Anthro Originated
Beastars portrays a society that can only exist by ignoring each animal’s beastly nature. It takes place at Cherryton, a high school where lions and bears dine on eggs and soy burgers, and miniature doors and desks make class resources accessible to chipmunk and mouse students. But beneath the shallow veneer of civilized life and a laundry list of social taboos, we discover that these animal characters are very much still prone to the instincts they attempt to suppress. When a wolf dons a school uniform, he does not magically stop craving rabbit meat.
Much of this central conflict takes place in the mind of protagonist Legoshi, a shy, gentle wolf who nevertheless still retains carnivore instincts. As he grows closer to Haru, a sassy dwarf rabbit who is far more aggressive than Legoshi at least socially, he begins to confuse romantic attraction with a hunting instinct. He can’t decide whether he wants to kiss Haru or eat her. He worries that perhaps a better partner for Haru would be Louis the red deer (no, Netflix subtitles, I refuse to say the nonsense word “Rouis”). A stag with impressive horns who is also the impeccably composed captain of the drama club, he’s a prey animal who stands out as an alpha male. But the more we get to know him, the more we see that he’s maintaining a facade just as much as Legoshi.
Beastars wasn’t written in a vacuum, so interpreting these struggles is where it gets interesting. The deadly clashes between carnivores and herbivores can be seen as a metaphor for human conflicts around gender or class or xenophobia, showing this animal society as a startling mirror to our own. Like a lens, it focuses on strikingly real issues in turn: the values of masculinity, race relations, redefining yourself as an adult, different types of attractions, or the way we hide our true selves from other people. Manga author Paru Itagaki is almost chiding us with her central concept: if even animals who were once natural enemies can reason through their basest instincts and learn to coexist, then humans are playing the game on easy mode.
10 Things You Might Not Know About Zootopia
Bigger World Bigger Story – Zootopia changed from one of its initial stories — a spy film set on a single island — to a “bunny cop” mystery set it the massive world.
Why A Bunny and a Fox – Byron Howard (Co – Director) expressed his love of the early Disney Animated Feature Robin Hood and a fox’s natural prey is, of course, a rabbit.
Making Animals Human – Co-Writer Phil Johnston pointed out that he felt he brought in more of the human feel to the characters, even to the point where he told the story of one of his relatives asking “how will you handle success when you’ve had so much failure in the past?” which lead to a very funny scene between Judy and her father when she is leaving Bunnyburrow. (Make sure you keep an eye for this scene)
Animals Have Evolved – When asked about the diets of the animals, with predators and prey all living in harmony, we learned that the inhabitants of Zootopia have moved on to eating insects and plant based proteins.A Scarry Inspiration – As a kid Director Rich Moore would read the books of Richard Scarry but could never buy into them so he wanted Zootopia to be more believable.
