Beast Tamer, also known as Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau, is an anime series by EMT Squared (the same studios responsible for titles such as Assassins Pride, I’m Quitting Heroing, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch, and Urahara) and is based off the Japanese light novel series written by Suzu Miyama and illustrated by Subachi. It has been published online via the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō since June 2018. It was later acquired by Kodansha, who has released eight volumes since May 2019 under their Kodansha Ranobe Books imprint. A manga adaptation illustrated by Moto Shigemura has been serialized in Square Enix’s Manga UP! website since January 2019; seven tankōbon volumes have been released as of September 2022. An anime television series adaptation by EMT Squared aired from October to December 2022. The anime series consists of 13 episodes of 23 minutes each. Similar anime recommendations include In Another World With My Smartphone, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Black Summoner (I really enjoyed this one), and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest.
This is not an isekai but like most isekai worlds this one has an already established hero and his party. This anime kicks off with the main character “Rein” being kicked out of the hero’s party. In the eyes of the world and the member’s of the hero’s party the “tamer” skillset is the weakest skillset in the world and furthermore, the members of the hero’s party and the hero feel Rein is simply useless. After leaving the hero and his party Rein enlists with an adventurer’s guild as a means of generating an income and getting on with life as an adventurer. He accidentally meets one of the ultimate species and manages to tame her, simply because he’s such a good and respectable guy.
The rest of the narrative follows Rein helping members of the community and one by one manages to tame various members of different ultimate species. Although the ultimate species are considered beasts they are humanoid and each have very unique personalities and thus form part of Rein’s party as friends. As the story progresses Rein’s party of ultimate species become sort of like family to him and they always defend him fiercely especially on the occasions that they run into the hero’s party and they attempt to bully Rein. Surprisingly Rein is actually quite skilled and strong even for a tamer as he can tame multiple beasts at the same time not to mention the ultimate species. The hero’s party soon realizes this while they search for a replacement for Rein and other tamers can’t live up to the standard set by Rein even with what the hero’s party considered menial tasks. The hero is one of the main villains and as Rein shows him up during his adventures the hero continues to grow his resentment and anger toward Rein.
I believe this anime provides a character to like and a character to dislike for almost any viewer. It kept me thoroughly entertained especially for just relaxing during free time. Some of the characters in Rein’s party are sassy and others are wholesome while Rein himself is just an all-round do-gooder guy (what’s not to like right?) the Hero and his party have the worst personalities and really elicited negative feelings towards them, especially with the way they treat Rein and their jobs as heroes. Honestly, they’re just evil and the opposite of what you’d expect from a hero and his party.
This anime does kind of remind me of Pokémon and catching them all but for a harem of friendly girls/beasts that enjoy head pats. I look forward to a second season although there have been no announcements or confirmations regarding a second season there is enough source material from the light novels for another season and I wouldn’t mind going along with Rein and his companions for more adventures.
