The Radical Child

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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