This is my first review here, but i will do something strange and split it into two halves, the second is mostly focused on the last arc since it deserve it's own analysis for how bad i feel it got. Also apologies for my english if it get bad, it's not my native languag, also art worn't be covered since i read good manga with bad art and so i don't think it's needed, however i will comment now that Beastars art is amazing and i love it. Also only Characters and Themes will be reviwed here.

Characters (9/10):

-Legoshi: Our protagonist, a shy wolf who is finally starting to understand himself and the world he lives in, took him 17 years but better late than never. The conflict of his character comes from 1-His fetish towards rabbits and 2-His want to force his morality on others. for his fetish, i suppose he is like our world version of lolicon (Haru, the girl Legoshi likes, was stated by the mangaka to be like a lolita), and for his morality he follows a very strict code of aid Herbivores, this does create an issue with how far he pushes himself for protecting them, another issue is that he kinda comes off as not caring towards Carnivores, though he does have Carnivores friends and is pretty devoted to them, it's just that his fetish gets the better of him every here and now.

An interesting point for him is that at one time he meets an Carnivore who ate a Herbivore and to understand them better he eat an incect, since they are fine to eat in their world but it still count as taking a life, which he wasn't so happy doing but this shows his will to understand others, whcih is a running theme in his character.

Another idea is him not being so happy about being a Carnivoure, it's the old tale of "accept/be yourself" but i like here for the stakes it gives, since he is in love with a rabbit who he also fear he might eat and because of how society can treat Carnivores, though it's mostly cause of Haru.

There is more but those are the points i have for the moment, i like him but his fetish can be a little of a hassale for his writing. At one point i seriously was questioning if he loved Haru for her own person or because of his fetish, which never got really answered, as well as if his morality comes from this fetish or a sense of justice, if it did then it's my bad for not noticing and please correct me.

-Louis: A deer with a very tragic beckstory that sheds more light to the darkeness of the Beastars world. He is also the fans favorite and one of the most developed characters in the story, he can comes a bit off as too hostile at the start of the story but he does have his reasons, he is a perfectionist who wants to be the best, and since the story is named Beastars he should have been a protagonist simply because to be the Beastar is his goal in the story, the best of the best and the top of society from how i got it.

Another thing that make him likeable is his desire to prove his strength not by force but by character, while it isn't always shown in a good light through the story, bringing a gun to school and threatening someone with it, still it's a likeable trait that many can enjoy.

Generally i don't want to spoil much of his story and character since despite not being my favorite he is a great character, a prideful perfectionist who have to deal with his weaknesses and is genuine in his will to help others.

Haru (a lot of spoilers here): My least favorite among the Beastar main three, most people who hate her seems to feel that way either cause they ship Legoshi with Louis (because we have almost no moment where this two aren't standing together in an erotic manner) and she stands in the way of the ship or because she used to have sex with a lot of boys in school and i guess that made her unlikeable, neither of those are my reasons to dislike her.

Starting with the positives of her character, it makes sense in this world why she is this much into sex, while it doesn't matter much in the world Haru looks and height are a problem, she is a cute rabbit and everybody seems to treat her as such until she lost her virginity with another male rabbit and that was the first time she felt like she was an equal and not someone to look down upon, this is why she loves Legoshi, he values her and doesn't look down on her (literally and metaphorically).

Negatives now, well my reason to dislike her is her relationship with Legoshi which is sadly all what she got for most of the story, he is already bad in this for seeming to love her out of fetish than real interest in her person but he have more conflicts going on to deal with which shows more of his character however for her part she comes off as someone who just doesn't want to be there in the relationship, their first kiss was pretty meh really and she didn't even feel like she enjoyed it, i mean i know first kisses aren't all romantic and flashy where the world slow down but you can at least smile telling him it's bad but can still improve with time, and we get the old plot her seeing him walk with another girl and mistak it for cheating, they deal with that quickly (thank god) but by the end of the series i really can't get her at all, she can't accept his love because she wants him to continue chasing her? this just feels abusive. also the villain seems to like her but that goes nowhere and to me it feels like it's there just to make her look more important and getting the bad boy type into her reverse harem.

I wish she had more going on with her, like making her get the equality she wants by hard work and get a good place in the Beastars society where other animals treat her with respect, or she learn she only needs people dear to her to look at her with respect, even if her relationship with Legoshi was bad it would be fine in this case cause there will be more traits to her character.

If you happen to like her or think i got a part here wrong then please tell me why, i would like to know.

Okay now to the other characters, but because there is many i will focus on my favorites, just know that almost all characters are great and if not they are at least enjoyable:

-Gouhin: My first favorite character in the series, his role is as a mentor to Legoshi and help him with both his fetish and his physical strength. He is a harsh, strong, loud Panda doctor with a heart of gold, and if you are bored of this type of character then fear not, he isn't doing that to defend hismelf and look confident but because in the setting he is put in he really needs to show how dominate he is, since that's the way to deal with many dangerous animals who lost it.

He want to help the Carnivores who got addicted to eating meat and even left his wife and chlid for that (not sure if this is to parraler Buddha but the possiblity is there) and trained for many years to get the physical ability to achieve his selfless goal, and his reason for doing so is because he didn't want to just stand there, he was born lucky for being a panda, a creature capable of eating meat but eat plants interestingly, but he could have been born as Carnivore, and thus he holds the responsiblity to help those who were unlucky.

-Bill: the first villain of the story, a Carnivore who hold the title with a pride, maybe even with some belief in superiority because of it, and doesn't want to be looked down upon, he acts friendly toward other Herbivores however and doesn't treat them badly for no good reason, he is supposed to be a bully type of guy i guess but he comes off as pretty likeable to fit entierly into those types, as the story goes he gets to develop more and while not let go of his beliefs he holds them back.

