Beastars is one of the best CGI anime in existence, a fact we know to be true because
Studio Orange produced it. While personally I don't think it exceled to the same heights as
Orange’s previous work Land of the Lustress I think that’s more of a preference of aesthetics
rather than a judgement on the skill of their animators. There definitely is an increase
in skill and prowess as the studio continues to adapt manga into these beautiful 3D set pieces,
even if this time around out of all the things they took from
Lustress it was perhaps a bit more Lust then we bargained for.
Beastars continues to ask questions that our culture sometimes fears to
put a spotlight on. What exactly is Humanity? This is not a direct
question the show asks but rather it’s one a bit more subtle in it’s questioning. How can we
showcase the plight of humanity better then to cast a set of characters with no humanity at all.
Anthropomorphic beasts with bloodlust and instincts, unchained from our expectations
of human civility, and decorum yet at the same time standing upright and wearing
human clothing. Characters who have humanity forced onto them just to see how they act,
how they react, and how they grow and develop under these circumstances. Will they revert
to their animastic natures and tendencies, or will they mature with a more “civilized” nature.
Most importantly, WILL OUR TWO CHARACTERS BANG OR NOT. So many questions, so little amount of episodes for such heavy storytelling.
Before we get started though, we at glass reflection would like to give a shout out
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Which today is important because Netflix is front and center. When the second season of beastars
comes out, it’s possible that they’ll give it a stupid long delay before it’s available on
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NOW!
Ladies, gentlemen and others my name is Arkada and today on Glass Reflection the 2019 anime from Studio Orange: Beastars. Let’s Jam.
So! let’s actually start with the portion I was originally thinking
about avoiding entirely. The comparison between Beastars, and well, Zootopia.
Several aspects to Beastars story tie in similarly to that of
Zootopia, the world in which our characters live almost seem to be mirror images in many ways and
not just because they both contain societies of anthropomorphic animals that have decided for
themselves that the carnivores should not eat the herbivores. And everyone just seems ok with that.
Beastars takes things in a very different direction just in terms of tone by,
well for not being a Disney movie. They are not restrained by the idea of “is this family friendly
or not?” This was designed for Netflix, the platform that had Masaaki Yuasa go from happy go
lucky tales about fun filled nights on the town, and mermaids, to dark violence fueled blood fests.
Oh we should have our characters talk about how violence is wrong and that we are all living in a
happy society with no problems. Let’s instead have a character wracted with instinctual bloodlust,
who can’t seem to differentiate between a desire to consume and a desire to mate.
Oh yes, bring on the bunny with laced lingerie. Hey kids have your parents taught you about the
wolves and the rabbits yet? I mean seriously, why build a dedicated fan base from scratch
when you can just co-opt the furry fandom and give them all a reason to toss this on their
must watch list for the next decade or so purely because you give this content the light of day.
I’m of course being needlessly pedantic, the series is not
solely about furry bait though that’s the most obvious takeaway for the more
reactionary clickbait like synopsis that have come to dominate internet discourse as of late.
No the series instead takes some well established assumptions
about animal behavior and tries to tie them down to more humanistic things like ego and pride.
It does this by placing the story in one of the most overused settings imaginable,
a highschool. a perfect vessel for it’s coming of age tale.
Not entirely a bad idea. Most high school stories in some way involve
characters sorting through their adolescence in different ways. So many bodily changes, so
many new hormones to understand and in some cases attempt to control, so why don’t we dial all that
up to 11 and have the animalistic nature of the characters make everything so much worse for them,
to the point where you have to wonder how this society got to functioning in the first place.
Legoshi is our world-boy protagonist. By day he is a silent and stoic member of the school's
drama club. When he does speak he’s soft spoken, polite, and gentle, almost the polar opposite
of the bloodthirsty carnivore parts of his appearance makes him out to be. BUT BY NIGHT,
well actually nothing changes, he’s still the same humble guy
but the night makes it harder for him to ignore his more subconscious desires.
What those desires are becomes the main point of Legoshi’s internal conflict. He ends up
developing an unusual attraction to the young dwarf rabbit haru after a particular incident
after hours on the school grounds lead to him possibly being one comp away from ending her life.
