charlie himself who is often emotionless and withdrawn, his large round eyes betraying nothing of his impressions to what's happening around him. I'm not sure the series can sustain this one-note personality for an entire run, but it's a very interesting introduction. 

All that said, I wasn't blown away either. There's a lot of setup in this first episode, along with a string of coincidences that are required to move the story forward. It's a bit of a slow burn with some potential for exploring society through the eyes of an "other" that's finding their way through adulthood in a situation that will ensure they never fit in. 

I'll be tuning in again, not because I was blown away but for a genuine interest in just what direction the show takes the premise. I'm both concerned by the narrative, which in places seems to justify murdering people, and cautiously optimistic, especially when Charlie reveals he would casually kill a human if he had to with a disturbing nonchalance. 

Is Charlie a saviour or a a harbinger of doom? I look forward to finding out.

The Darwin Incident is streaming on Amazon Prime