Stream It Or Skip It: ‘BNA’ on Netflix, a Highly Exaggerated Anime Series About Animal-People and the People-People Who Hate Them

You gotta love anime for the wacky, out-there concepts: BNA (short for Brand New Animal) is about a raccoon girl who used to be a human girl, which means she’s torn between the worlds of the “beastkins” and humans. This series debuted in Japan earlier in 2020, and now streams on Netflix for international audiences to be delighted and/or baffled.

BNA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: INTERIOR: A VERY NON-SCINTILLATING HALLWAY. It’s decorated with a poster promoting “animal rights day.”

The Gist: People and beastkins do not live in harmony. Roving packs of human jerkwads vandalize posters like the one described above, and hunt beastkins mercilessly. Our protagonist Michiru Kagemori (voice of Sumire Morohoshi) is a tanuki — Japanese raccoon dog — beastkin trying to make her way to Anima City, where beastkins live peacefully in what appears to be a slightly testy agreement with humans. Cornered by the jerkwads, Michiru is saved by warthog, wolverine (I think) and mink beastkins, who safely ferry her to Anima City.

Michiru arrives smack in the middle of Anima City’s 10-year anniversary festival. There’s a speech by the beastkin leader who looks vaguely like Nosferatu, food, dancing and all that. Michiru meets a humorless blue-and-white wolf-guy named Shirou Ogami (Yoshimasa Hosoya), who stands majestically in the square with a tear rolling down his furry cheek. He can See Things — the world turns into a shadowy place of grays and yellows, and he can piece together events where he wasn’t necessarily present, I think.

Michiru bumps into the mink lady from earlier, gets pickpocketed by a monkey and witnesses a bad guy beastkin setting off a bomb to terrorize the festival. She’s once again cornered by jerkwads, but this time, they’re beastkin jerkwads who look like a different wolf (maybe a dog?), a deer and a lion — but she’s once again bailed out, this time by Shirou, who we learn is fast enough to dodge bullets and can really kick some serious butt. After much talking over gunfire, fisticuffs and misc. destruction, Shirou learns these baddies are agents paid by evil humans, and prepares to kill them. But Michiru protests the slaughter, and stops him by FLAMING ON or something, so she apparently has some powers too? And maybe Anima City isn’t quite the promised beastkin paradise? Then she drops a bomb and tells Shirou that she used to be a human, and now is a beastkin.

Our Take: What with all the declarative yelling and crazy kapowza violence, BNA is officially Highly Exaggerated Anime. It is loud. It is obnoxious. It is over the top. But other anime series are more so in all three of those departments, and this one is tonally lighthearted and visually color-explodey enough to offset the show’s high-volume elements.

The debut episode establishes the BNA world as one of deep bigotry. People protest the mere existence of beastkin, and the human prime minister is a sneering, condescending jackass. Michiru straddles the two worlds — maybe SHE IS THE ONE TO UNITE THEM EXCLAMATION POINT QUESTION MARK!? — and pairing her with a mysterious stoic goof like Shirou could be an interesting dynamic.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Shirou responds to Michiru’s revelation: “Then why do you look like that?”

Sleeper Star: Monkeys! But some are hopefully mischievous-good instead of all being mischievous-evil.

Most Pilot-y Line: Shirou lays down the law as unsuccinctly as possible: “You beastkin who sold your souls to the humans! You disgust me! You don’t deserve it! To have me tear you apart with my claws! You will die by my fist!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. BNA adheres to some stereotypical anime tropes and isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but holds enough thematic promise — are animals people too? Of course! — to warrant watching another episode or two.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream BNA on Netflix