Literature / Beast Tamer

A simple beast tamer - or the hero our world needs?

Rein Shroud is a beast tamer, one with the ability to form contracts with non-human creatures and gain their help. This did not sit well with the party he adventured with, led by the hero Arios, and they kicked him out for his perceived uselessness.

Rein joins the Adventurer's Guild as a means to make money and, on his trial quest, comes across a girl being attacked by a monster. Rein intervenes, only to end up being saved by the girl instead. The girl, Kanade, is what is known as a Cat Spirit, the rarest of the "ultimate species" that possess great power. After hearing Rein's story, and out of gratitude for his trying to rescue her, Kanade offers to let Rein use his Beast Tamer powers to form a contract with her.

In so doing, Rein adds Kanade's formidable physical abilities to his own and begins a journey that will see him forming bonds with other races.

Beast Tamer (勇者パーティーを追放されたビーストテイマー、最強種の猫耳少女と出会う Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyou Shuzoku Nekomimi Shojo to Deau, "The Beast Tamer Who was Kicked Out of the Hero Party Only to Meet the Strongest Cat-eared Girl") is a fantasy Web Serial Novel written by Suzu Miyama that was published on Shousetsuka ni Narou beginning on 11 June 2018. A manga adaptation drawn by Moto Shigemura began serialization on Square Enix's Manga UP! service on 30 January 2019. A light novel adaptation illustrated by Hotosouka began publication on 2 May 2019. An anime adaptation from EMT Squared premiered in October 2022 and is simulcasted on Crunchyroll.

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Beast Tamer contains examples of:

