Beastars, Volume 19

BEASTARS, Vol. 19 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like its precursors, the nineteenth volume of the Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of recent events and a visual summary of the chief characters. The main action continues Legoshi the gray wolf’s training with the rabbit Kyu, which he is reluctant to go through given his reluctance to fight back against females. Then comes the revelation that Gohin, a giant panda, who had trained Legoshi before, had rescued Kyu from the black market, after which the wolf and rabbit concur that Melon, a half-leopard, half-gazelle, must be defeated, with a backstory involving his leopard mother revealed as well.

The lion-populated black-market gang, the Shishi-gumi, wish to off Melon, choosing one of their members, Agata, to assassinate their leader. Coincidentally, the melon fruit from which the half-herbivore, half-carnivore received his name becomes popular in the city where the manga occurs, with Legoshi informing the current Beastar, the horse Yahya, that he wishes to confront the gang leader on the forthcoming Meat Day when rival mafias in the black-market engage in turf wars. Legoshi informs his friend, the red deer Louis, of his inventions to confront Melon, during which he hears unfortunate news of his adoptive father, Ogma.

Louis later goes to the Wisdom Soul Festival, where herbivores pray for protection from carnivores. There, he reunites with Haru, who notes that her relationship with Legoshi changed her perspectives and that she had promised Melon at her university to let him devour her. Legoshi then tries to sign up for the Mead Day turf wars. However, he must compete with Melon in a quiz show-like setting and answer questions correctly about animal society or risk death. The nineteenth volume concludes with Kyu attempting to write a letter to her rescuer Gohin, and how her attempt to attack a giraffe with his neck in a cast proves a turning point in training Legoshi.

After the main narrative are anecdotes of Legoshi’s “sideburns,” Louis perusing Ogma’s photographs, the Wisdom Soul Festival, Itagaki’s work-at-home attire, and two of Legoshi’s former roommates taking jobs. Overall, this volume of the Beastars manga is enjoyable as its predecessor; its animal characters are developed well alongside plenty of action. However, the story of Kyu training Legoshi somewhat parallels that of Gohin training him, and the mangaka, as before, ignores the gray area between carnivores and herbivores the real world knows as omnivores. Regardless, I recommend Volume 19 to those who have read and enjoyed the preceding entries.

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Doomwyte

Doomwyte by Brian Jacques
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the twentieth of the late Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, which he dedicates to a “true warrior,” Private First-Class Donald Reas Axtell, the residents of the series’ eponymous Abbey face formidable adversaries in a hunt for lost treasure. The book features a brief but somewhat confounding prologue of days supposedly no longer warm, but this is contradictory since spring and summer are the chief seasons of the story. In the main chapters, a magpie named Griv seeks shelter from storms at Redwall Abbey, where a young mouse named Bisky tale-spins, telling the story of Prince Gonff stealing the titular Doomwyte Idol.

However, Bisky has his share of critics, one being the squirrel Dwink. Meanwhile, two rats named Slegg and Gridj trudge through the stormy weather to the shoreline. Several other good creatures are introduced, such as the dormouse Glisam, Father Abbot of Redwall, the squirrel Herbalist Torilis, the head cook mole Friar Skurpul, and the elderly mouse Samolus. At this time, Griv meets the leader of the carrion crows, Veeku. Back at the Abbey, the Redwallers peruse old texts such as Gonff’s diaries, curious as to what Wyte means in the first place.

The book introduces other villains like ravens and snakes, with one of the chief serpents, Sicariss, supposedly having the blood of Asmodeus. Laird Bosie McScutta of Bowlaynee is Abbey Warrior, with fights against vermin such as the Painted Ones; younger Redwallers also become captives. The story satisfactorily resolves, with Doomwyte overall being another enjoyable yarn of Redwall, although like its predecessors, it depicts specific animals in black and white terms, with creatures such as mice, squirrels, and moles being “good,” while rats, reptiles, and ravens are “bad.”

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