Beastars, inside a Character-world (Legoshi and Riz)

From my previous blog, as you came to know how Beastars left an impact on me; my first impression potently expressed how I loved the series. So it ultimately drove me to do further studies and imprint my solicited views on the show itself and especially the characters and its design. Beastars is a profoundly queer text. I thought I would hone in on something more specific from the series rather than going the whole, that is about Beastars being all about racism and homophobia. Despite being a story about animals it is very human in a way that it portrays young adults growing up and trying to find their place in the world. After all, Beastars is marking as a coming-of-age story rather than some dystopian take on society. As such I think it's very useful to analyze the characters starting with the main character Legoshi.

Needless to say, there will be spoilers ahead. So if you don't want to face them, please go and check the series out.

Legoshi

Here begins our blog. At first, let's familiarize ourselves with the beginning of the series. We all know it starts with a brief scene of the incident where Legoshi, a Grey Wolf attacks Haru. The first scene of the attack is very significant. Throughout the series it does separate Legoshi into two different characters, Legoshi before the incident and Legoshi after the incident. Legoshi before the incident can be seen as a very lonesome wolf who keeps his distance from other students, especially herbivores. He also tries to make himself look less intimidating by hunching over.

'To look smaller and weaker than other students, stand up straight with your shoulders back. To open yourself up to the world you're not in if you're not in the defensive crouch of a prey animal.' Technically speaking that is the circuitry, that's the governing posture. It's 'Prey vs. Predator' or something like that. To stand up like that is to expose yourself to the world but in a-bring-it-on sort of manner. Not precisely combative, but let's say courageous.' -

You see people like this on the street all the time. They could be perfectly attractive, except they're completely huddled in when they need to stand up and stretch themselves out.

However, when Tim is murdered by a predator other students still see Legoshi as dangerous, probably even more so due to his lonesome nature and anti-social behavior. While the show pretty quickly establishes that Legoshi is a nice guy who tries to be non-threatening, it also showcases his resentment towards himself as a wolf. He believes he is hated by others because he's a wolf, and sees himself as a victim of an unfair and prejudiced world. But it's just not fair to you it wouldn't change anyone's opinion. That's a problem too, if you're chronically rejected by people it's often because of your insufficiencies. Whether that's cowardice or lack of social skills or whatever it is, it's like you can't just brush it off as "oh well you know, no one likes me but I'm okay. It's like nothing's wrong if everyone rejects you". I think there's probably something wrong and it's probably deep and difficult, and it's gonna be horrible to fix. So it isn't a trivial problem.

From where I stand it seemed that no matter what Legoshi does, other animals will hate him for who he is, and thus there is no point trying to change that. He continues to exist as a passive harmless wolf, denying his nature in hopes of appealing to society by staying weak. In other words, he is kind-hearted, and those who know him closely, know that he's not dangerous. However, being harmless and resentful can lead you to be of low status among your peers.

The show makes it clear when Louis, the total opposite of the lead, is introduced into the series. We see the Red Deer approach Lugosi with a tall posture and a calm gaze, followed by oz of female students. Louis has all the traits of a high-status male in the academy.

"His gestures, his voice, and his gaze, he must have it all down of course he does, it's Louis-senpai. He's only a year older than me and he's the lead actor, and pretty much runs to school."

Even though Louis is a herbivore he has shown to be very authoritative. He can keep much stronger carnivores under his control without resorting to brute strength. Whenever he does get physical it tends to be more intimidating and domineering than violent Legoshi. 

Louis is also the first one to acknowledge that Legoshi has a dark side. *I figured he was a quiet tree but you have a savage in you*.

He offered Legoshi to go against the rules and sneak out at night so Louis can practice his performance. "You're a wolf. Take advantage of that. Let's see your dark side." - And now we're back at the starting scene. Legoshi catches her scent and he goes after the small rabbit.

