As all of you know, the past several months have been tumultuous to say the least. The pandemic, political unrest, election season, and murders of black men and women by the police have laid bare the insecurities and faults of the country. Facing these realities can be taxing on any person, which is why I found solace in several animated shows. In this blog, I will be writing about some of my favorite animated shows that I have watched over the course of quarantine. In many of the blogs, I will be relating the show to larger issues in society or writing about one of its themes.  

During quarantine, I have gone through waves of completely submerging myself in the news cycle followed by news exhaustion or “crisis fatigue.” For me, one of the best ways to destress is to watch an easy going or action-packed show. This is my escape. I can tune out the problems of the world and see through the eyes of the characters in the show. Finding a means to temporarily detach yourself from the world is beneficial to me. Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts (KAW) is a show set years in the post-apocalyptic future (fun fact: their world ends in 2020) where humans are forced to live underground and mutant animals are free to roam on the surface. A “mega-mutant” destroys the underground borrow that Kipo, the titular character lives in and she ends up separated from her father. On the surface, she befriends two mutants and two humans, who offer to help find her way home. 

One thing that I find to be really interesting about the show, besides the great character dynamics of the main cast and the amazing soundtrack, is that their world is figuratively similar to the state of our society today. In the show the main antagonist, Scarlemagne is a crazed mutant mandrill who consolidates power on the surface through fear. This is similar to the fascist actions that the Trump Administration has made over the duration of the presidency, such as suppressing means of mail-in voting and hiring his cronies. Similar to American politics where there are multiple parties and factions within Congress that do not get along, in the show, the animal groups rarely cooperate which led them to be conquered and controlled my Scarlemagne. If there was less division, the animals could use their conjoined power to defeat Charlemagne and Congress would be able to pass another relief bill. Finally, the last large similarity is that the scientists in the show are attempting to cure the mutated animals so that they can safely live on the surface again. Of course this reminds me of the Corona Virus and scientists around the globe rushing to come out with a vaccine, so that we can all safely interact with one another again.

Main cast of Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts

KAW premiered in January of this year. It is astounding to see the similarities between this fictional world and ours. Even though I wasn’t completely immersed in the show, I still found it fun to tally the parallels between each world. I highly encourage you to watch the show. It’s heartfelt, funny, and is placed in an interesting setting. I tried my best to give a spoiler free description of the show, if you do watch it, I hope you enjoy it!