Okay I’m crawling back onto Tumblr to respond to this.
“unfollow me if you’re a beastars fan bc actual nazis and white supremacists praise it“
This is an extremely weak argument. Nazis were huge fans of My Little Pony when it was big, some even citing the idea of different ‘races’ within the show (pegasus, unicorn, etc) but you’d be rather delusional to believe My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic supports white supremacist ideals.
“the creator calls haru a “lolita” and implies that it’s natural for human adults to want to molest children“
She means lolita fashion. Her design is based off lolita fashion. The entire point of Haru’s character is that *bad* people see her as childish--as in, immature and childish because of her small stature, gender, and physical appearance--and try to take advantage of her because of it.
‘following the metaphor of predators vs prey being about racism, here’s their awful take on segregated schools and how predators will act out without the prey there to stop them from it. and another page with a “carnivore power” poster in the bg as if they werent subtle enough.’
Your first mistake is that Beastars ISN’T about race. It’s about natural inequality and desires and how they’re coped with in constructed societies. If it were directly about race, it would, indeed, be racist--to imply that certain races are more dangerous and powerful than others, and that certain races have a desire to hurt others.
Zootopia was a direct allegory on race and it didn’t work. It’s natural, normal, and okay for a rabbit to be scared of a fox, because foxes have evolved specifically to kill and eat rabbits. There is nothing like this in humans.
Beastars has a lot to say about our world, and some of its themes can be applied to human racism, but it’s also not meant to directly parallel it in any way that pieces of media such as Zootopia tried to.
“(one, two, three) various pages from a scene where it’s asserted that the only reason a carnivore and a herbivore would ever date is because the carnivore wants to assault the herbivore”
Beastars takes place in an extremely conservative world. All ‘interspecial’ relationships are looked down upon, even if it’s two different species of deer or rabbit. If a relationship between a goose and a chicken is considered taboo, then a relationship between a carnivore and a herbivore is especially looked down upon. Just because character’s say or think things, doesn’t mean that it’s correct.
“(student/teacher assault tw) a scene where a teacher gropes haru (you know, the “lolita”?) and the only thing haru is worried about is if the teacher is pure herbivore or not“
At the beginning of the series, Haru uses sex to cope. It’s an equalizer to her--she’s always infantalized due to her appearance, and sex puts her into a position where she is someone’s equal. When she’s about to have sex with Legosi at the beginning of the series, she does so rather readily, mentioning that she’s never been with a large carnivore before. However, you must remember that Haru is a victim of sexual assault by carnivores. She was kidnapped by the lion mafia, stripped, assaulted, and almost killed. She was also a victim of assault at Legosi’s hand, too, at the beginning of the series where he nearly ate her. The next time Legosi and her are about to have sex, in the love hotel, she’s noticeably nervous and downright terrified due to her experiences with the lion mafia and due to realizing it was Legosi that wounded her arm, and they end up not having sex. Her only intimate experiences with large carnivores at this point have been awful. Obviously, student/teacher relationships are abusive in real life, but Haru is USED to having sex with people she doesn’t know well at this point due to her coping mechanism, but she is understandable triggered by the fact that Melon ‘holds her like [an abuser (in her experiences!)] would hold their [prey].’
‘more bullshit about how the only reason a carnivore would be around a herbivore is to assault them’
This is Haru stating this. Haru’s thinking here isn’t ‘right,’ but it is the way she thinks.
‘(this) (horrible) (mess) about how ancient carnivores were unnaturally huge and strong and how “savage” they were and how their “culture was under developed”‘
This is indeed a problem if you’re taking Beastars to be a direct allegory to the human concept of race. It’s not.
‘whether or not “mixed species” animals are worthy of life is brought into question’
In the world of Beastars, ‘mixed species’ animals are incredibly rare. It’s something like a 1% chance--a miracle--for two different species, especially a herbivore and carnivore, to conceive viable offspring. Mixed species animals suffer. Melon has no sense of taste, for example, and Legosi’s mother started losing her fur and going into deep depression when she got older. Again, this concept has no parallel in the human world--if you’re taking it to be a commentary on “””mixed race””” humans, you’re wrong.
