Beast Master is a short and sweet manga series created by Kyousuke Motomi. If you need something quick and sweet to put you in a good mood then this miniseries would be it. Told from the point of view of, animal lover, Yuiko - Beast Master was one of those shoujo’s with a unique premise but with all the familiar clichés.
This high school romance manga presents a unique story about a girl who loves animals and a boy who behaves like one. It's a cute and funny story with a sweet romance.
The Story's Premise
The story begins with our heroine Yuiko trying to coax a cat to come to her, her neighbor’s cat who likes to go out and because Yuiko loves animals so much she doesn’t mind. Well she may not mind but the animals do. After Yuiko gets the cat in her arms and nearly crushes it with her affection he escapes up a tree after clawing her face, this is when Yuiko sees a guy in the tree. The next day Yuiko finds out the guy is a new student in her class and his name is Leo.
Yuiko loves all animals...so much so that she scares them away with the intensity of her affection. One evening, while trying to get her cat home after accidentally scaring it up a tree, she encounters a wild-eyed boy covered in blood. The next day at school she learns that he's Leo, a new transfer student in her class. Leo is rumored to have gotten into a fight with a group of thugs and won, and everyone's scared of him.
Everyone, that is, except Yuiko, who's fascinated by and jealous of the way animals trust him and easily come to him. She approaches him and quickly finds out that he's actually very gentle and sweet, if unused to living among people. Apparently he used to live on an uninhabited island.
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However, Leo has a problem. Anytime he sees blood, he blacks out and turns violent - possibly a defense mechanism he developed while on the island, to help him survive against predators.
When Yuiko witnesses one such incident, she learns that she can do something no one else has been able to do: tame the beast inside Leo and get him to calm down.
Characters
I loved both characters in this story, Yuiko is funny and brave despite getting herself into typical damsel in distress situations and Leo was a cross between cute and smexy but mostly just cute. Yuiko loves animals, but they don’t respond well to her smothering affection. Leo is a freaky-looking feral exchange student with wild black-rimmed eyes.
He has violent berserker rages, but she notices how well animals respond to him, making her jealous of his affinity with them. Together, they’re the perfect couple, even if their story is somewhat like the Tiny Toons’ Elmyra meeting a cross between Tarzan and Wolverine. Her experience being hurt by her pets makes her unafraid of him, and he responds to her as the only person who’s nice to him.
She’s teaching him to be “civilized”, even if it means throwing herself in front of him to prevent him attacking someone else. Her lack of fear sometimes approaches an insane lack of self-protection, but she does seem to recognize the tendency and learn from it. Leo blanks out while he’s attacking those who threaten him or her, and the results can be traumatic and bloody.
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To cope, she becomes a cross between his keeper and his mother. Everyone treats him as a wild animal and her as his tamer, but there are hints that she’s beginning to think of him as something more than a pet, finding him “kind of cute” and noticing his manly scent.
The supporting cast, as created by by Kyousuke Motomi, includes Leo’s guardian, an ex-mercenary, and some kind of neighborhood “boss”/gangster.
Yuiko sees how gentle he is towards animals and after talking to him, realizes he's just a big softy who just wants a friend. Leo was adorable and went through rough times but he still is kind towards others. Yuiko and him immediately click and it's because of her compassion that Leo adores her.
He's afraid she'll leave him alone when she realizes he's too much to handle. Yet she proves that everyone has a beast of their own. It's only when we have something to protect that it comes out.
Themes and Tropes
The chapters can be repetitive, with Leo saving Yuiko from a wild dog or a rapist or a knife-wielding jealous schoolgirl, people expressing concern over his violent reaction, and her having faith in him. If this story is supposed to be a valid analogy for a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, amped up for comics, then it scares me. But as a goofy exaggerated tale, I found it kind of funny in short doses.
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Despite the cliches, the whole story was simple and heartwarming. The mutual kindness and closeness between Yuiko and Leo felt so geniue and cute. It really made me feel better in general. I was smiling the whole way.
Throughout most of the volume Leo and Yuiko's relationship is more sweet and platonic than anything. Leo comes across almost like a child. Then things shifted a bit at the very end, and suddenly Yuiko thinks Leo has "a faint manly scent that I hadn't noticed before," and ugh.
Final Thoughts
The series is only two volumes. I wasn't originally planning on continuing on, but as I was doing a little research prior to writing this review, I noticed that the series is only two volumes long. It feels weird quitting when I'm technically halfway through, so I might see about getting volume 2 from the library at some point.
Really neat concept. Very relaxing and very different from what I expected based on the cover. LOL! I throughly enjoyed Leo and Yuiko's meeting and their friendship growing. They are SO sweet and I absolutely love how they both care for one another even if Yuiko's feelings are probably note quite as deep as Leo's. And Leo!! He is one of most sweetest male characters I've ever read! And he is SO cute to look at it! He's definitely interestingly drawn and has such a charm about him that you can't help but smile. <3 I'm really excited to keep reading this manga and see where it goes!
Overall, Beast Master is a delightful and heartwarming manga that offers a unique twist on the shoujo romance genre. Its adorable characters, engaging story, and sweet themes make it a must-read for fans of the genre.
Too bad that it is only two volumes long.