Beastars

Beastars (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion from September 2016 to October 2020, with its chapters collected in 22 tankōbon volumes. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media. The story takes place in a modern world of civilized, anthropomorphic animals with a cultural divide between carnivores and herbivores, and where eating meat (which always comes from other anthropomorphic animals) is strictly illegal. Beastars is set in the same universe as Beast Complex, another manga by Itagaki that originally served as Beastars' predecessor. An anime television series adaptation produced by Orange aired its first season from October to December 2019 on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block. A second season aired from January to March 2021. The first half of the third and final season premiered in December 2024, and the second half premiered in March 2026. The anime series is licensed by Netflix. The first season premiered outside of Japan in March 2020, and the second in July 2021. The third season was released by Netflix worldwide. By October 2021, the manga had over 7.5 million copies in circulation. Beastars won multiple awards in 2018, including the 11th Manga Taishō, being the first Akita Shoten title to receive it, the New Creator Prize at the 22nd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, the 42nd Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category, and the New Face Award at the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival.