Beastars

This manga is hard to rate because it gets worse as it goes. It can't even decide what genre it wants to be. They can't even keep the motivations of the main character straight. Honestly, it's like three different people group wrote this manga and none of them could agree what they wanted it to be about.

Plot: Mystery -> Romance -> Thriller -> Slice of life *rinse and repeat*

The plot and setting actively change for the worse. Eventually, all logic and reasoning is tossed out of the window and this story becomes... infuriating.

Art

It's okay, sometimes it's extremely well-drawn other times it's sketchy and looks like it was done in a rush. But the characters are expressive and you can tell what's happening often enough.

Characters

The author is wishy-washy about what drives her characters forwards, self sabotages them, and all-around fucks up as many characters as she can to be "edgy." A shit ton of characters are introduced only to never appear again or are permanently put to the side even though they were big deal characters that still have an ongoing plotline.

Legosi is one of the worst written characters I've ever seen in my life. A constantly revolving door of selfishness, stupidity, and contradictions. One of the most self-destructive characters I've ever seen... I mean he literally ripped out his own teeth without even thinking it over and acted like it didn't even hurt. He's constantly trying to justify committing crimes even though he spends 40+ chapters at a time being so faithfully against those crimes just to throw it away in like two pages of a chapter. He's shallow, and causally explains away his stupidity as "fetishes," and repeatedly disappoints and hurts the people around him. Worst off he never learns his lesson or changes. I give Legosi a 1/10, the inconsistent writing of this character has ruined the manga for me

Haru is a slut for normal bullying and self-worth issues that never get resolved or reflected on.

Louis's character and reasoning abilities were chucked into a fire as if they never existed in the first place.

Also, they do things that don't make any sense, like introducing a snake security guard that wants to help him catch the bad guy who literally never shows up ever again.

Overall

This manga can't even get one genre right, let alone the 5ish it tries to push down your throat and the reason is that the authors can't layer plots for shit. They introduce new plots before they're done with the old plots and are constantly changing the motivations and drives of their main characters.

Complicating characters and plot can be good if the author has the skills to keep their goals and their personality in check.

I'm only on chapter 129, but every chapter gets harder to read, but I'm so far along that I want to finish it. But as far as I can tell everything that happens after chapter 50ish becomes less thought out and more erratic. Such a disappointment. *reads next volume*

Well, so long Beastars. I have followed you since the first chapter. And you should had been gone earlier, when you were great and not now. You were supposed to be the chosen one! Either way, time to start my filled with spoilers review:

