Chapter 070 (Beastars)

Civilization's Cradle (文明のゆりかご) is Chapter 70 of the manga Beastars written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki, published in the Weekly Shōnen Champion of the Akita Shoten publishing house.

Synopsis
One day, while in a classroom, Sheila is called by some classmates to take a selfie with them. After her classmates take and upload the photo, Sheila notices how the girls only pay attention to the photo, ignoring her in the process. Sheila seems to overcome it, alleging that she is well considering the unstable time in which they live. At lunch, she complains to Juno, declaring that it is the worst time for pictures like that at this rate the carnivores will be victimized by the Internet. Juno says there is nothing to do since Beastbook is becoming popular.

Beastbook is a social network in which users take photos with their phones and share them to everyone. It is popular with males and females of all ages, although mainly used by young women. Users share what they eat for lunch, where they go, what they buy etc., to show the world how productive their lives are. When users find a photo they like, they like it; the more "likes" there are in a publication, the more valuable it becomes. However, it's concerning that photos in which there are carnivores and herbivores together receive a lot of "likes".

Juno asks Sheila if she doesn't like to be in those photos. Sheila claims that she has no problem with it and that she sees it as proof that there are carnivores and herbivores that want to get along, but being in those photos is the only thing that she does and the herbivores run away from her once they take the photo. She feels that before they were on better terms since at least they had a little communication. Sheila denotes how Juno spends a lot of time on said social network. Juno affirms it, but says that she only takes photos with whom she gets along since many canines are like this, while felines do not use many social networks since they are not very sociable to begin with. Juno affirms that herbivores act paranoid because it is their defense mechanisms, which they cannot understand, so it would be good for carnivores to take photos with them. Sheila is stunned to see Juno's maturity. Later, Sheila ends up taking another selfie with Peach (one of the girls from before) and sees how she walks away after taking the photo. Sheila can't bear having that kind of relationship and on impulse takes Peach's hand and invites her to go out together. At the moment Sheila remembers that two days ago there were news about a goat that was killed by his fox roommate. To her surprise, Peach accepts the invitation and later both headed towards town. They both stroll in a mall where they visit clothing stores while chatting. While searching for clothes, Peach thinks how surprised she is when Sheila invited her to go out that she thought she was antisocial, and although she did not show it, she was scared when she took her hand, so she apologizes to her in her mind. After shopping, they both sit down outside the mall where they have drinks while chatting. Sheila asks Peach to take a photo as a souvenir. Peach states that she did not think about taking a photo because she was having so much fun and alleges that they took a good photo and to not boast about it. She decides to keep it to herself and not publish it, although she quickly retracts and decides to publish it, so she receives a gentle blow from Sheila.

Characters

 * Sheila
 * Peach
 * Juno

Trivia

 * This is the first chapter in which Sheila has an important role.
 * Beastbook is a reference to current social networks. While its name is a parody of Facebook, its platform is almost identical to that of Instagram.
 * Sheila mentions that animals with spots are not recommended to wear clothes with patterns, so they should limit themselves to wearing plain clothes that do not clash with their body. Peach mentions that sheep cannot wear polyester because it conducts electricity, which is bad for their wool.