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Feb 11, 2025
Spoilers for part one of this season.
So part two is yet to come out yet, and I'll try and compensate for that, but I think so far this is the weakest season of Beastars for me. I also wanna preface that I thought this was gonna end?! I thought episode 12 was the ending of the show and therefore think I might be a little biased considering a lot of my thought process was "where are they going with this? How are they gonna wrap this up so quickly?", but now I know this is part one...
I have really mixed feelings about a lot of
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the stuff that was added in this season.
Firstly, there are a lot of new side characters. I think legoshi's grandad is charming, and the horse is pretty cool, and they both bring an interesting societal conflict/dynamic to the narrative and Legoshi's development. I think the thing this series does really well is the world building, showing how nuanced this bizarre society is and how every creature in it has different opinions no matter their species or whether their a herbivore or carnivore.
The best aspects of this show are the characters, the creativity and thought put into the world and how it operates, and the romance/conflict. But this season, I feel like the world building lost me a little. I think the addition of the seacreatures was a necessary one that ive been thinking about since this world was introduced to me, so I'm glad they included it, but it felt out of place and didn't serve the narrative too much. I'm hoping they'll expand on it in part two a little, and try and weave it into the main plot a little more, cause right now it just feels like it's there because it needed to be contextualised/addressed.
I love how each character has such distinct personalities, but I'm not quite sure every one needs to be here. The herbivore neighbour is likable but doesn't really serve much of a purpose, the sealion is meh to me, i didnt really care for him, and the same goes for Pina in season 2. I don't mind these characters but this season especially seemed a little overstuffed with them.
This meant that there were a lot of plot lines going on, you have legoshi and Haru - which felt really pushed to the backburner, the little gohin arc, the shishigumi and the weird ferret (another character I didn't care for), The seacreature stuff, the neighbour's stuff, the drama club stuff, the Louis stuff, the mystery drug/horse/melon stuff, the mixed race grandad/mum/legoshi stuff and it just lead to a really overstuffed season that lacked a lot of focus. I'm all for expanding lore, but it felt like it went overboard.
There was also some weird stuff this season that might be more nitpicks of mine but I'll mention them nonetheless. I brushed aside the weird moth sequence from season two but there were a few here too, like the weird sea creature language, the cliché "I'm dead and am speaking to a loved one" scene, and the biggest issue in that regard which was the fact that I assumed from season one that every animal was humanoid other than insects, but this season had fish and bats acting and looking more like fish and bats...but then had mice and little squirrels in clothes. It just breaks the immersion a little for me.
Finally, the whole mixed breed stuff, I'm conflicted about. On one hand I think it's interesting to see legoshi in a different light, and to finally be introduced to this different aspect of the world, and what happens when two different species produce offspring. But a lot of this felt weirdly executed and made the plot feel rushed.
Legoshi has never mentioned his mother up to this point and still hasn't mentioned his dad, but they had this whole heartfelt scene that had little to no weight because it's all brand new information, and we've had no prior hint at his feelings for his mother's suicide or the fact that he is mixed bred, so it all felt like it came out of nowhere and wasn't foreshadowed or set up at all.
I also think it takes away some of the appeal I had for legoshi's character, being a loner kid with bad social skills because of the way he was born an ordinary, if slightly large carnivore, but the duality of the fact that that is sort of treat both as a normal thing that is what it is. But now that I know he's part kimono Dragon, it kind of takes away from that.
I liked the simplicity of a wolf loving a rabbit, and a deer trying to become strong in a world where carnivores exist and are naturally much stronger, and the definition of that strength. I liked the unrequited love stuff and the mystery element and how complicated the dynamics were, like the binary oppositions - prey vs predator, male vs female, strong vs weak, and all those dynamics worked in a theatrical but grounded way. But now I feel like things have gotten a bit too complicated, and I can't help but wonder if they could've gone a different route with the whole inter-species stuff. Like saying it doesn't work but on rare occasions it does, or having them take on both characteristics of each species immediately, instead of looking more like one and then growing into another.
