Alternative title(s): Darwin Jihen
Manga Adaptation by Bellnox Films
Streaming on Amazon Prime 

Premise

Charlie is a normal 15 year old starting high school except for one detail – he’s the world’s first Human-Chimpanzee hybrid, a ‘Humanzee’. As he forges a friendship with loner girl Lucy, the eco-terrorists who attempted to free his mother are re-emerging with a new agenda.

Zigg’s verdict: Not Enough Monkey Business

Given how completely insane that premise is, the biggest problem with The Darwin Incident is probably not what you’re expecting – namely, that it’s kind of boring. Honestly the vast majority of this episode is completely generic ‘weird new kid meets outcast girl’ stuff, never mind that the weird new kid is some bizarre monkey boy. Even the obligatory confrontation with the shitty bullies (who, incidentally look like they’re 15 going on 30) is bland and underwhelming, lacking any of the venomous racism that you might expect from such an encounter.

Charlie himself seems overly subdued, especially with Atsumi Tanezaki’s little-boy voice making him seem unintentionally demure, while Lucy is just such a cardboard cut-out of a character archetype that there’s no substance to latch onto. About the only memorable characters are the eco-terrorists, and that’s because they are such laughably cartoonish stereotypes that the show might as well be beating you round the head with a tire iron with MAKES YOU THINK emblazoned on it.

This is also an ugly show, with a flat, generic look and stilted direction with little visual flair. I do think that the story has some potential – again, that premise is so bonkers it’d be hard to turn it into a total nothing, but new kids on the block Bellnox certainly seem to be trying hard to do just that. A shame.