Beastars

Oct 15, 2020

Veteris

Mixed Feelings

Well, so long Beastars. I have followed you since the first chapter. And you should had been gone earlier, when you were great and not now. You were supposed to be the chosen one! Either way, time to start my filled with spoilers review:

The setting is pretty much the world we live in nowadays but instead of humans, we have animals of any kind. It's quite interesting and sometimes you can see small details like tiny stairs for mouses, divisions in police force regarding size of the animals (big ones, small ones) or abilities like flying, digging, etc... and worldbuilding in general that makes the ... whole world more interesting. Sadly, the author doesn't really explore that and besides a few odd chapters, she puts more attention to the characters which is not a bad thing but it gets tiring after a while because the whole drama is about mixed species animals and interspecies relationships which gets tiring. There was the whole sea animals topic the author didn't really explore and it could have been wonderful, way better than the whole arc about Melon and how dumb is Legosi.
Ah yes, Melon. I don't really know why the author created a character like him but geez, he is the example of a character that should have died 30 chapters earlier. A mixed species animal who is a BPD psycho that everyone fears for some reason even when he is pretty weak compared to most carnivores. We also have Legosi, part lizard part wolf and well, of course Legosi when the series starts and Legosi when the series ends are different in many ways. Mainly in how dumbass he gets to be but also in his confidence. His character really changes a lot in the series but not in the best path in the final run (he gets to be really dumb and nearly killed a few times). There are also Louis, Haru and the others characters in the school who after a certain arc, their importance is barely any except in the ending and it is still pretty eh, like most people actually forgot a few characters exist im sure, like Bill. Haru doesn't seem to be like a real love interest for Legosi and more like a fetish with the way it is described in his mind. And he is always scared of eating her??? So why the heck does he agree in going out with her?! As a note, i find Haru the most realistic character out of everyone and probably my favourite. She's been using boys to validate herself for wo lont at school, and then suddenly Legosi comes along and lifts her up, but she still wants to have her own agency. She wants to have a relationship with Legosi that's male and female as well as carnivore and herbivore (chase me, Legosi) but also she wants him to desire her.
Legosi and Haru are both complicated and flawed characters and they both probably overthink everything. Their relationship may never be easy, but they're so deeply entangled now, they know they'll never be able to be away from each other. Haru is doing her level best to make sure that what they have isn't co-dependent. She wants to have her own self-validation, and she wants Legosi to be able to be a complete person outside of her as well.
The author also does some huge ass pulls that makes you think she is a hack but some of them can be kind of reasonable but stuff like Louis becoming the boss of the lion mafia is just absurd. Or the ending when the whole city unites to destroy the black market of meat and everyone becomes friends. Yeah no, there must be several more cities or countries and destroying one alley where they sell meat isn't gonna stop anything. In the first chapters you could see a really poor animal selling his fingers as a way to get by. Who says there won't be more cases of that in the future?
Nor the ocean animals saying they will trade their dead ones. Why didn't they think of that earlier?
I feel that the series suffers from ending fatigue and that the author should have sticked with the psychological side instead of going full shonen with epic anime fights. Not matter how you put it, a wolf beating a bear in a fist fight is plot armor or the tournament in the black market at the end of the series. It was absurd. I feel that the last arc would have been way better with Legosi struggling to be an adult, his relationship with Haru and others plotlines of characters we already know about. Melon was just a plot device that didn't make much sense from my perspective. He was all over the place and also, the dumb promise Haru made with him amounted to nothing.
Anyway, I give to this series a 6/10. The first arcs are really enjoyable and well done but it gets worse after those arcs, has some ups and down in quality with the ending being quite mediocre in my opinion but not as bad as the ending of Game of Thrones. My main complains are that the author focused too much on Melon, the bpd mixed species and so little in side characters that were quite interesting like Juno.
The art is quite good and evolves. Just compare the first and last chapter.
Overall, this series is enjoyable as hell. Read it.

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Oct 15, 2020

fast2611

Mixed Feelings

And my second manga I write a review for. Sadly beastars last arc severly drives down the score, just as it did in magi, Are last arcs cursed? well what do I know.
BEFORE YOU BOTHER WITH MY STEAMING MESS OF A REVIEW, Please make sure to read this way better one as I agree on pretty much everthing said in it https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=360258
Beastars was my first manga, and hell did I fanboy for it for a long time.
Story:____6 9 for the Arcs to be covered in the anime and the hidden Condo arc. 4 for Melon, you joker dumsterfire of doom.
The Main problem is that ...

