The Legend of Whomper, Book 1 by Chris Farrington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There have been times when I’ve often gotten burned out on traditional textual literature without illustrations, so I figured I would alternate between reading them and graphical novels like this by Chris Farrington, whom I highly respect as an artist in the furry fandom and had commissioned a few times in the past. The titular fox hero, Vulpie Whomper (who doesn’t look vulpine but is cute nonetheless), has trained for years to master the war hammer and embarks upon quests to prove his worth. Each chapter (one divided into two parts) follows his various trials.

Whomper’s first trial opens with his initiation into the Brotherhood of the Hammer, after which he must visit several secret cities and prove the supremacy of his order’s weapon. A thief curses him with kleptomania, and when he gets the curse lifted, he chases after the culprit following a visible knife symbol (though this is unclear) to deal justice.

His second trial opens with guards of the Bridge to the Sky initially denying him entry, after which he must defeat a monster.

The third has him join Dextrose, a furred warrior whose specific species is unclear and seems somewhere between horse and kangaroo, as they battle slugs tormenting a town.

The fox’s fourth quest sees him seeking a town’s serial killer but ends without the said murderer subdued, Whomper needing to find another way to apprehend him.

In his fifth, he encounters a weasel thief ostracized by his fellow purloiners.

The two-part sixth quest sees him battling the slave-collecting Warmachine, piloted by two members of the vengeful Komodo Clan.

The seventh has him partner with a dragoness named Skyla Thornweaver, who remains with him for the rest of his adventures as they battle a new enemy, Gryzor.

Whomper’s eighth quest sees him and Skyla entering Brotherhood of the Arrow territory and battling pig-men bandits.

His ninth has Skyla kidnapped by a rodent princess, Grisella, whom he must rescue.

The tenth has Whomper going to a raccoon-populated city with a zombie problem, where he confronts Gryzor and the necromancer who created him.

The final chapter concludes the graphic novel with Whomper meeting a goat sage called the Edgemaster, under whom he begins apprenticeship after battling an ancient evil known as Xilix while having a final confrontation with Gryzor.

Overall, I found this a cute and enjoyable graphic novel, with my instincts about giving it a read well justified. While the animal characters are incredibly adorable (even if some of their species are vague, given the artist’s style), it isn’t one hundred percent family-friendly, given some occasional blood, albeit not excessive. Some plot points like that in the first trial seem to come out of nowhere, and the typical grammar and punctuation errors associated with standard comics abound. However, I highly recommend this graphic novel to those in the furry fandom seeking a fun and quick read.

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BEASTARS, Vol. 22 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with its predecessors, the final installment of Paru Itagaki's Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of preceding entries and a visual depiction of the dramatis personae. The main action begins with the media questioning a gazelle who claims to be the father of the half-gazelle, half-leopard villain Melon, and proves to be the key to stopping the riots that have ensued around the black market. The gray wolf Legoshi continues to battle Melon, who invites his lupine adversary to kill him. Gosha, the Komodo dragon, recalls his interspecies relationship with his wolf wife, Toki, which included obsessive disinfection given his poison.

The citizens get a good view of the black market, with Louis, the red deer, wanting the carnivores and herbivores to glimpse the truth. However, their reaction is surprising as Legoshi and Melon continue their battle, with the underground district changing in recent years. Louis wants to involve himself in his friend's battle, with Melon doubting that carnivores and herbivores will never be at peace. After the black market turf war, Legoshi prepares to bid farewell to his spotted seal apartment neighbor, Sagwan, who yearns to return to the seas. Meanwhile, Louis must choose between his deer fiance, Azuki, and his school girlfriend, Juno, the wolf.

Legoshi's relationship with his girlfriend, the Netherland dwarf rabbit Haru, receives resolution, as do many of the other notable characters of the Beastars universe. After the main chapters, Itagaki reflects upon creating her magnum opus, including a deleted scene where Legoshi interacts with Gosha, the giant panda psychiatrist who worked in the black market. Overall, the twenty-second volume nicely resolves the Beastars manga, with the carnivore/herbivore relations reflecting racial tensions in human society. However, the biggest issue remains the absence of any mention of omnivorism, which exists beyond the human world.

