The Radical Child (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theradicalchild) wrote2023-07-18 09:49 pm
theradicalchild) wrote2023-07-18 09:49 pm
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Beastars, Volume 14
BEASTARS, Vol. 14 by Paru ItagakiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
As with its precursors, the fourteenth installment of mangaka Paru Itagaki’s Beastars series opens with a synopsis of prior volumes, alongside visual depictions and descriptions of the various dramatic personae. The manga’s action commences proper with gray wolf Legoshi seeking something formal to wear during his visit to the current Beastar, the horse Yahya, who resides in a penthouse at the top of the same building as the police department’s headquarters. Yahya tells his visitor of his vigilantism, suggests society will never accept mixed-species families, and wants Legoshi to beg forgiveness for being a carnivore.
Meanwhile, Legoshi’s former fling, the dwarf rabbit Haru, is a college freshman, befriending other rabbits and moving on despite reminders of her romance with the wolf, noting another mixed-species couple in fellow lapine Ako and the lion Eado. After a tragedy, Haru seeks her former boyfriend, who has sought refuge in the giant panda therapist Gohin’s clinic and the black market. The dwarf rabbit remembers the gray wolf’s eighteenth birthday and visits his apartment. They begin to reconcile, Haru suggesting a visit to the black market.
Itagaki notes that several locales in her universe, including Cherryton Academy, Center Street, and even the black market, are half-herbivore and half-carnivore, with Haru wishing to press onward in her visit despite Legoshi’s warnings. They visit a rabbit meat shop having a contract with a funeral home, which doesn’t shock her, and makes her feel closer to her lupine lover. Legoshi then reunites with his former canid dormmates to visit B-Strike, where beasts can exercise their base instincts. For instance, canids can play fetch with a machine that shoots tennis balls.
Volume 14 ends with Yahya checking on a gazelle therapist and his elephant patient, which bears some twists and accounts for another satisfying entry in the anthropomorphic manga series. Design notes follow for the seal character Sagwan (though he doesn’t appear in this installment), along with some humorous anecdotes alongside Itagaki studying human expressions in movies for inspiration in her art. As with preceding entries, however, the mangaka ignores the gray dietary area of omnivores, though fans of anthropomorphic fiction will find this volume another satisfying yarn.
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