manga | St. Gallen's Scribblings

Film Review – The Lion King (1994)

Simba the Brownish Gold Lion

When I was young and carefree, I didn’t really have strong opinions on anything like most media, video games included (and I’ve been a gamer for as long as I remember), or any other media like books, movies, and television shows. In the early 1990s, I did have a slight interest in Disney’s animated films and had seen many in the theaters then, but when The Lion King came out in 1994, refused the opportunity to see it with my family when we visited my late maternal grandparents then. Since then, I hadn’t actually seen the film in its entirety to the point I could remember it, but recently watched it in full on Disney+ to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary.

The film opens with the iconic “Circle of Life” musical number and sequence where the newborn Simba, son of King Mufasa, is presented to the animal population of the Pride Lands. When Simba grows up, his father teaches him about royal responsibilities and preserving the “circle of life,” which connects all living entities. However, Mufasa hypocritically excludes the hyenas from it, with his effeminate younger brother, Scar, conspiring with them to seize the throne for himself. Some of the character names, Scar’s included, create an Aerith and Bob situation, like the main hyenas being named Shenzi, Banzai, and…Ed. Scar’s birth name, Taka, is never mentioned within the film, and a flashback in the future series The Lion Guard shows how he got his namesake facial blemish.

“When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life…but not the hyenas.”

Young Simba is a bit of a brat, and many musical numbers feel a bit excruciating, such as “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” (which steals a bit from Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”), and “Be Prepared” (sharing its name with the Boy Scout motto doesn’t help). Scar ultimately tricks his nephew into going into the middle of a gorge while having the hyenas incite a stampede of wildebeests try to kill him, which results in Mufasa rescuing him but being killed himself in the process. Simba is blamed (mostly rightfully) for killing the king, with his uncle telling him to run away, which he does.

Simba eventually encounters the vagrant meerkat Timon and the warthog Pumbaa, who teach him through song “hakuna matata,” the art of not giving a damn, which he masters into adulthood. He rescues the two from his old friend Nala, with whom he falls in love, and who tells him that the Pride Lands has become drought-stricken under Scar’s reign. The film shows no logical explanation as to exactly how they did, with starvation present as well due to the lionesses refusing to hunt, so one could count them among the real villains of the movie alongside Mufasa.

The real heroes of the film.

After a celestial visit from his father, Simba returns to the Pride Lands to confront his uncle, with the rest of the film having plenty of callbacks to the first act. Overall, The Lion King definitely has many positive aspects, including the soundtrack (with exceptions such as a few of the musical numbers), strong voice performances (including James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Jeremy Irons as Scar, and Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin as the hyenas Shenzi and Banzai), and parallels to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, the movie does derive elements from Osamu Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion, and there are others issues like zero in-film explanation about the climate during Scar’s kingship. Regardless, it’s easily a bucket-list animated film, but as with many others, that’s far from synonymous with “masterpiece.”

The Good	The Bad
Hamlet, but with lions. Great voice performances. Beautiful animation. Nice ethnic soundtrack.	Some unexplained plot elements. Borrows elements from Kimba the White Lion. A few excruciating musical numbers. Toilet humor.
The Bottom Line
A must-see Disney classic, but not synonymous with “masterpiece.”

RIP Akira Toriyama

Posted on March 7 by Remy St. Gallen

He was 68.

He created the Dragon Ball animanga series and was the character and monster designer of the Dragon Quest franchise and Chrono Trigger, among others. This leaves only Yuji Horii, the scenario writer of DQ (composer Koichi Sugiyama died back in 2021), and it seems the twelfth promised mainline entry (The Flames of Fate) is now far greater vaporware than it was before, and since Toriyama to me is somewhat irreplaceable (and Sugiyama too to an extent), I doubt it will become a Franchise Zombie like other game franchises have become (i.e. Final Fantasy). Rest in peace, Toriyama-san.

Beastars, Volume 22

Posted on August 26 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 22 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with its predecessors, the final installment of Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of preceding entries and a visual depiction of the dramatis personae. The main action begins with the media questioning a gazelle who claims to be the father of the half-gazelle, half-leopard villain Melon, and proves to be the key to stopping the riots that have ensued around the black market. The gray wolf Legoshi continues to battle Melon, who invites his lupine adversary to kill him. Gosha, the Komodo dragon, recalls his interspecies relationship with his wolf wife, Toki, which included obsessive disinfection given his poison.