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Nov 4, 2020

Cereus

Mixed Feelings

I have never been so shellshocked by an ending since Magi. Why? Because both the endings have been total ASS. I've been putting off my review as I digested my emotions.

Beastars was my underdog pick when it came to that next "sleeper" hit. I knew due to its subject matter (anthropomorphic animals), it probably wouldn't have become something as big as a regular shounen series. It comfortably sat in this niche that was neither superbly mainstream nor was it unpopular. Initially, I had highly recommended the series to many of my buddies due to its excellent art, interesting characters, and what I found to be ...

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May 16, 2021

Stelzi_UwU

Mixed Feelings

Oh boy, what a ride it was. I read all 196 Chapters of this Manga in the span of just two days. I got hooked after watching the first season of the Anime and decided that this thing was worth reading the manga. But now, after I read all of it I just feel ... empty. Not depressed, not sad, not even very disappointed. Let me explain what I found to be the good and bad sides of this manga:

When I read like the first 50 Chapters I was honestly convinced, that this will go down as one of my favourite pieces of fiction ever. ... Legoshi was a likeable but flawed character who had morales, feelings and a goal. The other pupils at Cherryton were granted some depth as well and in parts even got bigger roles in a few chapters. Haru was built up as a working character and love interest for Legoshi. She was shown to have her own issues and her own ways of dealing with them. The story was moving at just the right pace to understand the characters but not be bored by them. It was just a really nice story with great characters up to this point.

After (what I think of as the first Arc) was resolved, I noticed that something had changed in the way the story evolved. Louis left the scene and was replaced by Pina, who was also an interesting character, even though he got less attention then he deserved. Legoshi started to investigate the murder of Tem and I had my hopes up for a thrilling murder mystery. Yet, what I got was a dull part of every character pretty much doing nothing. The only thing I remember Legoshi doing to find the murder was running after some guy who stole panties or something. After what felt like an endless amount of chapers the murder was found. I was shocked to find out, that... it was a completely blank character who I don´t think I even knew the name of. I thought that this would at least allow the plot to move faster now that Legoshi knew who the killer was. How wrong I was... instead of informing authorities this dumb wolf decides to try to duel the killer. I didn´t get why he did that and it was just plain stupid to be honest. This whole trainwreck of an arc continued with boring fights and endless talking in between the fighting. I didn´t believe their desire to fight one another. It just doesn´t feel like two individuals that want to beat the crap out of each other because they paused like three times per firght to enter a stupid and pointless dialog. It was also during this arc that Legoshi started his training arc of killing his desire to eat meat. (Little spoiler coming up) Only to lose the fight against the killer, then eating the leg of his best friend and still losing the fight. What was that supposed to represent? Why did he eat the leg of his best friend? Why did he have to fight that killer? I thought I knew who Legoshi was. I thought of him as a character that really wants to abstain from meat. But in the end he ate the leg of his best friend. I thought he wanted a life together with Haru. But he couldn´t care less for her as he wastes his time by ... I don´t know getting his teeth kicked in? And the worst part is: it´s only downhill from there. Legoshi leaves behind Cherryton (also leaving behind the well built characters with hardly finished characterarcs). Instead he meets this bunch of not even remotely interesting individuals that can be reduced to one trope. Around this time it is also revealed that Legoshi is not a pure wolf because his mother was a hybrid. And guess what: the new Villain is also a hybrid. Thus Legoshi continues the trend of wasting his time with boring characters (that aren´t even important) and having dull fights with the new bad guy. It is around here that his motives for doing what he is doing are getting completely thrown abord. He is trying to cature this guy so he can marry Haru. I get that. But why doesn´t he work with the Beastar? Why isn´t he just capturing him, when he has the opportunity to do so? Beacause they are both hybrids? I don´t understand it. I am gonna be honest here: If there is some great character motives behind Legoshis actions, that I failed to understand then please explain them to me.

After finishing this manga I feel empty. What was the point of this story? Was this a happy ending? I don´t know. I am confused and a bit annoyed. If there was one thing that I had to point out to be "the biggest problem" I would probably say the stupid actions of some characters that are clearly only made for plot convinience. It really makes me angry if something like this happens to a story that started as promising as this.

