Legosi, the meek protagonist of Beastars, is an introvert par excellence. His aspirations are nothing to be emulated, as it mostly included staying out of troubled and avoiding unnecessary conflict. Yet this unfortunate disposition is not unlike the average, non-jock experience while in the throes of high-school. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that most readers could vicariously live through Legosi’s experiences, because they may have been there themselves: navigating through a ‘jungle’ of teenage angst and pent-up hormonal urges. Yet the expectation to maintain one’s composure whilst preparing for a life long vocation is no easy task, as exemplified through Legosi’s inner tumult.
The catalyst for Legosi’s journey begins, unsurprisingly, with a woman. Unable to contain his lust for meat, Legosi attacks an unsuspecting female rabbit, Haru, in the dead of night. On the surface, it is a carnivore attacking a herbivore to satiate his craving for meat — which is a crime in the Beastars society — however, as noted by later clues, this incident is more akin to sexual assault. In fact, Legosi outright asserts this notion when prowling the streets with Panda to reign in predatiorial offenders. But rather than simply analogize these two parallel concepts, it would be more instructive to examine the root cause for these abhorrent acts to understand why they happen, and what Paru wants us to learn from them.
While society mostly dismisses sexual predators as vile individuals who are beyond redemption, Paru takes a different tact. She ‘humanizes’ the characters to demonstrate that abhorrence comes from an inner vexation with one’s own ‘failure.’ The ‘failure’ referenced is, of course, sexual frustration. A pervasive sentiment amongst today’s young men as they find themselves beholden to a women’s decision. But it is deeper than this, much deeper (excuse the inadvertent pun). The underlying concern arises from the need to feel emotionally connected to another individual. Teenagers tend to disconnect from their parents in an effort to establish themselves; thus creating a void in which they must find someone who understands them, and provides constructive challenges to improve their overall disposition and happiness.
Legosi falls into this sexual/emotional pit early on due an absent father, and a mother who prematurely took her own life. Consequently, despite his aloof personality, he desperately seeked acceptance from others; hence his conciliatory approach toward social situations. But this was not sufficient. He wanted what everyone wants: someone to accept him…for him. Legosi’s high-school journey, however, was mired in persistent bullying and social rejection; as a result, an inner ‘monster’ swelled deep within him and unleashed its repugnance in the most heinous way imaginable. At a later point in the manga, Legosi divulge this information to the ghetto psychiatrist, Gouhin. Upon hearing this, the large panda immediately scolded Legosi for conflating his feelings of love with predatory instincts — which is an interesting choice of words. Because Paru could have easily written ‘carnivore instincts,’ but she chose ‘predatory’ in an attempt to parallel predatorial offenders with sexual offenders (as mentioned earlier).
Another individual who falls ‘prey’ to the strictures of modern culture — much like Legosi — is Riz, the brown bear. Now, to understand Riz is to broach a topic that is relatively taboo in modern times: that is (homo)sexuality. While most industrial societies are becoming increasingly tolerant of such relationships, there is still an undercurrent of social pressure that intimidates young boys, in particular, to chase after women instead of exploring other inclinations. Whether it be a stern father or a group of friends, manhood — as they will tell you! — cannot be ached through homosexuality. Hence, bicurious men mute certain aspects of their personality via passive behavior to dissuade the notion of divergent proclivities. This correlates to how Riz takes force limiting pills to minimize the fearsome aspects of his personality. In both scenarios, the individual projects a persona in which they are not; yet this all changes when Riz fosters a relationship with Tem, and begins to contemplate the idea of revealing his true self.
But Riz’s confession does not yield the result he was looking for, causing him to divorce himself from his abhorrent predatorial incident via reimagining what happened. This pivotal moment is akin to a man coming out of the closet, and how the rejection could warp his sense of reality and self. The theory that Riz is an allegorical representation of an emergent homosexual is supported by the following evidence: 1) When Legosi kissed Riz in chapter 60, the brown bear was in a missionary position over the wolf and subsequently ran away in embarrassment; 2) Riz licked Pina’s fingers in a sexually suggestive manner, and Pina was the first person to (repeatedly) visit the bear in Juvie; and 3) when Riz reminisced about his predatorial incident, he imagined Tem gazing at him with affection and an erect tail (a tail that was drawn to look phallic).
