Beastars (Manga) Review

Full List of Bromance Recommendations

If I have to describe this in one sentence, I’d say: An animal story that is surprisingly human.

I confess that when I first learnt about the title, this is what I knew: School Life, Coming of Age, School Romance, Slice of Life, Animal Universe. Exactly the genres that I almost never ever touch.

The end result: I gulped down 160+ chapters in 4 days.

It is that good.

The bromance? Not exactly the main theme of the story, but whenever it gets featured, the standard is gold.

Here I am, telling you about the latest manga that I can happily put into the “Really Good” category.

Genre: Shounen, Action, Drama, School Life, Romance, Comedy

Author: Paru Itagaki

Running Years: 2016 – 2020

Synopsis (taken from BakaUpdates):

“In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, herbivores and carnivores coexist with each other. For the adolescents of the Cherryton Academy, school life is filled with hope, romance, distrust, and uneasiness.

The main character is Legoshi the wolf, a member of the drama club. Despite his menacing appearance, he has a very gentle heart. Throughout most of his life, he has always been an object of fear and hatred by other animals, and he’s been quite accustomed to that lifestyle. But soon, he finds himself becoming more involved with his fellow classmates who have their own share of insecurities and finds his life in school changing slowly.”

Length: Completed — 22 volumes | Translation: Completed

Adaptations: There’s an anime adaptation under the name Beastars (2019).

Personal review:

➕ The story, as expected from its School Life label, starts out in a perfectly familiar setting: Main character has some insecurities, joins a club, encounters a popular student (imagine the Student Council President type), gets into some odd troubles with said student, somehow falls in love with a girl who is the source of many bad rumours… Yep, you know where I am going. Surely this does not sound like much potential, but stay tuned. Things do not stay familiar for very long.

In simpler terms: the plot turns into directions that you can hardly foresee. And it gets dark real quick.

This is where the story develops its charm. The manga won an Osamu Tezuka New Creator prize for a reason.

Somehow, Beastars shapes itself into a (possibly) relatable coming-of-age story in a highly appealing fashion. You feel for the main character, the supporting characters (even though, to be honest, you may not necessarily like them), their insecurities, their struggles, and most importantly, their choices in life. Beastars is essentially a story about young adults who are working hard to find their place in the society. But the most intriguing part? As human as the characters are made to be, they honest-to-a-fault stick to their animal traits. It is a peculiarly successful blend of human values and animal nature.

➕ Characterisation-wise, rest assured that the mains are given ample development. You will definitely grow to love Legosi – such an adorable, honest, idealistic-but-not-stupid young man. I so look forward to a happy ending for him, I truly do.

➕ The art? Skilful, to say the least. At first, it looks like some sort of illustrations in children’s storybooks (think Big Bad Wolf), then the actions kick in and you realise – this is pretty strong art. The author herself did mention that she loves animals and has been drawing nothing but animals since young. Surely she has put her talent in the right place.

Also, weirdly enough, the characters faithfully retain their animal appearance, yet you could clearly tell that a certain individual is a “hot boy”/”hot girl” animal. I am serious. (I just basically confessed that I think Louis is smokin’ hot.)

➕ Now, the bromance. In fact, there are a few ‘bromantic’ pairings in this manga, but the one with the most moments is the main character and the senpai that he reveres so much. The below panel describes their relationship in a nutshell, for real.

These two have a very, very interesting dynamic. Legosi The Wolf is obsessed with herbivores and Louis The Deer is obsessed with carnivores (now you probably think they are obsessed with each other well you aren’t wrong). Their chemistry is wonderfully built upon trust, respect and a common goal of making the animal society a better place for both species.

➖ I can imagine there are elements in the story that will make people feel uncomfortable. For once, the plot twists & turns may be too sharp it’s borderline ridiculous. I, however, find them bearable and even refreshing sometimes.

➖ Not exactly a negative thing since this is very subjective, but you might not like certain choices that the characters make. They sort of irk me sometimes. But I understand that’s what makes the story captivating. Bear in mind that Beastars is definitely not a title about perfect heroes who save the world. It’s a poignant tale of finding the right path in life, and on that path, one is bound to make mistakes. The characters’ occasional idiotic choices give us, the readers, some room to understand, to reflect and to think hard about the complexity of life. Lots of mangas attempt to deliver these sorts of deep messages, but not many actually succeed, don’t you think?