Same Old Trigger
First things first, if you’re a furry reading this review, just stop here. You will love this anime, you will enjoy it, you will relate to it, and you should just go have a fun time with it. For everyone else, BNA is about a girl who ends up turned into a beastman, specifically a raccoon tanooki. She travels to Anima City, a society where persecuted beastmen live together with some tacit agreement with the Japanese prime minister. There she meets a wolf dude who is very anti-human and even more about protecting other beastmen. There is ultimately a driving plot through the 12 episodes, but there are at least a few where they do some fun side stories (the baseball one with the bear team is especially nice). It’s hard to write much about the story without giving away some critical plot points but suffice to say, our tanooki protag has some extra powers up her sleeve and she helps her wolf friend protect Anima City. The OP and ED are also bangers, and the ED has a really nice aesthetic to it.
As for the quality of the anime, it’s honestly pretty formulaic and tropey. You’re not really gonna be surprised by any of the twists, the protag is a bit OP and it feels a lot like other Trigger animes. You have the big bad in a tall tower, you a plucky young girl rebelling against it, you have bllod/transformations as a key plot point, and you have a lots of us vs them all running throughout the show which are big hallmarks of trigger productions. Really the only Trigger thing missing is aliens or space. Promare comes to mind with the beastmen getting similar treatment to the fire people of that film. That said, its still a fun watch. The characters are good enough, you like the protagonist, and Trigger still has a knack for making badass girl heroes. Not all of the plot points really get finished out during the course of the series, which I guess is good if you want a second season but honestly I think this is better served as a one-shot. The visual quality and animations are definitely top notch and honestly pick up a lot of the slack of the mediocre plot. Its a pretty show to watch and the visuals will have you enjoying the great fight scenes which helps give it a boost in my opinion. This show is definitely trash but its trash that’s fun to watch, maybe that should be Trigger’s new slogan?
Is it trash? YES
Rating: ★★★★☆