Beastars

Beastars (2019) 

I have attempted to watch this anime series twice, and I just could not get into it. The first time I tried to watch it, I took a cursory look at one episode when the show had just come out (I do this with every new anime series, and if something does not feel right, I pretend I have not seen it) and was put off by the animation and the fact that it is about anthropomorphic animals. I am not a big fan of CGI, which is probably obvious from my other reviews, and I did not particularly like how they use it in this show, even though it is supposedly top quality when used in this style of animation. When I saw the hype around it, I watched a few more episodes and got the impression that this is a Romeo and Juliet style story, where the former does not know if he wants to eat or fuck the latter which seemed pretty weird to me. "Well, okay, I shall come back to it later..." I thought. Then the next year arrived and suddenly animal anime series were all over the place. There was Nekopara (I gave up on that within minutes), Seton Academy: Join the Pack! (I could not even get through the first episode) and even something about Oda Nobunaga reborn as a dog (the previews were enough to put me off). So then I got kind of fed up to the back teeth with animal themed anime series, and perhaps I missed out on a great anime series I do not know. Fortunately, the next year BNA came along which I really enjoyed, and because of that I decided to give Beastars a second chance. I managed to watch three episodes, and then totally gave up on it (I actually watched the third one this morning, after a two-week break + I took a cursory look at some other episodes). I am afraid that this show is just not for me for some reason. Sure, it is certainly full of allegory, and maybe it is an interesting romantic drama, although I am not sure I want to think about the sexual exploits of anthropomorphic animals. Maybe some people are into it, although personally I just find the idea of a wolf shagging a rabbit plain weird, and I found other such strange pairings are equally bizarre. I am not being narrow-minded, this subject matter does not offend me, it is just that there is too much of it in this show, and so I am out of my comfort zone. I just could not relate to the characters and build a positive relationship with them. The whole thing was just too weird for me, and it was as enjoyable as stroking a cat’s fur the wrong way (in keeping with the animal theme...), and although I get what the phrase "a gentle wolf" used on the Netflix website means in this context, it is still an oxymoron to me personally. So no! I am not going to finish Beastars (dropped after episode three), I am not going to give it a third chance, and if I had to sum it up in points, I would simply award it 3/10 at most. (23/05/2020)