'Beastars' Anime Recap (Seasons 1-2): Everything To Know Before Finale Season 3

The balance between the antithetical dictates of nature and nurture is the parameter of self-awareness. Despite being the most complex creatures, human beings are by no means ‘better’ than any other living beings; the only defining trait that differentiates us from others is our ability to consciously choose and show restraint—not giving in to our instinctual drives. On one hand, the allure of being true to one’s core defies morals, boundaries, and ethics, while on the other hand, trying to hide what we truly are is a commitment to a life of lies—and this dilemma is poignantly highlighted in Mangaka Paru Itagaki’s masterclass of a manga, Beastars. Creating a world of anthropomorphic beings to question the existing power dynamics between those with power and those who lack it, the mangaka has created a nuanced narrative that allegorizes that quintessential balance through the binary between carnivores and herbivores. The narrative itself is marked by strong, complex emotional and philosophical intrigue involving the disparity in power, which doesn’t allow any easy answers and, at times, makes viewers reflect upon their own psyche. Netflix’s anime series adaptation of the manga of the same name has produced two acclaimed seasons so far, with the first part of the final one about to be released later this week. Let us catch up on the events that transpired in the first two seasons before that, to get acquainted with the world of Beastars.

Spoilers Ahead

The Social Structure

The world of Beastars is a utopia of sorts in a sense, as the human species doesn’t exist in this lore; instead, the world is populated by anthropomorphic, intelligent, civilized animals who live in harmony. The existing social structure promotes equality between animals, and the fundamental differences between herbivores and carnivores are mitigated through the enforcement of rules that prohibit any ‘devouring’ incidents between animals and a complete ban on meat eating. However, not every carnivore can resist the urge to give in to their baser instincts, and as a result, the black market—where animal meat is sold and live bait gets traded—is still a thing. As a result, despite peaceful coexistence between two groups, there is an air of suspicion and fear among herbivores when it comes to completely trusting carnivores, and in turn, carnivores have to deal with a stigma throughout their lives. Carnivores need to learn to restrain themselves, keeping in mind that their strength can very easily be deemed as a threat to their herbivore brethren. As I said, the existing dynamics between these two groups can be interpreted in multiple ways—as a relation between men and women, between the elevated and marginalized, as it all boils down to the equation of power. To maintain the harmonious relation between the two groups, a young, upstanding student, who exemplifies the unity between herbivores and carnivores through his actions and unites animals through inspiration, is selected as the eminent ‘Beastar.’

The first season takes off at Cherryton Academy, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the world, where a second-year alpaca student, Tem, gets brutally murdered and devoured by an unseen carnivore. The incident rattles the school authorities and the students as well, creating an uneasiness among the two groups of students. Legoshi, Tem’s drama club batchmate, a second-year grey wolf student, is faced with a strange predicament as he finds himself acting uncharacteristically. All his life, Legoshi has tried to hide his true carnivorous nature; despite that, he has been at the receiving end of scrutiny and suspicion for his identity. Now, with a heinous crime being committed, and someone known to him being the victim, Legoshi strangely finds his predatory instincts to be awakened. 

Characters and Perspectives 

Legoshi finds himself nearly attacking and devouring a third-year female rabbit student, Haru, and as he returns to his senses, he is marred with deep guilt and regret. Later, Legoshi finds himself crossing paths with Haru once again as she turns out to be the sole member of the gardening club, but this time she doesn’t recognize him and makes sexual advances—catching Legoshi completely off guard. Haru is used to having sexual interactions with a number of animal students, which brought her an ill reputation from her peers, contributing to a lonesome existence. You see, for Haru, who has been pitied all her life due to being a small herbivore and has rightfully spurned that sentiment, the only time she feels equal to others is when they are sharing intimate moments with her. In a way, it was her coping mechanism to deal with her day-to-day experience. Legoshi finds himself getting drawn to Haru, but fails to realize whether it is his predatory instinct disguising itself or whether he has genuine romantic feelings for her. One thing he knows for certain is that he is not proud of his heritage as a carnivore and wants to reform himself completely by following Luis as his idol. 

Luis, the red deer student, the star performer in the drama club, the heartthrob of fellow students, and the prospective Beastar of Cherryton Academy, comes into focus as an intriguing character as he shares a unique relationship with Legoshi. Luis tries to push Legoshi into accepting his true self and loathes him for hiding it, and he himself admires the strength and ferocity of the carnivores, trying to emulate them as well. Luis has a secret that he hasn’t shared with anyone, which is the reason for the formation of his perspective in the first place. As a child, Luis was sold in the black market as live bait and had to witness the harrowing plight of the victims before he was bought by the chief of Horns Conglomerate, Oguma, who adopted him as his son. As a result of his childhood experience, adopting a ‘might is right’ worldview came naturally to Luis. 