But I don't know, I suppose it's interesting the way it is. I don't want to take away from the good qualities of the show, it does still have interesting characters, dynamics, and themes interwoven into a complex narrative and interesting society in general. But even the plot feels unfocused and busy now, with the introduction of melon. A lot of the season felt like a slice of life until melon came out of nowhere and became an antagonist, which in the shows defense I feel like it needed, considering there needs to be some sort of final climax.
But honestly, I would've been completely content with a more grounded approach, with the show ending this season with 12 episodes exploring the established characters from season 1 and 2, centering only on the drama club, legoshi, haru, Louis, and Juno, ending with legoshi and haru finally being able to be together properly. Who knows, it might still end up there, but it's taking a lot more of a roundabout approach then I would've initially expected.
I'm cautiously optimistic about how it'll end, but the show remains an insightful and unique experience nonetheless.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 27, 2024
I really don't understand the hype for this show. It's currently rated at an 8.05 on here and I'm so confused.
I get it was 2009, but the art style is very classic shoujo and dated. The cutesy moments are okay enough, but they get grading after a time because sawako is the most bland carbon copy female protagonist of all time. In general, I think I'm just tired of this type of show. So if you're still pretty new to romance anime and are going through the old ones first, you might enjoy it more.
The main guy is pretty chill, although I forget his name
...
which is kind of a problem considering how much Sawako says it. He's just kind of there though. He has enough charm because as male protagonists go he's fairly normal. In a genre filled with either a shoujo MC who's a cliche nervous wreck, or a MC who's ridiculously perfect in a cringey way, this guy was pretty chill. There just isn't that much to him at all. He's just there.
Ryu was interesting. Him and Chii and the other girl were the only reason I got this far through the show. Ryu and Chiis dynamic, although pretty played out, was much more interesting then anything to do with the main girl. But their plot lines didn't really go anywhere either.
There's a lot of typical 2000s romance anime drama in here, the shit you've seen a million times before, the timid MC crying over every misunderstanding under the sun. I think it's the fact that anime has got a little more realistic in terms of relationships and character dynamics nowadays, and the ones that aren't that come out now are the ones I don't enjoy as much.
Dandadan and blue box are great examples of great modern romance, where there's internal drama but it's done in a grounded, realistic way. Even the losing heroine show that came out last season had that.
Again, if this was like 5 years ago, I mightve enjoyed this show. It's similar to the maid sama era, a show I had fond memories on but rewatched a few years ago and struggled to get through it.
Times have changed I guess.
The art is pleasant enough, the soundtrack is mid af but fits the show well enough, the OP is pretty decent, I skipped the ending, and the voice acting is okay. I think the VAs were well cast and well performed (I watched the sub), its more that Sawako as a character is so annoying so her voice needs to accommodate for that soft "cute" style of voice. But yeah, that's just another thing I'm sick of.
If you're bored of timid main characters and shows that move at a snails pace and never feel like they resolve, don't watch this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 8, 2024
This review is for people who saw the show and are intrigued about the light novel, and/or people who have read the light novel and have similar feelings. I'm not gonna describe the plot or go over general things, in a pronounced order, I'm just gonna start yapping about what I'm conflicted about.
So, for context, Classroom of the elite was the second light novel I've ever read. Even though I've never hated reading, I've never really fell into doing it much. Recently, I've been really enjoying reading, and classroom of the elite is the biggest cause of that.
I have very weird feelings towards this series.
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I watched season 1 around 4 or 5 years ago probably, and loved it and wished it got a season 2. Previously the only things I read stemmed from shows that I loved at first but heard were better in their original forms. Shows like Tokyo ghoul and sword art online, with Tokyo ghouls manga and SAOs original light novel and the progressive series, blowing their original source material out of the water, it made me think Classroom of the elite (COTE) would be worth it. Upon rewatch, I enjoyed it again, but felt I'd outgrown it a little, and because everyone said the light novel was infinitely better, and the cliffhanger of season one was all too apparent with no whispers of a season two, i thought what the hell.