The setting is pretty much the world we live in nowadays but instead of humans, we have animals of any kind. It's quite interesting and sometimes you can see small details like tiny stairs for mouses, divisions in police force regarding size of the animals (big ones, small ones) or abilities like flying, digging, etc... and worldbuilding in general that makes the whole world more interesting. Sadly, the author doesn't really explore that and besides a few odd chapters, she puts more attention to the characters which is not a bad thing but it gets tiring after a while because the whole drama is about mixed species animals and interspecies relationships which gets tiring. There was the whole sea animals topic the author didn't really explore and it could have been wonderful, way better than the whole arc about Melon and how dumb is Legosi.
Ah yes, Melon. I don't really know why the author created a character like him but geez, he is the example of a character that should have died 30 chapters earlier. A mixed species animal who is a BPD psycho that everyone fears for some reason even when he is pretty weak compared to most carnivores. We also have Legosi, part lizard part wolf and well, of course Legosi when the series starts and Legosi when the series ends are different in many ways. Mainly in how dumbass he gets to be but also in his confidence. His character really changes a lot in the series but not in the best path in the final run (he gets to be really dumb and nearly killed a few times). There are also Louis, Haru and the others characters in the school who after a certain arc, their importance is barely any except in the ending and it is still pretty eh, like most people actually forgot a few characters exist im sure, like Bill. Haru doesn't seem to be like a real love interest for Legosi and more like a fetish with the way it is described in his mind. And he is always scared of eating her??? So why the heck does he agree in going out with her?! As a note, i find Haru the most realistic character out of everyone and probably my favourite. She's been using boys to validate herself for wo lont at school, and then suddenly Legosi comes along and lifts her up, but she still wants to have her own agency. She wants to have a relationship with Legosi that's male and female as well as carnivore and herbivore (chase me, Legosi) but also she wants him to desire her.
Legosi and Haru are both complicated and flawed characters and they both probably overthink everything. Their relationship may never be easy, but they're so deeply entangled now, they know they'll never be able to be away from each other. Haru is doing her level best to make sure that what they have isn't co-dependent. She wants to have her own self-validation, and she wants Legosi to be able to be a complete person outside of her as well.
The author also does some huge ass pulls that makes you think she is a hack but some of them can be kind of reasonable but stuff like Louis becoming the boss of the lion mafia is just absurd. Or the ending when the whole city unites to destroy the black market of meat and everyone becomes friends. Yeah no, there must be several more cities or countries and destroying one alley where they sell meat isn't gonna stop anything. In the first chapters you could see a really poor animal selling his fingers as a way to get by. Who says there won't be more cases of that in the future?
Nor the ocean animals saying they will trade their dead ones. Why didn't they think of that earlier?
I feel that the series suffers from ending fatigue and that the author should have sticked with the psychological side instead of going full shonen with epic anime fights. Not matter how you put it, a wolf beating a bear in a fist fight is plot armor or the tournament in the black market at the end of the series. It was absurd. I feel that the last arc would have been way better with Legosi struggling to be an adult, his relationship with Haru and others plotlines of characters we already know about. Melon was just a plot device that didn't make much sense from my perspective. He was all over the place and also, the dumb promise Haru made with him amounted to nothing.
Anyway, I give to this series a 6/10. The first arcs are really enjoyable and well done but it gets worse after those arcs, has some ups and down in quality with the ending being quite mediocre in my opinion but not as bad as the ending of Game of Thrones. My main complains are that the author focused too much on Melon, the bpd mixed species and so little in side characters that were quite interesting like Juno.
The art is quite good and evolves. Just compare the first and last chapter.
Overall, this series is enjoyable as hell. Read it.

If you're here after watching the anime you need to read Beastars now, anyway on to the review. This is my favorite manga, the story, the characters, the setting, and just the vibe I get from Beastars is amazing. I don't know how to describe it but have you ever had that feeling from a manga or any piece of media when you just feel empty after you finish it? I had that feeling for a month after I caught up with this manga. Many people stray away from this manga or anime because they think it's for furries and while yes, furries probably love this but Beastars is the most captivating thing I've ever watched and read, this is not just for furries but for everyone there is no person who I wouldn't recommend watching this. The only problem I have with Beastars and this is not the authors fault because under the context of the story this had to happe but I dislike the sexual scenes and let me repeat these are sex scenes but it still makes me kind of uncomfortable watching sexual scenes that have animals in them but other than that this is my favorite manga and anime.

Anthropomorphism has been a part of cultures in various forms since the prehistoric age. When it comes to stories, it's often been used as a tool by writers to disassociate their messages from humanity so they become analogies, instead of direct teachings or statements. In case of Beastars, the same does ring true too. It allows for a very simple and understandable conflict within the society in the story and keeps it from being openly political. Besides that, the tone also remains reasonably *light* as a result.
But what I really like is how the author's genuine passion for the animal kingdom is visible. Well, I mean, she wears a chicken mask in real life, so...
But there's a huge amount of details that aren't necessary from the wider perspective of the whole story, details that just pertain to the species of animals (humans are animals too, I know, by the way) and make the manga feel full of life. But I'm grateful to Paru for including them, without them I could see the story feeling too blunt. The charm of the manga lies in there. But so, to conclude this opening segment, I feel the anthropomorphism is less of a technique and more of a style when it comes to Beastars.