My question though is why hasn't this happened before. After all, Legoshi looked surprised by his actions, so it's obvious that it's the first time this has happened to him. I guess years of repressed emotion and the death of his classmate, and Louis egging him on, all this combined resulted in this act of aggression. You say that you have to accept the fact that you're dangerous or become dangerous because I'd also say that if you have done that kind of shadow work if you haven't made friends with your anger if you haven't integrated it, you're more dangerous. Yes, then things will happen that will come out in a way that you don't expect right. It comes out disintegrated, so it comes out as an autonomous spirit right under no one's control and that's like a burst of rage. Let's say it's like mayhem and everybody goes well. What happened it's like seven terrible things came together at the same time and produced this outburst of disintegrated rage. When that happens the shadow in Jungian psychology is a character archetype that is comprised of the least desirable and negative traits of a person's personality. Normally people try to reject or remain ignorant of the shadow thus avoiding both the positive and negative aspects that that side offers. "Look at yourself, don't look away, I'm growing bigger. the shadow manifests into a separate entity and it tries to tempt or negotiate into going through with his desires. Luckily he snaps out of it, but the proverbial genie is out of the bottle. From this moment the old legacy is gone. - This is superbly emphasized by the mirror scene where he sees the shadow in his reflection. He tries to attack the shadow but he knows it won't be that easy. A part of spiritual development is to recognize the satanic tendencies that characterize you. And to fully wrestle with them, and to integrate them that's the thing. It's not so much to cast them away, it's to transmute them. And you can see the difference between people who have done that, and the people who haven't. At least to some degree while acknowledging your shadow is an important part of developing yourself. It does take time to fully understand it, integrate it into your life. In the case of Legoshi, we see him suffering a great amount of guilt for what he has done. At the start of episode 2, we see Lugosi dreaming of being inside the cage. Legoshi sees himself as a monster and his first desire is to isolate himself from the world. Of course, the world is drying him out of bed to socialize with others.

So what can he do? 

-Well the only thing he can live with the shadow.

But is easier said than done, because he can't go back into being himself. The cafeteria scene confirms that. We see two students fighting in the cafeteria. Legoshi instantly remembers the incident from last night and instinctively demands the fight to stop. Even his childhood friend jack sees this as strange, meaning that if Legoshi was, the way he was before, he would just remain passive and complicit, to the things around him. He has been touched by his malevolence right away. The only reason he can stand up against evil is that there's some evil in him. He's incorporated essentially, of course now by demanding the two students to stop, he is enacting his authority onto them. That doesn't go very well because in the dominant hierarchical Legoshi kept himself in very low status. Physically Legoshi is stronger than the other student and the show emphasizes this by highlighting the different physical attributes that Legoshi has compared to the other students. But Legoshi still wants to lose on purpose as he's still not ready to take on responsibility for his strength, he'd rather get beaten. Again, part of how you regulate your interactions with other people is to negotiate, and you cannot negotiate unless you can say 'no'. You can't do it and it causes conflict to say 'no'. And if you don't like conflict which is the definition of being agreeable, you can't tolerate the conflict and so then you can't negotiate on your behalf. Eventually, you will keep losing and you will be bullied. Then you get resentful and it's not good.

Luckily Louis comes in to save the day. He also gives Legoshi a pep talk. Meeting the wolf considers his role in the school. 'If he's the justice around there, what's that make me back in the drama club.' - 

Legoshi starts to get some roses from the gardening club, and there he stumbles upon a very familiar scent.

The relationship between Haru and Legoshi is worth exploring. After seeing Haru again, Legoshi instantly tries to run away but ends up trapped with her, and has to face her. Of course, Legoshi is not afraid of her or herself rather than the idea of his malevolence. After all, the last time they were alone together he almost devoured her so it makes sense that Legoshi is fairly anxious about being around her. However, as the two spend time together Legoshi develops new feelings towards her. He can see her as more than just prey and in return sees himself as less of a predator.

For now, we jump ahead to another scene, Louis and Legoshi's scene. What I do find interesting is how much Legoshi is paying attention to his body language. It's a constant theme throughout these three episodes that Louis keeps trying to get Lugosi to show the real side of him. 'Why don't you take responsibility for who you are?'