What he wrestles with, as his instincts rage within him is whether he is attracted to
her in a romantic and lustful way, or just the much more logical hunter and prey kind of way.
Many characters in beastars seem to share similar dual life problems, albeit much more openly.
In a world where everyone gets along by day but there are clearly some deeper biological
instincts at work most characters almost seem like they are living a kind of dual life.
One where they feel the need to mask who they are so that society won’t label them as an outcast.
For Legoshi this is particularly stressful as prior to meeting Haru he never had
any difficulty keeping whatever manner of animalistic nature within himself in check.
Now being surprised at himself for who I might really be, and what that could mean.
But if Legoshi was the only character suffering from this kind of dual life
I would be disappointed in the series, even considering
it’s 12 episode length. But thankfully his struggles are not the only one.
Take for example Louis, his mask is not of a carnivore desperately trying to keep
his nature in check for fear of harming someone. Instead, despite being a deer
and physically weaker than fellow carnivore students, his mask is almost the opposite.
He is a guy desperate to avoid showing even a hint of weakness, he never wants to appear
as fragile or easily breakable. He is extremely envious of characters like Legoshi who are just
naturally stronger and is disappointed when someone like him refuses to use his strength.
All of these inner and outward desires by the characters are underlined by the scene that starts
off the show, when a member of the drama club is murdered presumably by a carnivore classmate.
It frames the narrative struggles as not just,
“well what if I have these desires and tendencies, it’s not like I would ever
act on them.” Except you know, that one time that one of their classmates actually did…
Despite being such a focal point at the start however, the actual muder
is inconsequential. This is not a mystery series that takes to having
a character trying to solve it, to uncover who the murderer was,
in fact the whole incident largely gets forgotten because after it happens it serves its purpose.
The murder was never the story, but the fact that someone could and did murder, did eat a student is
absolutely the story. One that sticks in the minds of the entire school for the plot going forward.
Now that’s not to say that there’s no mystery, there’s a decent amount of that,
there’s intrigue and questioning of motives. It’s just the initial murder that gets swept aside in
favour of everything far more intresting. That said the series is also not one to
take itself too seriously.
An entire episode is dedicated to a Hen character, whose unfertilised eggs are sold and consumed by
her classmates. This is one of those plotlines where, after the constant human comparisons of
the rest of the series, makes you pause and seriously ask. What the hell is wrong with this show?
Need I mention the fact that when the Mangaka appears at events she actually
uses a mask of this Hen character? Like I don’t want to draw conclusions but that’s a little
weird. But then again most japanese artists who want to keep their face out of the limelight are
like that. Just look at freaking Yoko Taro.
But you know even with all that I almost want to say that at times you really need to turn
your brain off but that also makes me feel like it’s a disservice to the rest of the series!
There is a lot of talk and discussion that can be had from the questions posed
by Beastars. It’s one of the reasons why I think the animal focused cast was such a great choice,
but I also feel like it’s easy to dismiss a lot of it as just weird, or perhaps expected. Of course a
wolf is going to want to eat a rabbit, that’s just the natural order of things! But when you bring
society into it suddenly it’s more a matter of Should this be the natural order of things,
should the natural order become something different and if so….what.
All of this is told in an adaptation that is absolutely gorgeous.
I mentioned at the top of the video that Studio Orange handed this, but also that despite this
series looking phenomenal it’s in a very different style from their previous work.
Land of the Lustrous was a fantastically gorgeous series, it had to be when you consider that the
characters were made out of sparkling gems, it was the nature of the setting that lent itself to the
animation and made everything….well sparkle more than it might have otherwise. Beastars
doesn’t have that same sparkle obviously, but its animation is in no way lesser because of it.
It’s hard for me to really describe though, as I’m not necessarily an expert in matters of animation,
especially not 3D animation. But What I’ll say about the work done with Beastars,
and Orange’s portfolio as a whole is that they can take 3D animation
and have entire episodes where I have to remind myself that I’m looking at something almost
completely computer generated. Usually when CG is used in anime it takes me out of it,
sometimes shows have gotten away with backgrounds, or cars, or miscellaneous other objects in a
scene without drawing too much attention to the fact that they are CG but far more often it’s
very noticeable and very much a blemish when it otherwise could not have under a different style.
