The Final Chapter
The Season 1 finale of Beastars sees us flash back in time as we see a brief montage of Haru and Legoshi’s time together as she puts her arm in Legoshi’s mouth – a reactionary move for wanting to be prey. Only, he doesn’t bite down but it’s enough to make him feel ashamed. That night they sleep on either sides of the bed and Legoshi feels tears welling up in his eyes. In the morning, they leave together without doing anything as Haru thanks him for saving her life. Back at school, Legoshi tells the nurse to spill the story to the whole school about what happened with the gang but she remains defiantly quiet about the whole affair. As she leaves, Juno arrives to greet him and tells him she believes he saved the rabbit. Outside the infirmary she finds herself face to face with Haru, prompting the dwarf rabbit to run until Juno catches up with her and, after smelling her, realizes that Legoshi hasn’t had sex with her after all. Instead, she promises to be the better female at the upcoming Festival of the Meteor. That evening, Juno shows up completely dolled up in a bid to woo Legoshi, who realizes that Rouis has gone missing and worries for his safety. Legoshi waits for Haru to meet him while Juno gets on stage and begins to dance. Haru however, happens to be in the crowd watching her dancing. Eventually Legoshi and Haru do come face to face but just before he can admit his true feelings to her, Juno calls out Legoshi and forces him up on stage after his antics in saving Haru. She links hands with him and talks about how carnivores will always look out for herbivores but inside, Legoshi is not so sure this actually rings true. Juno lights the meteor and hands him a candle, telling him carnivores shine brightly and to follow her to prevent being hurt by Haru. Unfortunately our dwarf rabbit leaves in sadness, thinking back to how happy the crowd were that the two wolves were together. Legoshi follows Haru though and tells her that Juno is her junior and they’re not compatible. He admits to being hurt by what happened at the hotel but just before he admits the truth to her about how he feels, she bolts and refuses to listen to him. Eventually they make it to the balcony together and Legoshi looks at her, with the backdrop of the city behind them, and tells her he wants to make her happy, admitting to loving her. As the episode closes out, we’re granted a post-credit scene that shows a point of view shot of someone throwing pills in the trash and heading out the bathroom. As they do, Legoshi greets this character and asks him what’s so funny. The post-credits scene is an intriguing addition to the series and with lots of questions left hanging over this one, it’ll be interesting to see what direction the show goes next time out. With the murderer still unknown, Rouis’ life hanging in the balance and this mystery point-of-view character potentially holding clues to what’s going on, there’s a lot to ponder over as the final credits roll. Throughout the show, Beastars has tackled the idea of prey and predator as well as discrimination toward both carnivores and herbivores – something that could be interpreted as a reflection of both sexism and racism. The show never dives too deeply into this though, instead holding the forbidden love angle as the overarching plot for much of the season. Beastars has been a solid anime offering though, with its themes helping to add more depth to the show, and with the door left open for the second season, all eyes will inevitably turn to that to find out what happens next in this ongoing anime.