Because Louis sees this pretend act of weakness as a sign of disrespect towards him -

'no matter how hard I work, to predators I just meal.' - 'I'm telling you to show me your fangs', carnivores exposing their facts to herbivores is forbidden. I think the pivotal moment is when Legoshi's fangs sink into Louis's hands, notice the very gentle way he does it. He doesn't even break the skin it's a gesture that Legoshi is incorporating his shadow further. He can bite but has enough control of himself not to cross the line he did during the previous night. Sophisticated people understand that you don't make men harmless by making them weak, you make them useful and responsible by helping them. Bring their capacity for mayhem and aggression under long-term conscious careful control. Later on in biology, a place design for each species to enjoy their natural habitat Legoshi contemplates his identity; 'is it true what I told Louis that I'm not just a monster looking in the darkness. I'm a mammal carnivore and part of the Kennedy family and I'm also a male wolf.' Finally, we see Legoshi look at himself in the mirror but there is a change. We don't see the shadow anymore, this signifies a better understanding of himself. He finds happiness and accepting who he is, it was this emotion I was feeling. It felt like I saw a glimpse of myself. Legoshi's character is more refined and raw in this opening spectrum of season 1 than his ever-changing prospect of season 2 for the sake of protecting others. These early episodes, it was an excellent character study of the shadow that showcases the issues we all have to face as we grow and develop our identity. Legoshi as a character and Beastars, in general, shows the dangers of pressing your nature rather than accepting it and incorporating it into your being. It is only when we accept responsibilities for our own lives and who we are, we can start making the world a better place. This is especially true for men as our society is steadily fighting against male identity and masculinity. It can lead to a lot of resentment and self-hatred. We're so stupid, we're alienating young men and we're telling them that they are patriarchal oppressors and denizens of rape culture. We fail to discriminate between their competence and their tyranny. It is, I found in Beastars that voiced for the toxicity of our societal showy feminism. It is an issue of the modern world for a privileged doctrine that we have to suffer for what the era before has done. A far-fetched idea we contrived, claiming that as a side effect of Karma we are ridiculing the balance of society. I am not going to say anything about this matter as the blog was related to the character explanation of Beastars, not something of a topic like a contradiction magnet, Feminism. Hope you would understand, and this is where it ends for now. As Legoshi's journey follows, we will study him on with what we have found in him, and not going to invent anything regarding his statistics of development, here on.

Riz

As I am entering in a character who was an effective piece in season 2 of the show, you should be aware of the fact that from here on it will contain spoilers of season 2. So be a good boy and go watch it first, then come and read it out. I know you will do it cause, like me, you have come to adore this series so much that you are still reading it to this point. And if you have skipped the part before, please just get lost!

So without further adieu, let's continue_

Riz is probably the best-written antagonist in the series in my opinion. Riz in season 2 has both an interesting motivation and a defined goal. Riz has committed murder and now he just wants to live a quiet life. Riz is what you would call a passive antagonist.

What does that mean?

-in a story, you have the protagonist and the antagonists who are intertwined in a conflict with each other. You have active and passive variants of both. A passive protagonist is the type of character who is just chilling, minding his own business and then the antagonist actively goes out and creates conflict that the protagonist is thrown into, and has to go against a refractory response. Now imagine that but reversed, Riz committed murder but didn't want to start a conflict with anyone afterward so he laid low and decided not to engage in any conflict at all. Therefore in this situation, he became passive. Legoshi, the protagonist who is active in this situation, and if I am going, to be honest, Legoshi is the active protagonist in the entire show. Legoshi could have just continued minding his own business too. He didn't have to accept Rokume's offer. But what is so interesting about Legoshi is that he pursues things no matter what the consequences are, and that's what happened here. What I am trying to get out of here is that all the times we've seen real-eyed murderous Riz, except one of the times, are a result of Legoshi's doing. As I said before Riz is laying low and he doesn't want to devour anyone else, unlike Kira(from death note) he doesn't have this whole secret plan to continue killing people while laying low. He does just want to live a normal life. With characters like Riz you would see them pretending to act normal but then when the other characters go off-screen, he starts acting all dastardly and evil, and such. But what's unique about Riz's character is that what he is doing isn't an act. He only acts viciously when Legoshi actively pursues him

- Legoshi, "Ah! what the hell are you talking about you meat-eater? are you just telling that to yourself?" 