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BEASTARS, Vol. 20 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The twentieth volume of Paru Itagaki's Beastars manga opens, like its precursors, with a synopsis of recent events and visuals of the main characters. The opening action features gray wolf Legoshi defining the term "tableclothing" as when the snouts of beasts wrinkle and they lose control of their emotions, as he is during his training with the rabbit Kyu. Legoshi had felt the same way when battling the bear Riz, now in an attempt to stop Kyu from rebreaking a giraffe's neck in a cast, which she feels is essential to his training.

During his pursuit, Legoshi gets Kyu's head into his jaws, having removed his dentures before doing so, with the rabbit feeling close to death, remembering when her parents had sold her to the black market. Fasting is also a final component in the wolf's training. Furthermore, he wishes Kyu to command him to "stay" as a human in real life would a domestic dog, and she agrees. Meanwhile, Legoshi's apartment neighbor, Sagwan the spotted seal, tries checking on his friend, he and the sheep Seven, another resident, worrying about him.

Seven deals with a carnivorous client, with his gesture of a handshake frowned upon by others, alongside his openly mentioning the black market. Legoshi and the half-leopard, half-gazelle Melon plan to duel on Happy Meat Day, which is also the Rexmas holiday, where beasts honor a tyrannosaurus rex that received wings after the extinction of the dinosaurs and rejuvenating the world. Haru, the Netherland dwarf rabbit, walks the city streets alone, which is seen as dangerous since the carnivores are showing delinquent behavior, and she can only converse with her love interest Legoshi through his apartment door.

Legoshi continues to train in his apartment, scratching the floor with his claws and understanding that many beasts in winter can survive for extended periods w/o food or drink, with Haru being his source of sustenance. After he leaves, police investigate his apartment, now bloodstained with red deer blood, with Louis, the cervine fitting the bill, believed murdered. On the eve of his forthcoming duel, Melon has nightmares about his mother and notices that his leopard spots have greatly multiplied, attempting to gouge them as the black market turf wars officially commence.

Contrary to what the police and media believe, Louis is alive and begins to speak at his first press conference as head of the Horns Conglomerate with the cover story that he gave blood for charity and wishes to talk about the black market, which has received a giant blockading gate due to the danger posed by the turf wars. Legoshi enters the black market battles proper and begins by fighting the Doku-gumi, consisting of Komodo dragons, which last until the end of the volume. A visualization of a typical Rexmas celebration comes after the main chapters.

Overall, this is another enjoyable volume of the Beastars manga, with its characters continuing to be endearing and satisfactorily concluding Legoshi's training under Kyu, which diverges from what he had received under the giant panda Gohin. However, some elements abound that only Japanese readers would understand, like herbivores seeing the River Sanzu when close to death, and Itagaki, as before, overlooks the gray area between carnivorous and herbivorous diets called omnivorism. Regardless, the manga's action intensifies with this installment, and I recommend it to those who have enjoyed its precursors.

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BEASTARS, Vol. 18 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unsurprisingly, the eighteenth entry of the Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of prior events and visual depictions of dramatis personae. The comic begins with a flashback of Gosha telling his grandson Legoshi to enroll at Cherryton Academy, with his best friend Jack taking him and introducing him to his canid roommates. Back to the present, Legoshi is aware his status as a registered meat offender prevents him from going out openly in public. However, his former roommates invite him to stay with them. Cherryton has, since a recent devouring, segregated carnivorous and herbivorous students, with the drama club remaining one of the few integrated school clubs.

When Legoshi visits his former dormmates at Cherryton, Jack is in a depressed mood and is contemplating suicide by eating an onion, poisonous to canids, with the wolf seeking to stop him. Despite the school’s segregation, the dining hall remains integrated since carnivorous and herbivorous students ate with their brethren anyway. Jack is in a small elite class at Cherryton where they learn about the history, dating back to the Carnivore-Herbivore War a century before the manga’s events, carnivores then termed “life eaters” and herbivores “nature eaters,” with the former protective of the latter upon first encounter. The appearance of a whale ended the conflict, although that which did so refuses to share his wisdom with the world again.

In the meantime, Bill the tiger becomes head of the drama club, and, when dining with his friends, cracks open an egg to find it contains a chick in development, a “trauma egg,” which they aim to rescue and ultimately take to a local police station. At the black market, the Shishi-gumi mourn their fallen comrade given the posthumous name Lion Glasses and observe how the district has changed, with turf wars imminent and the head of the leonine Shishi-gumi, the half-leopard, half-gazelle Melon wanting to claim the area of the city for his gang. Red deer Louis, saved from the black market by his adoptive father, talks with his foster son, who quickly visits the area with a visible price on him.

