Yeah, Gosha is on the cover this time around. Not surprisingly, this volume features a lot of everyone’s favourite scaly grandfather, and he gets plenty of opportunities to prove that he’s still pretty spry!
As with my reviews of the other volumes of Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga, this review will contain some spoilers for events in both this and previous volumes in the series.
Synopsis:
After having a heart-to-heart with his grandfather, Legoshi is feeling more at ease with his situation, but there’s more trouble brewing in the city. There’s a dangerous new drug on the streets, called BB, that stimulates a carnivore’s desire for meat and causes those already addicted to herbivore flesh to go berserk. And that’s not the only problem Legoshi needs to deal with! Yahya, the current beastar and Gosha’s former friend, has never gotten over the fact that Gosha gave up on their dream to become co-beastars, and he’s taken a keen interest in his former partner’s grandson. Looks like Legoshi isn’t going to be able to live in peace anytime soon!
Review:
Yahya initially seemed like a pretty cool dude. He’s dedicated to rooting out injustice and basically acts like a super hero, going around stopping crimes, exposing misdeeds and dispatching bad guys with a few, well-placed kicks. In this volume, it’s revealed that he’s also a huge jerk!
Yahya shows up unannounced at Gosha’s home and basically attacks him, causing a lot of property damage in the process. Gosha handles this quite graciously, despite the fact that Yahya is being an unreasonable dolt and broke a bunch of his stuff. Then Yahya asks Gosha if he wants to join him in fighting crime again, and is pretty sulky when Gosha turns him down.
At this point in time, Yahya and Gosha are old enough that Gosha has an, almost, adult grandson. Yet Yahya is still hung up on the fact that Gosha backed out of their plans to become co-beastars when they were teenagers? Talk about holding a grudge!
With Gosha determined to avoid fighting unless it’s absolutely necessary, Yahya soon becomes interested in Legoshi instead. I’m not sure if Yahya is going to try and recruit Legoshi to his cause and force him to hold up his grandfather’s side of their old bargain, or if he’s going to try and extract revenge on the young wolf to get back at Gosha for breaking their promise. Either way, he really needs to just get over this and move on. Maybe take a break from crime fighting for a night and go out and make some new friends, Yahya!
Legoshi meanwhile, remains oblivious to Yahya’s scheming and has a series of small mis-adventures in this volume. He spends time hanging out with Seven, causing several misunderstandings, and gets to know some of the other residents of the Beast Apartments. This includes Sagwan, a spotted seal who possesses a unique cultural perspective, being part marine and part land animal.
I found it really interesting to see how the philosophy of the creatures dwelling in the ocean differed from those living on land, especially in regards to their views on consuming other living creatures. Because marine beasts believe in the cycle of reincarnation, they aren’t as concerned with death or being eaten by their fellow marine creatures. This really throws Legoshi for a loop, as not hurting others is a core value of his and he has a hard time understanding a mindset that treats death so casually.
In the end, he’s able to accept Sagwan and respect his different views, despite not agreeing with him about everything, and they manage to become friends.
The highlight of this volume, for me, was Legoshi’s reunion with Louis! These two never fail to make me laugh!
There were a lot of fun little moments in this volume, and Yahya’s weird grudge over Gosha’s “betrayal” promises to lead to some exciting scenarios in future volumes. Hopefully he won’t be too much of a jerk to our favourite wolf boy, but I find it hard to believe that he’ll be reasonable. Guess I’ll find out in volume 14!
Final Score: 7 out of 10
For more information on this manga, visit Viz Media’s website.
What did you think of this volume? What are your thoughts on Yahya? Let me know in the comments!
Be sure to check out my reviews of the other volumes in the Beastars manga series:
- Beastars Vol 1 Review
- Beastars Vol 2 Review
- Beastars Vol 3 Review
- Beastars Vol 4 Review
- Beastars Vol 5 Review
- Beastars Vol 6 Review
- Beastars Vol 7 Review
- Beastars Vol 8 Review
- Beastars Vol 9 Review
- Beastars Vol 10 Review
- Beastars Vol 11 Review
- Beastars Vol 12 Review
- Beastars Vol 13 Review
- Beastars Vol 14 Review
- Beastars Vol 15 Review
- Beastars Vol 16 Review
- Beastars Vol 17 Review
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