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Nov 8, 2020

drugmugger

Mixed Feelings

This manga started off so well. I seriously could not put it down, like I pulled all nighters to read this. There is a host of likeable characters and fantastic world building. I'd say this persists for about 70% of the story, barring a few moments that felt out of place. But for that remaining 30% or so, the storytelling becomes shaky. The final arc drags for too long and is just not of the same quality of the previous arcs, and then the story comes to an abrupt close with many loose ends left untied. It's hard to say that I would recommend this ...

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Sep 25, 2020

adirsu

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (193/196 chp)

I actually really like this manga. It brings me no enjoyment to give it this low of a score. There are panels that look great, characters that I love, and a world with a lot of potential. Unfortunately around chapter 100-150, the quality of this manga's writing has nose dived to an absolutely abysmal degree. After reading the latest chapters I will never read this again and it kinda sucks because there was a time that I was really invested in this story, but I just can't be after this last arch. When characters are committing suicide just because they love someone so much and ...

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May 11, 2022

fork_king

Mixed Feelings

Beastars opens with a strong premise - a world where animals take the place of people, societies with their own cultures and norms regarding interactions between different kinds of animals. A trap I often find within stories that use animals as a means to convey a social message is that the author ends up using specific groups of animals to represent specific groups of people, a trap that can become quite messy rather quickly. Beastars, on the other hand, fully immerses itself in its animal world; rather than using the animal society as an allegory, it explores very human issues in the context of ... said society. The world-building of the manga is definitely its strongest point. Paru Itagaki explores so many different levels of her fictional society, from its gritty underbelly to its squeaky-clean corporate head. The audience gains a sense for how this broken world really works, how its many "necessary" evils are a crutch for society to function. It is all rather realistic despite its fantastical nature; this grounds the story and gives it realism.

The story of Beastars can be divided into two parts: the murder mystery plotline, and everything that follows. I will discuss each independently, because sometimes it really feels like a different story in the second half. The first half is a solid 8/10. The murder mystery plot drives the story quite well, adding the right amount of tension to underscore a lot of the slice-of-life elements in the first part of the manga. Itagaki's writing shines in the slice-of-life moments. I love watching Legosi and Haru's relationship develop; Louis's internal struggle with his identity as an herbivore is especially compelling. The antagonist for the first half is also solid, though I will not elaborate so as to avoid spoilers. The reveal is well done, however, and Legosi's fight with this antagonist is the best in the whole manga. Itagaki stumbles a bit when writing action scenes, but she hit the mark with this particular fight. Overall, an entertaining and well-written arc.

The second half of the story is where the writing fumbles quite a bit. But I will start with the highlights. Legosi's time with the Hidden Condo residents has an aimless, ambivalent feel to it, perfectly encapsulating the mood of the story after the changes Legosi has gone through. The new characters are also rather endearing. I love Zaguan, and he adds a neat bit of worldbuilding about the underwater society within the world of Beastars. Pina - my personal favorite character - is annoying in the best way. Gosha is sweet; the audience pities his overly cautious way of living as a result of his venomous saliva. And then there is Yahya. Yahya is, in a word, cool. He is a superhero unto himself, a figure shrouded in legend. In a way, he replaces Gouhin as Legosi's mentor in the second half of Beastars; the two have a great dynamic. The issue is that a lot of these characters end up underutilized by the end. I understand that not every character will be given an equal amount of screen time in a series with an ensemble cast, but it feels like Legosi's connections to these characters ultimately led nowhere. Other characters are downright bad - though I cannot discuss them without getting into spoilers.

SPOILERS

Kyuu. What was the point of her character? To perform CBT on Legosi and then introduce a weird concept that is never once brought up again? To sell Legosi out to the villain and then dip until the very end? To me, Kyuu represents a lot of the issues with late Beastars. Concepts that come up out of nowhere, characters who ultimately amount to little, rushed arcs - and the worst part is that these ideas had potential.

