Beastars

High school drama that turns a bit darker and more complicated as the story progresses. People like to sum it up as the darker version of Disney's Zootopia, while that isn't far off, I really think that Beastars is shaping up to be something much more.

The main controversy surrounding this anime is that all the characters are, like in Zootopia, anthropomorphic animals. This turns many people off, because of a teeny tiny percentage of population. Let's adress the elephant in the room: Furries. Yes, that is the solemn, rather ignorant reason why many people just straight up refuse to watch it, as soon as they hear about it.

I was going to give this show a hard pass, since I used to be one of those people. Man, I sure am, glad as hell, that I did not skip this amazing show. Problem is, people just like to play it safe these days and do not like to step out of their comfort zones. If you, as an individual are reading this, please remember, always try to keep an open mind, you might discover something you like but never even remotely considered before.

Let's start talking about the actuall show, shall we? Beastars is set in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals that are divided into two main groups: carnivores and herbivores. Groups are like Yin and Yang. We've got carnivores that are constantly beeing feared and hated by the other group for their aggresive nature. Herbivores, on the other hand, like to play the role of victims, which sometimes gets out of hand and ultimatelly results in violent consequences.

Very minor spoilers ahead. There are three main characters in this story. Legoshi is a big, gray wolf, the so called 'top of the food chain'. Despite his menacing appereance he is rather shy and has very gentle and kind hearth. He often finds himself in trouble because he always tries to protect the ones that are close to him.

Haru is a white dwarf rabbit, let's just say she is the exact opposite of Legoshi, she is small, weak and usually viewed as a kind of a baby animal by others.

Louis is a red deer and, he seems like a spoiled, arrogant, cliché high school kid whom everybody loves, he is also a top actor. He can be described as the celebrity of the school. Looks can be deceiving...

End of minor spoilers. Story of Beastars is masterfully written and can get really complicated. I was moved to tears in the first 8 minutes of the story, at the time when it was impossible to be attached to the characters. This alone shows how good the writing is. Story also covers many problems of society we live in (drugs, addiction, racism, segregation, etc.) The anime is based on a manga created by Paru Itagaki. Just few episodes into the anime, I could not get enough of the story and decided to read the manga. 150 chapters later, and I really love the story. If you stick to it in the first few minutes, you will find yourself craving for more.

There is a controversy concerning that studio Orange chose to use CGI animation instead of drawing, and you know what; this is the best CGI animation I have seen in a TV series yet! Sure, it has its moments but those moments are so rare, you will hardly notice them. Some scenes are motion captured which means that the characters move insanelly realisticly.

Voice acting and soundtracks are on another level, every sad scene makes your eyes water, every cheerful and happy scene makes you feel great for the characters. Overall, sound really does elevate the atmosphere that they are going for.

Remember, always try to keep an open mind and do yourself a favour by watching this Japanese masterpiece of a show.

(Cannot wait for 2nd season ;)