The rising of the beast tamer (2024)

What happens if a rejected beast tamer meets the ultimate species, goes on adventures, and becomes more heroic than the current hero? Then you will get an anime called “The Beast Tamer Who Was Exiled from His Party Meets a Cat Girl From the Strongest Race” or just Beast Tamer for short written by Suzu Miyama as a light novel in 2018. It got a manga adaptation in 2019, and eventually an anime last October of 2022. Is this a good watch or would you rather adopt a cat to get your fluffy kicks? Read on before making a judgement my dear readers. Also, spoilers ahead. But before that, a bit of…

History of beast tamers in other media
In a fantasy setting where classes are heavily saturated by swordsmen, mages, clerics, and sages, having a beast tamer for the main protagonist is very refreshing and original since this role had only been utilized for supporting characters if my memory serves me correctly. In RPGs, the only class that I can recall which has this class is in Final Fantasy V called the Beastmaster where you can catch weakened monsters and utilize them in battles. Dragon Quest V has a similar concept where monsters can be recruited after the end of the battle. Game Freak’s Pokémon very much borrowed elements from the previous RPGs to make a game about catching and battling monsters where you assume the role of a monster tamer called a trainer. With that properly explained, let’s go now to the actual review.

Review
Rein Shroud is a member of the Hero’s party where he is relegated to support and logistics. However, he is deemed to be very weak by his team mates and was banished. Rein then met and helped a cat girl named Kanade; part of the ultimate species which is a breed of powerful creatures who eventually joined his party. Majority of the experiences follows the same structure where Rein will goes on a quest, encounters the ultimate species of that episode, helps them on their plight, the latter forming a contract with our main character, and then eventually joining his party. The only exception to this rule is with Tania since she fought Rein and joined his party out of respect and not because he owes the latter. These episodes can be repetitive but I never got tired of watching it since his party members’ backstories are interesting for me to be entertained.

Beast Tamer’s gimmick is that our main protagonist makes use of his beast taming skill in order to utilize the said creature’s abilities to aid him in battle. I actually like this concept since he needs to use his critical thinking skills and not just use brute force to win his battles. His skill is quite versatile since he can use his taming skills on a wide variety of species from enabling him to inherit the innate attributes of the ultimate species he made contracts with to buffing his allies during battles. With these said, Rein is one flexible individual that can hold his own after making contracts with his party members that are also part of the ultimate species.

Speaking of his party members, Rein has a colorful cast of friends that ranges from cat girls to fairies. They’re fine in their own right, but they don’t have much of a personality, including the main character. Despite the fact that Rein does have a tragic backstory, his development as a character feels sorely lacking since it’s the same protagonist we have from start to finish, although he does a good job of the role of a heroic main character. The only characters that I actually enjoyed on screen for the good guys are Tania and the twins since they are bursting with personality, with the former having some character development after she almost got beat up during their quest. Kanade and Nina are just as interesting as rock and the former’s background is similar with Rein’s but more tragic and brutal. Like the protagonists, I can also say the same thing for the antagonists since they just exist to make trouble for Rein and his party. There’s no explanation or back story on why Arios has a god complex and looks down on commoners like Rein, and ditto for Edgar on how on earth did he turn into an abusive, sad*stic failure of a human being. They’re just not well developed, although one redeeming part about these villains is that they make my blood boil whenever they’re on screen which makes me feel good whenever they get their @$$e$ kicked.

Beast Tamer used no game elements found in RPGs like levels, skills, or EXP points
in keeping with a more traditional fantasy anime which I actually liked a lot. Maybe I’m just bias with the oversaturation of isekai and fantasy anime injecting RPG elements on every opportunity they have, but I think having RPG game elements make everything too easy and unrealistic in lieu with the theme of fantasy. Since we are in the topic of fantasy setting one thing I don’t like about this anime is that there’s no world building or lack thereof. Aside from the explanation on why the hero is the only individual capable of defeating the demon lord, there’s practically no explanation about the lore in the world of Beast Tamer. The origins of the ultimate species were never revealed, the name of the planet where Rein and friends lived was never mentioned, and no description on who and why a new demon lord came to be making the lore Beast Tamer’s lore to be very weak. Perhaps I may be too harsh on this aspect since after all, a few of the light novels had been used adapt this anime, but the basics should had been covered.