Here though, the CG accentuates the story, the characters, it is able to
utilize its nature to show us things not necessarily possible with
traditional 2D animation, but still grounded in many of the same principles.
Studio Orange is a master at this kind of animation and I cannot wait to see what else they
have in store. Which I will be able to very soon because Beastars Second season airs next month.
Not that it might matter because FREAKING NETFLIX.
No this seriously bums me out, you had this amazing series,
with good characters, stellar animation, and bar none the best OP sequence in all of 2019 with it’s
stop motion animation and absolute banger of a long, all of that...and Netflix delayed it
north american release until 2020. Do you want to know how hard it was to sit there,
not just trying to figure out my own picks for best of 2019, but as a judge for the anime awards
and pretend like I never watched Beastars because Netflix’s self-imposed delay made it ineligible
for nomination? I suppose the bright side is that 2019 was pretty freaking crowded as it was,
so the 2020 picks were quite a bit easier to make and you be damn sure I’m not forgetting
about the series this time around. Hopefully I’m not the only one but we’ll have to see.
Because as much as this series poses interesting questions,
it as of yet has not settled on any of the answers. If this was it, if this was the first and ONLY season
we got I could not in good conscious recommend this series anywhere near as highly as I’m going
to with the knowledge that a continuation is just around the corner. Now as to if
that continuation will just continue with more questions, I can’t really say. The manga completed
it’s run earlier the year so it’s not like there is a fear of catching up, and the actual episode
count for season 2 hasn't been confirmed. It might be a 24, two cour season if we are lucky.
But also looking at how many chapters are left to cover, there's a good chance we
are going to need at least a season 3 if we want to see everything animated properly. And
you know with the history of anime rarely getting a second season let alone a third
outside of shounen AND the fact that Netflix also has a history of cutting shows after
2 seasons because they slowly become unprofitable compared to new ventures,
I’m not going to remain optimistic that they are going to be able to stick the landing on this one.
Beastars, is however even now one of the better anime to take place in a school,
to tackle those ever so common issues of growing up just with a far more sinister
and serious side to the results. It had it’s ups and downs as the narrative continued,
it has many different subplots from the unsolved murder to the varuious love triangles and beyond
that should be delt with. But much of my recommendation comes down to just how unique
the show feels despite having so many elements to it that we’ve seen elsewhere. It’s all in the
presentation I suppose, and if you are looking for a new anime to binge and only have Netflix
as your streaming options then, well, I know what you should watch tonight.
But that choice is up to you.
As such with all that in mind I happily give Beastars the recommendation to WATCH IT,
or buy it whenever if ever it comes out. Now some might question that, because I’m recommending it
despite the fact that the adaptation is not over, when just yesterday I didn’t recommend
Tower of God for on the surface the same thing. Beastars is just so much better though,
It’s weird, it’s got superb animation, all the characters have great development for the time
we spent with them. The biggest difference though, between the two, is that HAD this been the end.
If we weren't getting another season, I think I’d still be ok with where the first season left off.
Disappointed sure, but fairly satisfied. Which is not something I can say about Tower of God.
For alternate anime recommendations I only have
one, and the reason for that is because you absolutely need to watch this
one once you are done with Beastars, and that is the aforementioned Land of the Lustress. It is
the anime that completely changed my mind on what CG anime is capable of, it put Studio Orange on
the Map and is just a joy to watch besides. It too needs a second season desperately but also,
like Beastars has enough to make me satisfied with where it left off only disappointed in the
lack of a sequel at the moment. But hopefully if you watch it, you will find it to your liking.
Lastly, a very special thank you to my patrons, who not only support my work in general, but
allow me to do what I do. I love and appreciate you all. Specifically though, as I like to do,
I want to give particular shout-outs to patrons Ryefan Boneapart, Siri Yamiko, Wago 221,
Calhoonboy, Hector Montemayor, and Rune Jakobsen for being especially awesome. You guys are great!
And until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime…and stay frosty.