-"Tell me Riz, tell me how guilty Tem is for his crimes?" 

-'stop it Legoshi, ah someone stops him".

-Riz, "Let's stop this they're all watching." 

-Legoshi, "I don't care".

-Riz, "that's only your concern. All carnivores should know how to control their emotions. your soul is inferior to mine I don't feel torment anymore because I know how herbivores taste like." 

The point that I am getting at in all of this is that Riz was living in a delusion, that he forgot was fake, and the reason why he acts out so harshly against Legoshi, is because of something that Legoshi doesn't even know he's doing. Legoshi thinks that Riz is just some thug who pretends to be good, so every time he sees Riz acting friendly he gets pissed off. While the way that risk perceives all this is completely different. Riz has convinced himself that what he did was not wrong, and so he continues to live on as if everything is normal. But Legoshi pointing out his wrongdoing causes his subconscious to slowly unravel the truth of what happened with him and Tem. To him, his mind is constantly trying to convince himself that he is in the right. His own active and subconscious minds being to conflict with each other and he begins to act out, out of panic. In Riz's mind, he has convinced himself that he is not the villain. That is why he is still able to act nice without it being an act of murder attempt Murder is a traumatic event not just for the victim but also for the person, committing the act themselves. Riz is a large carnivorous, grizzly bear and because of that fact, so many people are scared of him, carnivores and herbivores. Unlike Tem, an herbivore, less than half of his size accepted him for who he was and that was life-changing for him. Riz has to take government-mandated strength reduction pills that all bears over 2 meters tall have to take. And Tim has told Riz that he doesn't think it was weird that he had to take them. But Riz interpreted that as Tim telling him, he doesn't have to take those pills at all. And so Riz lost control and devoured Tem. Because as we have seen, with how he perceived Tem's death as a whole, any violence that he commits towards his friends, he experiences in his mind something instantly triggers a coping mechanism that alters his perception of what is currently happening, or what has already happened. It seems the way that this mechanism works and why it happens is that Riz just wants the best for himself and his friends. But he wants it so badly to the point where if things go wrong his mind instantly tries to make up for it, and keep him from having a complete mental breakdown.

Now back to how committing murder is traumatic; for everyone involved, there are people out there who feel nothing from murder, but with seeing how Riz's mind works he is not that type of person. After he murdered Tem, his mind was in extreme disarray. After trying to sort out the fact that he is now a murderer and also trying to suppress that same fact; if Riz's mind goes into a state of coping that involves extreme cognition, changes from just breaking his friend's arm. Just imagine how much that coping mechanism has to cover with a full-on murder. As a result 'resist cognition' of everything surrounding Tem's murder became extremely distorted_

"Cooking calms my heart down, we're best friends, it makes me remember clearly of Tim. And that night I'll accept every part of you."

For Riz eating is the celebration of life.

"Tim when you were about to enter my mouth, you were smiling weren't you? my memories must become more beautiful as long as I never forget how Tem tasted. I'll never yearn for my sense of taste."

For him, one thing leads into another deeper thing, that leads even deeper and deeper, to the point where everything through his viewpoint becomes distorted, beyond belief. We have even seen him do this with Legoshi. We saw another reason why Riz reacts so harshly to Legoshi, pressing him. Remember how I said the first reason is that Legoshi is unintentionally reminding him of the truth of the reality of the situation. And so his 'coping mechanism' and his subconscious mind are constantly battling to keep each other suppressed which ultimately causes him to fall into extreme panic. Well, the second reason is the thing that his coping mechanism is trying to fight against the truth. His coping mechanism has convinced him that devouring a person is just making friends with them, and Legoshi trying to expose the fact that he ate Tem is just him trying to come between and break up their friendship that he build with Tem_

"You and I are going to have the fiercest friendship the world has ever seen, I wonder what a friendship with you would taste like, Legoshi."