Louis and Legoshi proceed to the abandoned tower of the organization that had initially held the latter captive for devouring, where they discover his old cellmates, the doe rabbit Kyu and the llama San. Kyu agrees to take Legoshi as her disciple in eventually taking on Melon. However, the wolf’s reluctance to punch females is one of his weaknesses, with the rabbit entertaining the idea of creating an “imaginary chimera” to aid combat. Thus ends the manga proper, after which is a humorous scene of Legoshi and his friends eating monja at a restaurant, a comical take on an older chapter, an anecdote about Itagaki purchasing the wrong drawing paper, and an indicator of canid muzzle length being concurrent to age.

Overall, Volume 18 is another enjoyable addition to the Beastars manga, with plenty of action and character development, not to mention a backstory well before the Carnivore-Herbivore War that occurred a century before the manga’s present day. The reunion of Louis with his herbivorous cellmates from earlier in the manga is also a nice callback. However, the need for Legoshi to undergo another round of training somewhat recalls what he had under Gohin. The absence of a gray area between herbivores and carnivores known as omnivores is further unmentioned. Regardless, those into mature animal-themed stories will enjoy this manga.

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BEASTARS, Vol. 16 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The sixteenth installment of the Beastars series opens, unsurprisingly, with a synopsis of past events alongside a visual depiction of its dramatis personae, following which is a flashback of when Legoshi was in primary school, interacting with his presently deceased mother through a hole in a door before she took her life. However, she still considered her life successful when interacting with her son via his out-of-body experience. His grandfather Gosha has a spat with the current Beastar, the equine Yahya. Afterward comes news that the gray wolf survived his bullet wound and has left the hospital on a special full moon known as a deep night when he engorges himself through food.

The red deer Louis, meantime, ponders reinvolvement with the Shishi-gumi, interacting with the female wolf Juno, whom he has seen more since graduation. They also argue, after which she visits Legoshi for romantic advice about falling in love with an herbivore as he had done with the dwarf rabbit Haru. The scene then changes to a group of diminutive rat vigilantes known as the 500 Cornered Rats Corps, who only steal from other criminals and are arrested, hassling others in jail before Yahya comes and interrogates them, asking about the half-leopard, half-gazelle Melon.

Melon chances a fast-food restaurant, noticing his sense of taste is off, after which he goes to a tattoo parlor where he had gotten tattoos of melon leaves to cover his leopard spots from a sloth artist with delayed conversational responses, Legoshi at the same place overhearing his eventual words to the hybrid. The wolf goes to the seashore to think, during which Melon and the Shishi-gumi mob he heads arrive, with the lupine threatened by the tried mafia technique of cementing his feet and dropping him into the water. Therein arises the promise that if Legoshi survives, they share the vulnerabilities of their leader.

The final chapter deals with Gosha volunteering at a mixed-species daycare center where bat janitors sanitize, only for them to have ulterior motives that tie into a species-purity group known as Kopi Luwak. The manga has significant anecdotes following the main storyline regarding the lighting effects and the respective anime adaptation, among others. Overall, Volume 16 is another enjoyable entry in the series, given its action and revelations. However, as with prior entries, the author overlooks the gray area between species' diets, called omnivorism.

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BEASTARS, Vol. 7 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The seventh volume of mangaka Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga opens, as with prior entries, with a synopsis of events from prior installments and a visual list of dramatic personae. The manga begins proper with a continuation of the meeting by the Council of Living Begins commenced at the end of the sixth volume, with the council’s chamber centered by a large class of liquid into which leaders drop various parts of their body to produce a chemical reaction. The main leaders are headmasters of various schools, with Cherryton Academy principal Gon, a Siberian Tiger, speaking noting that no Beastar has emerged from his respective institution in five years.

Other Council members suggest an herbivore Beastar, although the top candidate from Cherryton, Louis the red deer, is missing, with Gon indicating the hardships of adolescence and suggesting that heroes are born, not created. The devouring of Tem the alpaca that begin the manga comes to light, with the prime Beastar candidate propose to be whoever apprehends his devourer. Back at Cherryton, Legoshi the wolf feels tracked while wanting Louis to return to the school, with his stalker being Six Eyes the giant snake, the academy’s sole security guard who wants the lupine to track Tem’s murderer, suspected to still be at the institute.

