is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shun Umezawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' since June 2020. In 2022, ''The Darwin Incident'' won the 15th

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer collected volumes in length. The Manga Taishō was founded with the aim of re ...

, as well as the Excellence Award at the 25th

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by a ...

Plot

During a commando operation carried out by an animal rights organization in a biological research institute, a pregnant chimpanzee is discovered, which will give birth to a "humanzee", a half-human, half-chimpanzee being. Named Charlie, he is raised by human parents for fifteen years. Neither human nor animal, his behavior and his sensitivity will create sparks within the community. But Charlie is unaware that elsewhere, a group of vegan activists seek to make of him their emblem. When Charlie entered high school, he met Lucy, a girl who was ridiculed as a "nerd" but was a bright girl, and developed friendship with him. However, the ALA (Animal Liberation Alliance), which " repeatedly engages in terrorist activities in search of animal liberation", adds Charlie to its comrades and "plans to lure him into terrorism", taking extreme measures. It causes the townspeople to change their attitude towards Charlie and his family.

Publication

Written and illustrated by , ''The Darwin Incident'' started in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' on June 25, 2020. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. The first volume was released on November 20, 2020. As of March 23, 2023, five volumes have been released. During their panel at

Anime NYC Anime NYC is an annual three-day anime convention held during November at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Programming The convention typically offers arcade games, an artist alley, concerts, manga library (Carolina Manga ...

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

announced that they licensed the manga for a Fall 2023 release.

Volume list

Reception

''The Darwin Incident'' ranked 10th on

Takarajimasha is a Japanese publishing company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is known for publishing subculture-oriented fashion magazines aimed at teens, fashion magazines in general, as well as guide books. History The company was founded on September 22, ...

's ''

Kono Manga ga Sugoi! is an annual reference mook series published by Takarajimasha since 2005 featuring yearly rankings and reviews of manga. The rankings are compiled by surveying people in the manga and publishing industry. The series is part of Takarajimasha's ...

'' 2022 list of best manga for male readers. The series won the 15th

in 2022. The series ranked 2nd on the Publisher Comics' Recommended Comics of 2022. It won an Excellence Award at the 25th

in 2022. It has been nominated for the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the general category in 2023.

References

External links