English Dub Season Review: Beast Tamer Season One

Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Suzu Miyama and illustrated by Subachi. The story follows the titular Beast Tamer named Rein Shroud who was expelled from the hero Arios’ party considers him a useless liability because he only has the power to form mystical contracts with animals. Rein one day out of sheer happenstance, rescues Kanade, a member of the cat tribe who becomes his companion. By forming a contract with a member from one of the strongest races, Rein obtains some of her powers, becoming much stronger.

The two then begin their journey together, with Rein befriending and taming other girls from different races who become powerful companions while obtaining new abilities with each new contract formed, his group eventually becoming far more powerful than Arios and his party. Overcome with anger and frustration, Arios begins loathing Rein, which results in Arios neglecting his duties as a hero and focusing on petty revenge against Rein and his new friends instead…

On the technical side, This adaptation was animated by EMT Squared and directed by Atsushi Nigorikawa, with Takashi Aoshima overseeing the series’ scripts, Shuuhei Yamamoto designing the characters, and Yuki Hayashi, Alisa Okehazama, and Naoyuki Chikatani composing the music. The opening theme song is “Change The World” by MADKID, while the ending theme song “LOVE＆MOON” was done by Marika Kouno.

Every now and then a generic isekai, fantasy-adventure show, or high school rom-com comes along that is able to get through to me. On paper, It’s par for the course, but maybe the plot, artwork, or a character will be interesting enough to make it worth my time. And in Beast Tamer’s case, I guess this is one of those shows that manages to be both generic and interesting at the same time. As the title itself may sound like a Pokemon clone of sorts, it’s established that Beast Tamers are individuals who can magically link with animals and tame them so they follow their orders, but given that the women Rein encounters willingly join him in his adventure, that’s not the case here.

The harem aspect that most critics assume this show has are incredibly unfounded as most of the female characters are in no way sexualized and at its core just it’s mostly just a gang of friends having fun together with nice story progression and character development. Looking beyond the cookie-cutter fantasy/adventure setting, the whole idea of this anime is that Rein tries to find a goal in his life, have fun and prove to the hero team that he isn’t a useless piece of shit. In the story, he finds out that he’s a unique type of Beast Tamer because he’s able to tame superior species (specifically otherworldly creatures and Animal people), through a ritualistic incantation/contract spell. And it just so happens that these “ultimate species creatures out of sheer happenstance are a bunch of women of different species he encounters such as Cat women, Dragon women, Faries, etc.

The story isn’t rushed, and all of the in-between/filler episodes end up being important story arcs filled with wholesome moments and nice discussions with Rein and the girls, finding out that Rein is just a normal and chill dude who isn’t filled with thoughts of revenge, lust, or power or world domination with cringy edgedlord behavior or sex jokes like a bunch of other anime. This is juxtaposed to the very same douchebag hero team who rejected him and are actually dealing with a lot of problems on their side, with their leader of the hero team, Arios is depicted as being almost irredeemable but the rest of the party seem potentially likable, with some members within Arios’s circle are slowly regretting their previous decision to kick out Rein. If I were to continue the story, it would be to see the interactions between the main character and the “heroes party” after the main character has proved himself in unexpected ways.

Overall, while the story feels like it’s supposed to appeal to those who feel underappreciated by society, whether it would be with work, family, etc. The main issue of the series that some people might find frustrating is that the main character is constantly being portrayed as a flawlessly capable badass boy scout with a strong sense of right and wrong who never thinks highly of himself. But at the very least, it’s surprisingly wholesome at times and it never got boring. If there’s anything that stuck with me the most on this show, is that sometimes it doesn’t take special people to make a difference, but instead what the world needs is a brave determined person with a kind heart. It’s a sweet message that rings true and in the last 3 episodes, there’s an excellent payoff to that sentiment. While the season finale leaves things open for a Season 2, the light novel series it’s based on has the potential for more stories to tell which I hope becomes a reality if Season 2 does become a thing.