Beastars

Beastars (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion from September 2016 to October 2020, with its chapters collected in 22 volumes. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media. The story takes place in a modern world of civilized, anthropomorphic animals with a cultural divide between carnivores and herbivores, and where eating meat (which always comes from other anthropomorphic animals) is strictly illegal. Beastars is set in the same universe as Beast Complex, another manga by Itagaki that originally served as Beastars' predecessor.[3]

An anime television series adaptation produced by Orange aired its first season from October to December 2019 on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block. A second season aired from January to March 2021. The first half of the third and final season premiered in December 2024, and the second half premiered in March 2026. The anime series is licensed by Netflix. The first season premiered outside of Japan in March 2020, and the second in July 2021. The third season was released by Netflix worldwide.

By October 2021, the manga had over 7.5 million copies in circulation.

Reception

Manga

By October 2021, Beastars had over 7.5 million copies in circulation.[36]

In December 2017, the series placed second in the list of top male-targeted manga for 2018 in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook, placing after The Promised Neverland.[37] The series won the 11th annual Manga Taishō in March 2018, the first time a series from Akita Shoten took the award.[38] In April 2018, it won the New Creator Prize at the 22nd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes.[39] In May 2018, it won the 42nd annual Kodansha Manga Awards in the category.[40] It also won a New Face Award at the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in March 2018.[41] The series won the "Shōnen Tournament 2019" by the editorial staff of the French website Manga-News.[42] It was nominated for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia at the 2020 Eisner Award.[43] Beastars won the Best Graphic Story and Best Dramatic Series in the Ursa Major Award.[44][45] The Ursa Major awards are given in the field of furry fandom works and are the main awards in the field of anthropomorphism.[46][47] The manga was chosen as one of the Best Manga at the Comic-Con International Best & Worst Manga of 2019.[48] It was one of the Jury Recommended Works for the French 13th ACBD's Prix Asie de la Critique 2019.[49] Beastars was nominated for the 53rd Seiun Award in the Best Comic category in 2022.[50]

Anime

On Rotten Tomatoes, the show holds an approval rating of 94%, based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Well-made and beautifully animated, Beastars is a solid new anime for anyone looking to get a little wild."[51]

In 2020, the series was part of the Jury Selections at the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival in the Animation category.[52] Beastars won a CGWORLD Award in the Computer Animation category.[53] It won the 26th Spanish Manga Barcelona award for the Best Anime category in 2020.[54] The opening theme "Wild Side" by ALI was awarded "Best Opening Sequence" and the anime was nominated in 8 other categories including "Anime of the Year" at the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards,[55]

type	TV series
director	Shin'ichi Matsumi
producer	Shunsuke Hosoi (S1) Yoshinori Takeeda (S1) Kazuki Ooshima (S2) Makiko Kuroiwa (S2) Shunsuke Yanagisawa (S3)
writer	Nanami Higuchi Shin'ichi Matsumi (S3)
music	Satoru Kōsaki
studio	Orange
licensee	Netflix
network	Fuji TV (+Ultra)
first	October 10, 2019
last	March 7, 2026
episodes	48
episode list	List of Beastars episodes

Plot

Media

Manga

Anime

Stage play

Reception

Manga

Anime

External links

References