The grand finale of Beastars arrived after seven years, and unfortunately it failed to live up to expectations or at least to mine. From the first season, I loved the anime, which offers social and political commentary on modern society through the dynamics between carnivores and herbivores. It touches on the pressure placed on females to maintain the best possible external image while sacrificing social circles and even self-destructing, the stigmas attached to different kinds of people as well as the difference to the norms being constantly attacked and many other issues that on their own make the anime extremely interesting. Alongside that, the adaptation is incredibly polished on a technical level: beautiful melodies and a soundtrack that stands out from other works, as well as the stunning 3D animation we’ve come to expect from Studio Orange. Even the voice acting feels incredibly Human, often more than in other anime whose protagonists are actual humans. The direction also embraces the 3D medium, enriching it and fully utilizing it to create beautiful shots. I could glaze the technical aspects for quite a while, but unfortunately the problem lies in another part of the adaptation, specifically in the changes made to the plot and characters, as well as the decision to adapt about 70 chapters into a single season, while the previous three seasons adapted around 40 each.

I don’t know whether this was the decision of the mangaka or the studio, but if the manga was already criticized for having a rushed ending, here things became even worse. Multiple scenes were either altered due to lack of time or completely cut along with entire plotlines. The worldbuilding of Beastars, whether it was the chicken’s side hustle in the first season selling her eggs for pocket money, or even more important elements like the war between carnivores and herbivores that shaped the world we know today, is exactly what made the world and the anime so appealing to me. Yet the adaptation chose to skip so many things that made Beastars what it is.

If you liked the anime up until Season 2 and were disappointed afterwards, it’s better to stop reading here, because I’m going to mention what was missing from the manga with spoilers. Honestly, it’s worth reading the manga, because it never loses its direction and identity the way the anime does in its last two seasons.

Spoilers for manga and anime

The worst part isn’t just the changes themselves but the inclusion of many concurrently running plot threads with most of them never receiving a good enough resolution and character decisions that don't really match the personality we have experienced in the past seasons so eventually with time running out, they added scenes and plotlines that ultimately contributed nothing. For example, all the time spent showing the school play preparation, which we never even actually see was meant to demonstrate efforts to reunite animals and encourage them to set aside their differences. But in the manga we instead have an entire arc revealing the truth about the Black Market to the wider world and ultimately its destruction. Herbivores and carnivores unite to erase that dark institution once and for all and work together toward coexistence.

Even the plotline with the lion pulling the strings to blackmail Louis doesn’t amount to anything more than filler that could have been used for more important content. I assume they wanted to give Louis his own storyline and villain, but personally I found the synergy between Louis and Legoshi in defeating Melon far more cathartic than this alternative.

Maybe they wanted to show Louis’s ability to handle political games and prove himself as a worthy successor to his father. But in the manga his father dies much earlier, right when they are trying to reconnect. That moment motivates Louis to strive for something better, and in the end he’s the one who exposes the Black Market ultimately making his father proud and inheriting the company, which he expands even further by the end of the manga.

One of the worst changes, which honestly feels like an insult to viewers is the absence of Kyuu (it’s almost funny that she’s only namedropped and nothing else). The entire storyline where Legoshi trains with her is missing, even though it’s crucial not only for helping him fight Melon on equal footing but also for making him understand that he doesn’t fetishize rabbits, as he once believed. Instead, he realizes that he loves Haru for who she truly is.

The idea of fetishization actually comes from Louis, who ends up projecting his own feelings. He fetishizes carnivores and initially wants Juno because of the thrill he feels being so close to the possibility of being eaten. Legoshi completely dismantles that idea, and even Louis’s development makes sense in the end when he doesn’t end up with Juno. He stops chasing that thrill and instead wants stability, trying again with Azuki at the end, one step at a time.

Even side characters like Yahya have their own storylines. He realizes how lonely he has been since becoming the Beastar and begins to understand, and ultimately forgive Gosha for choosing the path of family instead. Even when Yahya stops being the Beastar, what truly fulfills him is acting as a vigilante, hunting down anyone who still breaks the law.

Where is Legoshi’s dinner with Haru’s family? Where is the extremist group that hunts hybrids and doesn't act like a mascot? Where is the exploration of society’s acceptance of same-species couples and its disgust toward interspecies relationships, a stigma that Legoshi and Haru overcome together? Where is the deeper exploration of Louis’s and Legoshi’s pasts that shaped how they think and defined them as characters?

I could honestly go on for a long time about all the changes and how most of them ultimately damage the viewer’s experience. But the worst one is definitely the removal of the land and sea beasts storyline, as well as the complete absence of any mention of the war between land animals and sea creatures, a conflict that shaped the world we see today.

Characters who lived through that war and experienced society in both its good and bad aspects, like the whale, eventually move from being observers of the world to actively trying to unite both sides. Society has matured enough that they want to coexist together, even helping solve the meat problem once and for all.

So much character development is lost from these interactions, and instead we end up with dull plotlines that add nothing. It’s honestly sad, because everything was already there in the source material. Yet for some reason it had to be changed only to leave a sour taste and a disappointing finale to an otherwise amazing series with deep sociopolitical commentary.

If i never read the manga after this i would probably give this season a 5.5 it was decent enough in a technical aspect that the flaws of the plot or characters felt just a little disappointing but knowing what we missed on and what this could have been i can't help but still feel that sour taste in my mouth, eventually dropping it to a 4/10.

The plot is speedrun through, most plot threads are either left unanswered or just showcased in a slideshow on a post-credits scene making the ending feel unsatisfactory or even a waste of time. If you like Beastars and felt that the anime rushed things and lost the magic of the earlier seasons, it’s better to read the manga starting from where Season 2 ends. It’s absolutely worth your time, even if the ending there also feels a bit rushed, but it still manages to cover almost everything it should, and you’d have to nitpick really hard not to enjoy it.