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REVIEW: BEASTARS Season 1


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LegitPancake



Joined: 26 Jun 2017
Posts: 1290
Location: Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:13 am Reply with quote
Yea, Netflix really messed up a lot with promoting it to come out “first thing 2020” and then wait till mid March, as well as the dumb “Rouis” subs (thankfully “Hal” is only in the episode descriptions. Her name in the subtitles is still Haru). I recommended it to my sister and she watched the whole thing in one sitting, and then her boyfriend watched the whole thing in one sitting, lol. I’d like to see some numbers as I’m curious to know how successful this was for Netflix.
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Key
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:52 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Contrasting the newer faces is a surprise appearance from industry veteran Lara Miller as Haru, who hasn't appeared in an Anime Dub for going on ten years – fans of the original Digimon series will instantly recognize Miller as the voice of Kairi.

I recognized her from other titles (probably most notably s-CRY-ed, where she voiced major supporting character Scheris) and was equally surprised to hear her again. Apparently she's been mostly doing American animation voices for the past decade. (And fun fact: for those of you old enough to remember the '80s sitcom Gimme a Break!, she was the tomboyish youngest daughter in that series.)

I went into BEASTARS not knowing much about it beyond it being highly-anticipated (I still haven't read the manga) and it made an immediate impression; that first scene where Legoshi almost devours Haru blew me away to a degree that the few other titles in recent memory have managed with their opening episodes. I continued to be impressed throughout with how the series worked matters like carnivore instincts into normal teen angst. I also wholly agree that the animation effort is something special, as were the English performances of both Legoshi and Louis.

If I had gotten to see this title when it aired then it probably would have been my #1 or #2 pick for 2019.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2632
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:21 pm Reply with quote
I watched this together with a friend. Well I should say we chatted over private message while we watched so while I’d normally go for the sub I decided to watch the dub so I can pay better attention and I really enjoyed the dub.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2240
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Man, no wonder Haru's English voice was giving me such intense pangs of nostalgia! I still think it feels like a really risky choice at first blush (I guess I expected a sweeter voice?), but I think it works really well in capturing both Haru's petulance and her resignation. It feels like a marked departure from the Japanese dub, but in a surprisingly welcome way, kind of like the Log Horizon English dub.
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 23 Nov 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:40 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
Man, no wonder Haru's English voice was giving me such intense pangs of nostalgia! I still think it feels like a really risky choice at first blush (I guess I expected a sweeter voice?), but I think it works really well in capturing both Haru's petulance and her resignation. It feels like a marked departure from the Japanese dub, but in a surprisingly welcome way, kind of like the Log Horizon English dub.


I agree a hundred percent!
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3614
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:03 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed this having not read the manga and look forward to the 2nd season.
They've gone on to explain many of the things of the world I was curious about while watching, but I hope they continue the world building as the story continues.

It is really odd that a student gets not only killed, but eaten and school life seems to continue like normal. I get that that character isn't a focus of the story, but you'd think there'd be a cop or something showing up...

The character designs are a bit odd too, basically (furry) human bodies with animal heads and tails. When I first started watching I compared it to the designs of Zootopia as I don't recall thinking those designs were odd and I think it has to do with the slightly more cartoony designs, but even more so the hands and feet are far less human. Those designs seemed more like what you might imagine animals to evolve in to bipedal creatures to look like, while these designs seem to have less of that thinking put in to them.
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DavetheUsher



Joined: 19 May 2014
Posts: 505
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:17 pm Reply with quote
FWIW Hal and Rouis are their Japanese names used by the official site and creator



It's like how some Dragonball localizations use Tien and Hercule instead of Tenshinhan and Mr. Satan which is what they're called in Japan. Or maybe a better example is when people thought Light Yagami was Raito Yagami due to fanscans, or Might Guy was Maito Gai.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 5:01 pm Reply with quote
I had been excited for Beastars since first hearing about the manga and I read the first volume of the manga recently just before the anime dumped on Netflix and I was hooked by the start. I really enjoyed the unique world and creative characters and the story was always so engrossing. I thought the anime did a very impressive job of adapting the manga’s art style into CGI and I especially loved the stop motion opening. I still need to watch the English dub as I only saw the sub so far but I’m already intrigued by the casting of Lara Miller who like everyone else I grew up with her as Kari in Digimon. I’m definitely hyped for s2 and I need to read more of the manga soon.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:02 pm Reply with quote
DavetheUsher wrote:
FWIW Hal and Rouis are their Japanese names used by the official site and creator

It's like how some Dragonball localizations use Tien and Hercule instead of Tenshinhan and Mr. Satan which is what they're called in Japan. Or maybe a better example is when people thought Light Yagami was Raito Yagami due to fanscans, or Might Guy was Maito Gai.


