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BEASTARS is the fantastic Netflix adaptation of Paru Itagaki's award-winning anthropomorphic animal manga about a modern society of herbivores and carnivores. The most common and simplest comparison people make is "edgy zootopia", though it's not so much edgy(usually), more that it digs deeper into things zootopia only touched on the surface. Interracial relationships, segregation, the sociopolitical factors of a world with carnivores, but eating meat is outlawed. Do they just endure, or do they find other ways to sate their desire for meat? The series follows Legosi, a grey wolf, who is generally a quiet, humble person, but due to his species' reputation as an aggressive apex predator, is both feared and respected by most people despite his demeanor. He encounters a dwarf rabbit, Haru, and immediately falls for her. Amidst the murder and devouring of a classmate by an unknown predator at school, tensions between carnivore and herbivore are at an all-time high, and legosi has to come to terms with whether his desire for Haru is romantic...or hunger. dub trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU46kgtDExo&hd=1 the show is animated by Studio Orange, notable for their work on Land of the Lustrous, a series highly praised for successfully bringing 3DCGI animation into the anime world in a way that felt natural and not horrible garbage like most CGI in anime. The character models and most animations in the Beastars adaptation are fantastic, and the voice acting in the dub is decent enough. The japanese one had all the voice actors in the same room actively emoting at each other, and the character models are obviously originally animated for those voices, so the japanese dub is imo better. Not a "subs vs dubs" thing, just, that they had the VAs together acting out the scenes really comes across in the sub. Gouhin is my favorite character, but honestly, almost the entire main cast are my favorites. He just ekes the rest out.  If you watch the show and enjoyed it, it only covers a few dozen chapters of the manga (amazon link to purchase the official releases, only 5 released as of this post), which is ~160ish chapters in right now. Boy howdy this series goes some PLACES. Not all of them great! But at least it tries, and mostly succeeds, and everyone still loves our stupid good boy Legosi whether they want to or not! But the manga is wonderful and the goofy-rear end, almost looney toons-esque faces on some of the characters at times is just super endearing to me. Definitely give it a read if you enjoy the anime, they're really two separate beasts.  post-watching the full season discussion: The thing that really stood out to me more than most things for this series was when the mayor of the city is revealed. He is (ep. 9 spoilers)a lion who has had his sharp, carnivorous teeth surgically removed and replaced with flat teeth dentures, as well as tons of plastic surgery to appear less threatening to the herbivore citizens so he would stand a chance of getting elected. It's such a brutally cynical but perfectly reasonable idea in this setting of a polite society of people where half the population wants to devour the other half, but hide it. Stuff like that crops up CONSTANTLY in this series, and is my favorite aspect of it. Just tons of "how would that work in a world of animalpeople?" and the author answers it pretty regularly.
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Mar 14, 2020 13:36
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 01:22 |
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One of my favorite aspects of Fantasy/Sci-fi media, are the stories where the creator really puts the effort into expressing aspect of life from the perspective and mindset of the characters. (slight tangent incoming) One of my Favorite examples of this from Terry Prachetts' Bromeliad Trilogy, which involves gnomes living in the world at large. This story follows a group of gnomes that lives in the wild in the UK. Circumstances require them to find safer shelter and they come upon a UK department store that was about to be demolished. Unknown to them the store had their own gnomes who had been 100% isolated from the outside world. This sets up a huge pile of Cog Diss for the stores inhabitants, and the scene that stuck out in my mind was when the leader of the store gnomes was wracking his brain, trying to take his current mental belief system and make it work with a reality that directly contradicts key pieces of it. This kind of character development and expression is great, and one reason why Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors. So what does all this have to do with Beastars? The Anthro Furry style gets a bad rap because many creators use its inclusion as a means alone to make the media good or worthwhile. Paru Itagaki has used it as means to not only explore teenage Japanese angst, but how a world would exist if animals started trying to co-exist and learn to live together. Example questions I had: How would society deal with dietary needs of carnivores? How would society handle issues with instinct? What would the government look like? What would law enforcement be like? Questions that popped into my head while taking in Beastars would get answered quite regularly. In addition, the character design and development makes the show more interesting and endearing as time goes on. The show explores both society and the persons in it with in a way that made me marathon the whole show in a day. I recommend you give this show a try, even if you have issues with Anime or Furry content. Good work has been put into this one and I think you'll enjoy it.
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Mar 14, 2020 14:01
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Hell yeah!
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Mar 14, 2020 19:57
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the manga takes some wild turns and I am not sure that the people just getting into this on the show are prepared 
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Mar 15, 2020 02:45
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I watch a lot of the Netflix original stuff, but I bounce off most of it. This show hooked me on it's animation, and then made me a fan on the back of Legoshi. I've never really had a character in a show that I could pretty much wholesale project on to, but so much of Legoshi in season one mirrors my own experience in high school in very specific ways - that character speaks to me in a way that other shows never have. Anyway, show is good, animation is really good. I like most of the characters. Legoshi is my boy. Looking forward to season 2.
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Mar 23, 2020 21:53
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 01:22 |
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Legosi has immensely powerful idiot energy. It doesn't matter who your character is or how convoluted and brooding their story is, they will eventually realize they must protect this precious boy. one of my favorite quotes from the beastars manga thread sums it up well: new person: you naive wolf. your weakness disgusts me. let me show you...the truth of this cruel and unjust world..... new person, five minutes later: oh my god he's so stupid. he's so stupid. i cannot handle how stupid he is oh my god. he is so dense that light cannot escape the space between his ears. i love him
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Mar 23, 2020 22:11
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