Reviews tagging 'Racism'

BEASTARS, Vol. 1 by Paru Itagaki

3 reviews

ender24's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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spurreys's review

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dark emotional lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Miren, quitando la parte de que son animales, no está tan mal. Es más, hasta tiene un sentido del por qué son animales y no humanos. Lo compré solamente porque vi la adaptación y bueno, lo leí en menos de cinco horas. 

La versión que tengo tiene dos volúmenes, el primero y el segundo, así que con ese tiempo verán que no es mucho tiempo. Legoshi es un personaje muy querible. 

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cyanide_latte's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'm past overdue on re-reading this, which I've wanted to do before leaving a review.

Where to start?  I'd been curious about Beastars from the moment I heard of it, mostly because I knew pretty instantly it would be something one of my best friends would be into.  When she watched it and loved it, I was happy to watch through season one with her, and it was more her interest in reading the manga that got me to pick it up than anything.

And again, I run into the question of where to start with this first volume, especially since it would be easy to spoil too much since I've read beyond it.  I suppose I'll start by pointing out the art.  Revisiting this first volume, it's very easy to see that Paru is really just beginning to get a feel for her focus characters and working on differentiating them in this world.  The further along in the series you get, the more you'll see comfort and familiarity in the lines of how she draws them.  Meanwhile, it's fascinating to see all of the various background characters that populate the world and her attention to detail in making them resemble their real life counterpart animals.  I think that's one of the nice things about the manga that we don't always get in the anime, when Paru notes what many of the animals are for the reader.

One of the biggest strengths of the series is the way in which the dramatic tension of the opening gives us a chance as an audience to truly segue into information and learn about the world in as natural a way as possible. Infodumping can and does happen at times in any story, but there is an art to doing it well and in a way that enhances the read rather than jostling the reader and disrupting the flow. And I think Paru truly accomplished that in a great way, because while the various relationships between characters in a world divided into carnivores and herbivores is the crux of the entire series, the suspicion and fear surrounding the death of Tem the alpaca really allows us to explore it from a raw perspective, and gradually eases us in to learning more about the world, a bit at a time.  And always in a very natural way.

And as for those focus characters, we know from this first volume who the important first three are going to be, for now. (Four, technically, if you count Tem in a posthumous way, which I am willing to do.) We meet Legoshi and are given inside into a fairly melancholy soul who has spent his life up until this point denying his carnivore nature and preferring to remain low-key and out of sight.  We also know from the thoughts of his best friend Jack that Legoshi is sensitive and tends towards a gloomy demeanor, and all of these things boiled into his inner conflict make him very interesting to start with.  His startling first encounter with Haru the white dwarf rabbit gives us a reason to find him compelling, as well.

Haru herself we get very little of in this first volume, but what we do get packs a punch. She's viewed in a very ostracized light, and while she doesn't always let this impact her sense of self-worth, it's also pretty clear she isn't wholly happy or feels like she can be anything but alone.  I could go on, but I don't want to throw more in here than what the volume does. Suffice it to say, I'll likely continue to go on about Haru's character in further reviews, because it caught me by surprise when watching the anime just how much I love her and how dear she is to me.

Louis is the one I feel remains the most mysterious in this volume.  We get a very outward view of him, filtered through the lens of other students as they interact with him and see the person he projects outwardly.  We also know he's a very good actor from the off, and what few glimpses we get below his surface are, in here, very telling to the fact our red deer has a lot more layers than what he likes to show.

It's a very good opening volume to establish those three, the rules and tension of this world (though we have barely scratched the surface on that level,) and unfold the plot we'll be following for a while to come.  I loved reading this the first time, and I love it again upon re-read.  It's a much, much deeper story than I think many people were willing to believe of it back when it was first being talked about in the states, with a lot of heart, emotion, and critical thinking and examination of the sort of social issues faced in a society comprised of animals. Paru is an excellent artist and a wonderful storyteller, and I really think everyone should be willing to give Beastars a try.

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