By the climax of season 2, Riz's coping mechanism had become so out of control that he no longer was living in any truth at all. In the beginning, just the murder attempt was distorted in his mind. But then Legoshi had to be accounted for which put even more mental strain on him, which became his breaking point and led him to straight-up trying to commit murder again. Because of how deep Riz was in his delusions he convinced himself that anyone trying to break apart his friendship with Tem should be killed. But of course, since Riz can't come to terms with the fact that he is a murderer, he just has to become friends with Legoshi and Pina. So Legoshi isn't the only one who knows that Riz is the killer. While Legoshi was confronting Riz about it, Pind kind of overheard everything, and so now he and Legoshi are both pursuing Riz.

Pina is a lot less active about it than Legoshi is though but that doesn't mean that he and Riz still don't have their moments of opposition. Legoshi is the one who lives in Riz's mind, while Pina is kind of just a thorn in his side.

- so how does Riz interpret Pina?

Well, we don't get to see much of that compared to his inner thoughts on Legoshi, but I will tell you about all I can with that. 

Pina's character is that he is all bark and no bite. He constantly talks about how anyone could do whatever they want because it is in their nature to do so, but just because they do it still doesn't make it right. He lives his life like that. He tells Legoshi that he could eat him and he wouldn't mind, he would still put him down. He still, wouldn't care and that overconfident attitude transfers over to how he talks to Riz.

Now let's try to get inside Riz's mind and try to picture how he thinks of Pina. Because of it, Riz's coping mechanism has convinced him that he has done nothing wrong. But Pina just loves to push his buttons. Pina already talks down to carnivores and as we could see with all the other carnivores in the drama club. They are pretty conflicted by that. So imagine how Riz who is already very conflicted with how Pina knows that he is Tem's killer, would also take Pina's talking down to him_

-"I'm looking forward to practicing today, Pina."

-"Hey you surprised me Riz-senpai, I don't think I can pee here. Can't get comfortable peeing next to a murderer, you know I'm out of here."

-"You're a part of this too you know. you are the only other one. Legoshi-Kun who knows about my murder. I think what I'll do after I kill Legoshi., is let loose all of my emotions and devour you from top to bottom."

-"From top to bottom I wouldn't go that far if I were you, these horns are clearly in the way and I don't think they taste very good".

(eating his finger)

-"No sorry about that, your finger is smelled like honey."

What's so important about this scene is that this signifies Riz's complete shift of character as a direct result of both Legoshi and Pina's pressure. And his coping mechanism enveloping his mind, too much twist. Villains are not always the best because they come out at the end of the movie, and we barely get to know that character as a villain. But what I like about Riz is that he wasn't handled that way. Sure he wasn't exactly built up the best, so his revelation wasn't as shocking, but at least we did get to know him as the antagonist, and so we got to see him develop into what he had become. By the climax, towards the beginning I tell you about how Riz was a passive antagonist and how Legoshi was the trigger that forcibly started bringing out his true side; well, there is a point, where Riz does shift from being passive to also active. That moment was when he straight-up tried to kill Legoshi in the school showers. There was that time earlier when Riz blindfolded Legoshi and tried to kill him but the difference between that time and the time of the showers was that back then Riz continued to be passive. Even after Legoshi survived his attack, he was only doing things as a result of Legoshi trying to disrupt his peaceful life; and even though it didn't work, at least Legoshi didn't figure out that he was the killer. That was until the deep kiss.

But the shower fight scene is different because from this point on Riz's pursuit of both Legoshi and Pina was no longer something he was just going to do from the shadows, and try to continue living a normal life and not attack again. If Legoshi stopped actively searching him out he knew that he could no longer just react back to them and try to cover up what they're saying in the moments where they could spill the beans about his murder. At this point, he had to actively pursue Legoshi and Pina to make sure those moments could never possibly happen again. This is what I like about Riz's character and his development. His antagonist versus protagonist relationship with Legoshi is so much stronger than the season one. Because the things that Riz does are all direct results of Legoshi. If Legoshi wasn't there, Riz wouldn't have done all of the things he did. Other than eating Tem, Riz hasn't done anything after it, and just wanted to live a normal life. The reason why I'm writing about all this is that Beastars is a heavily character-driven anime and I feel that Riz and Legoshi's actions being entirely based on what they do to each other is one of the best examples in this series. In my opinion, Beastars is at its best when having a reactionary antagonist like Riz, because I feel that the author was able to take advantage of that aspect of him to craft the most persona and engaging conflict that Legoshi has ever had with an antagonist in the series.

