Hello everyone and welcome to the latest anime review I have for today! Now if you member last year when I started doing these, I started off by reviewing shows from the people who work for Studio Trigger. For those who don’t know the studio was founded by a former employee at Gainax who was responsible for the hit series, Gurren Lagann (which I did review), which was a huge influence on their output. They’ve gone on to make some acclaimed stuff like shows such as Kill La Kill, Little Witch Academia, etc. and feature films like the recently released Promare (which I will be covering soon) and now they have a brand new show on Netflix, BNA: Brand New Animal. Naturally I was very excited by this project given that I am a fan of the studio’s work and it looked like a fun series with an intriguing premise that sort of reminded me of Zootopia in some ways. Luckily this was indeed an enjoyable series to watch, albeit one with certain things that could’ve been improved. Now then with that out of the way let’s dive a little deeper into Trigger’s latest new show!
In this world humanoid animals known as beastmen who can transform from human to animal form at will and they inhabit the Earth, and have been co existing with normal humans. Or at least trying to as there as there is a lot of resentment toward the beastmen in general due to their different ways of doing things. We follow a young teenage human girl named Michiru Kagemori who all of a sudden turns into a beastmen in the form of a tanuki. Scared of this new discovery, she decides to run away to Anima City, a place founded by Mayor Barbaray Rose that serves as a sanctuary for beastmen where they are free to live their lives in peace. After narrowly avoiding capture by hunter, she is able to make it to the city with the help of a shady Beastmen named Marie Itami just in time for the tenth anniversary celebration. So far she seems to be enjoying this place and the festivities very much until she gets her wallet stolen and is caught up in a bombing. From there she meets Shirou Ogami, a mysterious wolf beastmen, who takes care of the bombers. After she reveals the fact that she is human to him he reluctantly agrees to help her figure out how she even became a beastmen which leads them into a whole series of even stranger events that could affect Anima city as they know it!
The concept of an society that consists of humanoid animals is not a new one (while I have not seen it I know there is an anime called Beastars that this) yet I still found the world that was created here to be really interesting and it has certain elements that make it stand out from the rest. Instead of this world only consisting of beatmen there are also humans thrown into the mix which adds an interesting dynamic between the two which aims to deal a lot of topical subject matter such as discrimination, using propaganda as a tool to bring people together, prejudice, how scarrings from the past can affect how we live in the present, and more. I do really admire the show for wanting to tackle these types of subjects as it does add some more layers to the proceedings and makes this probably Trigger’s most ambitious show in a thematic sense. The world in general I feel is built up very well as we see how Anima City works and the many conflicts that arise throughout most of which provide some interesting perspectives on how Beast men not only how beastmen and humans view each other but also how the beastmen do so as well. It’s all really cool stuff and for the first 6 episodes I was really digging where things were going. I liked the tone the writers were going for, the slow burn pacing was nice as it felt like the series was taking its time to develop its ideas, and characters, the humor was fast paced, and very funny, and it set up a really interesting mystery concerning what’s really going on in Anima City and how, and why Michiru became a beatman in the first place. It was really entertaining and had nice mix of episodes that focused on the conflicts at hand and more character driven ones that dealt with stand alone conflicts like a stand out episode where Michiru helps out a failing base ball team comprised of bears. This does bring me to some of my main issues with the show however as once we get to the last 6 episodes, well it just felt very rushed as the writers throw a lot of conflicts, and character relationships (more on those later) at us yet they aren’t as developed as they should be and as a whole it wasn’t as satisfying as I wished it were even if there are still plenty of strong individual moments throughout. I think the length of the series really hurt it as like I said there are only 12 episodes in total. I personally feel that there should have been more that way certain aspects could’ve been developed more and it wouldn’t feel so uneven. Now I know Trigger series tend to be pretty short but even then I still felt satisfied by the end of the likes of Kill La Kill, and Little Witch Academia (which do have more episodes than this series so far admittedly). So while not totally anti climactic (it does set up an interesting status quo that could potentially be explored in a theoretical second season), and is still entertaining in the moment most of the time I can’t help but feel the pay off could’ve been executed a lot better had there been more time spent in this world with these characters. This is a show that sets things up very nicely and starts off really well but has trouble finding its footing in the middle and doesn’t end as well as it began.
One thing we can all agree on this show though, is that the animators have once again done a great job in bringing it to life! Trigger has essentially mastered this already so it’s no surprise this is a visual blast with lots energy thrown into the mix just like their previous work. My favorite aspects of the animation here would have to be the character designs as the Beastmen all have really cool designs that like Zootopia, are humanoid animals. One nice touch was how closely the beastmen designs would closely resemble them in their human form as much as it could and how the animals for each respective character would match the personalities really well. Their also all really memorable, and colorful and even if its a minor character in the background not one beastmen would look the same in a given shot. Their movements are all very smooth, fast paced, and energetic which add a lot to the more comedic, and action sequences while Anima City does make for a nice locale to visit as there’s a lot of neat little animal related details all around like some of the brand names, there is some cool looking architecture here and there, and I liked the color palette used to make things look nice. Then there are the fight scenes which are extremely well choreographed and a ton of fun to watch and I really like how they utilize the strengths of the Beastman like the super abilities that Michiru gains in her Beastman form and Shirou’s fighting skills which made the fights visually engaging, and fun. They can also be surprisingly brutal at times (the alley way fight in the first episode, the baseball game, and Yama’s rhino rampage come to mind) and pretty bloody (though not excessively) which helped in adding to the stakes of the proceedings. The stand out one for me is easily (spoilers) the final show down between Shirou and Alan in their Beastmen forms as it really is a spectacle for the eyes and is just really cool, though I do really enjoy the ones I mentioned above a lot. The opening of the show is pretty fun and does a good job of getting us excited for the episode while also showing off the plenty of cool imagery, and giving a good idea of what the show in general is about with a really catchy accompanying song to boot (that being “Ready To” which is performed by Sumire Morohoshi”). As for the ending credits well they are also neat with some interesting animation used and has another nice theme by AAMYY titled “Night Running”. While the narrative may be flawed, the technical side of things as a whole is about on par with Trigger’s other works.