The citizens get a good view of the black market, with Louis, the red deer, wanting the carnivores and herbivores to glimpse the truth. However, their reaction is surprising as Legoshi and Melon continue their battle, with the underground district changing in recent years. Louis wants to involve himself in his friend’s battle, with Melon doubting that carnivores and herbivores will never be at peace. After the black market turf war, Legoshi prepares to bid farewell to his spotted seal apartment neighbor, Sagwan, who yearns to return to the seas. Meanwhile, Louis must choose between his deer fiance, Azuki, and his school girlfriend, Juno, the wolf.

Legoshi’s relationship with his girlfriend, the Netherland dwarf rabbit Haru, receives resolution, as do many of the other notable characters of the Beastars universe. After the main chapters, Itagaki reflects upon creating her magnum opus, including a deleted scene where Legoshi interacts with Gosha, the giant panda psychiatrist who worked in the black market. Overall, the twenty-second volume nicely resolves the Beastars manga, with the carnivore/herbivore relations reflecting racial tensions in human society. However, the biggest issue remains the absence of any mention of omnivorism, which exists beyond the human world.

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Beastars, Volume 21

Posted on August 20 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 21 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The penultimate entry of mangaka Paru Itagaki’s Beastars series opens with a synopsis of recent events and visual depictions of the dramatis personae. Protagonist Legoshi, the gray wolf, wins the trust of the Doku-gumi populated by Komodo dragons, becoming an official turf war contender, the leonine Shishi-gumi keeping watch on him while facing the Madara-gumi composed of jaguars. The lupine’s next opponents are the vixens of the Inari-gumi; however, Legoshi struggles due to his reluctance to battle females, ultimately settling on dressing in drag to battle on equal terms, which he finds difficult.

During the war, rain begins to precipitate despite no prior indicators of cloudy weather, a so-called “sun shower” that extinguishes all torches in the black market. The main antagonist Melon, the offspring of a male gazelle and female jaguar, has flashbacks of when his mother wanted to take baths with him, which involves a childhood trauma of seeing the backprints on her fur resembling swarming insects. Meanwhile, Louis continues his press conference as the new president of his adoptive father’s business, the Horns Conglomerate, where he openly speaks about the black market and accuses members of the press of having been to it alongside other carnivores in the city.

Consequentially, the madness transpiring in the black market begins in the city streets, with a battle for supremacy between carnivores and herbivores. The rain causes a blackout that gives the former group an advantage, with the current Beastar, Yahya, the horse, walking between them as a gesture to the carnivores. The power does return, with Legoshi continuing his battle with Melon; the Shishi-gumi also use Legoshi’s rabbit trainer, Kyu, as bait, in which case she attempts to escape. Louis is eventually forced from his address for inciting riots, although the Shishi-gumi come to his rescue, the police giving chase as well.

The twenty-first volume ends with Legoshi and Melon’s battle undecided, with Itagaki afterward including story panels where she ponders the conclusion of her manga, along with brief bios of the Inari-gami and Madara-gami. Following these is a Japanese word chain game and a list of the background music the mangaka listened to while producing her series. In summation, this entry of the Beastars series is enjoyable as its precursors, with endearing characters, action, and twists. However, as before, Itagaki ignores the gray area between carnivores and herbivores since omnivores do appear outside the human race in the animal kingdom.

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Beastars, Volume 20

Posted on August 17 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 20 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The twentieth volume of Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga opens, like its precursors, with a synopsis of recent events and visuals of the main characters. The opening action features gray wolf Legoshi defining the term “tableclothing” as when the snouts of beasts wrinkle and they lose control of their emotions, as he is during his training with the rabbit Kyu. Legoshi had felt the same way when battling the bear Riz, now in an attempt to stop Kyu from rebreaking a giraffe’s neck in a cast, which she feels is essential to his training.

During his pursuit, Legoshi gets Kyu’s head into his jaws, having removed his dentures before doing so, with the rabbit feeling close to death, remembering when her parents had sold her to the black market. Fasting is also a final component in the wolf’s training. Furthermore, he wishes Kyu to command him to “stay” as a human in real life would a domestic dog, and she agrees. Meanwhile, Legoshi’s apartment neighbor, Sagwan the spotted seal, tries checking on his friend, he and the sheep Seven, another resident, worrying about him.

