People tend to place a significant amount of importance on human intelligence -- and rightfully so, considering we one of the more intelligent creatures on this planet. However, that type of pride does come at cost almost driving some people to conclude, quite arrogantly, that humans are in fact the most intelligent. That lack of awareness of your own weakness is probably why it is so easy to dehumanize your enemies, whether they are of a different species or even humans themselves.

So when a medium, like anime, introduces something like aliens or other species that have equal or higher intelligence, the default reaction from humans is fear and most likely, fighting against those fears for dominance. And those reactions are amplified when these new species try to figure out or even learn about the human race and the many characteristics that are on full display. So I guess the big question is, what is there to learn from humanity? Well, there are a few anime this season that set out to answer that question, and other that aim for the same, but also add in what humans can learn from other species.

Probably the more obvious one is Arpeggio of Blue Steel. When it comes to the Fog, the ones who haven't been defeated by Gunzou, are the ships that are both observing humans and subconsciously learning from them -- the more notable cases are Haruna and Kirishima.

Coming from a battle that almost killed Kirishima, all the things they judged humans for so harshly -- fear of death and regret -- were things that they ended feeling as their defeat was imminent. They learned quite quickly that not everything can be explained way by logic; and them being in their mental model state, it almost forced that realization on them.

Overcoming Limits

Crying Coppelion

Although there is this hint of humans learning or creating something new because of human limit in Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Coppelion is heavily focused on this concept. With highly contaminated areas becoming ramped, it is up the many units of Coppelion to help out the human race. If anything, it is what humans have evolved to take advantage of resources and hop over their nature limits. However, because Coppelion are artificially made, there are some people out in this world that treat them like puppets.

This basically bring back the concept of humans dehumanizing the "other", even when that other is help you out -- and was specifically created for the purpose of making rescue missions less error prone. So with that fact, and the more recent appearance of the Cleanup Crew, it is an interesting struggle of who has a larger lack for the others well being. However, the Medical Unit is far more caring toward human life, almost making them seem more human than those humans that called the Coppelion puppets.

Self Taught

Embarrassed Haruna

It is always a little awkward making stories that judge human behavior from the outside look in; so when it is done well, there is always going to be both sides that learn something. You could consider it to be two opposites learning from one another -- whether that be rich vs poor, government vs the people, man vs women, etc. -- only more extreme, and easier to see the point that is being driven in.

And probably the most common thing to be learnt from these type of series is things about one's self. Whether that be about the human condition overall, or the biases that a person holds and needs to be reevaluated.