#mika x atari

[w2beastars]

Waezi2′s thoughts on “Beast Complex” chapter 21

Beast Complex is back, bitches!

Don’t get me wrong, I adore Paru’s other stuff like “Drip Drip” or “Sanda.” In fact, get the fuck outa here till you read “Drip Drip” and “Sanda”!

But I think the strange, twisted yet wonderful world of Beastars still have plenty to offer. Even more so in the Beast Complex series that is a terrific collection of short stories not necessarily directly connected to Legosi. A collection that has just been expanded with two spanking new short stories, the first being “The Zebra and the White Tiger.”

The protagonist of this chapter is Mika, a young adult zebra who is trying to find the zebra of her dreams over a dating app. It is not going well as she has been meeting a few males who are douchebags.

... I know I use the word a lot, but I adore the word douchebag.

Mika is about to give up after having used the dating app for half a year. She tries one more time after having had chats with this one dude named Atari who seems nice enough.

so, she agree to meet Atari in real life. There is just a tiny problem...

HE IS A MOTHERFUCKING TIGER!

A white tiger BTW.

Mika is obviously pretty freaked out. More importantly, she is royally pissed off. We get this panel that is fricking brilliant:

I thing it is a topnotch detail that the text with her angry and disappointed thought is plastered across his face as she does not see another animal, she sees a god damn fraud. Oh, and cat-fished... XD

Mika storms off in furry fury as this was the last straw, this was the one disappointment that broke the camel’s back for her. Atari follows her and tries to say that he didn’t lie when he told her he had white and black stripes but that he never said to her he was a zebra. Mika points out that Atari is full of shit since even if he didn’t text it to her, he is still registered as a zebra on the dating app.

Atari then makes a valid point.

Yeah, Mika is a fraud as well. Her profile picture is not exactly accurate as she tries too hard to seem cuter than she actually is to make males on the app interested in her.

Mika feels embarrassed as this is the first time she is called out for it and she realize that it is probably the reason she has dated nothing but boring asshats for half a year. If you use a superficial photo you most likely get superficial dates.

Atari claims that there is nothing odd about the two of them lying since almost everyone lies a little on dating apps to try and get in touch with others. And he actually says he prefer the way Mika actually looks.

Mika calms down but she is still annoyed by the situation and rightfully points out that what Atari did is a classic predator tactic. You know, lure a herbivore by claiming to be the same species on a dating app and then eat her. Atari has no response to that since he shamefully realize she is right.

But she decides to try dating him anyways. I mean, I can get that, look at that face:

He is a fricking cutie! Big himbo energy!

... sorry.

The date actually goes surprisingly well. The ball gets rolling when a regular tiger pass them by and calls Atari a “bar-code”, a common nickname among tigers when they see a white tiger which is pretty rare. Atari explains that he tried dating a normal tiger without success, that she only took black and white photos of them together since she thought it was embarrassing to date an albino.

Mika laughs as she jokes that she saves a ton of money on photos since they are almost all black and white. Feeling sympathy for Atari and seeing that there was no malicious intentions for him to date a zebra, she decides to offer him a handshake.

We get some more Beastverse lore since there is an urban legend among animals with patterns that if two animals with the same type of pattern touch that their stripes or spots will merge together if they are soulmates. For a brief second, Atari feels like that’s what happens... and then he calls himself stupid since he is not a teenager.

Mika must have felt something as well as she incites him to a zebra dance club. She argues that he might enjoy it since everyone else there are black and white as well so he won’t feel like an outsider.

Honestly, it look like fun. and it also makes sense since real life zebras prefer to be in herds which is kind of what this zebra dance club is.

Atari is a bit startled... but he quickly realize something that separates him from the zebras and therefor also separates him from Mika.

As they join the dance, Mika accidentally loses her grip on Atari’s hand and can therefor not see him in the crowd as she sees nothing but a whole lot of black and white.

And that’s where Atari realize that Mika’s stripes are for protection, to blend into her herd. But Atari’s tiger stripes?

Don’t worry, nothing violent happens. But Atari is startled by his hunting instinct kicking in. Heck, he realize that not telling Mika on the dating app that he was not a zebra was basically the same as a tiger hiding in the grass, waiting for his prey to come out when she felt safe.

But once again, as it usually is in Beastars and Beast Complex, honesty is what creates a true connection.

That is so cute is a messed up way, but what else is new? :P

Despite Atari’s disappointment over not finding someone he has common ground with, Mika still tells him that they can make it work, playfully telling him to use his stripes to track her down.

I really liked this chapter, but out of the twenty-two chapters of BC it felt like it had the weakest ending. But keep in mind that since almost all the chapters are brilliant then there is absolutely no shame in being second best compared to so many first-class mangas.

Next time, snake and rat talking about their weird cucumbers :P

I’m Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.