Content warning: Beastars heavily deals with sexual themes, implications of rape, gang violence, homicide and mutilation. Read this review and watch at your own discretion.
With the COVID pandemic still raging, it’s quite refreshing to see Netflix take a step back from most of its live action Originals and focus on providing an interesting array of animated Originals. I’ve talked about Aggretsuko before, but now it’s time to dive into one of Netflix’s other big anime Originals with Beastars, based on the manga series by Paru Itagaki.
Set in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, Beastars follows the lives of the students of Cherryton Academy following the devouring of one of its students. Legoshi, a timid gray wolf and the series’ protagonist played by Jonah Scott, finds himself thrust into the darker elements of his world and seeks to rise above them in order to protect his friends and his love interest: a rabbit named Haru, voiced by Lara Jill Miller. Throughout the series, other characters enter the plot and further complicate Legoshi’s already hectic life. Chief among them are Jack, a Labrador Retriever and Legoshi’s best friend voiced by veteran voice actor Ben Diskin; Louis, a red deer with a shady past voiced by Griffin Puatu; Juno, a young wolf and newest member of the drama club voiced by Laura Landa; and Gohin, a somewhat foreboding panda who deals in black market affairs and is voiced by Keith Silverstein. Each voice actor delivers their lines exceptionally well, though there are moments throughout the series where emotions seem a bit forced in order to better fit the Japanese-oriented lip syncing. Those are thankfully few and far between, but they do drag certain scenes down just a bit.
The effectiveness of the voice actors in their respective roles also contributes greatly to Beastars‘ tone and writing. Unlike other animated Netflix Originals, Beastars establishes a darker tone rife with drama and intrigue in the opening moments of the first episode and retains it throughout most of the series with few exceptions. Each episode has a plethora of emotions packed into it with only a few moments for the audience to catch their breath amidst the drama and intrigue. The writing effectively pushes the story forward but allows for some genuinely impressive character moments in the quieter episodes. While it’s better than most Netflix Originals, it does suffer somewhat from leaning a bit into some of the tropes associated with high school dramas. Some of the dialogue certainly suits the scenes they’re made for but some of it feels a bit hokey and jarringly lacking any emotion. It can take the viewer out of the scene when there’s supposed to be a bit of tension, especially during several fight scenes later in the series. It does manage to find its footing by the end of the first season but does stumble somewhat over the course of the second season. Various tropes associated with animal characters are put forth and later broken down in a very effective manner. I personally enjoyed the twists they took each character’s journey through and am eagerly anticipating where most of them end up in the coming seasons.
The most prominent aspect of Beastars beyond its cast and writing is undoubtedly the animation. The series is primarily done in CGI with a style meant to look more like a traditionally animated cartoon, but there are snippets of more experimental styles scattered throughout various episodes usually to show flashbacks and characters’ thoughts. While this style looks nice in the more tense and dramatic scenes, the fight scenes and some of the conversations between characters feel a bit disjointed due to the characters not looking quite right, possibly due to desyncs in the characters’ dialogue or the somewhat uncanny valley nature of a few characters.
Overall, Beastars remains one of Netflix’s most interesting animated Originals as it portrays a world of anthropomorphic animals in a much darker light and holds nothing back. While I recommend it, I cannot do so wholeheartedly due to the more adult tones and content prevalent throughout. There isn’t anything overly explicit – even then, when it occurs it is barely shown – but those interested in delving in should be aware of moments that may make a viewer rather squeamish. I give the current two seasons a solid 8/10.
Photo credit / Netflix