‘this hybrid character has the “urge to maim and kill” because of the carnivore in them’
Well, this is Melon’s line of thinking. Melon was harassed and taunted at an early age due to his ‘mixed-species’ status, being encouraged to commit su*cide by carnivore students at the age of 9. His mother never left her apartment, killed his father, and named Melon ‘Melon’ to further draw attention to his status as a hybrid.
It is clear from chapter 142 that hybrid animals aren’t naturally killers. Gousha volunteers at a special daycare for mixed-species children because they’re shunned by society and not allowed anywhere else. All of the children depicted here are very kind, happy, and healthy. Melon is the neglected and abused product of a society that despises him, and that is the likely reason why he is a villainous killer.
‘legosi has a “fetish” for herbivores and that’s the only reason why he wants to go against society’s norms. another character responds that “that’s how all males are.” and then follows up with the killer phrase “your fetishes are what make you who you are”. these characters are minors!‘
I recommend this video. It’s also important to note that ‘fetish’ isn’t an inherently a sexual topic. A ‘fetish’ is an obsession. Legom the chicken has a ‘fetish,’ or obsession, over laying eggs--laying good quality eggs makes her euphoric, she lives her entire lifestyle around making the best eggs, and she literally faints when she thinks Legosi stopped liking her eggs. However, her ‘fetish’ is deemed good and productive and normal in her society. Her fetish is valued. Legosi’s fetish is deemed illegal, immoral, and deviant. In the world Legosi lives in, it’s viewed as abnormal, weird, and even dangerous for a carnivore to even have nonromantic friendly relations with herbivores. Carnivores can get arrested for simply raising their voice around herbivores. Legosi might not even have a ‘fetish’--he might just simply like and care for herbivores, but since this mode of thinking is viewed as something taboo, it’s classified as something taboo--a sexual fetish--by him, and others such as Louis. Legosi might be rationalizing his abnormal desire to befriend and love herbivores as something ‘wrong with him.’ A psychologist character with a doctorate degree, Gouhin, even suggested that Legosi’s desire for Haru isn’t plainly sexual after initially reasoning that it was.
‘extremely sexualized haru, put next to other non-”lolita” characters. you can really see that haru is drawn childish on purpose! especially since she’s a literal high schooler and a fucking minor, lol.’
This is plain wrong. Haru is 18, she’s not a minor. She’s actually 20 right now in the manga. She’s meant to be drawn childish because that’s how her society views her. Sheila, the cheetah in this photo, is also 18 and not a minor. Unfortunately Juno, the wolf, is 16 at this point in the manga, and I agree and wish that the author hadn’t depicted her in this suggestive pose, especially since it’s just art for the chapter cover and has no artistic or story value.
It’s okay if you don’t like Beastars, of course. And if some of its themes make you feel hurt or offended, that is also okay and I’m sorry you’re having those experiences. You’re absolutely free to abstain from watching, reading, or even hearing about it. However, I think it’s important to note that Beastars is not meant to directly parallel our world. It’s also important to recognize that Beastars has some great commentary on things that CAN be applied to our world. It’s a great piece with some great messages that can be applied to our understandings of gender, race, sexuality, and the ‘abnormal,’ but in the end, it’s about natural inequality and natural desires and how they’re suppressed and understood in a world that is populated by different species of animals that are trying to get along. Many of the things that happen in Beastars are based off biology and don’t have clear parallels to our world, like how bears have to take muscle suppressant pills until they’re legal adults, how hybrid species exist in only ~1% of pregnancies, how komodo dragons are shunned because they drool venom everywhere they go, how carnivores have an instinctual desire to kill and eat herbivores, etc. The way how they’re handled in society can be applied to our world, though, and I think that’s the message to focus on. As someone who has also faced oppression and abuse, the manga resonates with me and many of my friends with unique backgrounds and experiences in many ways and I don’t think it’s fair to write off the work--and by extension, its fans--as something bad.
To quote Netflix, Beastars is ‘a parable about gender, desire, and class as filtered through the carnivore/herbivore binary” and in my opinion an incredibly well-written work about natural inequality, how it morphs into social inequality, what we sacrifice for the sake of maintaining normative functioning civilizations, and what steps must be taken in order to secure a broader sense of peace and wellbeing in our real-world societies.
But it’s absolutely okay if you don’t like it! It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
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