In addition, the decisive battle between Riz and Legosi was rich in subtext. Legosi’s predatorial incident, in which he ate Louis’ right leg, could be viewed as a bicurious, sexual act; especially considering Legosi’s subsequent remark: “Louis-senpai is here as we speak…and…he’s inside me.” To which Louis responds with the ‘climatic’ exasperation, “GO, LEGOSI!!!” Unlike Riz, however, Legosi and Louis are not gay…not quite, at least. According to Ritch Savin-Williams, a professor emeritus of developmental psychology, sexuality exist on a spectrum in which no one person is one-hundred percent gay of straight. In fact, given the correct circumstances, literally anyone could have a same-sex encounter. What Paru brought to the reader’s attention, is that shunning those desires — like Riz and Legosi did — is not healthy from an emotional or psychological standpoint.
After the ‘Murder Incident Solution’ arc, things quelled down a bit for Legosi. Until the grey wolf came into contact with the current Beastar, Yafya, who did not take kindly to Legosi’s predatorial incident. He then insisted that the grey wolf apologize for being born a carnivore. One could liken this confrontation to an example of white-privilege…or, let’s call it herbivore privilege. To exemplify this point, consider the following: Louis pulled a gun on Bill in school and later killed the leader of the Shishigumi (right or wrong, murder is murder), yet the red dear was never charged with a crime; Legosi, on the other hand, with the permission of Louis, ate his right foot to defeat Riz and solved the year long case surrounding Tem’s death…yet, he was criminally charged with the status of predatorial offender and considered a menace to society. In fact, because certain barriers were put in place for carnivores, many of them felt maligned and henceforth drifted toward the criminal underworld.
Speaking of which, this brings up the most complex character in all of Beastars…the not so sweet gazelle-leopard, Melon. To talk about Melon, however, is to also discuss Leano, Legosi’s mother; as both tackle a challenge that was forced upon them at birth. This is not to claim that Melon or Leano’s parents were in the wrong for deciding to have a ‘bispecies’ child — although the latter couple were ill-suited for other reasons — nevertheless, it brought about unforeseen dilemmas that were not easily reconciled. For Leano, she went through a physical transformation that destroyed her beauty, leading to her suicide; for Melon, he could not savor the taste of food (particularly meat), causing him to indulge in hazardous activities and masochism. Melon also displayed symptoms of ennui and weltschmerz (a depressive state in which the world does not reflect your ideal vision). This is why Melon splurged ‘spicy mustard’ into the ‘bland’ bowl of life. He wanted to feel something! He wanted to feel alive! And if he couldn’t…he’d kill himself in the process. This is not to excuse his ghastly behavior — but like Riz and Legosi — understanding where this behavior originates from is the first step in mitigating its influence over society.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the message Paru attempt to impart to the audience: understanding…or, lack thereof. If members of all societies could take a moment to vicariously think about the challenges of others, then we’d all be better off! And the reason this message is incredibly powerful and effective, is because it never pointed the finger, never felt forced, and it never drew the line between ‘right and ‘wrong.’ Paru simply presented each allegorical situation as a case study, allowed events to play out, and gave the reader the opportunity to interpret the outcomes as they saw fit. Nothing more, nothing less. Just like life. And the brilliance of it all was that Paru embraced all of the tropes and clichés that were mentioned in the introductory statement. She engaged the ‘casuals’ (who seek excitement above all else) and the ‘elitist’ (who engage in contemplative, artistic works) into the perfect marriage. Think about it: Beastars is a meta allegory about the anime fandom itself! — bringing together two incompatible groups of anime enthusiasts and turning them all furry!
…And that people, is called jazz.