I really love this character even if i don't relate to him at all, he might be my favorite in the series, seriously, read the manga to enjoy him to the fullest.

The Themes (9/10)

At first the reader can be hit with the idea that the story main theme is racism, but i personally don't think so, the idea is there for how some characters are treated lesser not because of their selfishness but because of what they were born as, and yeah that's there but i don't take it here seriously cause we can't apply it to the real world, simply put, no race want to literally eat another by instinct in our human world.

But a theme i got related to it is the idea that we were born with advanteges and disadvantages we had no control over, i will call it here inheritance, to give you an example: think you were born in a rich family yet a family that's hated by the twon folks, the pros is that you got ton of money and probably were raised in a positive manner, the cons are that you will be mistreated for something you had no control over which can either make you bitter or kind toward others. The story idea is of course to put the hate aside and direct the inheritances we have (strength in Legoshi case) toward a selfless goal, and for Legoshi tha is to help the Herbivores, the ones weaker than him. Or be like Louis and focus on your wit and charisma if you don't have physical strength..

Different other characters acts differently towards their inheritance, going with the others i listed: Haru hated being born small and looked down upon so she pushes others to situations (sex) she stand either as an equal or even above in (maybe another reason for why i didn't like her is because she didn't control her inheritance). Gohin was born with advantage of not being a Carnivore and he uses it to help others, Bill was born a Carnivoure and while at firsr he hold pride and outgoing with it, with time he holds back and throw the bad habbits he have.

I think this an important thing to keep in mind, i don't know everybody so i can't say everybody got this, but to people who got something that kept them treated as heighter or lower compared to others, always use what you have for the betterment of society and the world in general, in the end what makes you better or worst than others is how selfless and ethically selfish you can be.

Another and a less interesting theme to me is fetish, a youtuber i don't remember the name of said that the series theme is "What makes someone a deviant", like usual, accept yourself and don't be forceful, that's pretty much it.

(THE LAST ARC AND TON OF SPOILERS)

3/10

I don't know why but it's such a bad ending with such a boring villain, compared to the story amazing writing when it comes to characters (beside Haru) and focus on characters psychology rather than pure action, the final arc stand no chance as it throws all of that.

The New Characters (1/10):

-Melon: This guy, in a world where everybody tries to deal with the bad hand fate gave them, calls himself pure evil...Okay, there were cases of real life humans who took that title or felt like they wanted to, i'm interested in criminals history and psychology and Carl Panzram can hold that title from what i got, however what seperate this criminal and Melon is that he had a logic he was going with: humans were evil and harmed the world more than the good they caused, he regreted harming animals as a kid from what i got and also regreted not killing the human race. Okay i'm comparing a real human to a fictional character, maybe that doesn't work as an exceuse...but hey that's the thing with fiction, it goes in depth with what reality hides, what i want to say is read the manga Monster to see someone like Carl taken to the extreme by Johan, where his brute strength is turned into charisma.

Melon got nothing, he is a boring villain who serves as someone for Legoshi to fight and shows kindness towards, his backstory isn't as tragic as Louis, and while his condition is scary for me, it's not a reason to turn to the criminal life. He is there to be a source of sexual fanservice (he is shown naked and in an erotic poses a lot), fight and lose, that's it.

Leghoshi: Yeah, he is here, the thing is that in the final arc Legoshi take a turn to the worst, while not as smart as Louis Legoshi wasn't an idiot and at most he comes of as uncaring about his safety, a common trait in shounen protags which is fine for what it is (though weak in the fact that it's not the protag facing danger even while afraid, because that's what bravery is, but it comes off as the protag got it as a natural instinct). In the final arc we welcome idiot Legoshi, a guy who let a dangerous criminal go to continue a chat with him and who can't tell that you can't forgive someone who didn't learn their lesson yet, even if he wanted to forgive him Melon is still a serious danger and calling himself a pure evil kinda gives me the vibe that he isn't planning to stop being a serious danger, so why are you chatting with him instead of knocking him out?

The Final Arc Themes (2/10)

The theme of forgivness is always good when done well, but doen badly it's just a mess. Simply put you can't forgive someone who didn't learn their lesson yet because they will repeat it again and others will suffer because of it, so is the case with Melon and Legoshi. Instead of realizing that some men just want to see the world burn, he continue talking no jutsu Melon and even in the end of it it doesn't seem like he learned anything out of this, more so it feels like we are supposed to agree with him.


Personal Rants:

The ending is just rushed, many plotline remain insolved or take a turn to the worst, seriosuly, who had the brillaint idea of making a romance going on to throw it into the nothingness in the end?

There is a tragic tone to the finally as much as it tries to look happy, beside Legoshi (who is a third gen and the son of a half wolf and a normal wolf), all hybrids in the story got it bad, Melon can't feel anything pysically so he goes for self harm, Legoshi mom starts normal but as time goes on she couldn't leave her room or even let her son see her, and a lot of hybrid children are left abandoned by their parents and there even is a group that's willing to kill those children, under all of this our hero Leghoshi, a part komodo dragon, a part wolf who holds his first and main goal to be Haru's, a rabbit, husband, it's not going to end good.

I like that Legoshi got an out of body experience and that a lot of things are left for the reader to decide, it make the world feel bigger and more real.

I also like that the adults feel like adults and got life experiences and most of them are the best characters.

The last thing to rant about is for the yaoi tease, i'm so weirded why the story didn't turn into a yaoi manga, it sure felt like the mangaka wanted that route.

(Overall) 8/10

A good manga with great character and amazing themes followed by a fitting art that's held up by a bad final arc.