Wanderer is a developing series that revolves around the journey of growing up and moving out to experience the world. The theme is driven by the main character Nozomi, a young girl who has no past memories other than the brief years she was raised by a foster parent in a secluded world. She is tragically uprooted from this safe haven and forced into the real world. Despite the drastic shift in her life, Nozomi is optimistic to explore the world she’s only heard about through the stories she was told. She quickly finds out that reality isn’t as elegant as she imagined, but through the support of the friends she meets and her strong will, she is able to weather through the challenges and help others through their difficulties.
The story starts off with the chance encounter between Rin and Nozomi in the enchanted woods of a farm town. Their relationship started off rocky, as Nozomi’s silliness irritated Rin and ended up getting them into a slew of tricky situations. At the same time however, these experiences gave Rin a sense of family, as she herself was a war orphan. Eventually, Nozomi left the town to explore the world, encouraging Rin to come along in an adventure she only dreamed of and never thought she would take.
Although the series is a children’s story filled with the fumbles and silliness of youth, it is not afraid to address issues of war, society, gender roles, and death. Recurring themes include human weapons, gender expectations, pure race, political corruption, purpose of life. Even though such topics can be controversial, they are real life issues that are important to address, even at a young age. These issues are softened by fantasy elements to keep ratings suitable for younger audiences. The main characters start out in the story at a young age to make them relatable to younger audiences as well as giving them room to radically grow and develop throughout the series.