theradicalchild | Beastars, Volume 6 (Reply)

BEASTARS, Vol. 6 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with its precursors, the sixth entry of mangaka Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of events from previous volumes and a visual list of dramatis personae. The story begins proper with Legoshi confessing to Haru that he was the one who attempted to devour her, with the dwarf rabbit noting that she had a hunch. The morning of the Meteor Festival, they return to campus, with the head of the carnivore dorm angry at Legoshi and wishing not to hear about the Shishi-gumi. Juno the she-wolf, who has a crush on Legoshi and is jealous of Haru due to the fact, opens the festivities, and brings her fellow lupine on state to congratulate him for his heroism.

The sixth volume eventually flashes back to when Legoshi and the Labrador retriever Jack were in lower-grade school, with backstory given about a war between carnivores and herbivores nine decades before, which resulted in the breeding of dogs and cats so they could lose their warlike tendencies and improve their intelligence. Louis the red deer is still missing, and involves himself with the Shishi-gumi, which recently lost their boss, the cervine Beastar candidate attempting to gain the trust of the carnivore group. The comic ends with a meeting of the Council of Living Beings, ready to select the next Beastar.

Overall, the sixth volume of Beastars is largely on par with its predecessors, given its endearing anthropomorphic characters, action, and slight sociopolitical commentary. However, there are a few lingering issues such as the lack of gray area between herbivores and carnivores, with it and the prior volumes not mentioning omnivorous animals at all, which would in my mind be far fitter to bridge the gap between vegetarians and meat-eaters rather than an animal from either conflicting faction. Regardless, the translation team did an excellent job localizing the volume, although names like Shishi-gumi obviously indicate its Japanese origin, although I will continue reading the Beastars manga.

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