Seven deals with a carnivorous client, with his gesture of a handshake frowned upon by others, alongside his openly mentioning the black market. Legoshi and the half-leopard, half-gazelle Melon plan to duel on Happy Meat Day, which is also the Rexmas holiday, where beasts honor a tyrannosaurus rex that received wings after the extinction of the dinosaurs and rejuvenating the world. Haru, the Netherland dwarf rabbit, walks the city streets alone, which is seen as dangerous since the carnivores are showing delinquent behavior, and she can only converse with her love interest Legoshi through his apartment door.

Legoshi continues to train in his apartment, scratching the floor with his claws and understanding that many beasts in winter can survive for extended periods w/o food or drink, with Haru being his source of sustenance. After he leaves, police investigate his apartment, now bloodstained with red deer blood, with Louis, the cervine fitting the bill, believed murdered. On the eve of his forthcoming duel, Melon has nightmares about his mother and notices that his leopard spots have greatly multiplied, attempting to gouge them as the black market turf wars officially commence.

Contrary to what the police and media believe, Louis is alive and begins to speak at his first press conference as head of the Horns Conglomerate with the cover story that he gave blood for charity and wishes to talk about the black market, which has received a giant blockading gate due to the danger posed by the turf wars. Legoshi enters the black market battles proper and begins by fighting the Doku-gumi, consisting of Komodo dragons, which last until the end of the volume. A visualization of a typical Rexmas celebration comes after the main chapters.

Overall, this is another enjoyable volume of the Beastars manga, with its characters continuing to be endearing and satisfactorily concluding Legoshi’s training under Kyu, which diverges from what he had received under the giant panda Gohin. However, some elements abound that only Japanese readers would understand, like herbivores seeing the River Sanzu when close to death, and Itagaki, as before, overlooks the gray area between carnivorous and herbivorous diets called omnivorism. Regardless, the manga’s action intensifies with this installment, and I recommend it to those who have enjoyed its precursors.

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Beastars, Volume 19

Posted on August 16 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 19 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like its precursors, the nineteenth volume of the Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of recent events and a visual summary of the chief characters. The main action continues Legoshi the gray wolf’s training with the rabbit Kyu, which he is reluctant to go through given his reluctance to fight back against females. Then comes the revelation that Gohin, a giant panda, who had trained Legoshi before, had rescued Kyu from the black market, after which the wolf and rabbit concur that Melon, a half-leopard, half-gazelle, must be defeated, with a backstory involving his leopard mother revealed as well.

The lion-populated black-market gang, the Shishi-gumi, wish to off Melon, choosing one of their members, Agata, to assassinate their leader. Coincidentally, the melon fruit from which the half-herbivore, half-carnivore received his name becomes popular in the city where the manga occurs, with Legoshi informing the current Beastar, the horse Yahya, that he wishes to confront the gang leader on the forthcoming Meat Day when rival mafias in the black-market engage in turf wars. Legoshi informs his friend, the red deer Louis, of his inventions to confront Melon, during which he hears unfortunate news of his adoptive father, Ogma.

Louis later goes to the Wisdom Soul Festival, where herbivores pray for protection from carnivores. There, he reunites with Haru, who notes that her relationship with Legoshi changed her perspectives and that she had promised Melon at her university to let him devour her. Legoshi then tries to sign up for the Mead Day turf wars. However, he must compete with Melon in a quiz show-like setting and answer questions correctly about animal society or risk death. The nineteenth volume concludes with Kyu attempting to write a letter to her rescuer Gohin, and how her attempt to attack a giraffe with his neck in a cast proves a turning point in training Legoshi.

After the main narrative are anecdotes of Legoshi’s “sideburns,” Louis perusing Ogma’s photographs, the Wisdom Soul Festival, Itagaki’s work-at-home attire, and two of Legoshi’s former roommates taking jobs. Overall, this volume of the Beastars manga is enjoyable as its predecessor; its animal characters are developed well alongside plenty of action. However, the story of Kyu training Legoshi somewhat parallels that of Gohin training him, and the mangaka, as before, ignores the gray area between carnivores and herbivores the real world knows as omnivores. Regardless, I recommend Volume 19 to those who have read and enjoyed the preceding entries.