Now, before delving into the actual narrative and the story, I should say that I highly recommend reading (or maybe watching since the anime is great) Beastars if you're into character dramas or psychological stories. Although the quality doesn't remain consistently great and drops off a lot in the final big arc of the story, it's probably worth it to just check it out.

***BEWARE OF SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!***

For me, the highlight of Beastars is definitely the character-writing, hence the list of characters whom I relish is pretty long: Legoshi, Louis, Haru, Juno, Bill, Sebun, Aoba, Gosha... and even the very minor characters such as Ako and Airdo. While they're fleshed out and/or contribute to the thematic core, a common aspect between them is that they're unhappy with their species.

Legoshi feels unjustly big and strong next to herbivores and loathes himself for being a wolf. He doesn't see any value in himself — a creature that's biologically *meant* to prey on others.

Louis craves confidence and puts on a facade to climb above others and get a feeling of control so he could escape his instinctual fear of predators and his fragility as a deer.

Haru wishes that people would treat her as an equal, but is patronized and everyone acts as if she needs protection. She sees herself as someone who'll be inevitably eaten and forgotten, but she continues to cling onto life for the moments that she cherishes.

Bill is proud of being a tiger but is frustrated by the responsibility that comes with his immense strength. He tries to shine in the spotlight but finds that just raw power doesn't cut it.

Gosha can never relax because he needs to always mind himself so he wouldn't hurt anyone with his venom by accident.

Beastars explores self-esteem and dissatisfaction with oneself. The problems the characters face are amplified though. By the harsh expectations and taboos of society. It's really engaging to see them struggle but mature and discover that they're not to blame individually. The entire society in Beastars is rotten at its core and the collective issue they all share is what needs to be solved. The society functions on willfully ignoring the fundamental flaws in its design, mainly, the black market. At least that's how I see the story tackling this topic.

Black Market.

Just the pure existence of it already puts onto a display that they aren't living in an utopia. Despite all of the effort that's been put into creating meals that can keep the carnivores healthy, the yearning for meat hasn't disappeared. Of course, that's not actually the fault of the society. What is however, is that despite it being an open secret, it continues to operate. No one dares to bring it up in the daylight and no one wants to risk getting into that taboo. While any individual isn't in the wrong for that, because a single person can't be expected to be capable of doing anything about an issue of such magnitude, the collective is morally corrupt for not addressing it. Some animals even say it's necessary evil to reason with it — that there's no way around it. Even if it was true, the attempts should still be done and the system of black market should at least be *ensured* to function on meat that comes from hospitals etc.

What is interesting is how we've shown everyone's acceptance of it. Aoba for example, he's a bird with a good heart, yet when he visits the black market with Legoshi and Bill he doesn't really pick a side at first. He's resigned to the fact that it exists and that he'll end up using it. If it wasn't for Legoshi, would he have done it and eaten meat there? Would he have committed to it?
And it's not just carnivores who're accepting of it, even herbivores are in the know, but don't seem to be taking any action. All of them are just playing the fool and hoping that they won't end up there. Also, even more interesting are those who've went there and found a way of making money buy selling parts of themselves.

It's just so awfully fucked up, but that's why it's such an impactful way of building a theme.

In truth, no one benefits from the black market. The herbivores who avoid it don't because random predation incidents still take place outside of it. Herbivores who sell themselves are basically doing the equivalent of taking a loan but even worse.
And even carnivores, they just become addicted and Gohin showed us what that might end up in: carnivores eating themselves in their lust for meat or inflicting self-harm because of the guilt. There are no victors in that story.

One more thing to say about it, the ones who use it aren't evil, they've ironically fallen prey to their own desires. They're not in the right by any means, but they aren't absolute ruthless monsters.

In conclusion to this segment, it's a brilliant way of showcasing how hollow the utopia they have truly is.

