Kemono Friends
Kemono Friends is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Kemono Friends Project. The project was launched around 2014 by Kadokawa's Kajii Hitoshi. Manga artist Mine Yoshizaki was appointed as the concept designer for the characters and worldview. The first project was a mobile game developed by Nexon, which ran from March 2015 to December 2016. A manga by Furai was serialized in Kadokawa's Monthly Shōnen Ace from May 2015 to March 2017. A second game of the series was released by Bushiroad in January 2018. An anime television series produced by Yaoyorozu aired from January to March 2017. A second season by Tomason aired from January to April 2019.
Plot
Japari Park is a large zoo, filled with extant, endangered, extinct, cryptids species, and some legendary creatures. Due to a mysterious substance known as "Sandstar", many animals have become anthropomorphized into girls known as Friends.The manga Kemono Friends: Welcome to Japari Park! follows a park keeper named Nana who looks after the various characters in Japari Park. The manga is set earlier than the rest of the works in the franchise.
In the Nexon mobile game, the park has been closed to visitors due to an outbreak of aggressive and amorphous creatures known as "Ceruleans", which the Friends have to battle with the help of the player and the park guide, Mirai.
In the first season of the anime, which is set sometime after the mobile game, a girl wakes up in Japari Park with no recollection of who she is or how she got there. She encounters a serval Friend, who names the girl "Kaban". Together, they set out on an adventure to find out what kind of animal Kaban is, passing through multiple regions of Japari Park and meeting new friends along the way.
Characters
Kemono Friends
Main characters
;Kaban;Serval
Key Friends
;Fennec;Raccoon
;PPP
;Ezo Red Fox and Silver Fox
;Northern White-faced Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl
;Sand Cat
;Tsuchinoko
;Hippopotamus
;Jaguar
;Asian Small-Clawed Otter
;Japanese Crested Ibis
;Alpaca suri
An Alpaca Friend known mostly for running the Japari Cafe in the 2017 anime.
;Brown Bear
Brown Bear is a member of a group of Cerulean Hunters in her most notable appearance in the 2017 anime.
;African Wild Dog
Kemono Friends 2
;Kyururu;Caracal
;Giant Armadillo and Giant Pangolin
;Greater Lophorina and Western Parotia
Other characters
;Lucky Beast;Mirai
;Nana
Media
Video games
Nexon launched their first smartphone app in Japan in March 2015. The app shut down on December 14, 2016, which is one month before the anime's premiere. Nexon initially stated that there were no plans to restart the service despite the popularity of the anime series, although the company later announced that it is possible to relaunch, but no final decision has been made.On April 23, a new game in development by Bushiroad was announced. On August 14, its name was revealed to be Kemono Friends Pavilion, and will be a simulation game. Originally meant to be released in late 2017, the release date was pushed back to January 26, 2018.
Kemono Friends Picross, a nonogram game developed by Jupiter for their Picross series, was released internationally for Nintendo Switch on October 4, 2018.
The third smartphone app Kemono Friends 3, by Sega launched in Japan on 24 September 2019. Sega later transferred the publishing rights to Appirits. The arcade version Kemono Friends 3 Planet Tours was launched on 26 September 2019 and shut down on 30 September 2021.
On April 16, 2020, Nexon launched a crossover event, Kemono Friends × Mabinogi.
On may 5, 2022 a Pachislot game developed by Rodeo and published by Sammy titled Pachislot Kemono Friends was released. The game featured a collaboration with the Beast King Pachislot series featuring Friends based on some of the animal characters from Beast King such as Beast King Hippopotamus and Beast King Lion.
On May 31, 2022, an officially-licensed mobile RPG developed by Chinese game developer ZLONGAME- titled Kemono Friends Kingdom- was launched on servers for the Singapore/Malaysia region, the game language being Simplified Chinese. Servers for mainland China and Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan would launch soon after; however, all Asian servers would close on April 14, 2023, preceding an announcement on May 12, 2023, that the game would be receiving a global release. Shortly thereafter, in the same year, select regions would have access to three beta tests through the Google Play Store, occurring from May 18 to May 31, June 9 to June 21, and June 28 to July 3, respectively. On July 13, 2023, an open beta launched for iOS and Android devices. in the summer of 2025, teravit had a collab with kemono freind introducing teravit x kemono freinds.
