Temptation
Episode 6 of Beastars begins with Legoshi and the others seeing news spreading of another murder on campus. This sparks a whole wave of hatred toward the wolf-kind again as Legoshi befriends a freshman wolf called Juno, who’s just joined the drama club. It turns out herbivores are banned from heading outside following the murder too. Instead, the carnivores head to the market where Legoshi sees adults living in harmony first-hand – nothing like the hierarchical world of high school. As they reach the Black Market, Legoshi is coerced into trying to buy a beggar’s finger but he refuses to do so. Bill however, is more enthused and the idea of doing so excites him. Legoshi rushes through the market, drooling at the temptations around him, as he passes out near the edge of town. When he awakens, he finds himself captured by a Panda who interrogates him and asks when he last ate a herbivore. This panda happens to be a Psychotherapist and he takes him home where they share food together – after he blows smoke out his nose. Is this a bit of foreshadowing regarding the opening episode? Is this panda responsible for the murder of Tem? He goes on to tell Legoshi the truth about who he is and implores the wolf to break off his relationship with Haru before it’s too late, believing this just to be his animalistic tendencies presenting themselves in a different form. Legoshi bolts from the therapist and runs into Aoba who couldn’t go through with eating the finger either, apologising to him for how he acted earlier. This episode, more so than the others this season, is a really interesting one, showing that carnivores can be gentle in this world and doing a great job to break through some of these stereotypes. Seeing the panda blowing smoke out his nose feels a bit like foreshadowing as mentioned earlier, especially given the manner this was shown so prevalently early on. For now though, Tem’s murderer remains a mystery but I’m sure it won’t be long before we find out who’s responsible.
