Masasumi Kakizaki stated that he always liked Rome from the
Roman Empire era and wanted to make a work based on it. Kakizaki said that writing a realistic story of the Roman Empire would not be suited for a
shōnen manga magazine, so he added dragons and other
mythological creatures to the story to attract the specific audience. To make the creatures, he used an old book with illustrations of monsters and adapted them to his own art style. Kakizaki has been particularly influenced by films to make his works, and stated that Bestiarius is influenced by the 1959 film Ben-Hur.[3]
Publication
Bestiarius, written and illustrated by
Masasumi Kakizaki, was first published as two-part
one-shot chapter in
Shogakukan's
shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from February 9–16, 2011;[4][5] a "second episode" ran from August 7 to September 4, 2013;[6][7] a "third episode" ran from October 22, 2014, to March 4, 2015.[8][9] the series was later transferred to Shōnen Sunday S, where it ran its last "fourth episode" from December 25, 2015, to December 25, 2018.[10][11] Shogakukan published its chapters in seven tankōbon volumes, released from December 18, 2013,[12] to February 18, 2019.[13]
Writing for Le Figaro, Valentin Paquot described Bestiarius as "clever mix between
Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings", adding that Kakizaki graphically reinvents
mythological creatures, giving them a dark and terrifying appearance of realism. He concluded: "Bestiarius, is in the lineage of Berserk,
Lodoss and other titles in the pantheon of Fantasy. A manga to discover absolutely for fans of the genre."[23]