An Anime Review of 'Beastars'

Beastars is an anime that was produced by studio Orange, and is based on the manga by Itagaki Paru. The series is licensed by Netflix for worldwide streaming, with a second season on the way for an estimated release in 2021.The story is set in a world where anthropomorphic animals inhabit it, and revolves around a grey wolf named Legoshi who is in high school. Initially looking at it one would be excused in thinking that this is an anime version of Zootopia by Disney. As it is the case with Zootopia where the two leads are a herbivore and a carnivore in a rabbit and a fox, here the two leads are a rabbit and a grey wolf. With that out of the way, this is where the similarities end.

To start off with the world the characters inhabit, it is incredibly well built up. The social structure of the carnivores and the herbivores are clearly defined. In addition, there are a lot of similarities between the world we exist in and that of the characters in the show. This allows us to have a frame of reference when we are shown the various aspects of the world, however unlike in Bright where the similarities are superficial at best with no thought being put into the logistics of how fantastical creatures are meant to exists in a carbon copy of the world we inhabit despite having a completely different history, these aspects are made story relevant and feeds into the dynamic between the two groups of animals.

The various themes that are tackled throughout the narrative are incredibly poignant, so much so that I found that I was getting sucked into the story and was constantly surprised to see the end credits roll. While the themes themselves are impressively handled, the characters that are used to convey said themes are incredibly well written. At times you forget that these are actually animals till one of them actually brings attention to this fact. I found Legoshi to be an incredibly relatable protagonist, with a fantastic progressive arc, with struggles and a mindset that is incredibly human despite the animalistic setting of the narrative. In fact all the characters are fantastically written, Haru, Louis, and Juno are incredibly written with a lot of depth and their own motivations creating conflict in a very organic way. This is a masterclass in storytelling in my opinion. A special shout out to the best panda bro anyone could ever hope to have.

The 3D animation takes some getting used to, especially when it comes to the first episode where it can feel as if the characters lack a sense of weight. That being said, by the time the season came to a close, it was barely noticable and I was able to enjoy it for its own merits. It is also worth mentioning that I binged the entire show in six hours rather than waiting weekly like many other anime (Thank you Netflix for making me nearly forget this show was even a thing. Please sort out this weekly/ binge policy), and that may have helped me acclimate to the feel of the show much faster than I would have been had I been watching it weekly.

While this is a purely 3D animated show, there are times when they broke through the stylistic conventions and really blended into the realms of experimental, and during these times the animation was gorgeous to a point where you could not look away. The framing of the shots are magnificent, the usage of colour is fantastic, the composition within the shot is meticulous and rife with meaning, and I am running out of superlatives to describe the animation with. Out of the various 3D anime I have watched, I feel as of this point in time Beastars is the gold standard.

One area I feel that traditional 2D animation would have benefited would have been in the fight scenes, as at times it took me out of the show when the camera moved too dynamically or when a characters movement did not have a sense of weight to it. That would be my one nitpic about the show.

If you are into animation in any capacity, Beastars is an anime that I highly recommend, though be warned that it touches upon some heavy themes including violence and sex, sometimes both in the same scene. Beastars, in short, is a fantastic show, and is available to watch on Netflix.