Beastars, and its freewheeling murder mystery-mafia-romance-melodrama, is back. The second season of the highly acclaimed anime produced by Japanese animation studio Orange and based on Paru Itagaki’s popular manga of the same name, premiered on Netflix in North America this past weekend following the end of its run on Japanese television this past March.
Featuring the return of director Shinichi Matsumi (
Steamboy,
Land of the Lustrous),
Beastars season 2 deepens the relationships and arcs of its principal cast, with protagonist Legoshi spurred by his complicated affections for his herbivore classmate Haru thrusting himself into the task of hunting down the perpetrator behind Tem the Alpaca’s murder. Meanwhile, Louis the deer, Legoshi’s rival for Haru’s affections, drops out of Cherryton Academy to pursue a dark and winding journey of self-discovery as the new boss of the Shishigumi, the carnivore crime family whose former leader Louis killed at the end of the fir