'Beastars' Gets Even Better in Its 2nd Season

So, I’ve just caught up with Beastars season 2.  It ran last Winter 2021, but because I had so many anime to watch each week already, I wasn’t able to follow it.  Nevertheless, I meant to binge it as soon as I could, and I managed to get around to doing that a few days ago.

If I had seen Beastars season 2 last Winter 2021, it would have been one of my favorites.  Only Re:Zero and Attack on Titan would have ranked above it.   Beastars was one of my favorite anime during the year it debuted (it didn’t make the top 10, but it was either the 11^th or 12^th place), but great as it was, I believe season 2 has been better.

If you aren’t aware of Beastars yet, it’s only arguably the greatest CG anime of all time.  As for the plot, it’s basically Zootopia, but taken up a notch to a fascinatingly more audacious, more adult, more complex new level.

It takes place in a world of anthropomorphic animals, where there’s already a working society in place that makes it possible for carnivores and herbivores to coexist.  However, the primal predator-prey tension was never really eliminated.  It’s still brewing underneath their society’s “utopia” exterior.

In Cherryton Academy, the main setting of the story, this tension becomes more pronounced when a student, an alpaca, is horrifically murdered and devoured by an unknown carnivore student.  At the same time, co-serving as main plot device with this murder mystery is a messy love triangle between three students: Legoshi, a towering gray wolf who prefers to keep a low profile, but whose animalistic desires are suddenly awakened after a chance encounter with Haru; his senpai in the drama club, Louis, a proud and domineering red deer who’s widely admired by everyone in the student body; and the girl that they fell in love with, Haru, a dwarf rabbit who is notorious for sleeping around.

This is, more or less, how the show was set up by season 1, and it was every bit as bonkers and riveting as that synopsis imply.

So, season 1 mostly focused on exploring and developing Legoshi and Haru’s relationship.  By the time season 2 rolled in, Louis was already pretty much out of the romantic picture.  Thus, season 2 proceeded to focus more on the resolution of the murder mystery.  And I think that’s probably the main reason why I enjoyed season 2 more than season 1.  Legoshi got to play detective more, and other than that, he also got to do action more.

The action in season 2 was something else.  True, season 1 also had some hard-hitting fight scenes and moments where Legoshi got to be a total badass.  But they were nowhere as many and spectacular as what the second season had.   At times, Beastars season 2 actually felt like a battle shonen.   Among all Winter 2021 anime, only Jujutsu Kaisen was better when it came to showcasing memorable, eye-popping, exhilarating battles.

Aside from the action, another thing that Beastars season 2 did very well was the immersive, well-realized themes.  Now, by this, I don’t mean that it delivered profound metaphors for real-world issues.  Rather, what it managed to do is to identify, study, and discuss in a logical, believable, and comprehensive manner the social, philosophical, psychological, and ethical subject matters that could arise from such a complicated world of intellectual carnivores and herbivores.  I’m sure this was also true with season 1, but it was with season 2 where I felt this aspect really clicked.

Meanwhile, Legoshi and Haru’s romantic arc took a backseat in season 2, but I thought it was fine, since the narrative was focusing on things I found more interesting.  Moreover, I think season 1 already explored sufficiently the most fascinating layer of their romance, which is the overlap of their attraction with their predator-prey instincts, and while it’s still possible for the narrative to expound more upon it, I couldn’t see it happening without it being taken to a cruder extreme.  Besides, even though there was not much spotlight on it, their relationship actually still underwent meaningful development in season 2.

Louis’ character arc also took a more engaging turn in season 2.  After the events of season 1, he found himself being installed as the new boss of Shishigumi (a gang of lions controlling the Black Market), which was only apt for the kind of thematic journey that this character had to go through.  In the end, this experience, paired with Legoshi’s constant interventions, eventually led him to discover what he really wanted to do with his life.  In turn, the development of his friendship with Legoshi was also very rewarding.  Also, in relation to this, their meeting in a bar where Legoshi dressed up in drag has to be the most hilarious gag of season 2 (it’s worth mentioning that Beastars can be very funny, too, in both wholesome and dark ways).

Lastly, also deserving of shout-outs are Rokume the rattlesnake and Pina the Dall sheep, two notable additions to the cast.  They undoubtedly contributed to why season 2 is better than season 1.  Magnetic in different ways, both immediately made a strong impression during their respective introductions (Rokume also benefitted from an outstanding, suspenseful buildup), and from then on, they continued to delight in their subsequent appearances.

I rarely write a seasonal review of a show.  Usually, the only times I review a show is after its first season, and then once the show finally wraps up with its final season.  Hence, the fact that I decided to write a review for Beastars season 2 should tell you how much it enthralled me and how much I think more people should watch this anime.