Yes, I know that the further into the story, and the more mature the characters get, the narrative always gets darker, but I want the second season (and beyond) to be darker than the first. I mean, we already have a cute tanuki girl for our protagonist, in a series that deals with stuff like racism, hate crimes, trafficking of children, organized crime, sexism, poverty, religion, the bad side of organized sports, celebrity culture, toxic relationships (including sexually abusive ones), trauma, segregation, government and police corruption, war, and genocide. All with furry characters that help lighten the blow, while the problems that the series depicts are dealt with head-on. BNA2 will surely be darker than BNA1, and will expand on the themes that we got in those twelve episodes, but as there will most likely be more runtime (to address the only glaring issues with the series), it’ll have time to go both wider and deeper.

They could bring in more topics, but while I want it to be dark, I don’t want it to be bleak, and I want it to show that if everyone works hard on fixing their problems, it’ll all be good in the end. I’d like to see the characters working on overcoming their traumas, especially Nazuna continuing to atone, deal with the ways Boris harmed her, and adjust to being in a healthy relationship again for the first time in a year. She is one of my favourite redeemed antagonists, and making her the protagonist will really help get the fans to understand that she has indeed become the best beastman she can be. I would love a more mature tone (the protagonists are adults), with more violence/gore, profanity, sexuality, and other mature content, but not to the point of being gratuitous.

A lot of the time, a series gets gratuitously dark, and suffers from it. Just ask Identity Crisis on why darkness=/=greatness. I would like to see Michiru and Nazuna deal with the possibility that a same-sex couple won’t sit well with everyone, but maybe as a sign that Nazuna’s grown past seeking the approval of others, which Boris used to entrap her, she won’t care about anything homophobes have to say. And the couple to be treated in the same way as an heterosexual couple, as they do have relationship drama, and I’d like to see Nazuna deal with a guilt complex that makes her believe she doesn’t deserve to have Michiru in her life, and that she’s a burden on everyone around her, with Michiru not listening and working on salvaging whatever’s left of her girlfriend’s already-low self-esteem.

Maybe a scene where Nazuna self-harms, even attempting suicide, only to be stopped from ending her own life. Or suffers flashbacks to that year she lost, as I feel like Trigger needs to do more, so Nazuna Hiwatashi is easier to sympathize with. While I think that there’s no way that they can have a sex scene without an R-rating, they can definitely imply sex. Maybe there’s a flashback to right after Michiru turned, and she’s laying in her bed wide awake, implying she overheard Mr. and Mrs. Kagemori doing private business. Or, Michiru wakes up right next to Nazuna, and they’re both nude, but camera angles, blankets, positions, lighting, and the fact that they have fur coats that would cover sensitive regions prevent anything too explicit from being shown.

Or, they can have the shapeshifting beastmen make references to “last night’s girls’ night in”, or “having fun alone”, or some other euphemism. Yeah, and I’d love fight scenes, with maybe a flashback to Shirou’s death, complete with lots of gore, or some scenes of creative violence. BNA2 needs to be darker and explore the themes of BNA1 more thoroughly, while bringing up themes that are connected to those of the first season, while not being too edgy. On a side note, I’d love to see Michiru win her first solo fight, as while she’s strong, she lacks actual combat skills, so showing her winning a fight will be so satisfying for her fans and show how much she’s grown into a protector of the innocent.