Build A Beastars Character: (Scott the Crow)

The following is written by my friend Scott – I’m in bold below. I also wrote a post for his blog here!

Netflix taking anime from us and posting it later is mean guys. No seriously, it is. First Carole and Tuesday was taken and now we had to wait until recently to watch Beastars? I honestly wish that we had that capability to at least just watch it subbed at the end of it’s seasonal run on Netflix and then see a dub later? That would at least help us mostly sub watchers. But no, Netflix had to make us wait until all dub editions were completed.

What made it harder was hearing what the show was about (Zootopia like or something?)  or the opening of the anime that was revealed before we were able to see it. Jazz music with stop motion animation? So cool. That made the wait longer. I was so lucky that Irina wanted to do a collab with me after it came out. That made the wait for this somewhat bearable. Of course, I didn’t just want to just collab talk about how the show is good for now because it is. (Maybe later). I wanted to do something different, so we made some animals to insert ourselves into the Beastars universe.

I was at a massive loss on what to do at first when thinking about what animal I wanted to be or where to take my character. Then I thought about our friend Terrance Crow. Was a crow covered in Beastars anywhere in the manga? What about small animals in general? I mean crows aren’t that big. I knew that I was opening up myself to spoilers, but I did some research on how Beastars categorize people just to make sure and apparently Crows were thrown into the carnivore group? That felt kind of right and wrong at the same time because Crows are something different.

Beastars is a very boundary pushing series, so I decided to push some boundaries of my own. The boundary of pushing for Scavenger rights. That’s what my character will do, start the fight for the right to make crows and smaller animal’s lives easier and well defined in the Beastars universe. I really like crows anyway because they are just fascinating birds to watch and think about. Researching the nature of the crow was an added bonus for me because it reaffirmed what I know about crows while allowing me the chance to learn new things too.

My character  is an American Crow who comes from a very loving family. He’s very close to his parents and three siblings and he’s always been happy. Still, I can’t imagine a time where I felt comfy with the place he and his kind were. Sure, he lived in a large community of crows with different persuasions and attitudes, but they felt misplaced in society in general. For instance, crows are omnivores that eat everything but Beastars splits animals into two categories: Carnivore and Herbivore. Since they eat meat, they are throw into the not as fitting Carnivore category.

There is also the fact that crows are considered the garbage men of society in general. They clean up dead bodies (by eating them) and do things that not a lot of other animals do. Also, they are small birds that adhere to the rules set down for all birds. They can’t fly until they get their licenses after high school.

All of crow kind and other smaller birds have to suffer this fate. Other smaller birds have to suffer this fate too, so it was another main motivating factor in what I wanted to do. I had to become a Beastar to change the crow and small bird’s life in general to make it easier. My main plan? First, push for a reform where smaller birds can get their flying license at younger ages. Afterwards, who knows?

After working hard at making it into Cherryton Academy, I couldn’t be happier when I was when I got that acceptance letter. That means his plan was set into motion. For his Sophomore year, I planned on raising my popularity during school time while plotting until night time with his crow friends. I’m going to watch what the upperclassmen who are most likely to become Beastars during that one year, then start shuffling in my own candidacy for the position afterward. For now, I must not falter.

So I don’t know what animal Irina came up with, but I doubt she went the same route I did. Will she and I be friends? Probably. I hope so. I’m so fascinated to find out. 

Well well well, I honestly wasn’t expecting this. Maybe an Owl or like an adorable red panda but a carrion bird, that caught me by surprise!

Crows are fascinating and potentially the smartest animals out there. There are theories that they might be smarter than chimps but their ways of thinking are further from ours so it’s harder for us to relate and discern. In any case, Scott certainly is smart enough to fit the bill.

Thanks for your critique, Irina. I am glad that I was able to surprise you. I’ve never had too many encounters with crows and birds like them myself, so I’ve never found them particularly scary. I’ve always been fascinating by watching them carry bird seeds in plastic cup lids and just watching them move. If you ask me, the scariest common animals that wander around are squirrels. No matter what part of the US I’ve been in Squirrels are evil and just don’t care.

One problem though, Crows will eat just about anything and although they might scavenge large prey they do actively hunt small prey, like small rabbits and mice. Mind you least weasels also eat rabbits and bird’s eggs for that matter, actually birds as well. They are quite the tiny monsters.

You caught me there. I was attempting to downplay that part of their behavior that I read. Haha. Don’t you think that crows would be in it for themselves and then play off the “we are doing this for everyone” sort of campaign? I’m sure crows are the most fascinating animals to be in Beastars. 

Still, I think least weasel me might be intimidated by a Crow. I mean human me gets intimidated by Crows (we have a whole lot around here and they follow me to the bus stop…). Then again, after looking up least weasel’s diets and hunting habits, human me might be intimidated by least weasels too and they’re like 29 grams…

I suppose that depends on how you tell the inner and outer nature of this crow. So mysterious, right? And in general, aren’t animals just scary? Even pets that we own could be scary to us humans because unless they are fully trained, we don’t know what they will do. 

Well Scott Crow sounds a bit too popular for me but I do like his hard working nature. Maybe I can give him a few tips. You know do some oppo research or something. A canvanger Beastar is certain to shake things up quite a bit after all and I really want to see how that would turn out!

Thanks for the tip and wishing them well on their journey.