The storyline for Andy Serkis’ Planet of the Apes film series and Starship Troopers movie series may have never been merged before as perfectly as they were done in one of Netflix’s most underrated military science fiction animes of all time: Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune. Turning the Earth into a massive third-world country, the 2023 anime is adapted from a novel by Japanese author Carlo Zen, which was originally released back in 2017.
Although incredibly underrated, the military sci-fi series perfectly portrays the themes of invasion, influence, and rebellion with starships, expendable troops of human beings, and bipedal alien dogs, combining Planet of the Apes and Starship Troopers themes in the most immaculate way possible.
Two Epic Sci-fi Films Meet in Netflix’s Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune Anime
While many would consider Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune as any other military anime, it is much more than that, considering the convergence of the themes of Andy Serkis‘ Planet of the Apes reboot film series and Starship Troopers movie series in the most accurate way ever.
On one hand, while the Planet of the Apes storyline encircles the main theme of survival of both human beings and hyperintelligent apes, leading to a massive war, the theme for Starship Troopers, on the other hand, is all about glorifying war and military and promoting militarism.
Though Yakitori doesn’t quite include apes or bugs like the above-mentioned epic science fiction films, it does represent something similar as it depicts the perfect situation of the fight for the survival of human beings and aliens.
The only thing different here is that the Earth is influenced and acquired by an immensely advanced technology-oriented army of multiple different species of bipedal dog aliens with an overwhelming trading capital who are called The Pan-Star System Trade Federation, or simply put, Shoren.
This Trade Federation of Shoren has not only turned the Earth into a big, third-world country as the Earth failed to keep up with its tremendous technological advancements, but it has also acquired other planets as well—one of which includes Barka, the planet with the Shoren’s military base.
Now, the only export from Earth in the six-episode Netflix series remains that of food and expendable troops of human beings who act as cheap soldiers for the Shoren, fighting off wars for them and getting labeled as ‘Yakitoris’ aka ‘grilled chicken skewers’ in Japanese.
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Netflix’s Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune Anime Explained
To put it simply, Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune anime portrays a situation where human beings have to work for the Shoren because they are in immense danger of getting wiped out at any time within a split second and losing everything they love.
So when the Shoren faces a brutal rebellion from Barka’s native species, i.e. humanoid rats, rising against the Trade Federation’s hegemony and threatening their existence, it turns to the Yakitories to get their work done with minimal investment and tasks them to go behind enemy lines and carry out a mission so that the Trade Federation can send in reinforcements and save Barka.
As per the official description of the series by Netflix Anime on YouTube:
“A few decades ago, they suddenly appeared on Earth. The Pan-Star System Trade Federation, or ‘Shoren’ for short. They are an interstellar civilization comprised of many alien species. One day, the aliens made contact with Earth and stripped humanity of their sovereignty. Faced with Shoren’s advanced technology and overwhelming trading capital, Earth became one big, third-world country. The only export was food and human beings as mercenaries.”
All in all, Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune packs the perfect punch by depicting the cruel and devastating realities surrounding the consequences of war crimes, eventually leading to the salient message about the systematic nature of war—something that dystopian sci-fi fans wouldn’t want to miss.
