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Year: 2019
Genre: Coming-of-age, Drama, and Fantasy
Episodes: 12
Rating: 3 out of 5
Did you like the movie Zootopia? The Disney movie where animals live together in almost perfect harmony. A place where predator and play live together. It is an excellent movie, and you should definitely check it out. Why do I bring this film up? Beastars is almost the same exact thing but for a very mature audience.
Beasters is an anime where the animal kingdom lives together in a school environment and world. The only difference from Zootopia is that this one is exceptionally mature. There is death, sex, drugs, and everything else in the world that you might be able to think of. The animal kingdom is not so different than humans when watching this anime.
Overview
High school can be a pain. What happens when prey and predator attend the same exact school. Beasters follows the story of Legoshi, a large gray wolf, through his life as a student at Cherryton Academy. Even though Legoshi is large and intimidating, he is quite timid and doesn’t like going to his prime animal instincts.
The anime begins at night at Cherryton Academy. An innocent alpaca named Tem was killed and eaten. Tem’s murder has caused the school to have tensions rise between the herbivores and the carnivores. During the school year, the members of the drama team are preparing for their grand play. Legoshi is a member of the drama club, and one night, he has a rather extreme encounter with Haru, a small dwarf rabbit who has been in love with. As Legoshi feelings develop for Hara, high school life will start to get more complicated. The main goal is to become a Beastar, an academic and social role model destined to become a leader in a society?
Review:
Beasters is like the adult version of Zootopia. This anime is not for kids who have seen Zootopia. I was intrigued by all the art styles, but once I got into the real nitty-gritty of this anime, I was like, “Damn! This show is really somewhat messed up.”
Let’s take the overall story, for example. Just like Zootopia, it is set in the animal world where all species of animals live together. They talk and walk like human society. Simple and cool, but it is also set in that high school setting with some MAJOR adult themes. I’m talking about one’s self-perception of themselves, dating, sex, the black market, crime, and murder. Yep! You are getting all of that in this show. It is freaking crazy.
This anime’s overall storyline is how predators and prey live together on school grounds along in the outside world. Like in Zootopia, things are a little unstable with society, especially after one of the students gets “murdered.” The lamb was more like eaten. This sets the school on edge. Now the main area of the anime revolves around this so-called play and something called Beasters. The play in the school is one thing, but apparently, if you are the Beasters, you have some type of power in the world. The anime never goes into full detail.
Another theme in this anime is one self-identity. The main character is Legoshi, who is shy and timid but is also a grey wolf and a predator. The dude straight up tries to eat Haru, the rabbit, because of his animal instincts. Even though he frees her, just the thought of eating her is high. That leads to other characters. You have a lion and other carnivores going to the black market of top to get animal parts to indulge themselves. Louis is one character that believes he can stand high above all other animals. It is quite an interesting circle.
This show also doesn’t hold back on the high school drama regarding sex and relationships. You have antelope named Louis, sleeping with a rabbit named Haru. Apparently, Haru is known to be spreading her love juice all over the place. Now that I think about it, every animal species sleeps with some other species. There ain’t nothing wrong with a little bump and grind. Legoshi is madly in love with Haru, which makes it quite strange and interesting. The dude is always protective of her and battles a mafia of lions for her heart. Dude went BEAST MODE with a panda. The show also can’t forget that Legoshi also has a crush. Another grey wolf named Juno who is cute in her wolf ways. Juno has a one-sided/one-minded war with Haru for the love of Legoshi. Oh, how can I forget that there is this chicken that has this specific workout regiment to make her eggs taste amazing. This is all some crazy high school drama stuff.
If season one was interesting, then season two was just strange. The plot thickens even more for Legoshi as the story seems to pick up a few weeks or even months after the end of the first season. In this season, Legoshi and Haru seemed to not be on the same page of their relationship. A wolf and a rabbit sleeping together but hey it happens. The story also shows Legoshi doing his training with Gohin suppressing his carnivorous ways. This was quite an interesting part of the anime. Legoshi cuts off his fur and seems like a different wolf. His strength is considerably weaker, but his skills are starting to develop in a way he never dreamed. The anime gets crazy when he eats that one larva. Dude’s fur and strength come back in an instance and his mind becomes one with the larva in some dream like talk. Then we find out who killed Tim in the first season. Also, Louis now works with the Shishigumi, and in order to assert his authority, he is forced to ingest meat. He also loses his freakin leg to give a character power. The anime hits a new level when you see an animal do a strip show at the strip club and this giant ass python who seems to be intrigued with Legoshi. Season 2 was crazier than season one, but it was somewhat enjoyable and seemed to solve storyline plots. Where to go next.
One of the highlights of this anime is the animation. The animation and style of this whole anime are actually done really well. For one, it has this CGI but not to the extreme CGI look to it. A nice blend of animation and CGI. Some of the highlights are when Legoshi goes into his wolf mode or accepts his wolf instincts. When he is smelling the world around him, the animation seems to show like an x-ray version of himself and then shows streams of different scents coming to his nose. Usually, Legoshi’s eyes turn red when he enters his wolf mode. The animation really goes into high gear when Legoshi goes ultimate wolf mode as his fur/skin seems to glow golden.
Legoshi is the main character of this anime. He is a seventeen-year-old grey wolf who is very timid and shy. This seems to go against everything about him because of his towering and intimidating height. He works as a member of the drama’s club stage crew and enjoys watching tragic stories. Even though he is good at heart, his animal instincts take control as he tried to eat Haru. Now I don’t see the fascination of Haru. She is a junior and outcast because she likes to get it on with other animals. She is one with issues as she feels that having sex is the only way she can feel in control of herself. Looking at it, these two are polar opposites of the characters in Zootopia. Honestly, the best character is the panda! He whoops ass and takes no names.
Overall, Beasters is a pretty good anime. It leaves you wanting more, I guess. I was entertained, but sometimes I wasn’t into the high school drama. This anime is a more mature version of Zootopia. You can watch it if you want or watch Zootopia instead. I will go with Zootopia.