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Beastars, Volume 18

Posted on August 11 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 18 by Paru Itagaki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unsurprisingly, the eighteenth entry of the Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of prior events and visual depictions of dramatis personae. The comic begins with a flashback of Gosha telling his grandson Legoshi to enroll at Cherryton Academy, with his best friend Jack taking him and introducing him to his canid roommates. Back to the present, Legoshi is aware his status as a registered meat offender prevents him from going out openly in public. However, his former roommates invite him to stay with them. Cherryton has, since a recent devouring, segregated carnivorous and herbivorous students, with the drama club remaining one of the few integrated school clubs.

When Legoshi visits his former dormmates at Cherryton, Jack is in a depressed mood and is contemplating suicide by eating an onion, poisonous to canids, with the wolf seeking to stop him. Despite the school’s segregation, the dining hall remains integrated since carnivorous and herbivorous students ate with their brethren anyway. Jack is in a small elite class at Cherryton where they learn about the history, dating back to the Carnivore-Herbivore War a century before the manga’s events, carnivores then termed “life eaters” and herbivores “nature eaters,” with the former protective of the latter upon first encounter. The appearance of a whale ended the conflict, although that which did so refuses to share his wisdom with the world again.

In the meantime, Bill the tiger becomes head of the drama club, and, when dining with his friends, cracks open an egg to find it contains a chick in development, a “trauma egg,” which they aim to rescue and ultimately take to a local police station. At the black market, the Shishi-gumi mourn their fallen comrade given the posthumous name Lion Glasses and observe how the district has changed, with turf wars imminent and the head of the leonine Shishi-gumi, the half-leopard, half-gazelle Melon wanting to claim the area of the city for his gang. Red deer Louis, saved from the black market by his adoptive father, talks with his foster son, who quickly visits the area with a visible price on him.

Louis and Legoshi proceed to the abandoned tower of the organization that had initially held the latter captive for devouring, where they discover his old cellmates, the doe rabbit Kyu and the llama San. Kyu agrees to take Legoshi as her disciple in eventually taking on Melon. However, the wolf’s reluctance to punch females is one of his weaknesses, with the rabbit entertaining the idea of creating an “imaginary chimera” to aid combat. Thus ends the manga proper, after which is a humorous scene of Legoshi and his friends eating monja at a restaurant, a comical take on an older chapter, an anecdote about Itagaki purchasing the wrong drawing paper, and an indicator of canid muzzle length being concurrent to age.

Overall, Volume 18 is another enjoyable addition to the Beastars manga, with plenty of action and character development, not to mention a backstory well before the Carnivore-Herbivore War that occurred a century before the manga’s present day. The reunion of Louis with his herbivorous cellmates from earlier in the manga is also a nice callback. However, the need for Legoshi to undergo another round of training somewhat recalls what he had under Gohin. The absence of a gray area between herbivores and carnivores known as omnivores is further unmentioned. Regardless, those into mature animal-themed stories will enjoy this manga.

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Beastars, Volume 17

Posted on August 5 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 17 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with its predecessors, Volume 17 of the Beastars manga opens with a synopsis of events from prior volumes and a visual depiction of the dramatis personae. The red deer Louis is in college and spends more time with his fiancée Azuki, her father being an executive, and seeks reinvolvement with the Shishi-gumi. Louis introduces his gray wolf friend Legoshi to the triad’s leonine members, whose numbers had dwindled since he had last headed the group. They visit the black market to seek the leader of the Kopi Luwak, a musk cat named Deshico who specializes in producing coffee beans.

Meanwhile, Melon has become an adjunct professor at Haru’s college, lecturing about the first herbivore-carnivore war that destroyed the harmony between the two dietary factions. The gazelle/leopard hybrid openly expresses his desire to devour the dwarf rabbit. Throughout his criminal past, Melon’s horns had gotten him off scot-free for his heinous acts so long as he wore his facemask to conceal his leopard portion. Back to Legoshi, he returns to his apartment to find Haru, with whom he wants to be more honest.

Legoshi ultimately decides to take down Melon himself, their battle starting at the Shishi-gumi headquarters before proceeding through the black market and then Central Street, where the police become involved and automatically target the wolf since they still perceive Melon as an herbivore. Itagaki follows with depictions of Legoshi’s biological changes as he aged, along with the metamorphosis of a two-page comic panel from a previous volume. This installment of the Beastars manga was like its predecessors enjoyable, although the lack of gray between carnivores and herbivores is still noticeable.

