BEASTARS

I honestly don't know where to begin with this.
This will be my first review on this site and I will tag any major spoilers.

So, I, like many people picked up the manga after studio ORANGE's phenomenal adaptation finished because I absolutely could not wait until the second season. The music, the animation, the world, the characters, all of it came together so wonderfully, I just could not stop myself. I was lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) enough to catch up just before the series devolves into a clusterfuck of chapters that oscillate between twenty different tones, vapid and superficial answers to the questions raised earlier in the series, and a messy attempt to elicit sympathy for an antagonist that is offensive at best.

If I were to cut out the last 30 or so chapters, this series would still be a 9 for me. The shift in the quality of writing is so dramatic and disconcerting, especially given how amazing the beginning is that I held on to hope that it could be turned around far past the point of no return. There had been issues prior to this sudden shift, however, the introduction of a certain character marks the beginning of the end when it comes to Beastars.

Let me start with what I enjoyed with the series before I tear into the mess that is the "conclusion".

Art:

The art starts out quite badly. Paru does not know how to compose her pages or how to have consistent linework. There are random thick lines running among the thin ones and characters are drawn inconsistently

Image from chapter 1

One of the most rewarding parts of reading Beastars is seeing Paru evolve and grow as an artist. Her style ends up being incredibly unique and fun to look at and it is something that never drops in quality throughout the series. It just gets stronger and stronger as it goes on as she learns how to compose dynamic shots and really gets a feel for how she wants to draw her characters.

Image from chapter 112

Plot:

This will be short since Beastars has always been a character-driven story, not a plot-driven one. The only overarching plot thread that exists, at least in the beginning of the story is finding out who Tem's killer is, and that thread gets wrapped up almost 100 chapters before the end of the series (and is the best part of the series I might add).

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

The Tem Killer Arc is undoubtedly an amazing piece of writing and the strongest part of the series, which makes sense since it was the arc that Paru thought about for many years before even starting the manga. I honestly felt sick to my stomach reading how Riz rationalized his murder of Tem as a way to cope with the fact that he had killed a friend. I love everything about it. It was Louis at his best in the entire series, with Legosi and Riz being good foils. It also introduces Pina who gets shafted later even though he was a fan favorite and has some amazing character work with Bill. I think the biggest testament to how amazing the writing in this arc is the moment with Kibi and Tao in the hospital after Tao had accidentally ripped Kibi's arm off. It is a simple, quiet moment between two minor characters but left such a profound impact on me. There are no moments like that in later arcs even though Paru tries to recreate that feeling.

After that plot thread is wrapped up, it is very clear that Paru did no have much of a plan passed that, and for a while that works. She was able to explore her characters without being constrained to solving this huge mystery. It stops working after she abandons the slice of life aspect in order to try and one-up what she did before.

Charaters:

Arguably the best part of Beastars. At least, before the last 30 chapters.
Beastars is a world that is rich with interesting morally grey characters just trying to do their best to survive. It is compelling and dynamic, and fun. Legosi ~~is~~ was one of the most interesting protagonists I had ever seen which makes what he becomes later so disappointing. Haru was a breath of fresh air as far as heroine's go; her whole life did not revolve around Legosi, in fact in the beginning he is hardly even a blip on her radar while he is falling so deeply in love with her he worries that it is an obsession. She had her own agency as a person and was spunky and fun. Which makes what she becomes later so disappointing. Louis was an amazing foil to Legosi, highlighting what was wrong with the world's structure and how hypocritical it all is. He, too had his own agency outside of Legosi, which, once again, makes what he becomes later so incredibly disappointing (are you seeing a pattern here?).
The recurring problem with the characters is that when Paru does not know what to do with them, they either disappear or become a member of the Legosi cheer squad. And it gets old really fast.
Now I cannot really delve into just how convoluted and stupid the last 30 chapters are without talking major spoilers so:

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

Kyuu is a bad character. Full stop. Her introduction is when all of the issues of the Melon arc begin to compound on each other and it highlights just how lost Paru is in her own story. She lost focus on the characters that really matter when it comes to the emotional core of the story: Legosi and Haru. At the end of the day, it should be about their love and navigating that love, however, Haru doesn't appear for many chapters at a time and is separate from Legosi a lot. And no that does not mean she has a life outside of Legosi or agency as I said above. She is constantly thinking about him, which is fine, she is in love, but when that is the only thing she is thinking about when she is alone, she no longer feels like someone that exists outside of Legosi's world. Kyuu and her Stand are such nothing characters. I don't feel anything for her. I don't buy her supposed connection with Legosi. I don't care that she sold Legosi out. The Stands ends up not being used at all in the final fight which just makes her interactions with Legosi useless. Louis and Kyuu's history ends up meaning nothing because they only talk ONCE on screen alone in the entire series. I don't know if I can properly explain why I have become so disillusioned with Legosi as a character. The inner turmoil that made him so compelling is all but nonexistent in the final act of the series. He just becomes a white knight that does no wrong. So much dramatic tension hinged on Legosi's constantly inner battle with his own instincts, and that tension is not present at all in the end because Legosi is suddenly the perfect animal who loves everyone equally and wants to embrace everyone's unique traits. There was no build-up to that payoff, which is why I despise him now I guess. I guess it's time to talk about Melon though. I'll be honest. I liked Melon at first, a lot. He was interesting and chaotic and unique. However, he overstayed his welcome. He gets away with so much bullshit it is unbelievable. And the way that Paru tries to get the reader to sympathize with him after he has just been going around killing people because in his how words he's "crazy" is so uncomfortable. Finding out that his mother sexually abused him did not make me more engaged with the character. It was a cheap way to get you to want him to live that came thirty chapters too late so that there would be tension when he pulled out the gun to shoot himself since he is so "crazy". She tried too hard to one-up Riz with Melon and it failed.

Summary:

If it seems like I am being too harsh on Beastars, I honestly don't think I am. I have left out many other complaints about characters that are not even mentioned in this review as it would make this review far longer than it already is, I even have more complaints about the characters I DID mention, but as I said, it would make this way longer than it already is. The only reason the series is not rated lower is that the first 160 or so chapters are still amazing for me. That part is still a 9/10. The ending though is a 5 when I am feeling generous which averages out to a 7.

I think the easiest way to put how I feel about the series is like this:

Legosi was once one of my favorite characters of all time; now I feel nothing when I see him.