I've just finished watching the first season of BEASTARS (since the second one's out and I want to check that out, too) and I think that this anime - while it was not intended to have them at all - might have some vibes that could resonate with this subreddit. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it (as usual, whenever I come across something) but, whatever.

So.

For those of you that are not familiar with it, BEASTARS is basically Japan's answer to Zootopia, at least when it comes to being that kind of work of fiction that, whenever is mentioned on the internet, is usually accompanied by the phrase, "I'm not a furry, but...".

However, it's much, much darker than its spiritual predecessor.

Take the main characters, for example. A dwarf rabbit girl, and a grey wolf guy. The dwarf rabbit girl, Haru, has enough of a complex about always being seen as cute and helpless, because of the whole "being a dwarf rabbit girl" thing, that she engages in a whole lot of casual sex because that's the only time, according to her at least, when men of her and other species see her as anything but that.

Then, there's the grey wolf guy, Legosi, and he's the subject of this rant of mine. Being a carnivore, and a grey wolf at that, Legosi is very aware that half the school (the herbivore half) sees him as a potential predator, in a very literal way - in fact, the series kicks off with a predator student murdering and devouring a prey student in the middle of the night.

Because of this, Legosi - who already has a meek, shy kind of personality - goes out of his way to act and appear as harmless as possible, and is actually scared of his own being and his own strength, especially since uh, grey wolves can go kind of berserk while in the throes of puberty.

I couldn't help but drawing a parallel to this plot point, and the way a lot of us feel over here about gender, sex and so on. This applies to the final episodes of the first season as well, and if you haven't watched it yet, beware of spoilers, they are coming.

More or less, Haru is kidnapped by some kind of carnivore yakuza that kills herbivore animals for their meat, that is in high demand on the black market (unlike Zootopia, BEASTARS does not handwave away the fact that carnivores need to eat), and Legosi saves the day - in the process of going Bruce Lee on quite a few lions of dubious morality, he realizes that his immense strength can be used to protect people, rather than hurt them.

This whole metaphor, I think, is taken further later on, when Legosi and Haru try to have sex, but find out that they're not comfortable enough with each other to do that yet - especially since their prey/predator instincts aren't completely under control. A 5-minute sex scene in a furry anime was handled more realistically and with more tact than in a dozen TV series about real humans.

What do you think, am I high, or do I have a point?