This chapter sort of gave me mixed feelings.
On one hand, Legosi is getting the loving daylights kicked out of him. I don’t mind that he’s losing but it’s that he really isn’t putting up much resistance. He trained with the panda and the bunny(I forgot their names) and took on a bear. Also, he got exploded, crushed, and then another several explosions went off yet he appeared relatively unharmed minus the ear. I might have suspended my belief for the first explosion and getting crushed but I couldn’t for the second round of explosions. Not to mention that a gunshot put him in a coma(which seems to be realistic), so what are the rules in terms of injuries?
On the other hand, Legosi isn’t a fighter in terms of personality or as experienced as his opponent so it would make since for him to solve it through a peaceful resolution of some sort and also be losing the fight. Plus, Beastars is not really heavy on the violence in the first place and focuses on the story and world building, which is what drew me to it. It would make since for the fight to have been a duel of fists and words.
In summary, it had a good idea around it but was poorly executed. They could have made a verbal agreement during the fight and it could have been backed by a newfound respect as fighters if Legosi had been able to at least keep from dying during the fight or something of the like. The whole thing about him saving the tails to earn their respect seemed odd to me since they basically let him off the hook, which is my main problem with this chapter including the explosions with minimal injuries.
Also, the tail bomb thing might have made sense if it was a secret weapon that was used as a last resort or to trick an opponent but for them all to do it seemed odd. It takes time to regrow their tails so it would make more sense for them to use a grenade or something.
And one final thing, I don’t think Legosi could survive another fetish. His herbivore fetish is what turned him into an ex-convict, got him shot and exploded.