Also, I really appreciated the impact on the overall story that the confrontation between Legoshi and Riz had. It wasn't just covered up so Legoshi could continue his school life, instead he was suspended and the setting of the story switched to basically life after school. It's nice for such consequences to exist in a story, while that sadly is the only really good example, it's still something I wanna bring up.

Also, the little story of Ako and Airdo is a really gripping little addition. They founded their relationship on acting progressive and standing out, but subsequently it wasn't pleasing for either and ended in a tragedy. In line with the story in its entirety, there's no one truly at fault individually. Both of them were thoughtless. Ako pushed herself on Ako who lost himself for a slightest second and bit her. There's no hero nor is there a villain. But the response from everyone around them is to immediately assume the worst, which is understandable, but the good response would be to keep an open mind and try to look at the truth. We don't know what happened to Airdo, but with how stern the laws in Beastars are, his life was probably ever changed. It's neglecting to fix the problem.

But the story isn't without a fair share of issues. Most of them are in the latter half of the story. After Melon shows up, the story shifts from a slow and somewhat aimless character drama to have a more concrete plot. In theory, that'd be great, and in my second favourite series, Kaguya-sama, it happens and pays off. But here, everything kinda crumbles and falls apart. The pacing jumps haphazardly around, many characters (Haru in particular) lack screen-time to make the conclusions for their characters work, a lot of fights but no stakes to speak of, plot-points entirely forgotten, etc.

Worst is that the brilliantly set up conflict between herbivores and carnivores is resolved with basically just a speech from Louis who makes it up on the fly. The intricate buildup of the black market and the dark side of society ends up amounting to almost nothing as it just stops being a problem after Louis has a few words on it and brings it into the daylight. Also, almost as bad is how unsatisfying and out of the blue the climax of Legoshi's and Haru's relationship is, being stacked on top of the entire Melon arc where Haru had practically zero screentime.

So, to conclude the review, Beastars is spectacular at start. It devolves into a mess but it's still a meaningful story. I don't think that it's awful at any point. But I really would've wished for a more nuanced ending. But personally, I'm interested in Paru's writing should she start an another manga. Though I do hope that she's been sharpened by this experience

How to make a furry anime melancholic, when all the past evidence suggest that anthropomorphic animals are reserved for satire bits and comedic relief? Paru Itagaki, the Mangaka for Beastars, accomplished this feat via capsizing the outward facade of modern society to reveal its unsightly underbelly and its multitude of (un)conscious biases. She then interwove society’s biggest failings — as she saw it — into the narrative structure of the Beastars universe to open up a dialogue that most are unwillingly to entertain in today’s politically charged climate. It was provocative. It was slightly awkward to read. And it provoked the reader to consider social issues in a new light and reconsider previously held beliefs. The fact that Paru utilized an animal society to confront these issues was quite clever on her part because it dissuaded the reader from identifying with their own ethnic lineage; thus, permitting an impartial viewpoint in which all sides were consider in relatively equal fashion.

Legosi, the meek protagonist of Beastars, is an introvert par excellence. His aspirations are nothing to be emulated, as it mostly included staying out of troubled and avoiding unnecessary conflict. Yet this unfortunate disposition is not unlike the average, non-jock experience while in the throes of high-school. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that most readers could vicariously live through Legosi’s experiences, because they may have been there themselves: navigating through a ‘jungle’ of teenage angst and pent-up hormonal urges. Yet the expectation to maintain one’s composure whilst preparing for a life long vocation is no easy task, as exemplified through Legosi’s inner tumult.

The catalyst for Legosi’s journey begins, unsurprisingly, with a woman. Unable to contain his lust for meat, Legosi attacks an unsuspecting female rabbit, Haru, in the dead of night. On the surface, it is a carnivore attacking a herbivore to satiate his craving for meat — which is a crime in the Beastars society — however, as noted by later clues, this incident is more akin to sexual assault. In fact, Legosi outright asserts this notion when prowling the streets with Panda to reign in predatiorial offenders. But rather than simply analogize these two parallel concepts, it would be more instructive to examine the root cause for these abhorrent acts to understand why they happen, and what Paru wants us to learn from them.

