Key Takeaways
- Beastars defies popular 3D anime trends with unique animation and character design.
- Final season to cover Legoshi’s past and introduce new antagonist, Melon.
- Controversial ending in manga adaptation may lead to unexpected finale in the anime.
WARNING! The following contains spoilers for the Beastars anime and manga.
The Beastars anime has defied all odds to become as popular as it is. 3D anime has never been particularly popular, but Beastar’s unique animation style and character design have managed to circumvent the usual pitfalls with 3D anime. On the note of unique character design, the anthropomorphic animal style doesn’t seem to have deterred many anime fans either; the manga and anime been nominated for and also won over a dozen awards since its release. While initial impressions of the anime when the trailer dropped by Netflix mostly accused the show of being “furry-bait”, anime fans who have watched the show realized the depth and intricacies of the characters and the world they’re in and grew to love the tension and relatable, all-too-real characters in the show.
With the announcement of the final season coming up, fans have been becoming increasingly anxious for the final parts adaption, due to the content that’s left to adapt involving a lot of moving parts, and the anime’s inherent lack of Legoshi’s backstory up to this point. The recent trailer for the third season has confirmed the inclusion of two manga arcs, including the final manga’s arc, but still leaves some important details foggy.
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What Happened Last Season?
Riz’s Murder Solved, Uncontrollable Urges, and the Shishigumi
The murder from the first season was solved, thanks to Legoshi; Riz was the one who murdered Tem. It was, however, discovered that this was accidental as Riz’s predatory instincts took over. Riz was friends with Tem, and never wanted to intentionally kill them. Riz was struggling with his government-mandated medication to prevent his bear instincts from taking over, and believing he was close enough friends with Tem to hold back his own urges, he stopped taking them. However, his instincts did indeed take over, causing Riz to uncontrollably murder his best friend.
Legoshi also ends up fighting Riz on New Year’s Eve. Just as Legoshi is losing grip on the fight, Louis comes in to save him by allowing Legoshi to eat the flesh off his leg, giving him the strength of the meat-eating Riz and allowing Legoshi to finally win the fight. This marks the first time Legoshi has ever eaten meat, and therefore has become a ‘predatorial offender”. While Riz is arrested, and Legoshi is taken into questioning, Louis is hospitalized. Despite everything that happened, Legoshi and Louis are considered friends at this point, but decides to drop out of school so he doesn’t fall under the same fate as Riz.
What Happens Next Season?
Legoshi’s Past, Living On His Own, and A New Enemy
There are two manga arcs expected to be covered in the final season. Partially due to this, and due to the current trend of splitting anime seasons into two cours, the final season will be split into two parts. The first cour should cover the Interspecies Relations arc, whereas the second half will primarily focus on the Revenge of the Love Failure arc, which is the final arc of the manga. The dynamics and theming of each arc are polar opposites, so it will be interesting to see how they keep the pacing consistent when adapted into the final season.
The Interspecies Relations arc shows us a deeper look into the world of the Beastars franchise. We get short “one-shots” into minor character’s lives, but we also get to see Legoshi interact with the world outside the bubble of his former school, and the struggles that come with that now that he’s had meat. We also get to meet Legoshi’s grandfather, a Komodo dragon, and learn about the interspecies relationship between him and Legoshi’s grandmother, who like Legoshi is also a wolf.
“I’ll be fine. It’s always been like this. I’m used to being feared and hated. I’ll survive.”
The Revenge of the Love Failure arc takes a dramatic and action-packed turn from the interpersonal drama of the previous arc. We finally get to meet Melon, the mixed-species antagonist of the final season and new boss of the Shishigumi crime group from previous seasons. He has no problems eating meat, meaning as a mixed-species predator, he is significantly stronger than everyone else in the Beastars world. Legoshi is offered a deal; if he helps take down Melon, he can have his criminal record expunged. This would allow Legoshi to return to school again.
While there was an attempt to take down Melon in a club, Legoshi was left injured and unconscious. After being shot in the stomach by Melon and ending up in a coma, Legoshi wakes up and meets up with Haru again for the first time in awhile. This, and communicating with his mother’s ghost during his coma, ends up motivating him to get his life back by defeating Melon and accepting the deal to get his criminal record expunged. The arc ends when Melon, while defeated by Legoshi, runs away and is unable to be found. He still finds a life with Haru, despite how much the world changed while he was gone. While Legoshi gets what he wants, it’s not without the bittersweet consequences of an interspecies relationship in a semi-segregated world, but for Legoshi, that’s worth it to him for Haru.
The ending to the arc was controversial for some fans. While some praised its more dynamic ending, many fans were upset the manga didn’t end with Melon being defeated or even outright killed by Legoshi. The anime has been fairly loose with certain parts of the manga when adapting so far, so we will see if the anime ends the same way, or features an ending more like what most fans expected out of the Beastars manga.
You can watch Beastars Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix. Season 3 premieres on Netflix on December 5th, 2024.
In a civilized society of anthropomorphic animals, an uneasy tension exists between carnivores and herbivores. At Cherryton Academy, this mutual distrust peaks after a predation incident results in the death of Tem, an alpaca in the school’s drama club. Tem’s friend Legoshi, a grey wolf in the stage crew, has been an object of fear and suspicion for his whole life. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, he continues to lay low and hide his menacing traits, much to the disapproval of Louis, a red deer and the domineering star actor of the drama club.
- Seasons
- 2
- MyAnimeList Score
- 7.81 (Season 1)