During a drama performance, Legoshi once again feels his inner beast emerging, as his fellow performer, Bill the Bengal Tiger, tries to provoke him by taking herbivore blood as a performance enhancer—prompting Legoshi to beat him bloody before Luis handles the situation. Later on, Legoshi goes on a city tour with his friends and gets horrified after seeing the reality of the Black Market. Unfortunately, he gets himself captured by Gohin the Giant Panda, who is the doctor/guardian of the Black Market who makes efforts to rehabilitate carnivores who have been exposed to meat and have strayed on the wrong path. After learning about Legoshi’s predicament, Gohin advises him to leave Haru, as he considers Legoshi’s feelings towards her as nothing but his attempt to mask his carnivorous intentions. Jack, the male Labrador student and Legoshi’s childhood friend, grows concerned with his friend after realizing that he is in a troubled state of mind. 

Viewers are also introduced to Juno, an ambitious first-year female grey wolf, who gets infatuated with Legoshi after he rescues her from a couple of bullies. However, Legoshi doesn’t feel any connection between them, the like of which he feels with Haru—much to Juno’s dismay. Haru becomes appreciative of Legoshi’s kind, supportive personality, and the duo gradually become good friends. Juno learns about their bond and gets determined to get into a relationship with Legoshi and become the prospective Beastar as well. 

True Selves

Legoshi eventually learns about the secret relationship between Haru and Luis and decides to not be a hindrance. However, he plans to confess his feelings towards her at the upcoming Meteorite Festival celebrations anyway but doesn’t get the chance as Haru gets abducted by Shishigumi, a dreaded criminal gang of lions who send her to their boss for him to devour her. In fear of public outcry and political scandal, the mayor decides to bury the investigation and coerces Luis to keep his silence as well in exchange for keeping his past a secret from the public. Legoshi is livid with Luis, who refuses to help him in rescuing Haru, and with the help of Gohin, he manages to break into the Shishigumi lair to confront the boss. Tapping into his feral instincts, Legoshi is able to beat the boss but spares his life in the end, and despite witnessing the dark side of Legoshi, Haru chooses to trust him and escapes the lair. The boss tries to kill a fleeing Legoshi, but Luis makes a surprise appearance and kills the boss, surrendering himself to the gang members, and by the end of the first season, his fate remains unknown. 

Legoshi confesses to Haru about trying to devour her during their first interaction and gets surprised to know that Haru knew all along but chose to trust Legoshi’s kind, loving nature anyway. Legoshi is now certain that the feelings he harbors for Haru are love, not marred by any predatory instincts, but as the duo tries to get close, they realize it will take some time for them to grow compatible with each other still. During the Meteorite Festival, Juno honors Legoshi as a defender of justice and tries to use the public attention to pressure Legoshi into a relationship with her, much to Haru’s dismay. However, at the end, Legoshi leaves her to reunite with Haru, comforts her, and assures her that he has found a purpose for his identity as a carnivore—which is to protect her and those in need. 

Luis’ Change of Fate

The second season of Beastars reveals that after killing the Shishigumi boss in the first season, Luis was forced to take up the role of the new leader of the criminal organization, as the members of the group believed having a herbivore as their leader would bolster their image. The only alternative was death; additionally, Luis was always fascinated by the strength and ferocity of the carnivores, which is why he decided to ditch his promising academic career and chance at becoming a Beastar and completely surrender to the darker path. Despite being a herbivore himself, Luis eats meat with the lions to fit in (only to puke it out later) and tries to force his adoptive father to sign his resignation letter from the school. It is essentially Luis going through his rebellious phase, but at the same time, it’s his search for identity as he wants to learn whether his true nature will prevail over this concocted one. Once, Luis rescues Cosmo, the okapi who is the only herbivore stripper working in the Black Market, by using his influence. Cosmo advises Luis to leave this life behind when he still has the chance. On one occasion, Juno meets Luis as well after learning about his present predicament, and even though the duo share a good time together, she can’t help but express her disappointment with his life decision. Ibuki, the lion accomplice/second in command of Luis, appears fiercely loyal to him, as he is indebted to him for showing them a new perspective of strength and taking Shishigumi to new heights. 

In the meantime, Gon, headmaster of Cherryton Academy, feels pressure from the Council of Animals, as despite being the most prestigious educational institution, Cherryton has not produced a single Beastar in the last five years, and their brightest student, Luis, has left the school as well. There is also the issue of the killer of the second-year student, Tem, remaining unidentified and roaming scot-free, which is why the council decides to give a shot at the title to whoever apprehends the culprit.

Tem’s Killer

As the focus shifts to Legoshi, it is revealed that his relationship with Haru has arrived at a complicated stage, as he fears that she still has feelings for Luis and decides it is wise to distance himself. Legoshi himself misses Luis, and after the deer promptly quits Cherryton Academy, Legoshi is afflicted by a sense of abandonment. Legoshi finds a new sense of direction when Rokume, the giant rattlesnake watchwoman of the academy, entrusts him to look for Tem’s killer, and he begins his investigation by interrogating students of different faculties. However, the unknown killer roughs up Legoshi pretty badly while remaining undetected to discourage him from going through the investigation, and during their fight, Legoshi is able to take a bite of his attacker. 

