BEASTARS

[Vertical]

If you are willing to read this, read until the Frieza fight 7/10

 

[Russur]

thank god it's over so I don't have to check in on it every so often.
it got it's manga award, then tried to channel jojo and battle Shonen tropes?
never was quite the same.

 

[DanAlucard]

So... The friggin title go thrown out the window... BEASTARS went nowhere. In fact the horse quit but... kept being the "underground" beastar... Just a very rushed end. Not satisfactory at all.

 

[AquaXfire]

OmegaLul what a total let down the ratings are dropping faster than The Wall Street Crash. The title is Beastars but in fact there is 1 beastar and it is some old horse who said 'im out'. The main character never gets to see full potential even though they put a cheeto buffed gazelle lllllooooolllllll. It is weird that in one moment they decided to yeet the market as if everything would be better. Whatever Bambie said in the news never mattered and he was preparing himself for this very moment. Not to forget the addition of ripped off Jojo stands shinanigans and the story about a magical whale. 10/10 in terms of let down potential and total ass pulls.

 

[Brimstone]

For anyone thinking of getting into it, the beginning of this mango is quite good. It sets up a pretty interesting world with an understandable society and goes about questioning roles and challenging the status quo in a fitting way (though perhaps not as grandiose as that description makes it sound). Pretty good characters too. Then after a while it devolves and starts to focus on fighting. All of the previous work just suddenly became a backdrop, which is still present, but only used to fuel more fights. Then when things really start to get repetitive, it just turns into utter nonsense if you pay attention to things that it's trying to introduce. The ending is the worst of it all just brushing over numerous plot points and in some cases forgetting the existences of some characters. It started off as something with truly a lot of potential that in the end just sizzled out. If I were to go back and re-read it, I'd read it up to a certain point and when you feel the fighting is starting to appear too often, you're probably at a good enough point to stop anyhow. It's just a damn shame it ended up like that.

 

[weisst]

I don't agree fighting arcs were all that shallow. There's a lot of deepness in Melon's character. I guess you need to meet people like him to understand.
But the final arc feels axed indeed. What happens to the

Spoiler

gazelle dad

, anyway? Should've Melon

Spoiler

known truth

?

The title is Beastars but in fact there is 1 beastar

Re-read chapter 190.

 

[Mikewara]

@weisst
There are a lot of stuff the story just retconned midway through, when the concept of beastars first appeared they were supposed to be a special class of animals chosen by each school that rule society and one of them is the supreme beastar who stands above them, much like a parliament and a prime minister, but by the time legosi leaves school The beastar turned into a super-cop kind of figure and it was reduced to a single one.
The author also dropped the concept of there being a purist faction (kind of KKK) where the bats would hunt down mixed races, Gosha was about to fight them and it was never mentioned again, instead they became researchers about mixed species and nice guys...

 

[guiltybystander]

A great story that completely lost its way in the last arc.

I still love Beastars, even if I'm no longer as gung-ho about recommending it to people. The characters (when being adequately paid attention to) are complex people with compelling flaws and fascinating worldviews. The worldbuilding (apart from a few bits of weirdness and the end) is some of the most interesting and thought out I've read in the past few years, especially for something that starts as a slice of life story. And the commentary on gender (because this is definitely largely about gender) was nuanced and explored from many angles, and honestly a very thoughtful take on (non-toxic but still distinctly masculine) masculinity. [Tho, for a story about gender and forbidden love, the fact there was next to no acknowledgment of LGBT themes felt odd. Louis should have been gay tbh.] Overall, there's a lot here to recommend.

Unfortunately, the best parts of the series (the complicated worldbuilding and how that society affected the characters, and the psychology of those characters themselves) were focused on less than external forces and fighting towards the end, where the pacing was clearly trying to wrap everything up too fast to end in time and many of the subplots were dropped. Beastars was never super realistic in its drama

Spoiler

(Haru was captured buy the fucking mafia back when it was still mostly slice of life)

but before the last arc, it still mostly felt internally-focused—it was a character-focused drama despite that. For instance,

Spoiler

Legosi's training arc was super an anime training arc, but more so it was about him struggling to be strong without earing meat, culminating in the fantastic scene where he eats that bug.