While society mostly dismisses sexual predators as vile individuals who are beyond redemption, Paru takes a different tact. She ‘humanizes’ the characters to demonstrate that abhorrence comes from an inner vexation with one’s own ‘failure.’ The ‘failure’ referenced is, of course, sexual frustration. A pervasive sentiment amongst today’s young men as they find themselves beholden to a women’s decision. But it is deeper than this, much deeper (excuse the inadvertent pun). The underlying concern arises from the need to feel emotionally connected to another individual. Teenagers tend to disconnect from their parents in an effort to establish themselves; thus creating a void in which they must find someone who understands them, and provides constructive challenges to improve their overall disposition and happiness.

Legosi falls into this sexual/emotional pit early on due an absent father, and a mother who prematurely took her own life. Consequently, despite his aloof personality, he desperately seeked acceptance from others; hence his conciliatory approach toward social situations. But this was not sufficient. He wanted what everyone wants: someone to accept him…for him. Legosi’s high-school journey, however, was mired in persistent bullying and social rejection; as a result, an inner ‘monster’ swelled deep within him and unleashed its repugnance in the most heinous way imaginable. At a later point in the manga, Legosi divulge this information to the ghetto psychiatrist, Gouhin. Upon hearing this, the large panda immediately scolded Legosi for conflating his feelings of love with predatory instincts — which is an interesting choice of words. Because Paru could have easily written ‘carnivore instincts,’ but she chose ‘predatory’ in an attempt to parallel predatorial offenders with sexual offenders (as mentioned earlier).

Another individual who falls ‘prey’ to the strictures of modern culture — much like Legosi — is Riz, the brown bear. Now, to understand Riz is to broach a topic that is relatively taboo in modern times: that is (homo)sexuality. While most industrial societies are becoming increasingly tolerant of such relationships, there is still an undercurrent of social pressure that intimidates young boys, in particular, to chase after women instead of exploring other inclinations. Whether it be a stern father or a group of friends, manhood — as they will tell you! — cannot be ached through homosexuality. Hence, bicurious men mute certain aspects of their personality via passive behavior to dissuade the notion of divergent proclivities. This correlates to how Riz takes force limiting pills to minimize the fearsome aspects of his personality. In both scenarios, the individual projects a persona in which they are not; yet this all changes when Riz fosters a relationship with Tem, and begins to contemplate the idea of revealing his true self.

But Riz’s confession does not yield the result he was looking for, causing him to divorce himself from his abhorrent predatorial incident via reimagining what happened. This pivotal moment is akin to a man coming out of the closet, and how the rejection could warp his sense of reality and self. The theory that Riz is an allegorical representation of an emergent homosexual is supported by the following evidence: 1) When Legosi kissed Riz in chapter 60, the brown bear was in a missionary position over the wolf and subsequently ran away in embarrassment; 2) Riz licked Pina’s fingers in a sexually suggestive manner, and Pina was the first person to (repeatedly) visit the bear in Juvie; and 3) when Riz reminisced about his predatorial incident, he imagined Tem gazing at him with affection and an erect tail (a tail that was drawn to look phallic).

In addition, the decisive battle between Riz and Legosi was rich in subtext. Legosi’s predatorial incident, in which he ate Louis’ right leg, could be viewed as a bicurious, sexual act; especially considering Legosi’s subsequent remark: “Louis-senpai is here as we speak…and…he’s inside me.” To which Louis responds with the ‘climatic’ exasperation, “GO, LEGOSI!!!” Unlike Riz, however, Legosi and Louis are not gay…not quite, at least. According to Ritch Savin-Williams, a professor emeritus of developmental psychology, sexuality exist on a spectrum in which no one person is one-hundred percent gay of straight. In fact, given the correct circumstances, literally anyone could have a same-sex encounter. What Paru brought to the reader’s attention, is that shunning those desires — like Riz and Legosi did — is not healthy from an emotional or psychological standpoint.

