How They're Doing It

The third and final nominee I will do a close up on before the Awards are announced on February 19th. This nominee seems far from done with what they're up to.

So. Many. Reviews! We've had so many reviews in a row, now, but never fear the end is near! But first, we have to talk about Beastars!

Admit it, if you watch anime, you saw endless ads for this one when it first aired on Netflix in March [2020]. We all made the furry jokes, some watched it right away and I only heard good things from them when they did. I, however, dragged my feet quite a bit, only having mild interest due to the sound track, and didn't end up watching it until it came up as a nominee for Anime of the Year. I always try to watch the nominees to understand why they would be nominated for such an honor, but also I was curious about this one. What was really going on with this Zootopia wannabe?

It was really hard not to go into the anime with that mindset. After all, both take place in world of humanoid animals with prejudices existing between the carnivores and herbivores. Both also have the herbivore main character as a rabbit. But it is hard to say one is a rip off of another. Both came out in 2016 but on different sides of the world AND just because they both finally dropped in 2016 we don't know how long either was on a story board for.

Timeline aside, both actually have different focuses. Zootopia focuses more on the discrimination of the carnivores and speaks against predestination. In contrast, Beastars focuses more on the vast differences between the herbivores and carnivores, and sends the message that simply hiding ones true nature is not enough. They paint a picture of communication and adaptation needing to be a solution, not repression for the sake of integration. They do not shy away from the ugliness that comes with this perspective, either.

Backing up a bit, I should clarify, that Zootopia dropped in 2016 as a stand alone movie. What Beastars dropped in 2016 was the original manga series, which went on to be 22 volumes long. It didn't received its anime adaptation until 2019, and we didn't receive it in the states until 2020. In the mean time, between 2016 and 2020 the manga did go on to win multiple awards and was ranked high along side Promised Neverland, which was a nominee for Anime of the Year last year that I sung endless praises for. Now, the Beastars anime adaptation finds itself with eight nominations in this years Anime Awards, quickly passing up even it's manga's notoriety.

Zootopia aside, genuinely, you forget about it so quickly once you actually watch the show. Beastars has much more serious themes than I anticipated. But I have to warn that part of that is epically lost in the English version. I don't typically go into the debate of Subbed verses Dubbed anime. I am a believer of watch whatever you want, though I am personally a Subbed watcher, myself. That said, I have to insist that if you want to watch this show and take it in for all its worth, then Subbed is the way to go here. I checked out the English version and there was such a disconnect from the beginning, that I couldn't make it past the first episode. While we are on the topic of translations, I really liked the voice actors portrayals of these characters, as well.

This show's genre is labeled as 'coming-of-age, drama, and fantasy.' Don't be misled though, the fantasy label is only there because they are animals instead of humans. This is not actually a fantasy anime and I would not have labelled it that way. This is quite a serious drama and should be treated as such. On a more light hearted note, the opening and ending sequences were both great, particularly, their opening sequence. In fact, it was my pick for that category during voting, with Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!'s opening as a close second. It was wildly unique and sets the tone for their amazing score.

Overall, I loved the series and am anticipating a great deal more to come from them. The second season comes out this July, and I am sure we will see them in the 2021 Anime Awards, as well. With that being said, don't be like me and wait: check them out now on Netflix!

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Thank you so much for joining me on this installment of Nerdom! I hope you are getting as much out of this little series as I am leading up to the awards, which again is February 19th. Next week we will take a break before the awards to talk about things that are coming up in Anime in 2021. And of course we have The Mess on Sunday. Until then though, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, finish strong, and remember to stay nerdy and stay messy otaku!