So now this all leads me to the climax, the new year's eve duel between Riz and Legoshi. This wasn't just a fight between two carnivores, this was a clash of two ideas of what a carnivore's true purpose is. You see in the shower fight where Legoshi had fully pushed Riz to the breaking point of his denial, something new came to light within him. Riz had to use violence to make Tem become his friend, and now he has to use violence to do the same to make Legoshi one too. What I find so interesting about the complexity of Riz's character is how you could see, how some of the new ideas that he coins throughout season 2 are a direct result of Legoshi's breaking down his coping mechanism, and Riz trying to build around those cracks. The truth of reality is that Riz wanted to express friendlessness with his carnivore strength, but all it brought him was pain. But he doesn't know that he's feeling pain because his mind told him that he was just becoming friends with Tem. But at the back of his mind, the pain is still there that caused Riz to come up with the mindset that the only way to become friends with someone was through a painful act. Therefore a carnivore's strength only exists to cause them pain.

That's what this final battle is about. It is Riz and his ideal of how a carnivore's strength is only there to cause them pain and LEgoshi's ideal of how a carnivore's strength is there to protect. And that strength to protect is fueled by passion and love. Right before this battle, Riz does something pretty insane but it also does match up with his development past the shower fight he wants Legoshi to fight without holding back and so he does something kind of drastic. Anyway, for the final battle, Riz is so desperate to not let the time he spent with Tem go, that he is ready to fully go through with devouring Pina and Legoshi.

This was it, this was the battle that was either going to save Riz from his delusions or have him drown in them. he did come very close to winning though but thanks to the combined efforts of both Louis and Legoshi, they were able to save Riz from himself, and he finally came to his senses_ 

"It might not be the best time to say it but happy new year, you win Legoshi, my heart's been broken for the past year but now I feel like I can actually breathe. Now I sugarcoated my memory of Tem, and I looked at the herbivores around me like they were food so I could protect myself from getting hurt. I was wrong about everything and I was found out by a very strange wolf, he ate flesh and yet his eyes look beautiful. I must have looked nothing like him. When I ate him my face was covered in blood, just as he is right now, yet the difference is clear. You have established a genuine 'carnivore-herbivore friendship'".

I feel that this was the perfect way to end season 2.

Riz's actions were dictated by Legoshi this whole time so it's the perfect send-off that Legoshi was the one to finally save him from himself. In Riz's new cleared state of mind, he started to find acceptance for what happened all this time. He was just continuously denying what happened with him and Tem, and that's what led him into this path of madness. But now that he has accepted what has happened he could finally move on and become a better person.

As the cops come, even though Riz finally accepted the truth, he has to serve in jail, but he will be out one day and he will be ready to live life as a better person. You know why? - well, after all of this Legoshi, Louis and Pian realized that Riz in the end was just lonely, and while Legoshi and Louis couldn't do anything about it because they were very occupied with other stuff. This time it is sad that Riz couldn't get help before all this happened, maybe if he did, Tem would still be here, but this passes in the past and can't be changed. What matters is what we do now in the present. What we do with the past is learn from it and use that knowledge to better ourselves in the present. The horrible things that Riz did will never go away from history but he has accepted that and is trying to change for the better now.

He is no longer living in the past and even though we may never know what his future will truly be, at least things are looking better.

So with this little hope in hand, we are closing this extended matter along with the blog itself. I think it has helped you and your views about the show and extended insight into the sketch of character development. I know it is not the maximum that I covered here, but I have to say, I nearly ruled out these two major characters and their psyche before you. Thank you, and see you in my next blog.