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BEASTARS Creator Becomes Zookeeper for a Day
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
It's not just the animals getting crazy at the Tobu Zoo in Saitama. The BEASTARS creator Paru Itagaki was on site on Sunday to try being a zookeeper for a day. The zoo is currently collaborating with Itagaki's manga until the end of May.
Itagaki wore a standard zookeeper uniform with her usual giant chicken head mask. She took it off when general zoo attendees were out of sight after she found it was too cumbersome to see and feed the animals. She even got to feed the zoo's iconic white tiger although the experience startled her a bit.
During the collaboration, life-sized illustration panels are displayed throughout the zoo. A total of 10 panels, each of a different animal, were drawn by Itagaki and include educational information for visitors.
The zoo food cart is selling can badges and clear files of the above illustration to patrons and also serving a version of the egg sandwich that appears in the manga's third volume. Visitors who purchase the sandwich will get a bonus postcard.
Itagaki BEASTARS manga has taken home numerous prizes.The series ranked #2 on the 2018 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list for male readers in 2017, won the New Creator Prize at last year's annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize awards, and was also crowned at the 11th Manga Taisho awards in 2018.
BEASTARS takes place in a world of carnivores and herbivores, where there is a lot of hope, love, and anxiety. Legoshi is a wolf who is a member of Cherryton Academy's drama club, and even though he's a wolf, he's very sensitive. The manga follows the adolescent life of Legoshi and many other animals.
Itagaki launched the BEASTARS manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in September 2016. Viz Media licensed the manga for release in English. CG anime Studio Orange (Land of the Lustrous, Dimension W) will produce an anime adaptation.
Source: Tobu Zoo, Comic Natalie