After the ‘Murder Incident Solution’ arc, things quelled down a bit for Legosi. Until the grey wolf came into contact with the current Beastar, Yafya, who did not take kindly to Legosi’s predatorial incident. He then insisted that the grey wolf apologize for being born a carnivore. One could liken this confrontation to an example of white-privilege…or, let’s call it herbivore privilege. To exemplify this point, consider the following: Louis pulled a gun on Bill in school and later killed the leader of the Shishigumi (right or wrong, murder is murder), yet the red dear was never charged with a crime; Legosi, on the other hand, with the permission of Louis, ate his right foot to defeat Riz and solved the year long case surrounding Tem’s death…yet, he was criminally charged with the status of predatorial offender and considered a menace to society. In fact, because certain barriers were put in place for carnivores, many of them felt maligned and henceforth drifted toward the criminal underworld.

Speaking of which, this brings up the most complex character in all of Beastars…the not so sweet gazelle-leopard, Melon. To talk about Melon, however, is to also discuss Leano, Legosi’s mother; as both tackle a challenge that was forced upon them at birth. This is not to claim that Melon or Leano’s parents were in the wrong for deciding to have a ‘bispecies’ child — although the latter couple were ill-suited for other reasons — nevertheless, it brought about unforeseen dilemmas that were not easily reconciled. For Leano, she went through a physical transformation that destroyed her beauty, leading to her suicide; for Melon, he could not savor the taste of food (particularly meat), causing him to indulge in hazardous activities and masochism. Melon also displayed symptoms of ennui and weltschmerz (a depressive state in which the world does not reflect your ideal vision). This is why Melon splurged ‘spicy mustard’ into the ‘bland’ bowl of life. He wanted to feel something! He wanted to feel alive! And if he couldn’t…he’d kill himself in the process. This is not to excuse his ghastly behavior — but like Riz and Legosi — understanding where this behavior originates from is the first step in mitigating its influence over society.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the message Paru attempt to impart to the audience: understanding…or, lack thereof. If members of all societies could take a moment to vicariously think about the challenges of others, then we’d all be better off! And the reason this message is incredibly powerful and effective, is because it never pointed the finger, never felt forced, and it never drew the line between ‘right and ‘wrong.’ Paru simply presented each allegorical situation as a case study, allowed events to play out, and gave the reader the opportunity to interpret the outcomes as they saw fit. Nothing more, nothing less. Just like life. And the brilliance of it all was that Paru embraced all of the tropes and clichés that were mentioned in the introductory statement. She engaged the ‘casuals’ (who seek excitement above all else) and the ‘elitist’ (who engage in contemplative, artistic works) into the perfect marriage. Think about it: Beastars is a meta allegory about the anime fandom itself! — bringing together two incompatible groups of anime enthusiasts and turning them all furry!

…And that people, is called jazz.

Story 4/10
I find the author ideas very interesting, my problem is the execution of the same ideas, the world can be cool and compelling but it used it purely for very stupid plots, from a coming of age with murder mystery we jump into a romcom and then a war against the yakuza and then Buddhist martial arts of herbivores return to the Slice of life and then start a whole story with batman horse and an attempt to we live in a society with cheetah / gazella

Everything is very stupid, jumps genre in each arc and the tone is the most meme of existence

Art 8/10
The author's style is very European, I like it a lot

Character 7/10
I like all the cast except Haru, Legosi has a lot of chemistry with all the characters except her, their relationship seems atrocious and boring but the author continues to force them to be together as tired as possible

Enjoyment 5/10
Meh

Overall 5/10
Overhyped but the worldbuilding is 10/10

My wife left me after reading this, i blame Beastars for my marital disputes. At first my life was fine but then I got to chapter 67 and my wife took custody and i haven't seen my kids since. To be honest our marriage was on shaky ground to begin with like a house of cards, one action and it all collapses. But I wouldn't say I'm mad about Beastars doing this to me i just wish I could see my 2 Kids again Jimmy and John, named after my least favourite fast food chain. But even then I thought Beastars was Ok aside from my wife leaving on chapter 67.