I mean, I get that, but this is clearly a case of bad Engrish at play; "Hal" is meant to be "Haru", as in spring, and turning it into "Hal" for an English-speaking audience just doesn't work, even if "Hal" and "Haru" are basically interchangeable in Japanese. Same for "Rouis" which is clearly intended to be "Louis" as in, "Louis XIV of France". Whoever told the creator that using "L" for "R" and vice versa was a-okay in English deserves a slap on the wrist, because boy did they lead her astray.
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Key
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:17 pm Reply with quote
DavetheUsher wrote:
It's like how some Dragonball localizations use Tien and Hercule instead of Tenshinhan and Mr. Satan which is what they're called in Japan.

Neither of these is the same kind of case, though.

Tienshinhan is awkward in English and may have been problematic with matching up to lip flaps.

Mr. Satan. . . well, if the reasons why leaving that name intact for a broadcast in a predominantly Christian country aren't obvious then I don't know what to tell you.

This also isn't a "Holo vs. Horo" issue like Spice and Wolf had. It's a case where the author's intent is pretty clear but the author didn't know English well enough to know that the spelling matters in both cases.

Mistakes like that used to be very common in on-screen text in particular. Anime has gotten better about that over the years, but even these days occasional slip-ups will still happen if you watch closely.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:36 am Reply with quote
I'm so happy to hear people talking about this. I've even seen it mentioned on Facebook and Twitter in non-anime circles. Even though I hate the way Netflix releases anime that are airing weekly in Japan, Beastars being on their platform is giving it much better exposure then if it'd just been on Funimation or Hidive.

Literally the only hurdle to getting people to watch this is the "furry"-related sexual content, to which my response would be to not be so insecure in yourself as a sexual being that you think seeing some implied anthro sex will cause you to immediately go shopping at Bad Dragon.
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WatercolorheartStudios



Joined: 23 Mar 2020
Posts: 11
Location: Florida, USA
PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:10 am Reply with quote
DavetheUsher wrote:
FWIW Hal and Rouis are their Japanese names used by the official site and creator



It's like how some Dragonball localizations use Tien and Hercule instead of Tenshinhan and Mr. Satan which is what they're called in Japan. Or maybe a better example is when people thought Light Yagami was Raito Yagami due to fanscans, or Might Guy was Maito Gai.


This is very informative, thank you for this. I am planning on watching this relatively soon on Crunchyroll. Is the streaming quality superior on Netflix? Which would you recommend?
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Oggers



Joined: 29 Nov 2017
Posts: 354
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:36 am Reply with quote
WatercolorheartStudios wrote:

This is very informative, thank you for this. I am planning on watching this relatively soon on Crunchyroll. Is the streaming quality superior on Netflix? Which would you recommend?


Beastars isn't on Crunchyroll, it's only on Netflix.

I enjoyed this series a lot once Netflix finally let it out of jail. Admittedly I was first intrigued by it since the premise seemed pretty similar to Zootopia's, but that's just on the surface level; this series' themes are actually quite different, and definitely in a good way. I'm looking forward to the next season already.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4064
PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 9:19 am Reply with quote
My thought on Haru's dub voice in episode 1: "Wow, they got a Lara Miller sound alike. Ohhh... this is actually her." I don't know why my experience with her roles would be different but since I'm familiar with her work in Blood+ and Please Twins, I thought the casting was perfect.

One series about blood, the other sex but people feel the need to site Digimon for some reason... And speaking of blood and sex, Beastars!

My review: I don't know. Bunny with two breasts in a bra, I don't know. An human animal series that doesn't have carnivore confusion but does have interspecies sex, I don't know. Why are some animals to scale while others are not, i don't know. When a carnivore eats an animal, is it murder or is it dinner, I don't know.

I love Zootopia, I love all the metaphors in Zootopia but I feel Beastars lost its way metaphorically in search of facts. Here's an example:
How would Legoshi have sex with Haru? Very carefully.
Why would Legoshi have sex with Haru? Because he likes her as a person.... but that goes back to the "how" doesn't? I don't know.

I do know that this series is yet another failed test of 3D cg animation, just as Land of the Lustrous was. The shows are fine when they're animating people that don't look like people but if they try animating people that are supposed to look like people, they still don't work. Is there a cg animated show that works that doesn't use "uncanny valley" as part of its plot?

I also know I liked the opener, stop motion animation and the song both. The rest....
I don't know. I now know I'm not a furry so that's good, I guess?
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 9:54 am Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
I do know that this series is yet another failed test of 3D cg animation, just as Land of the Lustrous was. The shows are fine when they're animating people that don't look like people but if they try animating people that are supposed to look like people, they still don't work. Is there a cg animated show that works that doesn't use "uncanny valley" as part of its plot?


I mean if the shows animation is heavily praised on a widespread general level, then is it really “failed”?

Like compared to Berserk and the whole other host of CG shows that come out this year & years past, if your not critically lambasted then I’m pretty sure that’s a good indication that you are doing something right.
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