I don't think I've been so heavily invested in a series where I've bought virtually every book, aside from the first one, paperback, without much of a thought about how much im spending long term. For some reason, I'm that engaged in the plot. I don't see myself dropping this series anytime soon, I'll bleed my money dry until it ends. I've currently read up to year 2 volume 7 and am reading 8 now. The problem is half the time I don't know why I'm invested.
Like I said, the reason why I picked this up in the first place is because of the outrage season 1s adaptation brought from the LN readers. I was promised better writing, development, more thought out situations and challenges, and generally just better storytelling.
In many ways, I got that. Ayanakouji is far more engaging: his thought process is so important and is missing in the anime, the points system and exams seem easier to understand and have well organized descriptions, character development seems more natural, and things aren't moved around awkwardly (like the entirety of episode 7).
But these are all the bare minimum I expected. It is better, yes, but how much better is left a bit open. Like, people pretend like this series is incredible with a bad adaptation, but it's more like the series is pretty decent with a cool main character and premise, with a pretty mediocre but fairly accurate adaptation. It's not a masterpiece by any means.
I know it's unfair to compare since it is technically slightly different, but the way the general writing compares to other books I've read (not many) is just not the same. It's very clearly for teens in the way it's written, but is weirdly too complicated for typical teens. Everything feels very straight-forward and obvious in the way interactions are written. The settings are blandly or quickly described; they allow the reader to understand the setting but aren't as gripping, and don't give you that scarily accurate and ineffable sort of relation that you may find in other books. I'm not saying the books need the convoluted and otherworldly descriptions of its setting(s) similar to the lord of the rings books, or the naturalistic interactions and conversations of a Sally Rooney novel, but the truth is it just doesn't quite compare in any traditional way of writing, and it would honestly benefit from them, particularly the latter. It's very simple, even though some of the exams and mastermind moments delude you to thinking it isn't.
It's very much a light novel, but I wish it read more like a typical book. Sometimes I wish it didn't have the fanservicy drawings and the general design of the characters shown both within the book, on the books covers and promo material, and in its adaptations. If it was treated with more of a typical novel's respect, I think it'd deserve to be as good as I sometimes feel it is. That way, The characters and their interactions could be written with more nuance.
People go on about the writing and development of characters throughout the show, and how it takes stereotypes in anime and flips them on its head.
The thing is, that's all it does. And it still has all the tropes to begin with: the popular girl, the popular guy, the overly dirty minded losers (who really don't make sense to be in the advanced school), the cutesy nice to everyone girl, the overly shy girl, the athletic thug, etc. The twists in these stereotypes are overly dramatic ones, and instead of making the characters seem very dynamic and unique and even well written, they often come across more like gimmicks. Like, "what if the cutesy girl was actually horrible", or "what if the popular girl was actually bullied", or "what if the shy girl was actually an influencer" (which I find creepy, she's literally like a sex icon at 15).
The characters aren't one-dimensional, that's better than a lot of anime out there. They're two-dimensional though, not three, or four, or five, like most people seem to want to believe.
People complain about the show, saying that every character is dumb so it makes ayanokouji seem smarter than he is. I both 100% agree with this but also disagree. This is definitely one frustrating reason why ayanokouji stands out, but he is undoubtedly very intelligent and very interesting in the way he approaches situations. The best parts of the novels are the monologues and little observations he has, and even though some reveals feel a bit card flippy or "aha, it was moi all along", the way they're written are usually pretty dynamic, some being gradual reveals built up throughout many novels, some being started and resolved mid way through one specific novel, and some being cliffhangers or ending reveals. And the way he nonchalantly reacts to them, and the interesting miscalculations that he and you as a reader has/have within his day-to-day approaches to his life and his "mastermind" moments are so to the point and on character that it really does feel rewarding. Those, as well as his general interactions with characters and little appreciations of general life things, really reinforce why he is such a complex character, and are the times in which i want to rate these novels a 8 or 9.
