Omega-Beta (Season 1)

The first season of the British-Japanese anime series *Omega-Beta* aired from July 13 to October 5, 2021 for a total of 12 episodes in a variety of regions, including TV Tokyo in Japan, BBC Two in the United Kingdom and Adult Swim in the US. The season was written and directed by Jay Stevenson, the series' creator, and produced by J-Animations. The season was created with romance as the genre, and features a soundtrack composed by Joe Hisaishi, who also worked on fellow J-Animations series *The Happiness Patrol*. The season's opening ("Thank You, My Twilight") and ending ("LITTLE BUSTERS") theme were performed by The Pillows.

The series takes place in a near-future society where androids are common place. One major use for them is the ability to have files containing data of a human uploaded into them, which will give the android the appearance, personality and memories of said human. This is often used by people to replace deceased family members. The season follows KG-TY03, is an android uploaded with the file of the dead son of a wealthy couple, the Sdarn's, The child, named Charlie Sdarn, returns to the family after a highly publicised death, for which the cause was unknown, but KG-TY03 soon realises Charlie was physically, emotionally and sexually abused by his parents and deduces they killed him. Ultimately, KG-TY03 murders both parents after they begin abusing him. After running away from the family, KG-TY03 assumes the identity of Toro using a computer to rewrite his biological information via a microchip, and takes refuge at a seaside town called South Martin, where he meets a similarly aged teenager called Thomas, and the pair form a romantic connection that begins to restore KG-TY03's faith in humanity. However, when news breaks out of the Sdarn's murders, police discover the android is missing and begin tracking him down. After a few weeks of romance, KG-TY03 accidentally exposes the fact he is an android to Thomas, who reports KG-TY03 to the police as part of the murder inquiry. Feeling hurt and betrayed, KG-TY03 runs away from the police, burning his microchip and using the molten remains to write the name "McCulloch" on his arm, which remains his name for the duration of the series.

KG-TY03's voice actor for season 1 is Sebastian Fitzner, the first of only two voice actors for the role for the duration of the series. Supporting voice actors include Yuri Lowenthal, who plays Thomas, and David Lodge, who plays Mr Sdarn.

The season received positive reviews from critics, who called the show "exciting", "innovative" and "unique" when compared both to currently airing anime and previous releases from the studio. Reviewers praised the series' setting, worldbuilding, character design, art direction, soundtrack and voice performances, however some criticised the season's slow pacing, especially following its acclaimed first two episodes. The abuse storyline within the show garnered immense press coverage and controversy, with many viewing the visuals too extreme and disturbing for prime-time television. In response to the controversy, re-broadcasts of the season greatly trim down the abuse scenes, although they remain unchanged in the Blu-Ray releases of the season.

The controversy surrounding the season only helped aid it commercially. The season garnered an average of 45 million viewers per episode, which remains the second-highest viewing figures for the series, behind Season 5. The season was nominated for Anime of the Year at the 2021 anime awards, as well as other categories, alongside the *Horizons* mini-series that had aired that winter, which ended up winning more awards overall. The series was collected into one blu-ray volume, and began streaming on BBC iPlayer, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video the following year. It was succeeded by a second season in 2022.