The most egregious example of lost potential and my single greatest problem with this manga is Melon. I dislike how he ended up being the final villain of the series, with conflict quickly resolving as soon as he was defeated. There was much to be desired with Itagaki's exploration of the concept of a hybrid between carnivore and herbivore. As it stands, Melon is just another Joker clone who cannot feel normal emotions as a result of the circumstances of his birth. His backstory is interesting but never really touched upon aside from that one flashback wherein Melon kills his mother. It is an interesting backstory for sure, and I do enjoy how Melon's nature as an unreliable narrator clouds what is reality and what is fabrication. But that snippet is all we get. We find out that Melon's father is alive in the end - Melon's father, the cause of it all, the one who abandoned his vulnerable wife and son out of selfish fear - but it too leads nowhere. Melon's father barely gets a chance to reckon with the consequences of his actions. Melon's nature as a hybrid is also never explored, aside from that one chapter wherein he suddenly turns buff because of...biology. It is a shame, since I did genuinely enjoy Melon at first until he became a one-note Joker character. I do not like the archetype of villains who are unable to feel normal emotion and are thus insane and/or sadistic because of it. It is rather tiring and unoriginal at this point, and not to mention boring. The shock value of Melon's violent tendencies gives way to bland same-old. His final fight with Legosi is incredibly rushed, and he faces no consequences for his actions. Not every villain needs to die. It is, in fact, refreshing to watch a villain grow, develop, and start anew. But Melon does none of that. We never see the repercussions or implications of his actions, and what that means for hybrid animals. The thread about Melon supplying animal blood to illegal underground drug dealers is also dropped, unsurprisingly.

The second half of Beastars is insane, and not in the good way. It loses its sense of direction and starts adding all sorts of elements which make little sense. That said, I still commend Beastars for what it manages to convey in its first half. This was Paru Itagaki's first manga, after all, so some rockiness was to be expected. I hope she returns to the vivid world of Beastars in the future. Her series of one shots, compiled in Beast Complex, do a good job of further adding to the mechanisms of this animal society, and invoke the slice-of-life feeling of early Beastars. I highly recommend checking it out to readers who want more of this manga.

Now, for my final thoughts. The art in this manga is rather iconic, and you can see Itagaki's style visibly improve throughout the manga. Her style is unique, with lots of linework, large eyes, and small pupils that really emphasize how feral these characters are. Itagaki's inaccurate biology facts are definitely entertaining to read through. Logic must function differently in this world. I like that not everyone gets a happy ending. It is bitterly realistic how Louis chooses an arranged business marriage over his true feelings. I think that me and other ongoing readers thought that Legosi and Louis would become Beastars in the end, hence the title. That did not happen. Cool, I guess.

6/10. Solid, but falls off hard in the end. There is a lot more I could say about more specific elements in the story, though at that point I would just be rambling instead of writing a proper review; I have rambled enough. Regardless, I still recommend this manga. Even when it gets bad, it never really gets boring.

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Sep 11, 2020

BuchiH

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (175/196 chp)

Beastars was a show i fell in love with. I heard the anime was gonna soon and it sounded really good so i decided to read the manga. Here's my review:

Story overall: 5/10
Murder mystery ark: 9/10 in first half 2/10 in other half

shishigumi ark: 9/10:
it manages to not become too much of a shonen + alot of character development. We live in a society.

melon ark: 6/10 honestly quite good in the start but becomes too much shonen. Melon is a great, interesting character.

The story starts of really good. A murder mystery and how the murder affects the carnivores and herbivores at the ...

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Jun 24, 2021

cherrynagito

Mixed Feelings

god this series was amazing but the ending...... i'm sorry but what...?

spoiler warning ahead

...

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Sep 12, 2021

Hornless

Mixed Feelings

When I started reading beastars it was everything I wanted zootopia to be. It wasn't as polished or pretty, but it had a bravery to it that a Disney movie can't really compete with. It didn't just glance at the problems of an all animal world, it really embraced it. There are times when the art was downright ugly, but the story carries it for much of it's run. If that's all I had to say about beastars, I'd gladly rate it a strong 8-9 out of ten on everyones must read list, but unfortunately that's not an option.

I would say about 50% through ...

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Jan 1, 2023

madeinearth22

Mixed Feelings

Beastars is possibly one of the most interesting series to come out of the last decade. What I mean by that is that it is one of those series that was brimming with potential that seemed headed in the right direction, yet was somehow able to end with a tiny splash in the water when it could have been so much better. Alas, it ended the way it did, and tragically it did not end well; it is most likely that the author rushed the series for one reason or another, but that is not a good enough excuse. So, as my first review, ...

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Apr 18, 2023

HoozyOne

Mixed Feelings

I found Beastars' setting very intriguing and that was why after watching the anime (at the time of writing the 2 available seasons), I immediately picked up the manga wanting more from Legoshi, Louis, Haru and the surrounding world.

