Beastars is something of a “dark version” of Disney’s Zootopia, taking anthropomorphic characters in their own fictional world and establishing classes of “predators and prey”. While the anime franchise has premiered on Netflix in Japan, it has yet to make its debut in North America, but that isn’t stopping us from diving into the series and what it took to make it. Recently, it’s been revealed that the director of the series, Shinichi Matsumi, began the process of producing Beastars with a surprising production schedule that may lead one to believe that a lot of work had gone into bringing this new world to life on one of the biggest streaming services around.
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Orange Animation Studio shared this news drop regarding Beastars via their Official Twitter Account, breaking down that Shinichi Matsumi had begun production on the series two years ago, proving that a fair amount of work had gone into creating this new anthropomorphic universe:
Kiyotaka Waki, producer for Land of Lustrous asked Matsumi two years ago when BEASTARS only had few volumes out to be one the project. Planning began right before Land of Lustrous came out. pic.twitter.com/NG8vwWj8Rr
— Orange: Animation Studio (@CG_Orange_eng) October 22, 2019
Beastars has made the news recently not just for the release of its first episodes, but also with the release of its crazy introduction that uses stop animation to bring viewers into this strange new world. Though the main series uses a combination of computer graphics and two dimensional animation, the stop animation introduction still managed to take viewers aback.
What do you think of the surprising production schedule for Beastars? Have you been watching the new anthropomorphic franchise? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Beastars!
Beastars will be directed by Shinichi Matsumi for Studio Orange, Nanami Higuchi (Little Witch Academia) will be writing the scripts, Nao Ootsu will be designing the characters, Eiji Inomoto (Ghost in the Shell Arise) will serve as the CG chief director, Minami Kasuga will serve as art director, Ken Hashimoto as color designer, Shiori Furusho as director of photography, Junichi Uematsu as editor, and Satoru Kousaki (Wake Up, Girls!, Oreimo) will be composing the music.
The series stars Chikahiro Kobayashi as Legoshi, Sayaka Senbongi as Haru, Yuuki Ono as Louis, Atsumi Tanezaki as Juno, Junya Enoki as Jack, Akio Ohtsuka as Gouhin, Takeo Otsuka as Collot, Yoshiyuki Shimozuma as Voss, Fukushi Ochiai as Sanou, Yuma Uchida as Miguno, Naoto Kobayashi as Durham, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Kai, Takaaki Torashima as Bill, Sayumi Watabe as Els, Genki Muro as Dom, Yuichi Iguchi as Kibi, Yuko Hara as Shiira, Ikuto Kanemasa as Aoba, Akane Ochi as Ellen, Hibiku Yamamura as Mizuchi, Sakura Andou as Legom, Mitsuaki Hoshino as Mayor, and Kenyuu Horiuchi as Oguma.