Manga
A manga illustrated by Fly, titled Kemono Friends: Welcome to Japari Park!, began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine from May 2015. The first tankōbon volume was released on December 26, 2016. At their panel in Anime Expo, Yen Press announced their license to the manga. In April 2018, Tokyopop released the German version of the manga on July 26, 2018.Another manga series, Kemono Friends: À La Carte, which began serialization in 2017, was licensed by Yen Press in 2019. It is an anthology series, compiling stories and illustrations by various artists, with the second volume at one point being the highest selling book on Amazon Japan in August 2017.
A manga adaptation of Kemono Friends 2 began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Ace on January 26, 2019.
Anime
The anime television series, produced by Yaoyorozu, aired in Japan between January 10, 2017, and March 28, 2017; and was co-produced, financed and streamed simultaneously by Crunchyroll. The opening theme is "Yōkoso Japari Park e" by Dōbutsu Biscuits×PPP, while the ending theme is "Boku no Friend" by Mewhan. Original content for TV Tokyo's AniTele service was released from April 1, 2017. An unofficial "episode 12.1" 2-minute short was uploaded by the director to Niconico and YouTube on April 5, 2017. Additional shorts have been created in collaboration with Japan Racing Association, Animelo Summer Live 2017, and Nissin Foods. Discotek Media distributed the series for Crunchyroll in North America, and produced an English dub by Sound Cadence Studios. The full English dub cast had been announced at Otakon 2019, and released on Blu-ray on September 24, 2019. The anime gained additional worldwide attention in 2017 due to coverage of the unusual story of Grape-kun, a Humboldt penguin at the Saitama Tobu Zoo that developed a romantic attraction to a cardboard cutout of the character Hululu.A second anime season was announced to be greenlit for production on July 26, 2017, and was officially confirmed on September 2, 2018. The second season is animated by Tomason, with Ryuichi Kimura and Takuya Matsumoto replacing Tatsuki as director and writer, respectively. The rest of the cast and staff reprised their roles. The second season aired from January 14 to April 1, 2019. The opening theme is "Notteke~ Japari Beat," by Dōbutsu Biscuits×PPP. The ending theme from episodes 1–5 is "Hoshi o Tsunagete" by Gothic×Luck. From episode 6-onwards, Gothic×Luck performed the series' second ending theme "Kimi wa Kaeru Basho." A short anime titled Kemono Friends 3 has been greenlit for production.
An original net animation mini-series based on the original mobile game, titled Welcome to the Japari Park, began streaming on TV Tokyo's AnimeTele service from August 10, 2018. Crunchyroll began streaming the series from October 16, 2018.
Stage play
A stage play adaptation of Kemono Friends with an original storyline ran at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club eX in Tokyo from 2017 June 14 to 18. Hiroki Murakami directed the play and penned the script while some of the characters were portrayed by the same actors who voiced them in the anime series. It ran again in 2018 from January 13 to 21.VTuber project
A VTuber project titled Kemono Friends V Project, KemoV for short, was launched on YouTube on April 26, 2021. The project currently has 9 active members, each based on characters and designs from the Kemono Friends franchise.Reception
Anime
Season one
Initial criticism often latched onto the quality and style of the CGI animation. Critic Hiroki Azuma reported on Twitter that he stopped watching partway through the first episode. However, its popularity increased explosively after the release of the fourth episode. In reference to the simplistic and repetitive nature of the show, it has been described by critical bloggers as "causing one's IQ to melt" and "lowering one's intelligence". Despite its low production quality, the anime series earned praise from critics and viewers in Japan due to the storyline and characters, becoming a fad in the country. Nick Creamer of Anime News Network gave the series an overall grade of B, praising the worldbuilding and criticizing the visual aspects.Multiple phrases and exclamations from the anime became popular keywords on Twitter; Kemono Friends-related phrases have been tweeted by the accounts of Sharp and Warner Bros. Japan.
