Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Just like the nature shows on television.
- The very opening of the anime, where we see Legoshi, feral, chasing Haru through the night, and we even see a close up of his sharp fangs and drool. This is made worse after the scene switches to a heartwarming montage of the two dancing together, as we’re treated to Mood Whiplash of the feral Legoshi having eaten Haru, with a pool of blood at his feet underneath a red moon.
- The scene of Tem being chased by a predator manages to be full of tension and is extremely nerve-wrecking to watch. The fear in this scene is palpable to watch, and Tem dies shortly after.
- The visual effects in this scene really sell the mood: When Tem shuts the door, everything goes pitch-black, save for his outlines and the blood on his face that stand out starkly. It’s incredibly unnerving to watch.
- The same scene is shown again when his killer is revealed to be Riz, a bear classmate whom Tem had encouraged to be more true to himself, which Riz took to mean to embrace his carnivore nature to its fullest. The incident first started as an accident, for which Tem forgives Riz. The two hug each other. And Riz devours him. The anime portrays this with an incredibly jarring cut from the two hugging to Riz covered in gore and feasting on Tem's remains.
- When Legoshi goes to fight against the lion mafia, he goes feral in order to win the fight, and his eyes turn a startling red.
- Carnivore Confusion is a trope that's rife with Fridge Horror, but Beastars elevates it to Ascended Fridge Horror:
- Imagine being born just to be put in a trafficking ring on the black market to be fed to carnivores - that’s Louis’s backstory. Thankfully, he’s saved.
- The fact that there exists a black market for meat, where herbivores who are fully sapient are killed and sold. Some herbivores are desperate enough to sell their own body as meat.
- In chapter 148 Legoshi wakes up to a reddened blanket, leading him to believe he killed Haru in his sleep.
- It later turns out Haru accidentally spilled tomato juice all over the sheets. However the thought that he may have killed the love of his life traumatized him so badly, it tricked his nose into not noticing the tomato smell and caused his fur to turn completely white from sheer stress and horror.
- Chapter 162 reveals that Melon's mother ate his father before Melon could properly remember him, and it's heavily implied she at least had a subconscious desire to eat Melon as well, hence why she named him after food. Melon ended up snapping from the revelation, beating his mother to death with an iron before calmly lying to the police on the phone that she was killed in a break-in. Keep in mind, Melon was a grade-schooler at the time.
- Chapter 181 reveals that, in addition to her carnivorous desires, Melon's mother sexually abused him by trying to coerce him into taking baths with her, lasciviously touching his horns, and having him undo her bra while she went into ecstasy over it. And this is only what we're shown onscreen. Melon's childhood really was a ten-car pileup of trauma.
- Chapter 182 hits us with the sudden, disturbing imagery of Riz in prison. While he’s shown to be in nice terms with Pina, he is shackled, on handcuffs, and is even muzzled. The security guard even has glorified animal control equipment. It’s heartwrenching to see Riz, even in spite of what he’s done, reduced to a proper punishment.
- Remember Chapter 181's reveal about Melon's family life? There's one more wrinkle in the dynamic between his parents: Melon's real father wasn't devoured, but rather, he willingly abandoned the family and left his son alone with his mentally-unstable mother.
- Chapter 189: Further continuing the cavalcade of traumas brought about by Melon’s asshole dad, Gosha has a flashback (possibly PTSD induced) of his wife’s death, now named Toki. He undergoes a violent, frightening transformation brought about by a combination of repressed grief, Legoshi’s love, the violation of his personal values, and seething, irreconciliable hatred and apathy for a man who is a very insult to his gender and role as a parent: one who abandoned his out-of-wedlock baby child and lover due to a refusal to either accept responsibility or make amends. Gosha’s scales tense up and seem to shake and squirm, making him puff up like a hedgehog, and his venom becomes as corrosive and dangerous as acid, and he corners the man and jumps him, with the intention of dripping as much venom into the son of a bitch’s mouth as he possibly can. Yafya seems to be reconsidering his personal estimation of Gosha as his betrayer. In just one panel, with no dialogue or action whatsoever. In fact, what the Sublime Beastar may be feeling isn’t concern or wonder. Yafya is afraid.Gosha: It’s not too late to learn the taste of devoted love.
The Anime
- During the blackout in episode 8, Legoshi runs around the area trying to find Haru in the darkness. While he does find her safe and sound, if you look very closely you can see a member of the Shishigumi standing in the darkness, staring at Haru, preparing to move in. If Legoshi was a few seconds too late then Haru would have been kidnapped right then and there.
- In the next episode, she DOES get kidnapped, and it’s not pretty. Haru is taken to a building where she’s evaluated for the illegal selling of her meat. This whole process has rape undertones, with her having to strip, bathe and to top it all off, she’s put through a humiliation and shame regimen to improve her flavor. It culminates in the Boss tackling her to the ground in a very rapist like way and almost killing her. Lucky, Legoshi saved poor Haru, thank god, but it was a terrifying ride from start to finish.
- Season 2 Episode 7 has Tao ripping Kibi's arm off with his bare hands, completely by accident. Kibi is left whimpering on the ground in agony while Tao panics as he realizes he just dismembered his friend without even trying. The horrifying gruesomeness of the scene is made even more shocking by just how sudden it is.
