Scavengers Reign: 2023's Unmissable Anime

Scavengers Reign: An Acid-Laced Exploration Of The Vast Unknown

If Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy had a baby which was raised on Stanisław Lem's The Invincible, it would be Scavengers Reign. Harsh Pareek writes.

YOU KNOW WHAT'S EXCITING? Waking up one fine morning and having the realisation that with every breath you take, you are moving a step closer to your death. But also a television series that throws you right into the second act. Bam, there you are. No idea what's going on or why, but it's all happening alright.

And you know what's even more exciting? If that series happens to be an animated science fiction drama, with a generous splash of natural horror, set on an alien planet oozing (and that's exactly the word) with the most curious flora and fauna out there to catch you slippin' in the most deliciously imaginative and horrifying manner.

And you know what's most exciting? Getting to write the following sentence:

If that doesn't get your blood pumping in the cold dark winters, well, there's always shots of snake blood offered by strangers.

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Planet Of The Scapes

By Harsh Pareek

Created by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner, the 12-episode season follows survivors of a damaged interstellar cargo ship, Demeter 227, stranded on the above-mentioned spine-tingling planet of Vesta. Separated in three groups — Sam (Bob Stephenson) and Ursula (Sunita Mani); Azi (voiced by Wunmi Mosaku) and her robot companion Levi (Alia Shawkat); and Kamen (Ted Travelstead), all by his lonesome — but united in their perilous and tedious quest to reach the crash landed Demeter.

While the core premise seems pretty straightforward, a lot of how the show works depends on frequent twists, revelations and flashbacks. So in the spirit of not spoiling anything significant, we shall be talking in codes and whispers henceforth. That said, you can definitely look forward to one of the chunkiest aliens out there, persistently being up to no good throughout the series.

But before any of that, let's get the obvious out of the way. The show looks gorgeous. Each episode feels like reading through a chapter of a graphic novel that is elegant and opulent at the same time. The clean lines, the sense of space, the grounded sensibilities. And while one can trace the fingerprints of the likes of Mœbius and Ghibli, the series firmly stands on its own merits, the sum always greater than the parts. The good looks here are more than cosmetic. The style lends itself quite well to the layered oddities of the landscape, the Pokémon-esque (in the best way) creature designs and the ever-lurking menace under the surface. The expansive scope of it all is never muddled by style.

And just as looks often are on Vesta, the show's storytelling can be deceptive. The minimal overarching plot is supplemented by a series of side-quests the characters keep getting entangled in on their perilous journey through the planet. These range from inconvenient detours to straight-up being swallowed by aliens (willingly or otherwise), and things much more sinister. All wrapped up in an aura of eeriness and bloody horror you can't look away from. Not to mention, even the most mundane walkabout is elevated by incredible concepts and designs.

Yet perhaps most importantly, it's the many themes the show aims to tackle that makes it more engaging than anything. Love and loss, connections and regrets constantly occupy it. Characters hold dearly to their past lives and notions, haunted by personal demons and traumas, more willing to put on a fight than to open themselves up, or at least coming to terms with change and reality.

More often than not, the relationship between humans and the planet itself takes the centre stage, as well as our perception of technology and its place in the world. Adaptation to and understanding of the natural forces and lifeforms are rewarded; resistance and brute force conflict frequently lead to disastrous consequences. (Who would have guessed?) In the grand scheme of things and awe-inspiring ecological interdependence, any human whims and egos to exert, or even imagine, themselves above their surroundings come off as absurd and petty at best. Nevertheless, this constant push and pull, and any attempt to better comprehend and embrace their new environment, opens the doors for personal transformation and even epiphanies.

All that said, there are times when the show begins to meander like an overworked intern waiting for the end of an unpaid shift. Aimless, just biding its time. One wonders if a little more time on the edit floor, perhaps 10 instead of 12 episodes, might well have ironed out those wrinkles. Although, the show does go through a mini-reset at the halfway mark to freshen things up. And if you were wondering why we haven't discussed any of the characters more specifically so far — one, as previously mentioned, spoilers; and two, while most of them are well written, none of them stick with you for too long after the credits have rolled. All of them are an archetype we have seen before in sci-fi or genre flicks — serving their purpose, but rarely springing a surprise.

And lest we forget, like any self-respecting sci-fi, there are moments when the characters are forced to do the most inexplicable or dumb things in order to move the plot forward (or) to introduce a conflict. While the show does well to resist this temptation on most occasions, one nonetheless begins to wonder if it's not a flaw but an essential condition for any semi-mainstream sci-fi to exist.

Despite these minor missteps, Scavengers Reign remains an overwhelmingly inspired project. An acid-laced exploration of the vast unknown, the connecting threads of life and humanity's deepest faults, desires and instincts. And if redemption and equanimity can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

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