I just finished watching Beastars yesterday and I've had some time to digest my feelings about it. I'm actually quite disappointed, but not surprised. Ever since season 2, it felt like the whole story and focus was moved away from that which made the first season so great, and season 3 was just a continuation of that.

For me, the point of Beastars was never any antagonist or big external conflict - if anything, the "antagonist" was the struggle against the characters' own instincts, their self-perception and the prejudices of the society they live in. It was so interesting to see how Legoshi struggled to understand what it means to care for someone he's biologically wired to harm, and likewise with Haru - her struggle against the world being a tiny, vulnerable dwarf rabbit that could be killed at any moment.

Those kinds of themes - interpersonal and interspecies relationships, internal struggles, psychology, being an outcast, shame, secrets, friendships, love confessions - were what made season 1 so powerful to me. While there are moments sprinkled through out both season 2 and 3 where those ideas show up, they're buried under a plot that feels rushed and disconnected from what originally made the story compelling. Instead of exploring those relationships and internal conflicts, the show seems more focused on pushing the plot forward as quickly as possible, often at the expense of the quieter, character-driven moments that gave season 1 its depth. That's what frustrated me the most.

To me, both Riz and Melon are such boring antagonists. They hardly do anything to tell or develop the relationships between Legoshi and Haru, Rouis and Juno. The whole plot feels like a distraction from what made Beastars great to begin with.

By season 3, some of the story developments and character decisions became so unbelievable and awkward that I had to watch it in short bursts before taking a break. I even ended up watching some of the cringier scenes at 1.5x speed just to get through them.

The ending especially feels rushed. The story jumps from one unlikely event to another just to quickly reach the final resolution. Major character arcs are wrapped up in seconds - Louis and Juno's relationship, for example, gets maybe ten seconds of resolution (in the end credits no less!). They deserved better than that!

What really stood out to me is how little weight the events of season 3 seem to carry emotionally. Legoshi ends the story more physically wounded than ever, yet those injuries feel far less impactful than the emotional wounds he carries when we first meet him in season 1 (the scene with Els). In a way, that contrast perfectly illustrates the difference between the first season and the rest of the show, or at least it does for me.

In the end, I just feel empty after finishing Beastars. Season 1 affected me in a really profound way. It made me reflect on myself and even motivated me to make positive changes in my life, and I've made a lot of progress since then. Then seasons 2 and 3 came along, and instead of building on that foundation, they left me mostly confused about why the story went in this direction. I don't know if the issue is the story itself or how the anime adapted it. Maybe the manga handles it better.

When I think back on Beastars, most of the moments that really stood out to me come from season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 have a few memorable moments too, but here's the funny part (about those moments in S2 and S3) - almost none of them had anything to do with the actual plot.