WHAT HAPPENED PARUUUUU??? Beastars is a series I was originally hesitant to get into because it looks like some furry nonsense. I decided to take the plunge into it because the anime opening slapped. To my surprise it was pretty damn good. Unfortunately for me I got into it just past the peak of the series before the fall into garbage. I apologize in advance if this review is disjointed and eversoslightly profane but Ive not been this mad at an ending since Tokyo Ghoul:re. If youve read Tokyo Ghoul:re be prepared for that again. While Beastars starts off amazing and is decent overall be ready to be disappointed by a mediocre final arc and an abrupt unsatisfying ending. Story First Half 8 Second Half 3 500https://i.ur.com/0iHr1VT.gifMy reaction to the second half of Beastars Beastars starts off on a decent note its a standard slice of life and murder mystery with furries. It has a similar premise to Tokyo Ghoul in that carnivores and herbivores live together and must coexist while the conflict of carnivores eating herbivores is the plot. It opens up with a carnivore eating an herbivore at Cherryton Academy the school of the protagonist Legosi. Legosi is a wolf who befriends an asshole deer named Louis and falls in love with a rabbit named Haru. Overall the story itself is average at best. Theres plenty of issues such as lack of focus weird tonal shifts and really a lack of a proper plot until the murder mystery becomes the main focus. Despite these problems the series progressively gets better and better. The story is very heavily driven by great character development and worldbuilding. The murder mystery arc is fantastic entirely due to the characters and is easily the peak of the series. Everything up to chapter 135 is great. After 135 this is where the story begins to decay into crap. Without major spoilers the lack of focus becomes a huge issue. Characters plot points and arcs are completely dropped. The final arc is one big rehash of the murder mystery arc mixed with a Shounen tournament and the Joker movie thrown into the mix. One thing I noticed was the tone being far less mature by the end than it was in the beginning. For a Shounen theres a surprising amount of sex and sexuality in the first 135 chapters that the final arc is lacking. Im not trying to sound like a horny furry anthropomorphic animals participating in fuck is weird but it would be like if Game of Thrones dropped the sexual aspect of the series in the last season. Also whats up with cliffhangers up the ass. Why? I can get the occasional cliffhanger when theres been a lot of boring stuff going on but the second half of the manga is loaded with these. Theres cliffhangers in almost all of the final 30 chapters of the manga. Spoilers below: 550https://i.kymcdn.com/photos/images/original/000/632/211/aa0.png For the people who shit on Demon Slayers ending behold: This is how you really ruin an ending. As for my fellow Hunter X Hunter and Berserk fans: Be happy that if these series never end they can at least remain unfinished while still good. Nothing is worse then having a Game of Thrones happen for decadeslong series we love. Visuals 9 500https://i.ur.com/cxBBFCj.jpg The art starts off pretty mediocre but it turns into some of the best art Ive seen. This isnt Berserk but the visuals are amazing for a weekly manga. Character expression as shown above is incredibly well done. Characters cant feel samey because of the different races of animals. There isnt much to say here theres no deeper meaning to any of the art and theres no symbolism Ive noticed. Characters 9 550https://i.ur.com/J9I5GYe.png The characters are easily the best part of the series. Its because of this that the series becomes bad because it shifts from being a characterdriven story to a story that drives the characters. Legosi is a great protagonist. Hes the shy outcast who everyone thinks is weird and creepy. He has great development without completely disregarding who he was at the beginning. He becomes self confident and strong but is still quirky and weird. His development shows that you dont have to become a completely different person to better yourself. In Legosis case its is an incredibly unique take I havent seen done in this way before. Hes easily my favorite character up until the final arc where he becomes incredibly stupid. Sora in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance stupid. His romance with Haru is somewhat offputting because neither of them really develop it. He just becomes infatuated with her she eventually likes him because he saves her and it doesnt go much further than there. Theres more to it but nothing of significance. Speaking of Haru shes kind of an awful character. She starts off interesting. A mature rabbit who is able to stand up for herself is very promiscuous and derives confidence from that. Very interesting but she hardly develops past that. We see why she is the way she is but she doesnt grow as a character. For a series written by a woman I find it odd that Haru is basically just a goal for Legosi. She also suffers from the dumb by the end of the series agreeing to let Melon eat her...What in the actual fuck. By the way this is completely forgotten by the end its never brought up after Louis finds out about it. Louis is the second best character. The breaking free from tradition trope but done exceptionally well. That is until all his development is tossed out the window. His relationship with Legosi is interesting because theyre so different yet they get along so well. They strive to be like each other and improve themselves based off their friendship. Louis carried the second half of the manga as best he could. In return hes got a terribly done ending. I would go into all the other characters and why theyre good but the series pretty much dropped the good characters by the end so I guess I will too. Juno Jack Pina Yafya and Gosha were great but were mostly irrelevant by the end. In Memoriam of forgotten characters: Juno Jack Fuck you Bill you sucked Pina Gouhin Kyuu San Azuki Overall Enjoyment 7 https://www..com/watch?v=bgo9dJBicw Watching the opening after writing this made me depressed. Im being generous with Beastars in giving it a 70 and this is only because the first 135 chapters or so are great. Not flawless but the characters art and premise are enough for me to give that half of the manga a 10. Everything after 135 is extremely hitormiss. It can be good but is usually fucking awful. Im not sure how much of this is on the author or the editors. We all know editors can ruin even the best of series and I would not be surprised in the least if they had something to do with this tragedy. The ending leaves a lot to be desired. Anyone who defends it is in denial of the immense bullshittery that we were subjected to. I would recommend the manga up until 135. After that either read a summary of everything or force yourself through the slog to get to the good bits. Thanks for reading.