Also, although every character gets their fair share of dumb moments, the dumber characters do flesh out the other intelligent characters, like the first years in COTE year 2, as well as Horikita, Sakayanagi, Ryuen, etc. I also forget these characters aren't fully developed people yet: they're literally in highshool and most of them think way more intelligently about these situations than I probably would. But there in lies another problem.
But all the other characters are off the charts stupid, and they are all conveniently so at times, which makes no sense given the circumstances of the advanced nurturing high school. Like Sudou is fair game, but why was Yamaguchi and Sakura in the school? HE passed the exams?
There are also stupid things that happen that could be avoided even involving Ayanokouji, like why he got a 50 in everything instead of varying his results in a more natural way, so he didn't stand out from the start, which was what he wanted. People will make excuses and pretend like it's part of his development, because he didn't know how the general society worked and couldn't properly assess how people worked, but that wouldn't make sense since he studied with at least semi normal kids in the white room, and surely they would've got more typical score fluctuations across different subjects, even if somehow he didn't.
I also think the development of said characters aren't anything special, like, yeah I'm glad they happen, but they're really obvious. Sudou starts to take his grades more seriously, which he neglected because he never really thought he'd need them until Horikita showed him otherwise. Good, solid development, and a reason for him to be interested in horikita. Nice. It's solid development, it's not bad at all. Every characters' motivations, for the most part, make sense and are well formulated, which makes me like them.
But thennnn, they're done in such an obvious and unnuanced/unnatural way. The way these characters talk feel like exaggerated anime characters or moments that should instead be treat like normal people. Even the way the characters look is too anime like for me. The series needed to feel more grounded, and it comes accross as very cliche, tropy, and edgy sometimes even though the stuff on paper works.
The way the characters talk is too typically "anime", but their character moments are earned. But even then, they're over-dramatised to hell. Hiratas' backstory and Ichinoses' add to their characters well, but the way they are depicted are just so dramatic when they could be treat as much smaller issues. I suppose Hirata's is a little more direct and understandable, but everything still feels very dramatic rather than feeling natural, which takes me out of the narratives sometimes. It also becomes an issue when it's up to Ayanokouji to fix these people and issues, because its constant, and its rarely any other character, which is hard because it's also the best parts about the novels, how he uses people as tools for better and for worse and is trying not to do it but does it on instinct. You see the predicament as to why I have mixed feelings on this series.
But that's the main issue, it's that the concepts and ideas of everything are generally pretty decent to amazing, but the execution of them sometimes feel like filtered versions of what should have actually been.
It's honestly hindered by being an anime/light novel, and appealing to teens. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have to rely on its visual components like it's character designs and fanservice, and could treat the viewer into conjuring up their own thoughts on what they would look or feel like. It wouldn't have characters like Ryuen, Katsuragi and Albert, all of which look nothing like high schoolers. It wouldn't have boxes to tick or archetypes to fill, it wouldn't be as dumbed down and straight forward in its writing style, and it wouldn't feel as two dimensional.
Overall, I don't have an overall. That was it. Sometimes I want to give this series a 9/10, Sometimes I want to give it a 5/10, I settled for a 7, and depending on the quality of the novel I'm currently reading that could go up or down. However, the fact is once I finish it, I'm undoubtedly gonna buy the next one, and the next, until the series comes to a close. Because I can say whatever I want, but I'm invested now. It's accomplished that at least, so take that as you will and if you do decide to read enjoy.
But yeah, that's it.
(If anyone actually read all this you are an absolute legend, I mostly wrote to gather my own thoughts but thanks 👍).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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