Pina, the thinhorn sheep, is the newest member of the drama club, and his lackadaisical, carefree way sharply contrasts with Legoshi’s reserved, brooding, and thoughtful attitude. Eventually, both of them get to know that Riz, the brown bear, one of their faculty members, was behind the murder and devouring of Tem, and as Legoshi decides to directly confront Riz about it, the situation takes a turn for the worse. However, it turns out Riz didn’t intend to prey on Tem, who had grown to be his good friend during his final months. Unbeknownst to others, Riz suffered from muscle atrophy and had to take pills to depower himself so that he didn’t accidentally harm or frighten anyone with his strength. Feeling a genuine connection with Tem, Riz thought it to be safe to be his true self with him, and as he quit his pills, an overpowered Riz accidentally ended up killing him. For Riz, the memory of killing his dear friend was painful enough, and he convinced himself it was the purest expression of their bond of friendship, which is why, in a morbid way of remembering his friend, he had devoured a deceased Tem afterwards. Riz was truly alone, and even though he masked his true identity pretty well, his wish to be treated as who he was ultimately resulted in him taking the life of his friend. The coexistence of herbivores and carnivores becomes a recurrent topic in the second season as characters begin to question their perspective and welcome others’ worldviews—thereby breaking away from prejudice in the process. Haru and Juno spend some time together to get to know each other better, forgetting their personal rivalry over winning Legoshi’s affection for a while. 

Commit to Nature

Legoshi’s willingness to bring Tem’s killer to justice and honor the promise he made to Haru about becoming stronger drives him to seek guidance from Gohin, who makes him undergo rigorous restraint training. Gohin also trains Legoshi to capture wayward carnivores in the Black Market, with the hopes of rehabilitating them—and Legoshi, who was too judgmental about the skewed moral compass of meat eaters, realizes true change isn’t possible until one desires it, and going against inborn nature isn’t something everyone achieves as easily. Legoshi’s wish to abstain from meat results in his strength decreasing, and following Gohin’s advice, he consumes insects instead to strengthen himself. Even though Legoshi still feels guilt, the spirit of the insect (moth) encourages him to respect the food instead of getting tied into moral conundrums—which somewhat assuages his conflicted mind. 

Riz agrees to meet Legoshi for a final showdown, and Legoshi decides to invite Luis for his moral support by meeting him in the Shishigumi lair. Even though Luis refuses to attend the battle despite wanting to bring Riz to justice, he later changes his mind and decides to quit Shishigumi at last, much to Ibuki’s dismay, who feels his purpose of life is being snatched away from him. Ibuki hands Luis a gun to kill him as he attacks Luis in desperation, and as Luis is unable to bring himself to kill him, one of Ibuki’s lion accomplices shoots him to death—to keep the promise he made to his boss about protecting Luis at any cost. Luis leaves his life at Shishigumi behind and goes to meet Legoshi, who is engaged in a brutal, bloody battle with Riz. 

Riz had tried to provoke Legoshi into attacking him all out by capturing Pina and making it seem like he had killed and devoured him as well. But Legoshi, who deciphers the truth through his sense of smell, doesn’t fall into his trap, as he has grown a deeper understanding of the binary beyond the simplistic adherence of morality. Riz beats up Legoshi pretty bad, and when Luis appears, he coerces Legoshi to fuel up by eating one of his legs. Given the recent developments, Luis is mentally beat up, and like Legoshi, he too has realized that shunning one’s true self completely is not possible. Additionally, the leg he wanted to offer Legoshi bore the mark of his past life as live bait in the Black Market, and ridding himself of it was a conscious choice that could allow him some closure. To fight a monster, Legoshi needs to be a monster as well, and he consumes Luis’ leg to go into a feral state, thereby evening out the battlefield. Legoshi and Luis’ friendship turns out to be an eye opener for Riz, who faces the ugly truth of the actions he has committed, and he gives up fighting. 

By now, Pina has freed himself and brought the authorities, who take both Legoshi and Riz into custody. Later on, Pina’s confession allows Legoshi to get free, while Riz decides to accept the punishment for his crimes. Luis heals in the ensuing days, and Legoshi wonders whether it will be wise for him to drop out of school as well. His experiences have proven to be quite transformative, and he wants to explore more as Gohin’s apprentice. Haru isn’t thrilled about Legoshi’s brooding and contemplations at all, and the second season ends with her jokingly warning Legoshi that she will leave him if he goes through with his stupid plans. With Tem’s murder mystery resolved, the third and final season might focus on newer problems and address the issue of animal coexistence by introducing the long-awaited Beastar. 

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