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REVIEW: BEASTARS Volumes 3-4




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Zeparu



Joined: 10 Jun 2020
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Reading BEASTARS as an allegory doesn't do it justice. Obviously its multiple layers of marginalization and discrimination resonate with our real world experiences, but in a much more complex fashion than can be interpreted through simple allegory. If you try to read BEASTARS that way you inevitably and up confused.

To me BEASTARS is basically about intersectionality. It takes many maginalizations from our real world (gender, race, social class,...) and than adds several more on top of it that are unique to the worldbuilding of BEASTARS: the differentiations between carnivores and herbivores, big and small animals, various species,... All taken together it makes way more explicit how all those differentiations interact with each other and breed complex discriminations through intersectionality.

BEASTARS shows how impossible it is to fix a social problem by just adressing a singular issue. Rules and laws can only do so much to keep a fragile societal construct together. The symbolic task of the Beastar is basically to conquer intersectionality - an almost impossible endeavour that will probably break you.

I'm curious where Paru Itagaki aims with this approach. It almost feels like instead of going for the one big social metaphor, she carefully contructed this complex world of intersectionality and then let the characters act out their struggles on their own, carefully observing where their journey leads them. Reading BEASTARS fells like watching a really exciting Petri dish.

And aside from that, it's one hell of a fun read and absolutely brilliantly drawn! No matter where it goes, I won't be dissappointed!
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