Meanwhile, the members of the criminal syndicate Shishi-gumi visit the snapping turtle butcher of the black market, other rival gangs mentioned. Louis, their newly crowned leader, enters, wishing that carnivores not repress their instincts but need forgiveness, suggesting as well that society has only winners and losers. The red deer’s body in the meantime begins rejecting the new substances to which he’s subjected himself including meat, alcohol, and tobacco, Louis himself losing weight, and one of his lion subordinates fearing for him and buying him a salad. Juno appears at the headquarters’ entrance and wishes to see him as well.

The she-wolf and Louis have an awkward conversation, the latter knowing of Haru the dwarf rabbit’s love interest in Legoshi, anticipating deaths at the Meteor Festival as well. Juno becomes angry at Louis for not wanting to return to school, the red deer seen as a pacifist, with a few of the Shishi-gumi lions behind his back plotting to dispose of him once they’ve rebuilt their business. Back at Cherryton, Six Eyes, while wishing Legoshi to capture the killer, doesn’t want direct involvement in the case. At a drama club meeting, other carnivores hear the wolf muttering, angry that he suspects one of them might be Tem’s killer.

A new member of the club, Pina the Dall thinhorn sheep, believes that carnivores can’t be attractive like herbivores, singling out Legoshi, whom his fellow meat-eaters consequentially defend. The carnivorous members of the drama club afterward meet on Cherryton’s rooftop, Legoshi suspecting one of them, even himself, may be one of Tem’s killers, although he finds he’s not used to public speaking and is mocked for his relationship with Haru, to whom he speaks subsequentially, wondering if she still has feelings for Louis and thus wanting to watch her from a distance.

In a flashback, Legoshi awkwardly speaks with Tem about his wool, quickly returning to the present, to his memorial, and violently encountering his murderer. Legoshi’s childhood friend Jack comes to the rescue, with the wolf wishing to take a sabbatical from the school, wishing not to call the police and visiting the black market to visit the panda Mr. Gohin, from whom he seeks advice about unlocking his bestial power. The seventh volume ends with faux VR conversations with Legoshi and Louis, and is enjoyable like its predecessors, though as with them, the lack of gray area between the herbivores and carnivores in the form of omnivores, not just restricted to humans in real life, is jarring.

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Beastars, Vol. 1 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever since I watched the original Fullmetal Alchemist, Japanimation, colloquially called anime, has fascinated me, although I wouldn't realize that most Japanese animated series derived from manga, Japan's equivalent of comic books, with the Land of the Rising Sun, in fact, the origin point for what would ultimately become contemporary comics. One particular modern anime that would catch my attention is mangaka Paru Itagaki's Beastars, with my first exposure being the anime adaptation, of which I have a positive impression, and, upon the official English release of all volumes, make it the honor of being my first manga.

The first volume occurs in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, divided based on whether they’re herbivores or carnivores, starting with the brutal devouring by one of the latter beasts of an alpaca student at Cherryton Academy named Tem, with even more hostility consequentially arising between meat-eaters and vegetarians. Legoshi the wolf, active in the school's drama club as a crewmember, hears news of this and gives Els the alpaca a love letter that Tem wrote before his demise, although naturally, she is wary of the lupine and fears he will devour her.

The actors in the drama club are rehearsing for a school performance of a play focused on a grim reaper named Adler, with Tem initially having a role in it. Further active in the acting troupe is the red deer Louis, who admires Legoshi’s ferocity and wants him to be a lookout for Zoe the goat, Tem's replacement in the play. Legoshi soon has a run-in with a rabbit named Haru, with whom he seems to share a special connection, with the lapine fearing the wolf will devour her. Haru herself faces ostracization from other herbivores such as a harlequin rabbit.

That night, Legoshi fitfully sleeps, and has conflicted feelings about Haru, with his instincts insisting he devours her, although in the animanga's world, eating meat is a crime, with school cafeterias attempting to compensate for the nutritional shortcomings carnivores consequentially face; baring fangs is also taboo for meat-eaters. Animals exemplifying the best characteristics of society receive the eponymous title of Beastar, with Louis wanting the play to send a message to the polarized society. The first manga volume ends with Legoshi meeting Haru in the school garden, and it was for me a solid experience, with some quirky extra content after the main comic.

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