debochca

Beastars is an anime that I watched in a whole rainy night before the pandemic appeared. At first sight, I ended it and I thought that it was nothing out of the world, but as soon as time passed, I started to rewatch parts of it and I gradually started to think how a delight of a piece it was. And now that I have this second season, I just reafirm it. If you refuse to watch this just because you don’t want to be called a furry, you are just a reprimed anime watcher that is afraid to like something because of a category;and if you have watched it and use the furry stuff to diminish the show’s quality, you didn’t understand anything of this great anime. Beastars is a work that reaches an even deeper and darker story every time it advances. It is a story about animals except that has nothing to do with animals but a lot more beyond that. It successfully handles a suspense atmosphere and the thrilling moments once again. Mixing aesthetic with an agressive enviroment is something they are good at, and that achieves its goal of letting the mysterious intact and making it very catching as well. This started in its first season being a school drama with a great and deep background about a splitted society, and ended up being a turbulent drama that went even deeper, delving into trafficking, black market and hervibores survival in the outside world. Between Legoshi and Louis I couldn’t be able to pick one of them. Louis is a king with every letter of the word, whose intelligence and ambition can’t reach any limit, being the real representation of “I don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it”, and this is the season where we get to know his weaknesses more precisely, more natural. He loses that confident facade to show the vulnerable hervibore that, even 13 years later, only tries to survive and that, at the same time, wishes to leave it all behind. His relationship with Legoshi is more intense than ever before, and that’s great, that’s subtle, and what I love about them is how they are not friends and they are not enemies either; they just respect and admire each other, and it’s represented very clear. They barely see each other during the season, but when they do, I can’t help but watch it while I feel it. “The reason I’m strong isn’t because I want to be happy” is a phrase that hit me in the middle of my forehead. It just makes a huge emphasis on what Legoshi’s feelings are. His constant crisis about him being a carnivore is more present than ever, and that’s amazing. It is just supported with a great and gradual development where he trains his spirit, so by the middle of it he has to choose between his mind and his body. It’s another step to know Legoshi, to his own self-knowledge, and to realize how much he grew up from the first episode of the series. He started as a coward that couldn’t resist his own instincts, a guy that didn’t know who he was nor what he wanted, finally puts his foot down to know and to say what he really wanted. He becomes a character with determination, but he doesn’t lose his common sense either. He knows when he can’t fight, and he knows when he has to speak. Legoshi is a character that I loved from the beginning, but right now, he is great. His growth is so reasonable, according to his personality, according to his own desires, fears and insecurities; is subtle and happens without losing his essence, without leaving behind his natural charisma and graciousness. The rest of the cast just function as the background of every scene, as they did the previous season. Jack is still a cinnamon roll, a snake appears to be used as a trigger for Legoshi and disappears, and the bully girls drama disappears entirely, thankfully. The only one of the secondaries I want to remark is Bill. That guy was a pain the previous season, but this one I really liked him. He just has some minor changes, but it is more likeable this time. Kudos, Bill. Haru decides what she wants to do and her true affection for Legoshi takes place. Ibuki and Pina are two secondaries that play in the background and craft the story so it could lead both Louis and Legoshi to the place they have to go. Even though they are not developed as the rest, they have a lot of weight in this work, and they are good characters. Ibuki was my favourite, without a doubt. This season is, in my opinion, a lot better than the first one, and here’s why: it focuses on what the viewer wanted. They took Haru out of the focus to become a real secondary; Juno took the place as the female lead of the season and approached to Louis, developing a relationship that was born as a defiant one. She constantly confronted Louis because of his attitude, but when in this season she knew who he turned into, their relationship changed, and that’s subtle and another piece that helped constructing Louis’ personality. Not only made me like the characters more, but it gave what the viewer expected from this second season: answers. Tem’s killer is devealed and, even though I felt offended because of who it was, it shocked me when I knew the explanation behind it. I’m not a person that rewatches things that I’ve recently watched, but that scene where Tem dies really moved me. It is not good to feel bad for the killer, but that really caught me off guard. The way the killer is fleshed out is amazing too, valuating the prize of life and the different kind of lives. I wanted answers, but when I got them, I didn’t want to know them anymore. It not only embraces more boundaries between carnivores and hervibores, but it also uses very well and in repeated situations with its according explanations. This OST is probably one of the best this season. The opening is excellent from every point of view, makes justice to this dark season and is pretty intense as it should be. The ending is no different, it just contributes to the melancholy aura. The only CGI I can actually enjoy, once again. It also never fails in terms of direction to demonstrate the fear in hervibores; the frames and the restrained art style just contributes to the amazing atmosphere that is always there. A marvelous sequel to a good series, where the tension, the drama and the violence reach its peak. I'm thankful for giving it a chance, and I wish I could talk a lot more without spoiling, because it surpassed my expectations by far. Definitely, worth watching.

