Warning for more SPOILERS. The biggest is in white text, highlight to read.
In the opening scene, Legoshi and Haru confess their feelings for each other and become intimate- or attempt to. But the predator/prey instincts are too strong and they can’t go through with it. When they return to school things are even more awkward- the dorm mother and Legoshi’s roommates found his reading material about rabbits and now rumors fly that Legoshi has an unnatural rabbit fetish. Juno, still determined to “make Legoshi mine“, becomes fiercely jealous of Haru and threatens her. She’s even more angry when Legoshi spurns her in public at the festival. We get a flashback to Legoshi’s childhood, when he and labrador dog Jack became friends, and learn more of this animal society’s history.
Some of the worldbuilding ideas are kind of strange to me. Like that a small prey animal would, under extreme duress, feel compelled to put her body in her enemy’s mouth?? (No, I think they would desperately flee). Or that domestic animals (dogs and cats) were created through genetic engineering to end a war, by infusing milder traits into the preadatory species? And many of the “wild” felines and canines consider those domestics lesser, artificial animals. Or that a group of world leaders (one for each species) concerns itself over who is named “Beastar” of the high school (I guess it’s like prom king, or class president?) because after graduation that individual will take their place among the adult leadership. This was obviously supposed to be Louis, but they’re angling for someone else now.
The red deer shows up again at the end, having proven he can be even more aggressive and depraved than anyone imagined (including this reader). No scruples. Violent to the end. He thought he was going to die at the hands of the lion gang, but instead he became their new leader. Wow. Not sure if that move was just to save his own hide, or to prove his strength and brutality- shocking everyone, even himself.
Borrowed from the public library.
2 Responses
The domestic animal creation is weird, but I could kind of accept it. A prey animal entering a predator’s mouth when stressed, on the other hand… That’s so weird, I wonder if some future story twist will explain it.
My thoughts are the same. There’s quite a few things in here I keep wondering if it will come up again, like the hen that sold her eggs to feed her classmates, for example.