Obsessed.
Goddamn this series is so baller.
Beastars is the story of Legoshi, a wolf who is constantly stuck between accepting who he is as a carnivore, and relating more to his true self; that of an anxious, inexperienced teenager. He has a crush on Haru, a young dwarf rabbit who willingly sleeps around but refuses to do anything with her as he’s too scared of what his wolf side may do. Volumes 3 & 4 are incredible as they add so much to the backstories of the characters surrounding Legoshi. Haru uses her sexuality to feel like she has some control in her life, Legom, a hen, sells her eggs to the school store and takes pride in her classmates eating her wares, and the other members of Legoshi’s carnivore class willingly visit the black market to buy body parts from herbivores. It’s fascinating.
Then we have a psychotherapist Giant Panda, a forbidden relationship between red deer Louis and Haru and a golden retriever bff Jack who is just trying to keep his friends functional. The cast of characters in this series is so badass it’s impossible not to have a top five favorite characters, and the art is so unreal cool. Turns out you can make a giant panda look like a character from Apocalypse Now and it WORKS. And it works really well!! It’s fascinating. Louis remains my favorite character and the backstory we get on him in volume 4 destroyed me. I can’t stop reading these books. I’m pre-ordering every single one scheduled for this year.
Title: Beastars (Volumes 3 & 4)
Author: Paru Itagaki
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200 // 216
ISBN: 9784253227568 // 9784253227575
Three Descriptors: Artful, Creative, Fascinating