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Beastars, Volume 14

Posted on July 18 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 14 by Paru Itagaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with its precursors, the fourteenth installment of mangaka Paru Itagaki’s Beastars series opens with a synopsis of prior volumes, alongside visual depictions and descriptions of the various dramatic personae. The manga’s action commences proper with gray wolf Legoshi seeking something formal to wear during his visit to the current Beastar, the horse Yahya, who resides in a penthouse at the top of the same building as the police department’s headquarters. Yahya tells his visitor of his vigilantism, suggests society will never accept mixed-species families, and wants Legoshi to beg forgiveness for being a carnivore.

Meanwhile, Legoshi’s former fling, the dwarf rabbit Haru, is a college freshman, befriending other rabbits and moving on despite reminders of her romance with the wolf, noting another mixed-species couple in fellow lapine Ako and the lion Eado. After a tragedy, Haru seeks her former boyfriend, who has sought refuge in the giant panda therapist Gohin’s clinic and the black market. The dwarf rabbit remembers the gray wolf’s eighteenth birthday and visits his apartment. They begin to reconcile, Haru suggesting a visit to the black market.

Itagaki notes that several locales in her universe, including Cherryton Academy, Center Street, and even the black market, are half-herbivore and half-carnivore, with Haru wishing to press onward in her visit despite Legoshi’s warnings. They visit a rabbit meat shop having a contract with a funeral home, which doesn’t shock her, and makes her feel closer to her lupine lover. Legoshi then reunites with his former canid dormmates to visit B-Strike, where beasts can exercise their base instincts. For instance, canids can play fetch with a machine that shoots tennis balls.

Volume 14 ends with Yahya checking on a gazelle therapist and his elephant patient, which bears some twists and accounts for another satisfying entry in the anthropomorphic manga series. Design notes follow for the seal character Sagwan (though he doesn’t appear in this installment), along with some humorous anecdotes alongside Itagaki studying human expressions in movies for inspiration in her art. As with preceding entries, however, the mangaka ignores the gray dietary area of omnivores, though fans of anthropomorphic fiction will find this volume another satisfying yarn.

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Beastars, Volume 13

Posted on July 12 by Remy St. Gallen

BEASTARS, Vol. 13 by Paru Itagaki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The thirteenth installment of Paru Itagaki’s Beastars manga, like its predecessors, opens with a synopsis of recent important events and visual depictions of the various dramatis personae, afterward continuing where the twelfth volume left off, with gray wolf Legoshi’s maternal grandfather Gosha in a fight that he wins. The lupine himself still works at the Udon Noodle Shop Bebebe and receives the unique task of delivering orders to marine customers that live underwater, who speak a language divergent from that on the surface. Upon first contact, Legoshi has trouble, although a spotted seal named Sagwan, who lives in the same apartment as him, comes to the rescue.

Legoshi becomes friends with Sagwan, who is half-sea and half-land, learning about the latter area of the world. The wolf afterwards goes shoe-shopping with Seven the Merino sheep, with her carnivore coworkers coming and harassing her, though Legoshi gets them to retreat. In the meantime, Yahya the horse, the current Beastar, is on the lookout for the drug BB (Blood and Bones), concocted from the bones and blood of herbivores, ultimately reuniting with his old friend Gosha. Back to Legoshi, he has a run-in with thugs masking the illicit substances as an energy drink, with Louis the red deer entering the scene and the wolf lauded by the police for confronting the drug-dealers.

Volume thirteen concludes with Legoshi receiving a gift as thanks for dealing with the BB salesmen, a box of mochi rice cakes, which prompts him to throw a party to get to know his neighbors, after which he finds a letter from Yahya. Following the main action are anecdotes about Legoshi and Sagwan being nude together in one of their apartments (with the spotted seal forgoing clothes in his apartment since he doesn’t wear them underwater, not to mention a look into the mangaka’s creation schedule, her love of steampunk and gothic fashion, and experience with an airplane ride. Overall, the thirteenth Beastars volume is enjoyable yet shares most of its precursors’ flaws, namely the lack of any omnivorism in the manga’s world.

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