Beastars has ended! Two days ago, but I didn’t realize until today... And that ending... I have thoughts about it. Mostly that Beastars was a great story that completely lost its way in the last arc.
Warning for spoilers for the whole series, though this is focused more on a few big picture problems instead of individual characters and plotlines that got shafted.
I still really like Beastars, even if I'm no longer as gung-ho about recommending it to people after the last arc. The characters (when being paid adequate attention) were complex people with compelling flaws and fascinating worldviews. The worldbuilding (apart from a few bits of weirdness and the end) was some of the most interesting and thought-out I've read this past year, especially for something that starts as a slice of life story. And the commentary on gender (because this is definitely a story about gender) was nuanced and explored from many angles, and honestly a very thoughtful take on (non-toxic but still distinctly masculine) masculinity. Tho, for a story about gender and forbidden love, the fact there was next to no acknowledgment of LGBT themes was strange and actually made it a weaker story. Louis should have been gay tbh. Overall, there's a lot there to recommend.
Unfortunately, the best parts of the series (the complicated worldbuilding and how that society affected the characters, and the psychology of those characters) were less focused on than external forces and fighting towards the end, as the pacing rocketed up and many subplots were dropped to speed to the ending as soon as possible. Beastars was never super realistic in its drama (Haru was captured by the fucking mafia back when it was still mostly slice of life) but before the last arc, it still mostly felt internally-focused—it was a character-focused drama despite crazy action subplots. For instance, Legosi's training arc was undeniably an anime training arc, but more so it was about him struggling to be strong without eating meat, culminating in the scene where he does take a life by eating a bug. Even when shit got shonen, it was still a story of masculinity and finding your place in society, and I didn't mind the crazier aspects of that because it still felt mostly dedicated to the characters' emotional states (and the crazy shit was often sick as hell tbh.) I didn't feel the same way later on—Legosi still thought about what he was feeling, but almost always through dramatic monologues (often during fights) instead of moments of true self-reflection, and many of the supporting characters were sidelined with their potential wasted (such as Haru, who not only was never given her own storyline like she deserved, but also was still treated as Legosi's main motivation and yet was barely shown in his life.) The plot wasn't what drew me to Beastars—the characters and world were—but the plot is what got the focus in the end. And with the ending and the worldbuilding; the complete destruction of the Back Alley Market after one single moment felt pretty antithetical to a lot of other parts of the series—the Back Alley Market was challenged throughout the whole series as something to change and overcome, but we were also shown it was not so simple to completely end carnivore urges. To wrap it up in one big dramatic moment kind of destroys a lot of the best aspects of the worldbuilding, which was so horribly morally complicated.
There are parts of the last arc I did like, or at least think had potential if done differently, but none are enough to justify the last part of the manga. I liked Melon, at first. I think he brought some fascinating ideas to the story, ones that would have really shined had his arc been better written and paced. As it was, he became less compelling to me as time went on and the story became about defeating him instead of who the characters were as people, and his own character became more melodramatic. I liked the story of Legosi's mom, which only came after Melon's introduction. But then the part with Gosha's wife's suicide didn't really make much sense and felt shoehorned in to me. I liked Yahya’s introduction and his dynamic with Gosha. But I feel like his character was never fully unpacked, and his past with Gosha (while fun) sometimes overshadowed learning about his ideals or what it meant to actually be the Beastar. I loved seeing the "world of adults" in the city, and all of Legosi's neighbors. But they were largely written out as well, just as surely as most of the Cherryton students were. And the Cherryton characters were written out, even ones that seemed important, like Juno and Bill. The most egregious example of a character being written out was Haru: she started out as one of the three main characters with her own complex problems and worldview—and it was Legosi's feelings about her that motivated him throughout the entire story—but by the end, she was barely even a character, her own problems inconsistently addressed and glossed over, mostly showing up just for Legosi to Feel A Thing He Needs To For Plot. As it is... I can't help but think that it would have been best to end the story when Legosi caught the killer and left school, when things were relatively tied up, even if that would have come at the expense of some parts I really did like.
The ending dropped the ball on a lot of accounts—forgetting subplots, sidelining characters, oversimplifying the worldbuilding, bizarre pacing—and that really is a damn shame. However, I still like the beginning and the middle enough that I like this series overall, and in the end I'm glad I read it.