• Absurdly Exclusive Recruiting Standards: The hero's party fire their support member Rein in the belief that he's too weak for the job, but when they try and replace him, however, they learn that his ability to contract with multiple animals is something that other beast tamers think is outright impossible and even unheard of. Nevertheless, Arios refuses to lower his standards. After reencountering Rein, who has since Took a Level in Badass by forming contracts with two different Ultimate Species, Arios adds that as a new requirement for the position. No one he interviews qualifies.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Rein is fond of giving head pats to the girls in his party and they all love it even if some pretend otherwise.
• The Beastmaster: Rein's primary skill. He can create "Provisional Contracts" with various animals to help him, and when he was with the hero party used this to great effect for support and scouting. When forming a more permanent contract with one of the Strongest Species, like Kanade or Tania, his own abilities are increased to match whom he's contracted with, giving him Kanade's physical strength, Tania's magical power, and Sora and Runa's magical control and Status Effect nullification. This is far above and beyond what a normal Beast Tamer is known to do, as they are limited to only a single animal at a time, period.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • It's stressed early on that Rein's abilities as a Beast Tamer are far above normal. Your average Beast Tamer can only form a contract with one creature at a time, whereas Rein can not only contract with members of the ultimate species, he can do so with multiple members of the ultimate species and contract with multiple normal animals besides. This proves an issue in Arios's attempts to replace Rein, due to no other Beast Tamer measuring up to his skill. He also knows multiple forms of taming beyond Beast Taming such as Insect Taming, knows at least one Taming lost spell, and has figured out how to overwrite control of creatures from other Tamers and similar situations, the latter skill having previously been completely unheard of! Rein himself seems oblivious to his own increased aptitude until Kanade points it out, and what's known of his past suggests his now-destroyed hometown was home to Beast Tamers of similar ability to his own. It's eventually revealed that the reason is because Rein is a descendant of the Hero like Arios and inherited the Limit Break ability.
  • Members of Ultimate Species are vanishingly rare, with most people being lucky to see one in their lifetime. Rein has contracts with 5, two of which are from a species that has lived in total seclusion for over 200 years.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Fairies are masters of magic but, unlike dragons, are Squishy Wizards. It is for this reason that a Shadow Knight, a mid-level monster that possesses "Complete Magic Attack Nullification" as an inherent trait, is a particular threat to them when it otherwise wouldn't pose much trouble to one of the ultimate species.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The battle between Rein's and Arios's parties. Given that Arios's Hero Party has been having trouble since they kicked out Rein, while Rein has contracted with and gained power from Kanade and Tania, the battle goes overwhelmingly in Rein's favor. The only one who struggles at all is Rein himself, but he still wins handily with his Beast Tamer skills on top of his power-ups from Kanade and Tania. Kanade defeats the warrior Aggath with only half of her power, while Tania negates everything Leane and Mina, the party's two spellcasters, can throw at her then overwhelms them with a massive magical attack that turns out to be a bluff that makes them faint.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: The Chosen One. Because Arios is the descendant of the divine hero and is destined to defeat the demon lord, he and his party treat that as a license to do whatever and treat anyone however they want with no consequences. For instance, they fire Rein for his perceived uselessness, and when he refuses to rejoin them, they are insulted that he would dare turn them down.
• Enchanted Forest: The Lost Forest's supernatural growth is such that it can quickly change its own internal geography to the point that even a map made the day before is utterly useless.
• Entitled Bastard: A few.
  • The Hero party in general, but especially Arios himself. After kicking Rein out of the party only to realize they needed him for an important quest, they discuss asking him nicely to help and then kick him out again. Except their idea of 'nice' is a Backhanded Apology and emotional blackmail and when called out on it, Arios steadfastly refuses to offer a decent apology or even basic respect to Rein or his companions, demanding instead that they cave to his whims as the chosen hero. They continue to act this way toward their replacements for Rein's position as the group's Beast Tamer. Their first in particular calls Leanne and Mina out for expecting more from him during a quest to protect a merchant from a band of thugs. Not only does Leanne compare him negatively to Rein when he talks back to her, she blackmails him into admitting his own failure to the guild before threatening to subject him to repeated deaths until he caves in and flees.
    • This eventually catches up to them, as the townspeople of Horizon stop accepting their demands for free supplies and effectively force them to leave town after they refused to help fight a demon attacking the town (which had been secretly arranged by Arios, acting alone, in an attempt to kill Rein in the first place), which makes Arios even more bitter and more determined to get back at Rein.
  • Edgar Fromware, the son of the mayor of the town Rein and company stay at (the aformentioned Horizon). He walks up to Rein, Sora, and Runa and, ignoring Rein, declares the two girls will be his women. When they refuse, he sets the town guards on the group to force them. When Rein proves too strong for the guards, he has them take two innocent women as hostages and threatens to kill them if Rein doesn't surrender Sora and Runa.
• Forgiving the Accidental Pervert: When Kanade, Tania, Sora, and Runa are bathing in a river, Kanade screams the moment a fish bites on her tail, leading Rein to think the girls are in danger and rush to their rescue, only to accidentally see their naked bodies. While embarrassed, the girls don't really attack Rein, especially when he apologizes, both because they know Rein is a good person who respects women and only rushed into the area because he was concerned for their safety. They still tease Rein though.
• Harem-Powered: The more contracts Rein has, the stronger he gets. Naturally, all his "other species" contracts are attractive women, starting with Kanade.
