Though previously believed to premiere October 2019, Netflix announced the definitive release date for audiences worldwide for the anime, Beastars, on March 13, 2020, with a second season already in the works. Beastars began as a manga by Paru Itagaki, which was first released with Weekly Shonen Champion magazine. Paru comes from a family of manga and anime fame, as the daughter of Keisuke Itagaki, the author of Baki.
The series' name, Beastars, comes from an in-story title awarded to a person of great note and service. With the manga receiving a number of accolades, it is arguably wise for Netflix to pick up Beastars in the face of losing potential customers to Disney+. The manga is reportedly the first title from the Akita Publishing Company, or Akita Shoten, to win the Manga Taisho award, which is an annual award for Japanese manga. As a way to promote readership for newer titles, the award is given to series with less than eight volumes. Beastars also won the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival award in the manga division in 2018. Beastars takes a familiar concept of creating humanoid animal characters and giving it a unique twist with its plot and focus.
WHAT IS BEASTARS?
Viewers who want the immersive world of Zootopia can find a similar environment with Beastars with much more conflict. The main protagonist, Legosi, is a student and drama club member at Cherryton Academy, and as a gray wolf, he dorms with fellow carnivores. He assists his fellow clubmates, including the popular red deer Louis, as a stagehand.
This school-time peace is disrupted by the murder of the student, Tem, an alpaca. More horrifically, it is revealed that Tem was eaten. This causes a rift between herbivorous and carnivorous students and casts suspicion immediately onto Legosi, who was Tem's friend. Amidst this tension, Legosi wrangles with complicated feelings for a fellow student, Haru, who is a rabbit.
The series will have twelve episodes in its first season. There are currently 17 published volumes of the Japanese manga and 160 released chapters. The visuals of the anime are receiving mixed reviews, with some immediately thinking of the 2016 anime Berserk and finding the 3D and 2D combination and low frame rate "cool," while others find it "choppy."
WHY YOU SHOULD ADD IT TO YOUR LIST
Beastars is loved not only for its interesting anthropomorphic animal designs but for its commentary and parallels of Japanese society. In a world where both carnivores and herbivores exist, it brings a lot of philosophical questions for this society, such as what one can or cannot due in accordance with their social environment versus their instinct. While in Zootopia, carnivorous mammals were reverted to a "primal" state due to a neurotoxin, in Beastars, carnivores still have a predatory instinct, without any external influence, and are forced to stifle it in order to conform to their environment with herbivore counterparts. It also allows for character studies, not only to allow viewers to grow to love and care for these characters, but to watch these different characters, influenced by their gender, species, and predator or prey designation, interact with their world and each other.
Audiences who have read the manga also report enjoying its darker tone in comparison to Zootopia. It confronts situations in which tension is barely repressed, and the social dynamic between the herbivores and carnivores examined, as well as an exploration of how it affects basic needs such as nutrition. It analyzes this dynamic, while still being in a school setting with the typical high school problems of bullying, fitting in, and falling in love. A reviewer (of the manga) called the show the baby of Zootopia, Degrassi, and Edward Cullen, the vampire protagonist from teen series, Twilight.
This binary society provides this series a lot of possibilities for future arcs, like the possibility of hybrid children, or children born from different species. Further questions could be explored, such as how these children interact and react to their society, as well as the physical, mental, and social tolls this takes on them being of mixed descent.
The anime was directed by Shinchi Matsumi, who is known for his work with other CG Anime such as Ruroni Kenshin and Rage of Bahamut Genesis. With its blend of school life, social philosophy, and mystery, this is a show anime fans should add to their spring season watchlist.
Season 1 of Beastars premieres on Netflix, March 13, 2020. The English translations of the Beastars manga is published by Viz Media.