Legoshi

Lore & Background

Legoshi, 17 years old at the start of the story but turns 18 years old in Volume 14, is a towering gray wolf. A second-year student, Legoshi works as a member of the drama club's stage crew, and enjoys watching tragic stories performed despite never having had to directly participate in them. He attempts to hide his more terrifying traits in order to better acquaint his herbivore classmates. He takes it upon himself to solve the murder of Tem. Generally conflicted with his status as a carnivore, Legoshi wishes to suppress his predatory desires, which become even more complicated as he develops confused feelings towards a dwarf rabbit named Haru. Legoshi also has a complicated past, having mostly been raised by his Komodo dragon maternal grandfather Gosha, as Legoshi's hybrid wolf-Komodo dragon mother Leano had mostly withdrawn from life and committed suicide when Legoshi was 12. Legoshi inherited Gosha's Komodo dragon eyes with small pupils and an immunity to Komodo dragon venom, though Legoshi himself is not venomous. Jack knows about Legoshi's heritage, but few others do, and at school Legoshi is registered only as a gray wolf.

In Their Own Story

The story develops in a world of anthropomorphic animals that live in perfect harmony, starts with the murder of Tem the Alpaca. Instantaneously, all focus shifts to the carnivore closest to the young one that is no other than Legoshi. However, the gray wolf is a sensitive and reserved person incapable of killing anybody, representing the total opposite of a ferocious carnivore. For this reason, the history is led by a character such as Legoshi, whose vision of the world, the author recognized. Itagaki said most importantly, she felt shy about having Legoshi do anything that seemed 'manly'. He certainly did not go out of his way to act as such. The author further thinks there was some distance in character between himself and Legoshi. She thinks he has grown to be a proper protagonist. Itagaki split down the series for gender, and she was glad so many people sympathize with Legoshi. In regard to the character's design, Legoshi feels more beastlike in color. Had the author made up their colors, it would feel fake. Itagaki stated that she chose to make a wolf character as their similarity to dogs make them familiar to readers and that wolves' 'sneaking around' makes them 'cute'. The name 'Legoshi' refers to actor Bela Lugosi while she used Amalric as a model for Legoshi's face. She stated, 'I sometimes think of Kenichi Matsuyama when I'm drawing the body.'

Reader's Guide

Legoshi is voiced by Chikahiro Kobayashi in Japanese and Jonah Scott in English. Kobayashi auditioned in the studio, but just before recording the audition tape, it happened to appear on the recommended display displayed in the advertisement on the internet which surprised him. He was told that he could take both with Louis, but he only received Legoshi, as he found easier to interpret for being less cool. His impressions of the role were that Legoshi was a very complex wolf due to the setting and to the handling of animals. In regard to his personality, Kobayashi found him as a clumsy child, which changed upon meeting Haru. In the case of Legoshi, he did not find many changes in the narrative as he felt his arc delicate and stubborn. He related Legoshi to his own youth. He found the love triangle between Legoshi, Haru and Louis complex due to how close all the three are. In the first episode, Legoshi becomes obsessed with eating Haru upon smelling something which gave him a strong impression in regard to what is Legoshi's true self. At first, the impression he got reading the script was that Legoshi should be mysterious. He added he was kind of creepy, too different in the drama club with none of them knowing his depths. Kobayashi often tried sounding calmer or stronger in different scenes from the first season, as he noted Legoshi tended to act differently based on the character he is related with. His final impression of Legoshi was that he was hard to express emotions, which is why it is misleading and clumsy, so even though he had played so far, Kobayashi wonder if this can be conveyed while playing. The actor used different tools while recording the anime to produce the pitch he needed. Jonah Scott originally auditioned for three roles and became nervous when learning that Legoshi, his chosen part, was the lead of the series, something which left a major impact in his career and no knowledge about it. He was primarily attracted by his role due to how Beastars explores sexuality and love in a way that will attract the youth audience. Scott was impressed by the anime's replay style as different actors did the character's facial expressions and movements and thus had less experience than the Japanese actors. As a result, Scott practised several of Legoshi's scenes with other actors besides recording the lines. However, they avoided replicating violent scenes. Nevertheless, Scott found that having a good physical body was useful for his work. He also researched the manga and read Japanese clips. The lipsynch and framerate often provided difficult to the actor. Legoshi became one of Scott's most popular works as it was his first time as a protagonist in the anime.

Did You Know?

• The name 'Legoshi' refers to actor Bela Lugosi, while Paru Itagaki used Mathieu Amalric as a model for Legoshi's face.
• Legoshi's prototype appeared in Itagaki's doujinshi series Beast Complex, where he was in his twenties and working as a stylist assistant.
• Legoshi inherited Komodo dragon eyes with small pupils and an immunity to Komodo dragon venom from his maternal grandfather Gosha, though Legoshi himself is not venomous.
• Legoshi was nominated for the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards under the category of Best Boy.
• Legoshi's mother Leano, a hybrid wolf-Komodo dragon, committed suicide when Legoshi was 12.