When it comes to the characters in this show well like I briefly said in a while back, I did mostly enjoy them. They all have their moments and I did find a couple of the backstories interesting. First there’s Michiru who is a likable protagonist with her up beat, and stubborn personality, and sense of compassion towards both beastmen, and humans a like as all she wants is for everyone to get along and wants to help where she can. I do enjoy main characters like this done right and what I like about her is that she’s energetic, and reckless but not too much as to become extremely annoying (heck her friend even calls out her recklessness as a problem as she’s too focused on helping other and ignores her own safety) and it was fun seeing her fish out water experience and what kind of happenings she runs into in Anima City and as a whole it was a compelling arc seeing her go from resenting her beastman form to coming to like it and take an interest in learning more about the species in general. Working as the proverbial straight man to her is Shirou who is a non nonsense, and quiet yet still caring social worker who feels very strongly about beastman and cares about them, and their protecting their rights so much while also having a deep resentment toward human. He’s probably the most interesting out of everyone here and as the story progresses we learn more about him, and his past. Spoilers for his arc (though you’ll probably guess this early on) but it is revealed that he is indeed the real Silver Wolf, a being seen as a god by the people of Anima City who helps beastmen in times of need, and that he actually is over 1,000 years old. He has a very compelling backstory that adds layers to his character and makes us understand why he feels the way he does towards humans. He, and Michiru are both very solid leads and they make for a fun pair and have some genuinely touching moments. Not faring quite as well is Michiru’s relationship with best friend/aspiring idol, Nazuna, who is also human turned beastman and takes on the persona of the Silver Wolf as a part of the religious cult, the Silver Wolf Order. She’s okay for the most part as we first see in flashbacks what their friendship was like and it is interesting how being the face of this cult changes her relationship with Michiru as she shows little regard for her feelings, and finds her insistence to always help as a way to help her ego. It was a pretty surprising turn of events and I was curious to see where it would go after the 6th episode. Thing is though their friendship isn’t really focused on a whole lot, and Nazuna gets a change of heart really quickly so them getting back together felt unearned and didn’t leave as big of an impact as it could’ve had that relationship been developed more. So that was a missed opportunity but on a positive note I did really enjoy a lot of the supporting players here as a lot of them do stand out in one way or another. There are that play important parts in the story/help develop some of themes like Mayor Barbaray Rose, a refreshingly benevolent leader who just wants what’s best for Beastmen, con Beastman who helps Michiru out from time to time (usually in exchange for something), Marie, who is pretty cool with her laid-back, and shady personality, police inspector, and good friend to Shirou, Yuji Tachiki, and former soldier who now disagrees with the government, Pinga, big crime boss, Giuliano Flip, also one of the more interesting characters in the show. There are also others who exist to provide some good hearted laughs, and fun like Gem, and Melissa Horner, Michiru’s caretakers, Giuliano’s daughter/popular internet celebrity, Nina, and the Bears baseball team who are far from being the brightest yet will still follow Michiru all the way. Oh and I almost forgot to mention Alan Sylvasta, the head of Sylvasta Pharmaceutics, and (spoilers) the big bad of the series. At first I was disappointed that he was the villain as it some what negated some of the moral conflicts going on like if he is right to just give Beastmen a cure or not. While that is a bit of a let down, his own backstory and what he really is was interesting on its own and it did make for a cool visual and he is a pretty solid villain for the most part. Some may get more screen time than others but they are all characters I would like to see more of if a second season get green lit.
In the end BNA has it’s problems but is still mostly entertaining. It’s got what you’d expect from a Studio Trigger project like a really neat concept, fantastic animation, awesome action, and colorful character and it starts off really well and certainly has a lot on its mind. It’s held back from greatness due to the last 6 episodes feeling rushed, some missed opportunities present throughout, and pay offs that just don’t work as well as the creators may have intended them to. So it is disappointing in that regard and it is probably their weakest show that I’ve seen yet but if you are a fan of their work and think it looks good I’d say give it a watch on Netflix to see how you feel about it. While nothing has been made official, I would like to see a second season as not only does it have the opportunity to improve upon what didn’t work but that also the ending of this first season does hint at some interesting places it could go in. Here’s hoping for the best if does end up happening as this is just too cool a world to end things off in so quickly!
Rating: B
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