If you refuse to watch this just because you don’t want to be called a furry, you are just a reprimed anime watcher that is afraid to like something because of a category; and if you have watched it and use the furry stuff to diminish the show’s quality, you didn’t understand anything of this great anime.
Beastars is a work that reaches an even deeper and darker story every time it advances. It is a story about animals except that has nothing to do with animals but a lot more beyond that. It successfully handles a suspense atmosphere and the thrilling moments once again. Mixing aesthetic with an agressive enviroment is something they are good at, and that achieves its goal of letting the mysterious intact and making it very catching as well. This started in its first season being a school drama with a great and deep background about a splitted society, and ended up being a turbulent drama that went even deeper, delving into trafficking, black market and hervibores survival in the outside world.
Between Legoshi and Louis I couldn’t be able to pick one of them. Louis is a king with every letter of the word, whose intelligence and ambition can’t reach any limit, being the real representation of “I don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it”, and this is the season where we get to know his weaknesses more precisely, more natural. He loses that confident facade to show the vulnerable hervibore that, even 13 years later, only tries to survive and that, at the same time, wishes to leave it all behind. His relationship with Legoshi is more intense than ever before, and that’s great, that’s subtle, and what I love about them is how they are not friends and they are not enemies either; they just respect and admire each other, and it’s represented very clear. They barely see each other during the season, but when they do, I can’t help but watch it while I feel it.
“The reason I’m strong isn’t because I want to be happy” is a phrase that hit me in the middle of my forehead. It just makes a huge emphasis on what Legoshi’s feelings are. His constant crisis about him being a carnivore is more present than ever, and that’s amazing. It is just supported with a great and gradual development where he trains his spirit, so by the middle of it he has to choose between his mind and his body. It’s another step to know Legoshi, to his own self-knowledge, and to realize how much he grew up from the first episode of the series. He started as a coward that couldn’t resist his own instincts, a guy that didn’t know who he was nor what he wanted, finally puts his foot down to know and to say what he really wanted. He becomes a character with determination, but he doesn’t lose his common sense either. He knows when he can’t fight, and he knows when he has to speak. Legoshi is a character that I loved from the beginning, but right now, he is great. His growth is so reasonable, according to his personality, according to his own desires, fears and insecurities; is subtle and happens without losing his essence, without leaving behind his natural charisma and graciousness.
The rest of the cast just function as the background of every scene, as they did the previous season. Jack is still a cinnamon roll, a snake appears to be used as a trigger for Legoshi and disappears, and the bully girls drama disappears entirely, thankfully. The only one of the secondaries I want to remark is Bill. That guy was a pain the previous season, but this one I really liked him. He just has some minor changes, but it is more likeable this time. Kudos, Bill. Haru decides what she wants to do and her true affection for Legoshi takes place. Ibuki and Pina are two secondaries that play in the background and craft the story so it could lead both Louis and Legoshi to the place they have to go. Even though they are not developed as the rest, they have a lot of weight in this work, and they are good characters. Ibuki was my favourite, without a doubt.
This season is, in my opinion, a lot better than the first one, and here’s why: it focuses on what the viewer wanted. They took Haru out of the focus to become a real secondary; Juno took the place as the female lead of the season and approached to Louis, developing a relationship that was born as a defiant one. She constantly confronted Louis because of his attitude, but when in this season she knew who he turned into, their relationship changed, and that’s subtle and another piece that helped constructing Louis’ personality. Not only made me like the characters more, but it gave what the viewer expected from this second season: answers. Tem’s killer is devealed and, even though I felt offended because of who it was, it shocked me when I knew the explanation behind it. I’m not a person that rewatches things that I’ve recently watched, but that scene where Tem dies really moved me. It is not good to feel bad for the killer, but that really caught me off guard. The way the killer is fleshed out is amazing too, valuating the prize of life and the different kind of lives. I wanted answers, but when I got them, I didn’t want to know them anymore. It not only embraces more boundaries between carnivores and hervibores, but it also uses very well and in repeated situations with its according explanations.
This OST is probably one of the best this season. The opening is excellent from every point of view, makes justice to this dark season and is pretty intense as it should be. The ending is no different, it just contributes to the melancholy aura. The only CGI I can actually enjoy, once again. It also never fails in terms of direction to demonstrate the fear in hervibores; the frames and the restrained art style just contributes to the amazing atmosphere that is always there.
A marvelous sequel to a good series, where the tension, the drama and the violence reach its peak. I'm thankful for giving it a chance, and I wish I could talk a lot more without spoiling, because it surpassed my expectations by far. Definitely, worth watching.