The first episode of Kemono Friends quickly surpassed the first episode of Is the Order a Rabbit? as well as other popular shows like Attack on Titan in total views on NicoNico Douga. By February 5, it had surpassed 1 million views, by April 4, it had surpassed 5 million views, and by August 24, it had reached a record-breaking 10 million views.
The week after episode 12 and around the time episodes would normally air, demand for an episode 13 reached Twitter's international trends list, and the episode 12.1 short that was uploaded that day had reached over 1 million views on both Niconico and YouTube by April 7.
The opening theme song "Yokoso Japari Park e" rose to 3rd place in the iTunes charts upon release. It was revealed on May 20 that "Yokoso Japari Park e" had reached gold status. Gen Hoshino has expressed high praise of the song. Hisashi, guitarist of the band Glay, was inspired to create a guitar arrangement of the opening theme song after watching episode 11.
Multiple other Kemono Friends merchandise topped Amazon rankings upon announcement. The unexpected popularity of the show created a shortage in supply and reservations had to be placed on backorder.
Season two
Season two was received with mixed-to-poor reaction among Japanese audiences. The anime was criticized for foreshadowed plot points being left unresolved and a "perceived malice towards season 1" of Kemono Friends, an opinion compounded by controversies surrounding Kemono Friends 2. Episode 9 and 12 was particularly poorly received due to its contents, with the latter breaking the record of the least positively rated anime episode on NicoNico Namahousou at 2.6%, surpassing the previously held record of 2.8% by Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-VGadget Tsūshin listed both the ninth episode's title and "Gomasuri Kusō Bird" in their 2019 anime buzzwords list.
Controversies
Dispute between Kadokawa and Yaoyorozu
On September 25, 2017, the director of the anime, Tatsuki, revealed on Twitter that Kadokawa had decided to replace him for the production of the second season. Fan response included immense condemnation of Kadokawa and widespread support of Tatsuki, as Tatsuki is regarded as being a highly instrumental part of the anime's charm and success. Fans left angry comments en masse towards Kadokawa on Niconico Douga's stream of the first episode, with some declaring that they would cancel their Niconico Douga premium membership with the service in response to Tatsuki's firing, as Dwango and Kadokawa are both child companies of Kadokawa Dwango. The Nikkei reported that stock prices for Kadokawa Dwango fell by 3.3% compared to the previous day at the Tokyo Stock Exchange as a result of the news. In the weeks before this incident, animation studio Yaoyorozu had released a free teaser side episode to its fans, pursuant to their agreement with Kadokawa that Yaoyorozu would be allowed full creative freedom in developing Kemono Friends, an agreement made at a time where the Kemono Friends IP appeared to be near worthless, an agreement they wished to change in response to the soaring value of the IP. In response to the controversy, production committee of the Kemono Friends anime announced that director Tatsuki and the animation studio Yaoyorozu had been using the Kemono Friends property on its own without consulting all concerned parties and that Yaoyorozu would not agree to a normalization in communication and withdrew from the project as a result. A September 26 Kemono Friends streaming program on Niconico Douga then featured several voice actresses from the anime publicly apologizing for the ongoing controversy, despite having little connection to the corporate decisions made. This led to further backlash against Kadokawa, with accusations that they had used the actresses to deflect blame from the company itself.On December 27, 2017, Yoshitada Fukuhara, the animation producer, confirmed that Yaoyorozu would ultimately not go on to produce the second season.
Tatsuki has also claimed on Twitter on September 14, 2018, that he was never paid for his involvement with writing the script, or any of the royalties concerning the anime. TV Tokyo's producer for this anime, Nobuyuki Hosoda, responded to fan questions on Twitter stating that he couldn't provide an answer based on the position that he was in.