Earlier last month, we got confirmation of the highly anticipated anime adaptation of Paru Itagaki’s BEASTARS from Studio Orange after much speculation. Things have been quiet since then - barring a new collaboration with Tobu Zoo - but producers TOHO Animation broke the silence today by dropping a new PV, as well as the announcement of an October release date. Check out the new PV below:
If you remember the last trailer, then you’ll probably notice that there’s not much in the way of new content. There’s a little bit more footage of the beginning of the scene where Legoshi and Haru meet for the inciting incident of the story, but other than that it’s pretty much the same stuff as last time.
What was interesting about this trailer, though, was less the trailer itself than the information that was announced alongside it. Firstly, the adaptation has finally gotten a release date other than the rather wide release window of ‘2019.’ It will be launching in October of this year, making it one of the first shows announced for the fall season. And unless something big gets announced for then in the meantime, I’d wager that it’ll be one of the bigger shows that season as well.
The new trailer also announced that upon its newly confirmed October release date, the show will be releasing on Fuji TV’s newly announced ‘+Ultra’ anime programming block. This new block is set to begin this October by airing shows such as revisions, currently a Netflix exclusive, as well as the upcoming new Shinichiro Watanabe project Carol & Tuesday. In addition to terrestrial programming, the BEASTARS adaptation will also be streamed on Netflix - whether this will be on a weekly basis or not remains to be seen, however.
But back to the contents of the trailer. My major gripe with the last trailer was how Studio Orange’s 3D models seemed to take away from Itagaki’s original character designs. It wasn’t as if I expected the studio not to animate in 3D given their history, but the models still didn’t sit quite right with me.
That being said though, the few new cuts featured in the trailer do give me a little more hope. In particular, the shot of Haru leaving Cherryton looks a lot better than the previously featured subsequent shots. This makes me think that the Legoshi and Haru encounter scene in the moonlight wasn’t the best scene to show off the show’s art style, as the models do look genuinely good in the light of Cherryton.
Even so, I’m sure that many will still be frustrated by the 3D animation. It's a divisive topic in the western anime community - something that was showcased quite well in the conversation surrounding the new Netflix anime that were announced earlier this week. But what do you think about the look of the show? Does it match up to Itagaki’s original artwork? Be sure to let us know.
