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Title: Beastars Post by: Olivia Bauer on May 19, 2020, 07:38:14 AM I'm not exactly the biggest anime fan. I can count all the anime I like on one hand. But Beastars is my number one.
I absolutely adore everything about this show. It started as a Netflix exclusive over in Japan before being released in the US after the creation of the English dub. Also, I know I said I'm not a weeb but I have very strong feelings about subs over dubs. These scenes were made with the original Japanese voice acting in mind so when you dub it in other languages it's super awkward and waters down the creative vision. (Also the acting in the Japanese original is f**king amazing). The plot takes place in a Zootopia like society where humans never existed. The world is dominated by anthropomorphic animals. In fact the story has been referred to as "Zootopia for adults" but it's worth noting the manga came out shortly after that movie. Given how long a manga can take to make it's very likely that the similarities are mere coincidence. In this world the people are split up into "carnivores" and "herbivores". Even though omnivores and insectivores are in the story they still classify it like that. Not a huge deal though. Carnivores have to fight back their urge to hunt and eat meat in this civilized society. However the story begins with a teenage alpaca named Tem being killed and eaten in his own High School after hours by another student. After that, the story follows a grey wolf named "Legosi". He's named after Dracula actor Bela Lugosi but due to translational confusion Beastars fans will fight to the death over whether his name is "Legosi" or "Legoshi". The Netflix subtitles say "Legoshi" but that doesn't matter because those subs aren't the best as far as translation goes. They call the character Louis "Rouis" and in the episode descriptions they refer to Haru (A female name) as "Hal". Embarrassing. Legosi is somewhat feared by his classmate since grey wolves are notorious for being very strong and have limited control over their instincts. He's six foot one so a lot of people are inherently intimidated by his height. He's a very gentle person who shies away from social interaction in favor of playing with bugs. But one night he loses control of his instincts and nearly devours a female rabbit student named Haru. The rest of the plot centers around his interactions with her. It's actually a pretty brilliant show with a huge focus on philosophy and Legosi is one of my favorite protagonists in anything ever. It certainly has an artsy side to it and for a 3D CGI anime it actually looks f**king gorgeous. At some points it's actually hard to tell if it's 3D or 2D. Also the stop-motion intro is just straight up fantastic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgo9dJB_icw). I highly recommend the show. I'd like to recommend the manga but to be honest you'd be better off reading the unofficial translations by Hot Chocolate Scans. The official manga is horribly translated. Like, for real. It's awful. But as for the show I'd call it hands down the best anime I've ever seen and I'm hyped for season two. Too bad it's coming in 2021. Yeesh. 10/10 |