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Beastars Manga - Losing Interest
5 years ago
General
TL;DR - Less dumb action, more comfy character/relationship drama.
I discovered Beastars about two years ago and have been ravenously keeping up with it since. Over the last few months though my investment in the series has dropped off bigly
These days I just scan over the latest chapters to keep up to date...
Before I start it's worth noting that Paru has admitted she only had the series planned out up until final fight with Riz (so Ch. 99-100) And so she's been relatively flying by the seat of her pants since and that definitely shows.
The focus of the series has changed and not for the better. From emotional coming-of-age drama to dumb action. Paru's strength has always been character drama and exploring interesting relationships, I think that's safe to say. Think Shiira and Peaches girl-date, Ibuki's friendship with Louis, Tao and Kibi in the hospital, so many touching, impactful moments. What Paru is not great at is writing action, but lately very other chapter has a scuffle of some kind. I read in an interview that someone above her requested more action so I guess that person's partly to blame.
Stupid shit. There has always been a lot of nonsensical, shark-jump-esque stuff in this series (Legosi losing his bite strength because he worked out too much, going on a spirit quest and growing his fur back instantly by eating a bug, moth magic) It was kind of charming in a "what will she throw at us next?!" sense, but it has gotten way out of hand and it's just distracting.
The first big one for me was the whole "I accidentally ate Haru" escapade. Legosi wakes up with a red-stained sack and despite having the strongest nose ever doesn't realize it's tomato juice. His fur instantly turns white from shock. And then he scales a tall-ass building to confront Melon and also jumps out of that building to chase him. It was just so ridiculous and not in a charming way. Then we had Dolph suddenly reappearing after having his throat opened up. Melon waking up jacked because "O MY LEOPARD GENE" Oh and lets not forget chimeras. Suddenly there are spirit animal stands?! Legosi getting blown up by like six grenades, covered in rubble and getting up just fine. Sorry, sorry It's too much. This is a story that started as a thoughtful, exploration of predator/prey dynamics vis-a-vis social allegory, I don't want this dumb fantastical stuff here.
Melon. OK so I liked Melon at first, but over time I'm finding him more and more disappointing. Which is unfortunate because his role in the story has grown like a tumor. The Joker comparisons are valid, but Melon's not even that interesting. He's a typical cuh-razy, edgy anime villain. Riz had layers and was interesting because he completely deluded himself into believing eating Tem was a good thing that they both wanted. He believed he didn't do anything wrong. Plus Legosi and Pina playing cat-and-mouse with him before the fight was awesome.
I wish there was -something- redeeming about Melon, but there really isn't. His mom was a psycho bitch, but he gleefully killed her and basically just kept on killing. Melon is eh, fine, just not very interesting.
This one's a little questionable, but I miss characters. All the characters. With the Legosi V. Melon plot growing out of control every other character is getting shafted. Even Louis barely shows up these days. Have we seen Gosha since the cliffhanger with the bats?? There used to be a good variety of viewpoints and stories, but 90% of chapters these days are "Legosi gets into trouble and probably does something really awkward/stupid" Give me "A Day in the Life of Zaguan" dangit.
That's my long-winded shpiel. I do love the series in general, but for now ugh. Not great. (A new Louis x Juno chapter would get me giddy tho tbh)
Tell me your Beastars thoughts
I discovered Beastars about two years ago and have been ravenously keeping up with it since. Over the last few months though my investment in the series has dropped off bigly
These days I just scan over the latest chapters to keep up to date...
Before I start it's worth noting that Paru has admitted she only had the series planned out up until final fight with Riz (so Ch. 99-100) And so she's been relatively flying by the seat of her pants since and that definitely shows.
The focus of the series has changed and not for the better. From emotional coming-of-age drama to dumb action. Paru's strength has always been character drama and exploring interesting relationships, I think that's safe to say. Think Shiira and Peaches girl-date, Ibuki's friendship with Louis, Tao and Kibi in the hospital, so many touching, impactful moments. What Paru is not great at is writing action, but lately very other chapter has a scuffle of some kind. I read in an interview that someone above her requested more action so I guess that person's partly to blame.
Stupid shit. There has always been a lot of nonsensical, shark-jump-esque stuff in this series (Legosi losing his bite strength because he worked out too much, going on a spirit quest and growing his fur back instantly by eating a bug, moth magic) It was kind of charming in a "what will she throw at us next?!" sense, but it has gotten way out of hand and it's just distracting.
The first big one for me was the whole "I accidentally ate Haru" escapade. Legosi wakes up with a red-stained sack and despite having the strongest nose ever doesn't realize it's tomato juice. His fur instantly turns white from shock. And then he scales a tall-ass building to confront Melon and also jumps out of that building to chase him. It was just so ridiculous and not in a charming way. Then we had Dolph suddenly reappearing after having his throat opened up. Melon waking up jacked because "O MY LEOPARD GENE" Oh and lets not forget chimeras. Suddenly there are spirit animal stands?! Legosi getting blown up by like six grenades, covered in rubble and getting up just fine. Sorry, sorry It's too much. This is a story that started as a thoughtful, exploration of predator/prey dynamics vis-a-vis social allegory, I don't want this dumb fantastical stuff here.
Melon. OK so I liked Melon at first, but over time I'm finding him more and more disappointing. Which is unfortunate because his role in the story has grown like a tumor. The Joker comparisons are valid, but Melon's not even that interesting. He's a typical cuh-razy, edgy anime villain. Riz had layers and was interesting because he completely deluded himself into believing eating Tem was a good thing that they both wanted. He believed he didn't do anything wrong. Plus Legosi and Pina playing cat-and-mouse with him before the fight was awesome.
I wish there was -something- redeeming about Melon, but there really isn't. His mom was a psycho bitch, but he gleefully killed her and basically just kept on killing. Melon is eh, fine, just not very interesting.
This one's a little questionable, but I miss characters. All the characters. With the Legosi V. Melon plot growing out of control every other character is getting shafted. Even Louis barely shows up these days. Have we seen Gosha since the cliffhanger with the bats?? There used to be a good variety of viewpoints and stories, but 90% of chapters these days are "Legosi gets into trouble and probably does something really awkward/stupid" Give me "A Day in the Life of Zaguan" dangit.
That's my long-winded shpiel. I do love the series in general, but for now ugh. Not great. (A new Louis x Juno chapter would get me giddy tho tbh)
Tell me your Beastars thoughts
I honestly expected the arc to end soon after Legosi woke up from his first gunshot coma, but then it just kept going and building in nonsensical ways.
Legosi has honestly become a kind of Gary Stu with plot armor so thick I don't take any of the 'danger' he's in seriously at all. The stakes have been risen so much so many times that I've honestly just become numb to it all.
Dangit spoilers :c
Which also brings me to say, Legoshi was a better character as well, before there was a minimum of reasoning behind his actions, now he just does things out of the blue.
As for the "other things", it feels like Beastars is having a DB to DBZ transformation, losing it's core and just following trends.
You're right, Legosi is barely recognizable these days. Physically too since he's so beaten up. He was always a little impulsive and awkward, but it's out of control now.
BUT there's still a lot to enjoy between where you are and current!