Anime Beastars’ animal society offers ideas for overcoming human conflicts

“Beastars,” a Japanese manga series written by Paru Itagaki, may deserve your attention if you are looking for an outstanding work that provokes plenty of thoughts on social issues. The animation work is now available on the streaming service Netflix worldwide.

Is it love or an appetite that one feels toward another?

Beastar is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, where both carnivores and herbivores live together in harmony under the strict rule of banning predation incidents, or in other words, eating herbivores. The story follows Legoshi, a kind and shy gray wolf boy and also a student at Cherryton High School, who has been distressed to figure out if his interest in herbivores is genuine curiosity, love or appetite. He is not the only character struggling with this question. The story symbolizes humans’ deep desire for love, power and survival by replacing them with two types of animals: carnivores and herbivores.

The difficulty to coexist is similar to one in our society

Although the initial view of this work is as simple as school life and typical rom-com material, it focuses on the difficulty of living in a society where many groups coexist. It is so metaphorical that many audiences cannot stop discussing whether the two species represent races, classes or any number of other contemporary issues. This story reminds me of the aspects of gender the most, with carnivores as men and herbivores as women.

What makes Beastars different from Disney’s Zootopia is that carnivores haven’t lost their instinct to eat red meat. So although everyone seemingly lives together peacefully, they interact with each other very cautiously, trying not to break a fragile yet balanced relationship. For example, adult carnivores go to a black market to unleash their desire for red meat just like humans who go to brothels.

Gender conflicts can be overcome with hardwork

Living as a female, I really can sympathize with herbivores living with the fear of being attacked by carnivores though they behave as if they aren’t scared. I indeed feel fear when walking down the street at midnight as herbivores do in the series.

However, the story doesn’t just condemn the stronger because it also depicts how both species overcome their instincts to meet each other halfway, and to coexist. Legoshi decides to train hard to protect herbivores from predators, and Louis, a charismatic red deer, puts much effort into achieving unchallenged power and popularity in high school. It is meaningful that two species that are genetically enemies against each other work hard to break conventional or instinctual barriers because that inspires us to do the same in the real world.

As long as we have groups in society, accepting differences plays a significant role. Beastars makes complicated issues simple and straightforward by replacing humans with animals. But as said before, there are many perspectives to interpret the story, depending on the audience. What would you see in the relationship between carnivores and herbivores?