It was a story of masculinity and finding your place in society, and I didn't mind the crazier aspects of that because it still felt mostly dedicated to the characters' emotional states (and the crazy shit was often sick as hell tbh.) I didn't feel the same way later on—Legosi still thought a lot about what he was feeling, but there were fewer moments to really luxuriate in that outside of dramatic monologues (often during fights), and many of the supporting characters (such as Haru, who not only wasted through absence in the later story, but also was still Legosi's main motivation and yet barely in his life!) were sidelined with their potential wasted. The plot wasn't what drew me to Beastars, the characters and world were, but the plot is what got the focus in the end. And with the ending itself and the worldbuilding:

Spoiler

the complete destruction of the Back Alley Market after one single moment felt pretty antithetical to a lot of other parts of the series—of course, the Back Alley Market was challenged throughout the whole series as something to change and overcome, but we were also shown it was not so simple to completely end carnivore urges.

To wrap it up like that kind of destroys a lot of the best of the worldbuilding, which was so horribly morally complicated.

I liked Melon, at first. I think he brought some fascinating ideas to the story, ones that would have really shined had his arc been better written and paced. As it was, he became less compelling to me as time went on and the story became about defeating him instead of who the characters were as people, and his character itself became more meladramatic. I liked the story of Legosi's mom, which only came after Melon's introduction.

Spoiler

But then the part with Gosha's wife's suicide didn't really make much sense and felt shoehorned in.

I loved seeing the "world of adults" in the city, and all of Legosi's neighbors. But they were largely written out as well, just as surely as most of the Cherryton students were. And the Cherryton characters were written out, even ones that seemed important (like Juno and Bill!) The most egregious character being written out was Haru: she started out as one of the three main characters and it was Legosi's feelings for and relationship with her that motivated him throughout the entire story, but by the end, she was barely even a character, her own problems inconsistently addressed and glossed over, mostly showing up just for Legosi to Feel A Thing He Needs To For Plot. As it is, I can't help but think that it would have been best to end

Spoiler

when Legosi caught the killer and left school

, when things were relatively tied up, even if that would have come at the expense of some parts I really did like.

The ending dropped the ball on most accounts—forgetting subplots, sidelining characters, oversimplifying the worldbuilding—and that really is a damn shame. However, I still like the beginning and the middle enough that I like this series overall, and in the end I'm glad I read it.

 

[IJustMadeThisToComment]

Huh, it's over...
I really was thinking there's gonna be more after the final arc, but nah. Just sorta ended.
I mean, it's not the worst way to end it, just feels really sudden.
Like, you're kicking ass & getting a high killstreak, then you die. It's sorta the same feel.

 

[Kemosuki]

It's all over now...;-;

 

[zachisnottrip]

@IJustMadeThisToComment yoooooo ive seen u all over the place broooo better get started on reading this my friend told me I should now that its over

 

[Bennett]

Please remember that there's still going to be a volume 22, the author knows not everything is resolved so she's still working on it.

 

[Fabledkitty]

what a well way to end a good story.........like what i feel like what

 

[sashalafleur]

@bennett vol 22 is from chapters 188-196, nothing new

 

[icezone22]

@Bennett Lol

 

[ManimaniaMan]

i already miss this masterpiece for furries.

 

[WerewolfMonkey]

I know there will be no more chapters but i can't stop checking in

just in case, y'know

 

[Inventedgenius]

This story deserved better man...

 

[biggie_cheesie]

at least bring sebun back in beast complex, she was really interesting

 

[rdctd]

very good manga with great characters, even the side ones had me happy to see them. the story is good, gets strange towards the end, but obviously, its not horrible. i wish the ending was more developed, but IT IS WHAT IT IS 8/10