• Hostage Situation:
  • Runa is introduced as being held captive by the Shadow Knight, who offered to release her only if Sora removed the barrier protecting the fairy village.
  • The Lord's son, Edgar, also attempts this when trying to abduct Sora and Runa.
• Implausible Deniability: Kanade and Tania are told to go easy on a couple of thieves so that Rein can interrogate them later but end up knocking them out. Tania's excuse is, "It's their fault! They just decided to run into my fist as hard as they could!"
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Rein doesn't seem to realise that a good many of his abilities are exceptional compared to everyone else, let alone other tamers, like being able to form contracts with dozens of creatures at once, whereas most tamers struggle to handle more than one or two, or control ghosts, to the exasperation of his familiars.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: After Tania joins Rein's group, Rein opts to keep her true identity as the one obstructing the bridge by challenging people to fights secret so she won't be arrested and deported. This prompts Rein to ask Tania if she did anything to her previous challengers to keep them quiet since nobody else revealed her identity previously. Tania assures Rein she didn't, and Rein is dismayed to learn that it was most likely because, according to Tania, they were all ashamed of being beaten by a girl.
  Rein: Did they all keep quiet for such a stupid reason...?
  • Zig-zagged in a later episode: Two of the Adventurers beaten by Tania seem to be PROUD of having fought her, and intend to get stronger to challenge her again.
• Last Episode, New Character: The final episode of the anime introduces the ghost maid Tina.
• Laziness Callout: Arios Orlando's party — minus Rein if course,— suffers this following the end of Edgar Fromware's demonic rampage against Horizon, as said event was ended by Rein and his girl companions from the strongest races, while Arios' party did nothing to help the citizens during the chaos and yet got the gall to demand supplies from one of the affected shopkeepers.
• The Needs of the Many: When Runa was captured by the Shadow Knight, it told Sora it would only free her if Sora removed the barrier protecting the Fairy village. Sora initially sought help from her fellow Fairies to save her, but her village's chieftain refused, prioritizing the safety of the many within the barrier rather than the one who was captured due to leaving it. Sora can understand the reasoning, but can not forgive it. It is for this reason that, once the Shadow Knight is defeated by Rein's group and the sisters are reunited, they decide to leave the forest for a while, ultimately joining and contracting with Rein.
• No-Sell:
  • Rein gets the power Abnormal State nullification from Runa, making him immune to status effects, including instant death attacks.
  • A monster type known as a Shadow Knight is completely immune to magic.
  • Monsters are the only kinds of beasts normally untamable even by the likes of Rein and have been killed due to their innate hatred towards all other life, humans and uplifted particularly. One Beast Tamer manages it with a Behemoth he raised from birth, but Rein notes when he overrides the taming that eventually the Behemoth would attack people, probably starting with its tamer. His theory is proven correct when the Behemoth attacks the tamer after he keeps ordering it to kill Rein, forcing Rein to put it out of its misery.
• Officially Shortened Title: The English-language anime reduced a sentence-length title down to just Beast Tamer. As this is currently the only English version of the IP, that's the title being used for this page.
• Pest Controller: Rein is an all-purpose Beast Tamer who can tame anything from the tiniest insects to the Strongest Species, when in actual combat he relies on venomous animals in general, with insects being the most frequent. In two separate fights he uses a specific breed of bee and, when rounding up corrupt guardsmen into a trap, uses a swarm of butterflies with paralyzing poison scales to subdue them.
• Power Copying: When Rein forms a contract with one of the ultimate species, he gains their abilities on top of his own. When he contracts with Kanade he gains a massive boost in physical power, while Tania gives him a similar boost in magical power. The Fairy twins Sora and Runa, respectively, grant him increased control of his magic, such as the ability to cast multiple spells at once and properly manage their power, and immunity to negative status effects, up to and including instant death.
• Removing the Crucial Teammate: Rein was responsible for much of the logistics of the team, handled reconnaissance using mice and birds to watch in all directions, provided tamed animals as extra forces, and at the same time fought in the front lines himself, providing some extra protection to the mages. After Alios kicks Rein out as a "useless" waste, he finds that they cannot even complete their first major mission without the range of aid he'd provided.
• Slave Collar: When Rein first encounters the God Race kitsune girl Niina imprisoned in the mayor's mansion, he sees that her captor has placed a collar that forces her to obey. Rein can remove the collar because the magic it uses is similar to his Beast Taming magic, but not before having to endure the Shock Collar feature it has to prevent such tampering.
• Sore Loser: Arios. Even after Rein accepts the (admittedly forced) apology and takes Arios's request to navigate an Enchanted Forest for him to get a plot-critical item for the hero party necessary for saving the world, Arios is stubbornly hung up on the fact that he lost to Rein and swears revenge, to the point of using Edgar's own grudge against Rein later on as a means to do so.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Shield of Truth, a magical artifact that the Hero Party needs to defeat the Demon Lord. They spent over a week in the Lost Woods searching for it without success, forcing them to hire Rein and his companions to search for it in exchange for a monetary reward.
• Trial by Friendly Fire: After Rein miraculously survives an instant-death attack, Runa tests the theory that he's immune to status ailments by hitting him with a weak poison spell.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Justified and subverted. Justified in that the majority of Beast Tamers can only make a contract with one beast at a time. Subverted with Rein who despite his lack of martial prowess beyond basic martial arts or magical ability, comes from a village of Beast Tamers who spent generations refining their craft to the point they were not only able to recruit multiple beasts at once but also with creatures other Beast Tamers were unable to like insects.

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