While I was reading Beastars I had it rated as a 9/10 for its unique art style, lovable characters, and touching (often intense) plot. It quickly became one of my favorite manga. While some of the later arcs did not quite live up to the earlier ones, the story was still very enjoyable and had a promising direction for its future. Except (and this is the only reason why I bumped it down to a 7), hardly any of those promises are ever fulfilled. In the last 2-3 chapters the manga comes to an extremely premature end. It feels like the series was axed or the author was driven to wrap it up quickly for one reason or another. Whether that's actually the case or not, I was left feeling very unsatisfied and confused. I don't think I would recommend this manga to others unless it got a continuation. However, I don't regret reading it so it could be worth checking out as long as you're aware that it falls off at the end.

An incredibly complex manga about humanity's many facets, portrayed in an unusual way. At first glance, you might not expect this to be a deep series, but it dives into the core of society, interactions between individuals and how cruel and beautiful the world can be. The thing that surprised me the most is how incredibly well written all of the characters are, everyone has an interesting side in this story. The narrative is exciting, has many unexpected fun twists and turns, as the main protagonist Legosi faces many challenges in this wild world he lives in. The art has a very uniquely strange feel to it, but it manages to be striking and effective at showcasing a huge range of emotions, the mangaka really managed to master drawing facial expressions.

This feral world of animals is very similar to our human world, but the peculiar relationship carnivores and herbivores have was a very different perspective for me.

The carnivores have to suffer because they can't eat the food that is the most nourishing and delicious to them, they can substitute meat with other things but it is never satisfying enough and they have to always struggle with a unique type of hunger, an endless painful hunger that drives many of them mad.

Herbivores have to live in a constant painful fear since most of them are much weaker than carnivores and because the carnivores can randomly go crazy from their thirst for their natural source of nutrition, there is this constant danger that you'll be devoured by a beast gone insane.

Both the carnivores and the herbivores are suffering, but in different ways.

The whole society is restless because of these core factors and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to fix these problems and that's what makes this story so shockingly captivating, emotional and breathtaking.

What started as a really original premise with lots of potentials, quickly transformed into a hot mess of nothing.

The good:
-Original world (think Animal Farm but on a world level).
-Good art (started more realistic and evolved into a simplified version).
-Okay-ish characters (at the beginning at least, after a while most of the cast just turned into an edgefest).

The bad:
-Everything else.

I swear I used to love this manga, and when the first season of the anime was announced, I got happy. Now I only wish they change enough stuff for the anime to not crash and burn as the manga did, or to end it directly after the first arc (the school assassin).
A series with tons of political and social undertones quickly turned into a nonsensical action packed wacky adventure with no head nor tail (see what I did there?). Most characters, who were rather diverse and interesting, either disappeared or turned into literally background filler. What was left was the same 4 o 5 characters who got no growth at all, with lots of loose ends or downright stupid stuff (CHIMERA STANDS, WHAT THE FUCK).

Please, don't waste your time with this. Or if you really want to, read until the mistery of the killer gets solved (which already is pretty stupid since *SPOILER SPOILER* the killer is someone we literally didn't see or know, so there goes your mistery and suspense *SPOILER SPOILER*).

Words really cannot describe the disappointment this manga left me with. Absolutely horrible.

Are you a furry? Do you love Zootopia? If you answered yes to either of those questions, give this manga a shot. Need any more info? Well, ok...

