Beastars Episode 7 [Anime Review]

February 19, 2020 1 By mattdoylemedia

Welcome, one all, to my continuing, episodic review series for Beastars. As we head into the second half of the series, we’re running headlong into the topic of relationships. And not all of them romantic. Let’s talk about it a little.

Legom x Personal Pride

Legom is a hen that sits next to Legosi in one class. She thinks of him as pretty dense and calls him ‘the Ponderer’ in her internal monologue. Though not close, she does know a secret about him though: it’s her eggs that he eats in his sandwiches a Wednesday. That he loves her day, in particular, is a source of pride for her and she starts working extra hard to make her eggs extra high quality. But it backfires and Legosi goes off the eggs. In the end, her day is moved to Friday as hr eggs are super popular and that’s the school shop’s biggest selling day.

This scene had no real bearing on anything in the series, other than to show that other people outside the main cast have their own issues and desires. It was a perfectly fine segment, but I don’t’ feel like the episode would have lost anything if it wasn’t there.

Haru x Louis

We saw the nature of Haru and Louis’ relationship made explicit here. There was a flashback to their first meeting when Haru found him bleeding the gardening club. His antlers had shed sooner than expected and he needed to wait ten days for a fake pair to be made. He offered her money, and she said no, but the two fell into sleeping together.

This whole arc was really well done and has some pretty big implications. For one, Haru is well aware that the relationship won’t work for her. She zones out into a recurring nightmare about being lost when she sleeps with him, and he always seems sad during. She finds him to be both dazzling and pitiful and acknowledges the pressure Louis must feel in order to be seen as perfect. We also learned that Louis has a fiancée, as he expected to marry to take over as family head.

The interesting thing is that despite all the things going on in her head, Haru does still feel like she wants Louis’ love. It’s a tough spot for her to be in as she clearly sees a side of Louis that others don’t, and he sees her for who she is rather than her reputation.

Louis x Legosi

Legosi turned up when Louis was leaving the gardening club shed and the two had an awkward conversation. There were some hints thrown out in Louis’ wording that started tipping Legosi off to what’s going on, such as when he said ‘then we’re friends’ in response to Legosi confirming Haru hadn’t mentioned him. Legosi picked up on the wording, and on a scent on Louis, but brushed it off until the end of the episode when he saw Louis and Haru interacting from afar.

There’s no way Legosi can go on viewing Louis with the same reverence he has from here, is there? He’s figured out what’s happening, and it’s forced him to confront his own feelings (which we’ll get to in a bit). The result of that is jealousy and anger. These two were never close friends, and now they’re going to be even less so, at the very least in Legosi’s eye.

Legosi x Juno

This was adorably hilarious. Louis had advised Legosi to hear Juno out and grow some affection for his own kind, as some of the first years were upset with Juno due to her looks. This led to a pre-club meeting where Legosi offered to help her practice. Juno was absolutely smitten, especially when he took his jacket off. The whole thing built to Juno saying that when she touches Legosi, her heart races yet she feels strangely relieved. Legosi replied that he knew what she meant, and she looked like he’d taken her breath away…until he started talking about ecology and intra-species contact.

Legosi is really quite clueless when it comes to attraction, and here, he completely misread the situation. That’s likely partially due to his focus on Haru, but still, it was a laugh out loud moment when he started his spiel. Juno, you have to feel sorry for though. She tried to make a move and it didn’t so much fail as get ignored. Given that she thought they could be a perfect gray wolf couple too, and how fast and hard she’s fallen for him, I suspect she’s going to get a little aggressive in her pursuit.

Legosi x Haru

And this is the big one. Legosi’s problems are spiraling a little. He has hated seeing himself in the mirror since the Dark market episode and acknowledged that his desire to hold Haru close – by force if needed – for his own satisfaction is wolfish. Then, his friend Kolo found his rabbit porn. Legosi reverted to form, saying he was confused but it turned out to be a misunderstanding of his own feelings. He made the decision to suppress his feelings and fake a smile. He even went so far as to blow Haru off when she asked for help. When he saw her with Louis though, his feelings bubbled up and he accepted that he is in love.

Meanwhile, Haru is in an odd spot. Despite her feelings for Louis, she did seem to consider things when she heard Legosi say that he just wanted to see her. She came across like she wasn’t sure what to do about it but was clearly thinking about the potential meaning of his words. She even seemed to be offering an olive branch when she tried to get him to help her at the end portion of the episode.

It’s like Legosi said – or rather thought – himself: they’re getting further apart. They’re both well suited to each other in terms of personality and how they treat each other, and the carnivore/herbivore pairing works well within the context of the world. I love how slow burn this is, and I really, really hope they get closer again as they move forward. Right now though, Legosi’s biggest stumbling block may be that he clearly feels more for Haru than she does for him.

Overall

Throwaway Legon section aside, this was a very good episode. The way each of the main characters is tied together is wonderful, and I love how complicated their inter-personal relationships are getting. Teenage romance is hard, and this is about as good a representation of the issues that can arise from it as you’ll find.

Oh, and the art style when Haru was having her waking nightmare? That was beautifully done. The occasional shift in visual style to create impact is phenomenal in this series. The same can be said for the attention to detail in particular. From the subtle facial and body movements to convey emotion to the reflections in the mirrors, they really went all out.

But what about yourselves? Did you enjoy this episode, and do you agree with my interpretation of the story so far? Let me know in the comments below.

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