Beastars is a strange and difficult series to wrap your head around. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d read more of the manga, but I suspect not – I think strange and difficult is just what Beastars is. It’s an idiosyncratic piece of work to be sure, and the anime if anything magnifies that effect. Director Matsumi Shinichi is adapting a very spartan and clinical style with almost no music or sound effects, and the high-end CGI – with the characteristic combination of too-real at times and palpably artificial at others – adds to the disconnect. If you can watch this show and not feel a little uncomfortable, you’re made of sterner stuff than I.
Indeed, it’s fitting that the tone of this episode implies that it could almost be a bad dream Legosi is having, but is in fact reality. There’s a slightly dreamlike effect to watching Beastars – it takes you out of yourself and makes you unsure of what it is you’re seeing. Make no mistake, this is supposed to be uncomfortable and difficult – all of this is not happening by accident. That makes both the source material and anime rather brilliant at what they do, but not any easier to get a handle on.
There’s a lot to unpack in Itagaki Paru’s writing here, to be sure. Above and beyond the obvious metaphorical nature of high school life in packs of herbivores and carnivores, there’s a gender thing going on here too. It would be too simplistic to extend the allusion to say that males are carnivores and females herbivores, but that’s not entirely outside the scope of Itagaki’s intentions I don’t think. It’s no coincidence that pretty much all of the carnivores we’ve met have been boys, and that all of the girls have been herbivores. For teenage males in whom sexual desire is awakening with considerable urgency – and teenage females who interact with them every day – reality surely sometimes feels like the fantasy being projected here.
Any student of folk tales knows that this theme is at the heart of many of man’s oldest and most enduring stories. Can a male control himself when the urge consumes him, the way it seems to be doing with Legosi here? A fascinating element of Itagaki’s premise is that the female heroine is one who uses her sexuality if not as a weapon, then at least a shield. Haru is an outcast as much (more, in fact) among girls and herbivores than males and carnivores. Her only connection to others seems to be through her body, but that’s not an emotional connection at all. And she seems almost dead inside at this point, so complete is her isolation.
This melding of the two symbolisms – high school cliques and predatory social structure, and the dynamic between the sexes – is at the heart of Beastars. Legosi doesn’t know who he is – is he the youth who struggles to control his desires, or merely the personification of those desires? Is what he feels for Haru romantic love, or is it pure predatory instinct? At this point Haru has no idea that Legosi is different from anyone else (and fascinatingly, she seems to have forgotten how she received the wounds on her arm), and indeed she assumes that his lack of verbal communication is because he’s come for what boys always come to her for (and it’s not roses). That she’s so willing to give it in cavalier fashion is reflective of just what a tragic character Haru is.
One doesn’t tend to use the word “deep” all that often as it applies to anime or any other narrative form, but it really does apply to Beastars. I’m not even really sure how successful all this thematic exploration Itagaki is doing is, but it’s certainly fascinating to watch – especially in this strange and surreal anime adaptation. The best anime engage us both intellectually and emotionally, and without question Beastars thus far is succeeding far more at the first than the second. That may change and it may not – I’m not even sure emotional engagement is one of the author’s goals. But either way, this is one distinct and fascinating piece of work.
Toni
October 19, 2019 at 5:52 pmThe premise of this series is flawed: Predators and prey go to the same school (WTF?)
What do the carnivores eat at lunch hour? Pupils from a different school?
There’s nothing evil in a wolf eating a rabbit. That’s the natural order of things.
I get the point they’re trying to make but you can’t comment on human relationships with this scenario.
(First time ever posting here after lurking silently around for many years. Congrats on being the most articulate anime blogger on the internet, Enzo)
Guardian Enzo
October 19, 2019 at 6:05 pmFirst of all welcome, and thanks – that’s an awfully nice compliment. My goal was to be the richest, though!
As to your main point, I’m not sure I agree – it’s all metaphorical, you know? If we start to dismiss anime scenarios that don’t hold up to logic, how much is really going to be left at the end?
Florador
October 20, 2019 at 2:53 amThey actually showd this in this episode (mostly vegetarian stuff and eggs and milk and soy burgers)
Nadavu
October 19, 2019 at 8:52 pmIt’s so interesting to me that the show seems to make a very clear case of using predatory instincts as a metaphor for (mostly male) sexual desire, and then adds actual sex on top of that. One has to ask, if hunting stands in for sex, what does sex stand in for?
And as for Toni’s comment, I think this setup is much less farfetch than you (reasonably) suspect. This has been played out to various degrees in various times and in different societies. Sometimes an idea becomes so central to a movement that it is pursued blindly even when it’s clear on street level that it doesn’t work. For example, the idea that gender is entirely a social construct and has nothing to do with biology which has been gaining track in the west for the last decade. When pursued to its full extent, you end up with mediocre male athletes turning female and immediately raising to the top of their sports. It’s an absurdity that makes almost no one happy, but on the whole we engage in a game of make-belief where there is absolutely nothing problematic about it. In fact, it’s something to be celebrated (while at the same time not admitting that it’s out of the ordinary by any means).
Tam has been eaten, and nobody wants to talk about it. Carnivores and Herbivores live in complete harmony, except every student knows that isn’t exactly true. Sounds a lot like 2019, to be honest.
kiwi
October 20, 2019 at 3:49 pmno offense but… what are you talking about lol
i don’t want to get into a dumb argument in the comments of an anime blog, but for the record, gender and sex ARE distinct. Ignoring that fact disregards the lived experiences of millions of people. (isn’t it more depressing to have a worldview that your life/actions are determined by biology?)
i feel like you’re projecting onto this show a little bit…
Nadavu
October 20, 2019 at 8:32 pmI’m not one for dumb arguments, either. Informed and polite debates, however, are a different matter. If you’d like to have one, drop me a line at iggyjacrei@gmail.com. It’ll be quite lovely if you do <3
Guardian Enzo
October 20, 2019 at 8:39 pmIndeed, a very measured response. I’d really like it if this place could stay free of personal attacks (unlike about 95% of anime discussion sites out there).
Yeni
October 20, 2019 at 12:03 amLove your reviews as always!
I really liked the anime, so I started to read the manga, and I have to say yes, this is an amazingly well thought story. Probably my best find this year.
Tony, the points you make are actually addressed directly and in ways that make sense 🙂
Derrick
October 20, 2019 at 11:04 amyeah the manga does have that surreal, theatrical feeling
eu
October 22, 2019 at 3:23 amLook, I might be seeing things that are not here, but I found it interesting how Legosi and the deer Louis are foils of each other. Legosi pretends to be weak when he is strong, Louis is pretending to be strong when he is weak (or at least injured). Both put on masks on their daily lives, I’d say, and Louis recognizes this to some extend – why else call Legosi a “dangerous” wolf? I wonder, what to make of him trying to save the other actor at the cost of his own physical health, even if it was an accident? Is Louis truly approaching Legosi only to achieve some political goal? It seems to me he’s more than it meets the eye, but I can’t quite say WHAT exactly. But, then again, this is how I feel about Beastars (but in a positive way).
Also, about Haru: ???? What happened to this ray of sunshine to culminate in that last sentence???? Whoever did this please turn on your location, I just want to talk.