BNA: Brand New Animal - Anime Review

Written by Shiggins

Prohare? Infurno Cop? Little Wolf Academia? I can go on.

Trigger is back with 12 episodes of their own animal-people anime, which coincidentally came out just a few months after the debut of Beastars. So either there is a trend starting in Japan focusing on anthropomorphic people, the furry community has gotten stronger than we realised, or we have a Antz/Bugs Life scenario going on here. Well, I don't know about any of that but I do know I've now seen both and BNA... well, it's certainly no Beastars.

Note: This is a spoiler-free review.

Despite the title swapping the NBA letters round and the big orb on the poster, basketball is never relevant. Ever. Weird, right?

BNA follows a young girl named Michiru (Sumire Morohoshi) who lives in a world where Beastkin (animal people) exist and she has suddenly become one of them; A tanuki, to be precise. She runs away to Animacity to find answers relating to how she went from human to tanuki, and quickly finds herself dealing with the roughness of the city, alongside the mayor's adviser, a wolf Beastkin named Shirou (Yoshimasa Hosoya).

As is always expected from Trigger, the animation is top-notch and colourful, but you might be surprised to hear that there's no aliens or dimensional monsters this time, so the locations are much less spectacular and crazy. A clean city with a fair share of slum areas, effective lighting changes and shadows, and lots of animal designs that you'll either remember very well like Shirou, or forget instantly like some of the supporting cast.

The songs for the opening and ending are both great, as are the accompanying animations, but the placement of the opening's song during the final episode suuuucks. And that's usually my favourite moment!

The protagonists are both fairly likeable, but have their annoying moments as well. I like Michiru's can-do attitude and determination, and her tanuki design is just adorable, but I can't remember the last time I saw a character be so repeatedly naive throughout an entire season. Once or twice at the start, that's fair since she's learning about the city, but when she's still falling for obvious lies and manipulation at the end, someone has messed up with writing her. As for Shirou, he's stoic and distant like you'd expect but with a side to him that's warm and kind that, again, you expect. I just wish we'd seen more scenes between him and Michiru, since there isn't much done in terms of bonding and growing a friendship, outside what we expect.

There's a lot going on in this picture but... that has to be a toupee, right?

As for the supporting cast... Honestly, none of them are that memorable, which is very surprising for a Trigger anime. Yes, there's a few kooky designs and personalities, but none of them really matter besides the boring villain and one other major character that I won't spoil but does help give Michiru some urgency. They feel like they had to exist, rather than a natural and necessary element to the story and the city. I can't tell you how much I began to miss lovable Sucy. More than usual, I mean.

When I look back at BNA, I remember two halves; The first half is a colourful and fun affair with some intrigue and a weirdly out-of-place but hilarious baseball episode (why have I seen three different anime baseball episodes in 2020?! Is this a new fad too?), and the second half is when the real meat of the story starts and everything becomes somewhat boring, as the villain monologues and Shirou gets grumpier.

Why have I seen three different anime show baseball episodes in 2020? Is this a new trend too?

When Shirou isn't being grumpy, he's fighting and that's some good action, when BNA really goes all-out with it. Shirou is a very-very strong wolf and has some great fighting moments against his fellow Beastkin, Michiru gets a special superpower that helps give some of these fights variety, there's an enemy in episode 8 that I am 100% convinced is meant to be a homage to One-Punch Man, and the final boss is as ridiculous and beautiful as you want a Trigger foe to be. And again, the animation makes it all look gorgeous.

The big question I keep asking myself though is this: What is BNA about? What is the message of BNA?

I think BNA is supposed to be about race and prejudice, much like Zootopia and Beastars were, but if that's the case, then it certainly didn't do much with it. We see a few instances of prejudice, yes, but no concrete answer or belief from the characters or the writers. If anything, I feel like the prejudice moments were just included to add to the world, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but none of them go deep enough to be interesting. Much like the supporting cast, it feels token.

Trigger's expressions give me such life.

If BNA just wants to be a fun action series without worry or any strong themes, I'm not against them doing that. However, since there are these instances of prejudice brought up throughout the season, I don't feel that that's the case. As with many choices in life, it's best to go all-in with one path or the other. Be a full crazy action series with a strong friendship at it's core, or be about prejudice and race as much as possible. Trying to do both at once weakens both, which might explain why the ending felt so rushed. Maybe they're hoping for a season 2 to build on this.

One last nitpick I want to sigh about is why do the Beastkin, besides Michiru, turn into humans. Yes, there are one or two instances where that transformation is used for the story, but I struggle to see how the series would have been hurt if that feature had been removed. All it seems to do is make the show visually uninteresting at times, as if the audience would be upset to see a conversation without a human. Yes, I did say it was a nitpick!

Sexy but... why?

BNA: Brand New Animal is... fine. Has some solid episodes in the first half and lovely animation, but it lacks the charm of Little Witch Academia and the outright craziness of Kill la Kill and Promare. Instances of the Trigger Madness™ occasionally show up, especially in that baseball episode, and to some of you a smaller scale and style might be preferable, but it didn't click for me. It's much better than Darling in the Franxx and Kiznaiver but that's about it. I do recommend watching it at least once, but I doubt I'll be going back to rewatch this one anytime soon. Obligatory woof.

*sigh* I am one tired tanuki... and suddenly I realise how grateful I am that Michiru isn't a male.

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/