Beastars is about animals living in a very human-like society. The story centers around Legosi, a sensitive, honorable young wolf who struggles to overcome his nature and form meaningful relationships. His story begins at Cherryton high school, and that comes with a murder mystery, a taboo romance, tested friendships, bloody brawls... things you might expect from a shonen. But the strong writing and characters always keep it engaging.

Once he leaves school, the world-building really expands and we get to see the darker and stranger sides of the animal world. Without spoiling anything, let's just say street gangs, cannibalism (sort of), slavery, sex abuse and organ harvesting are involved. Despite all this, it's never explicit.

There's a lot of social commentary to be found here, and it's delivered in a refreshingly subtle manner. There's a large diversity of animals (mammals domesticated and wild, small and large, various reptiles, avians, marine life later on) with their unique struggles, like a komodo dragon who's shunned because of his poisonous mouth, or a small lamb who's always talked down to ...uh, literally and figuratively. But it's also quite funny at times, and has no shortage of funny panels to show out-of-context like, for example, a large, hairy carnivore in heels and a dress.

The art style is certainly unique, possessing a more sketchy and cartoony style than typical manga, but to the artist's credit, she's great with drawing action shots and large, intimidating animalistic figures with gnarled fingers.

If I had one complaint, it's about the ship-teasing. You know, when two characters are about to confess their feelings to one another, or a big reveal is about to be made, and something always comes up, or we shift focus to another character for a while. But maybe that's just a problem with manga in general.

I was going to give it a high score. I really was going to. But I just can't anymore.

Story:1
The story is very mediocre, non existent in consistency and the backstories just come in big bulks later on in the manga. Very bad development, nonsensical motives for everything that happens. It just is not enough to hook me on.

This is one of the manga that tries to be seinen, as the genre suggests, and some very philosophical elements were showing up. But then all of that was ditched for a mediocre plot that was bland and lacked any real value for reading

Random things just pop out of nowhere, to a point that it is fairly nonsensical

Now the main thing is how the story is name BEASTARS yet for some reason it isn't mentioned anywhere other than the start. Oh my fk I'm just going to kill my self from this lack of consistency

Art:7
Art is good, characters are made well, just some psychological parts are drawn pretty weirdly

Character:3

For some reason, I can't get a good grasp on characters as they always have a shift in personality

But something interesting I noticed was their correlation to sin

The wolf character is enduring a self conflict as he has the role of a carnivore, he must not act upon his desires to eat meat and has to follow by societies rules, were the carnivores are mostly considered outcasts, the people who always commit crimes while herbivores and such hold a high status. He tries to eat the bunny yet is not able to do so, and starts liking the bunny. This character is pretty annoying and pestering and the bunny seems to start h aving feelings for him. Overall he is a badly made character and I am fairly disgusted at the sight of him yet...

This character represents gluttony, lust

The bunny is the worst of the lot, a slut, someone who has a lot of sexual partners. She hides everything through her innocent looking face, and then turns seinen mode by stripping and doing random shit with everyone. It seems a lot of people have fallen victim to her and so she is constantly bullied for being the primary person in peoples affairs. She just claims she wants to be an equal but it is pretty obvious she is trying to aim higher up in status, as if her status as a herbivore was not enough. She is evil and my eyes would definitely bleed at the sight of this character.

This character represents envy, sloth

The deer dude is the student council president that is seen to be the boss for things the wolf enrol in, and he wants to be a beastar, something that allows the student to get a free pass to a high social status and such. He is a pretty annoying character.

This character represents pride, greed, wrath

Sorry if this hypothesis is wrong.

Enjoyment:6
I was still able to read this in one setting, so this should be slightly enjoyable, as it is not seinen to the point where it is disgusting

Overall:
This manga is not decent, which is a four, so I am giving it a three. It could have been better, but it was executed very very poorly. Very poorly. And so, I suggest that you don't read this shit.