Well, this episode certainly caught me off guard. As Legosi decided to enter the Black Market last week, I didn’t expect him to go back to school this soon, although it makes sense in retrospect. The plot threads of Beastars race and Tem’s culprit are still in there, after all. But more than anything presented so far in this second season, for me episode 5 best captures the essence of Beastars’ second season themes: the duality between Legosi and Louis as they are chasing different paths. There’s an interesting parallel between Legosi’s and Louis’s actions for the past several weeks, and this week it becomes predominant. As Louis is forced to eat meat to retain his social status, Legosi trains himself to go full vegan. As Louis determines to clear every ties to advance his ladder (and to prevent them from getting hurt because of him), Legosi tries to live in harmony with the herbivores. The roles have switched between these two, as Louis thinks and acts like a carnivore, and Legosi behaves like a herbivore.
And this episode starts and finishes with the old Louis and the new Louis, so to speak. I find it extremely well done to make Juno’s character relevant again. Except for maybe Haru – which is their both love interest – Juno is one of the closest links to both Legosi and Louis and certainly the one who witnesses both characters’ transformations. Moreover, I simply enjoy how Louis and Juno share such a fantastic dynamic together. Juno realizes how hard Louis has fallen to the darkness and she clearly doesn’t want him to. That doesn’t sway Louis one bit, of course, and since the end of the first season, it’s the first (and might be the only time) where Louis truly lets loose, relax and just be pleasant all the way through. They scroll down the street at night and dance together. It’s just pure joy, and I suppose we don’t see anything like that in Louis anymore.
The last five minutes of this episode is when he tries to cut one of the ties of his old world, as he forces his adoptive Dad to sign him off from Cherryton school. He uses guns to negotiate for one thing, in which I am certain that his father won’t budge – he has been through more than this. The reason we soon know is because he doesn’t want his father getting troubles because of him, but it’s a clear metaphor that Louis is trying to cut off his old image, and the road that awaits him is dark and dangerous. If anything, the second-in-command Ibuki (and the very one that suggested Louis to become their leader) becomes more and more as Louis’s father figure. That’s heart-warming for sure but one where I suppose could bite him in the future if the rest of the gang decides to turn against Louis someday.
As for Legosi, our lone wolf goes through much stricter training with Panda-sensei, and by strict training I mean that he has to fight off his lust for meat. That takes a lot of resolve for sure, and so far Legosi manages alright with it (but the more hungry you are, the greater the chance you can’t control your temptation, right?). Not that he doesn’t have real-life disturbance to deal with, in the form of Pina. That little handsome sheep tries his best to mess with Legosi’s head. He provokes Legosi by both asking about his personal life, and offers himself for Legosi to eat. Legosi doesn’t bite this, thankfully, but Pina seems to be much more attentive than he lets on, and who knows how much he figures Legosi out. Pina’s the wild card for now, in terms of how he’s relevant to the story. I suppose he will eventually meet Haru and mess with Legosi even more. Which is fun to see it unfolds of course.
