Beastars

At first, i wasn't drawn to click on the video, but then i came here to watch the ratings, and gave it a chance. Glad i did it.

This series is quite dark. It contains sex and violence, but also love and empathy. I found it a little bit disturbing at first, when i thought "ok... that's violence against females... what exactly does this show propose?". I think that ultimately the message is: "there is violence inside of you, but also love and empathy. Fight the monsters, don't become one".

I didn't like the second season, however. It felt like it lacked direction, and purpose.

This was an interesting mashup of Zootopia and Fruits Basket into a single anime... all of the tension and taboo of interspecies relationships in Zootopia with all the teenage angst and drama in Fruits Basket. If you've seen both shows, you'll be able to guess how this series is going to end.

At times Beastars gets a bit tedious, others times the flow is fast and smooth.. it's easy to binge watch the entire Season 1 since it flows quite naturally. Definitely a refreshing story amid all the cookie cutter anime scripts out there today. I'm actually looking forward to season 2

Being an anime that involves exclusively anthropomorphic animal characters, Beastars will push some viewers away for the simple fact that its characters associated with furries. However the actual story of a teenage wolf falling in love with a white rabbit in a society that demonizes predators set against the backdrop of a gruesome murder had me engaged from the first episode.

Beastars aggressive narrative of romance, social divides, high school drama, and crime never once felt boring and smartly focused on its central characters while fleshing out the world they live in.

Legosi was an excellent protagonist through and through. His struggle to deal with his primal instincts and act rather timid despite being a grey wolf was the strongest aspect of the story. The rest of the characters, particularly Haru and Louis, were very well written and always took the more challenging route rather than succumb to narrative cliches.

The only complaint I can narrow down on Beastars, aside from how Netflix is releasing it, is with some inconsistent 3D-animation. It does not happen often, but some shots and whole scenes had a few awkward character movements that were to wooden or robotic to ignore. The rest of the anime animation is excellent, especially facial expressions on the characters.

I cannot recommend Beastars enough to both casual viewers and hardcore fans of anime alike, now we just need season 2 to have an official release date and the first season on US Netflix.

The biggest surprise throughout all my years of viewing animated shows that exceeded my expectations in the best way imaginable. An absolutely rich and beautifully told drama that's engaging throughout featuring phenomenal animation and cinematography, including a killer soundtrack with endearing characters to boot. I don't think words can describe how much I adore this series, it's just that perfect and I don't think I will ever get tired of revisiting it.

Even if you're not into anime, you should give this a chance. It's brilliant.