Murder Incident Solution Arc
Volumes: 7 - 11
Chapters: 50 - 99
With the case of Tem's death gone cold and the pressure on for Cherryton to select a Beastar, Legoshi decides to take the matter of his investigations on his own hands and leading him to train harder than ever to be able to take them on. As a mob boss, Louis starts changing the Back-Alley Market and the Shishigumi.
Tropes
- Adaptational Explanation: In the manga Legoshi starts his investigation with the Drama Club without much rationalization besides it being the easiest place for him to start. In the anime he instead follows a few other leads such as a jogger that may have been near the scene of the crime at the time and also asking one of Tem's friends for any useful information, which leads to Legoshi acquiring Tem's diary, which heavily implicates he was involved with a carnivore from Drama Club, giving him solid evidence to move his investigation there.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime expands on the actual investigation of the murder somewhat more, even given a reason the murderer has to be found soon, as the end of the school year would potentially means the murderer could graduate and disappear.
- Ambiguously Gay: There are strong romantic undertones to Riz's feelings for Tem, even down to the way Riz describes Tem and their relationship, like saying his voice was sweeter than honey and that his eyes were beautiful, and, due to his Self-Serving Memory, picturing and describing eating Tem in an oddly romantic and sexual way. It's notable that their relationship is a counterpart of Legoshi's relationship to Haru, which is what could happen if Legoshi didn't have the amount of restraint he does.
- Arc Villain: Riz, the bear of the Drama Club, who turns out to have been Tem's killer all along.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Inverted when Legoshi is registered as a Predatorial Offender. The inspector explains the restrictions this will involve on Legoshi's life, and Legoshi barely cares about the big stuff that he'll never be able to go to a good school and likely will be rejected for any kind of decent job, and is instead completely floored by the "trivial" detail that it will also be illegal for him to marry an herbivore as most adults still consider interspecies romance to be something only teens do an eventually grow out of.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- When Legoshi first confronts Riz, Riz threatens to attack and kill him right there, which the wolf knows he wouldn't be able to survive since Riz is so much stronger than him. However, Pina breaks the fight and warns Riz that simply killing Legoshi or himself will only make his capture more likely.
- During the New Year fight, Legoshi is almost defeated and killed by Riz but manages to stall for a time long enough for Louis to come and rescue him. While Legoshi decides he needs to go back and continue the fight, Louis offers him his leg, which gives Legoshi the power to defeat Riz.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Riz is convinced by Legoshi to stop their fight and talk to him about what led him to kill Tem. The two end up laying down and talking things through, with Riz admitting that what he committed was a crime and that his memories of the event are how he coped with killing a person he cared for. Legoshi does this partly because he actually wants to understand Riz, but also to try to stop the fight so he can catch his breath. This does give time for Louis to get there and play Big Damn Heroes.
- But Now I Must Go: After the turf war, it downs on Louis that his place in the world truly isn't among the Shishigumi, regardless of the fact that he grew to like them, and that he has to go see and support Legoshi's fight against Riz.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Riz is one to the Shishigumi Boss from the previous arc. In the latter case, he was an unsympathetic Flat Character to whom the act of eating was impersonal and meant solely to appease his hunger, he chose victims based on which ones would taste good and had eaten meat many times over. In Riz's case, he is a character that gets plenty of development on why he does the things he does and is even given some sympathy by showing he was going through severe side-effects of medicine and regrets what he did; to him, the act of eating is personal to the point where it's almost intimate, and he considers the ones he eat or intends to eat, Tem and Legoshi, to be dear friends, and had only eaten meat on those occasions. While the boss is taken down by Louis and Legoshi working separately, Riz is taken down by Legoshi and Louis working together.
- Disguised in Drag: Legoshi disguises himself in one of Gouhin's wife's dresses in order to approach Louis. While Louis isn't fooled, Ibuki does mistake Legoshi for a woman hitting on Louis, albeit an ugly one.
- Dude in Distress: Pina. For most of the arc, Riz has Pina in his sights as much as he has Legoshi. Pina is the one that defuses the situation, pointing out that if another predation incident occurred, the police would have even more leads to get to Riz. While this doesn't stop Riz from targeting him, it does make him much more calculating about it, rather than simply attacking Pina. In the end, he is kidnapped and hurt by Riz, but he manages to escape and call the police by himself.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Jack convinces Legoshi to call his grandfather, and coupled with the reveal that Legoshi is not a pure blooded wolf, we are shown Legoshi's grandfather's hands, which are clearly reptilian, as he remarks to himself that he'll get a chance to talk with Legoshi in person soon.
- Foil: Riz's relationship to Tem is one to Legoshi's relationship to Louis and Haru.
- Foreshadowing:
- The most known trait of Tem's killer is their overwhelming strength, and Riz is shown to be stronger than any other character in the Drama Club.
- When Legoshi first meets Gouhin and confesses to being in love with a herbivore, Gouhin explains that a carnivore becoming obsessed with eating a herbivore is sometimes mistaken in their brain as love, that they'll eventually eat the herbivore and convince themselves that the herbivore wanted that too. While Legoshi's feelings for Haru are proven to be genuine, we see what that actually happens now with Riz's relationship with Tem.
- When Legoshi learns being a Predatorial Offender means he won't be able to marry a herbivore, he goes to research more about interspecies marriage laws. The book he finds notes that it's also illegal for a venomous species to marry a non-venomous one due to the risk of the former accidentally killing the other. This law will prove to have a lot of bearing on Legohsi's family.
- When all is said and done, the unusual circumstances of Legoshi's consensual predation end up being censored to the media and shared only with the Sublime Beastar, who takes a special interest in the case and resolves to keep his eye on Legoshi, which will directly lead into the Revenge of the Love Failure arc.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: At the end of the arc, Legoshi resolves to drop out of school.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Contrast the previous season of the anime that mostly told the story in the same order as the manga with minor alterations, the anime's adaptation of this arc is all over the place, adding entirely new scenes, omitting scenes, and rearranging the order of events entirely.
- Self-Serving Memory: Riz's recollection of the events of Tem's death is heavily romanticized, and portray Tem as a willing participant in his own death, actually desiring for Riz to eat him. The killing was an accident caused by Riz completely losing control of himself and spending a long time without his pills, and this was the only way he found some solace.
- The Reveal: Chapter 73 features a flashback in which a young Legoshi confides a secret to Jack; Legoshi is not a pure-blooded wolf.
- Secret Test of Character: The All Species Council in pressuring the Cherryton Academy to elect a new Beastar, ultimately decides that whoever solves the murder mystery should be the new Beastar.
- Wham Line:
- Legoshi points out who the killer is.
Legoshi: So you killed Tem? - Wham Episode: Chapter 99, the aftermath of the fight against Riz. Legoshi learns that, even though eating Louis's leg was consensual, he is still registered as a predator, and can't legally marry a herbivore, and decides to drop out of school. Louis officially returns to Cherryton, with the official story being that he took down Riz.
- Wham Shot: Louis offering his leg to Legoshi, saying that the only way to defeat Riz is if he eats meat.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Legoshi resolving to confront Riz himself coupled with Riz being apprehended by district police means Rokume disappears from the story after assigning Legoshi the task of finding the murderer.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When the Cherryton Headmaster tries to explain he's not pushing anyone to become a Beastar because he thinks children should be allowed to live their lives without such pressure, he is called out for the fact that a student was murdered on campus and so far it seems more like the academy is just trying to ignore that rather than solve the mystery.