The setting - modern times but filled with intelligent anthropomorphic animals - was explored deeply and presented the possible issues that could occur, mainly, the divide between carnivores and herbivores, racial and cultural stereotyping. Which I enjoyed.

And up to the Interspecies Relations arc I was not able to find a thing I could dislike about story, pacing, characters. It all flowed well and the developing relationship between ...

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May 5, 2022

VendettaJake

Mixed Feelings

With few peaks and plummetting depths, Beastars proves to be a "tail" of love that unfortunately crumbles with each subsequent arc becoming less romance and more shonen

Story 4/10
The story to Beastars begins with mystery, love, and social dilemmas. While these three sound like an uncommon grouping, Managaka, Paru Itagaki, manages to nearly stick the landing on all fronts when presenting a compelling story within the school walls of Cherryton High. Being a world divided by dietary classifications, carnivores and herbivores, many complications arise on whether cohabitation can truly exist. This is where the mystery concerning a murder begins and where the love of two different ... species blossoms. Many characters within the story rely on prejudices and stereotypes to inform their opinions of the world around them. Unfortunately, these social dilemmas become relevant to the audience's world, which makes it a great read for reflection on the injustices that surround many readers. For example: two character, Haru and Legosi, are falling in love with one another despite being two different species. This forces the characters to question the legitimacy of their relationship based on how society will perceive them. It's a real love-beats-all-odds kind of story that is carried very well between these two alone. In fact, it is their love that draws the most engaging parts of the story, so it is unfortunate when the writer goes a different route after the second arc. Once the third arc begins, many concepts in the world are presented that create plot holes or are lost/forgotten threads. Without giving too much away, some lost threads/plot holes could be discussion of the next beastar, Legosi's new ability learned towards the end, a character seemingly being a therapist but is now a history major, a promise towards the end, and a few more. It is this lack of cohesion tangled with convenient narrative elements and one glaring issue that started so strong but became so weak: characters

Characters 5/10
As suggested, the story begins on the prestigious grounds of Cherryton High. Within this academy, the reader will meet memorable characters like Legosi (a wolf coming to terms with his instinctual desires while still aiming to function in society), Haru (A headstrong lovable rabbit who uses her femininity to gain power in a world of carnivores), and Louis (A deer destined for greatness but plagued with inadequacies of his past) who all complement this animal-driven world and the expectation society places on them. All characters seek emancipation from oppressive labels and seek to bring integration as opposed to segregation. This is where the narrative initially thrives then goes cold. While these characters were originally complex and presented philosophical questions towards society, they quickly became one-dimensional as the author seemed to change the genre from drama to shonen. Once the characters developed after the first arc, many of those same characters stagnated to be nothing more. The best example of this is Legosi. While Legosi grapples with his identity throughout the story and aims to bring harmony to society, he slowly realizes there is only one way to solve everything: unapologetically keep your beliefs and beat the shit out of people. While sticking to your beliefs can be a charming and endearing quality for a romantic character, the positions he puts himself in make it easy for the reader to decipher what he will do next. Legosi becomes predictable, and, at times, imbecilic with how far he may destroy himself and, ironically, contradict his beliefs to prove his point. What makes this harder to avert from is the fact that Legosi nearly becomes the sole character from the third arc forward. This means all the characters from Cherryton (who were arguable well-developed), Louis, and Haru take a backseat to watch the destructive nature that is Legosi. While characters could have been strong, the story is riddled with the introduction of many characters that lose purpose, become one dimensional, or nearly are pointless

Art 8/10:
The art to the Manga quickly became better and more fluid. While there is disappointment in the route of becoming more shonen at the end, action scenes were simple to follow, all panels were distinguishable in what was happening, and personality is suitably conveyed for the moment. Whether it's a quirky and lost look, or a serious and menacing demeanor, the artist of the series took time in crafting a world that looked great.

Overall 5.5/10
As a result of a strong opening, Beastars will not be easily forgotten. With powerful commentary on discrimination of gender, race (species), and societal values, the narrative in the first two acts proves to be powerfully memorable due to the cast, love-story, and mystery. In fact, those two arcs alone would likely receive an 8/8.5 out of 10. However, it is the transition into the later arcs that becomes less about the thought provoking relationship and more about "epic" shonen showdowns. While it pains me to leave such a poor review, the narrative could have been made stronger if it continued on the high-school life and mystery element, then the powerful protag slugfest.

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