KANLen09

Let's be honest: Have you ever thought of sequels that just blows the original out of proportion and into peak culture? We definitely have seen quite the popularity of shows with fanbases claiming for sequels after the originals finished their run (i.e. Kaguya-sama, heck even Yuru Camp with their massive score jumps for sequel seasons), and in the case of Beastars, the basis largely stays intact with more world-building, intricate characters, consistent visuals and music to back that score jump. For those who've already watched Season 1, you know how massively outstanding Beastars was when we needed a breath of fresh air into the light ofrepeating tropes and clichés for adaptations in the same ludicrious manner of money and fame. But Beastars? Even people who don't watch anime, are absolutely floored from such highly intricate levels of detail, that's come from a now well-established studio Orange that is the "Diamond Play Button" hallmark for fully 3DCG anime ever since Houseki no Kuni in 2017, and on Netflix no less. Season 2, takes that hallmark and cradles it even more to substantiate its solid foundation with mangaka Paru Itagaki's sublime writing that is highly considered to be unparalleled for direct inferences to what can best be described as the anime version of Zootopia. As compared to Season 1 with the whole Cherryton School debacle with finding out the murderer of that one lone alpaca named Tem, Season 2 takes the anthropomorphic animal societial cast both in and out of school, mostly in regards to the main trio: Legoshi, Louis and Haru. With Louis and the massively high expectations of Cherryton School labelling him as the potential "Beastar" in Season 1, his exit comes as both a surprise and a shock to the school, because for all animal schools, each of them has a "Beastar" representative should the imbalance between carnivores and herbivores come to toll and questioning. So, the next potential "Beastar" of Cherryton School is given to the one who can solve Tem's murder, which immediately falls into Legoshi's responsibility, though his personal conviction is the trigger as opposed to marking him on the big scene. And boy, did Legoshi went out of his way to make a 180 degree change of himself from the inside out, despite his desperate attempts to try finding Louis, and in-between, reciprocate his complex understanding of the relationship between him and Haru (which honestly is still a blank at this point, but by no means bad). Louis, like Legoshi, also underwent a huge change, as his exit from Cherryton School meant that he is a free soul, free to do whatever he wants on his own choices. And while sticking together in the lions' den of the Shishigumi is a bold move, changing the inner workings of the Shishigumi from the typical gangster-esque Yakuza-like atmosphere to being a civil-cum-negotiable group, that's gotta be some bold commendation on his part. Alas, one can tell that both Legoshi and Louis are aiming for the "grass is greener on the other side" turning point of an ideaology by being an alternate societal gap-reality of themselves: Legoshi, training to be a full-on herbivore by supressing his carnivorous senses with panda doctor Gouhin's intense training, and Louis, a herbivore living in a carnivore's world, and learning to get used to consuming carnivorous food at the behest of his own being. Even Haru, as much as she is on the sidelines for Season 2, still greatly cares for both males that are on differing terms, with more of that tangible feeling still as confusing as the typical love triangle. The focal point for Season 2 is more of the world-building, and more importantly, new characters like KajiKaji's dall sheep Pina and Hirosho Shirokuma's brown bear Riz (as the main antagonist). Unsurprisingly, Pina's first appearance in the anime is just as eschewing of the manga: the nonchalant "Ladies' man" Bishounen herbivore that likes to taunt carnivores and twist words to his advantage, I'd say he is an inviter of trouble. Riz on the other hand, is just as unassuming as you would see in the same characteristics as any coloured bear, only except that he knows how to navigate his way through a challenge when the situation calls for it, and is also tactical of his actions. Once again, studio Orange is back for more brilliance of its 3DCG prowess, and though it retains more or less the same anthropomorphic heart-felt feeling from Season 1, the juxtapose could not be said when there are action scenes within Beastars, and that has always been seen as the "anime is leaps better" pointing-fingers trope of how polished the entire show has become overtime. It's always so satisfying to watch sharp and fluent 3D scenes done proper, and for good measure. But the music, oh good golly heavens. Season 1 has cemented itself in tip-top shape, and while this sequel kinda loses out in a teeny little fraction, it's still great nonetheless for the haven of Yoasobi fans for covering both the OP and ED. I'd also like to give a shoutout to the animators that did the ED visuals, it's all traditionally hand-drawn and painted on paper for a digitally-painted animation montage of over 1000 sheets of drawing paper, that's some fantastic impressive levels of dedication and passion taken to great levels of care, similar to Season 1's stop-motion OP. Beastars is one of many stellar works that has never once fallen short of a 10/10 adaptation-wise, but to see the series to fruition may only damper one's hopes, so keep your expectations in check. Nonetheless, another outstanding follow-up to what is already the high base of landmarks for 3D anime.