Kemono Friends

Japari Park is an untamed paradise where many humanoid animals, known as "Friends," live their everyday lives in all corners of the natural environmental park.

One lazy afternoon in the savannah area, the energetic Serval encounters a peculiar new Friend. Curious, she swiftly takes down the Friend, named Kaban, to try and discover what species she is. To Serval's disappointment, not even Kaban herself knows the answer.

The two become friends and set out on a grand adventure through the many habitats, landmarks, and attractions of Japari Park. Their destination is the park library, where they hope to shed some light on Kaban’s identity. Along the way, they meet many other Friends, looking into their lives and helping them out. However, they soon begin to uncover the sinister reality behind the park and their own existence.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Serval Main

Ozaki, Yuka Japanese

Kaban Main

Uchida, Aya Japanese

Lucky Beast Main

Uchida, Aya Japanese

Hashibirokou Supporting

Komori, Misae Japanese

Tsuchinoko Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Araiguma Supporting

Ono, Saki Japanese

Fennec Supporting

Motomiya, Kana Japanese

Toki Supporting

Kaneda, Tomoko Japanese

Tairikuookami Supporting

Itou, Kanae Japanese

Kitakitsune Supporting

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Hosoya, Nobuyuki Producer

Fukuda, Jun Producer

Ishigaki, Yoshihiko Producer

Kudo, Daijo Producer

Reviews

Mar 28, 2017

Reinhath

Recommended

You might have heard that Kemono Friends, a CGI full length anime, is the most popular show of the Winter 2017 season in Japan. It took a LONG time for any western anime fans to even notice this show, yet alone take it seriously. But after giving it a fair chance, I truly believe that Kemono Friends is one of the most special and unique anime we have.

First, I'll get a few things out of the way. The animation and art style are lacking in massive ways. I don't think anyone will try to argue with that. The voice acting is also pretty shoddy in ... a few places. However, there is so much more to Kemono Friends than just that.

The biggest draw of the show is that it has some of the best world-building I have ever seen in anime. Kemono Friends truly understands "show, don't tell." As the series goes on, viewers start to learn more and more about the weird and mysterious world this seemingly simple story takes place in. If you're reading this review, it's probably too late for you now, but the theory-crafting and discussions had around Kemono Friends in Japan and the western world were so much fun. By drip-feeding us information about the world, fans were able to come together week to week to discuss their new ideas and knowledge. The mystery of the park might make this one of the best mystery anime too!

The story seems simple at first; a lost girl and an animal girl wander around a park filled with animal girls trying to find out what the lost girl is. Every week, they meet other animal friends and help them with their problems as they progress towards their own goals. But the aforementioned world-building is what draws this all together. In the background of each episode, new things are added to the viewer's knowledge-bank about this unique and interesting world. As your interest in the world grows, so does your love for these relatively simplistic, but fun characters. You grow to love watching them simply have fun, as the dark past of the world unfolds.

It may sound pretentious, but Kemono Friends is not a show that you'll get the full enjoyment of just by watching and forgetting it. Kemono Friends was a show that I spent HOURS thinking about and talking about, because it was simply so amazing that I couldn't get it out of my head. I watch a lot of anime, so usually I'll watch an episode and immediately forget about it, even if it's something I love. I simply couldn't do that with Kemono Friends. It's one of the first shows of the over 300 that I watched that I wanted to discuss in-depth and engage with on all levels. And I know for a fact that it wasn't just me that felt this way, because it has truly become one of the most popular anime in Japan.

I honestly cannot predict how enjoyable this show will be outside of the special environment that existed while it was airing. Thousands of fans, albeit mostly Japanese (luckily, I understand Japanese!), came together week after week to theorize and enjoy the wonderful world of Japari Park. You might not be able to get over the art or voice acting and that's fair. But watching Kemono Friends is the most special experiences I have ever had in my life-long anime career. I don't know if anything will ever be able to replicate this feeling, but I hope that future creators take notes from Kemono Friends.

Give this show a shot, at least until episode 4. If you watch to that point and still can't get into it, it might not be for you. I 110% advise you to make your own theories about the show and THINK about it as you watch, taking breaks when possible. Go back and read the episode discussion threads on Reddit to get a sense of what people thought at different points in the show. Enjoy the wonderful fanart and other creative pieces that the huge, dedicated fanbase of Kemono Friends have made. I hope that this show gains more traction in the west, because it is so disappointing that so many western fans missed out on the magic. If anything, push through it to get ready for the inevitable (considering those sales) season 2 and prepare for a new round of magic!

Welcome to Japari Park!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Dec 26, 2022

Alfresa

Mixed Feelings

hello this is my first review:
kemono friends or also called by here "hairy friends" goes to a children's audience does not pretend to be more like "my little pony" does kemono goes to the point to teach children animals etc, the anime is innocent and for the little ones is fine, but if we talk more by the series in the technical section it sucks, but in characters, environment, etc are good not excellent, at the beginning slow starts I assure you in the first chapter we all stop in the middle we follow him until the chapter 3 and it starts to draw attention ... to one or another form, several friends have what if others are more useless as shorebill that the whole famdom loves for some reason, the series gives laughter not like other moes, I can speak good things of the series and the bad ones are these some characters like serval or otter usually have one or another help of the script the celurian of the end is the monster of the week, but still the series is one of the best moes.
 what I'm afraid of is the second season kadokawa I do not think he has as much innocence as tatsuki and they want to take it seriously but the result will see.
Edit post 2 season: bruh

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 3, 2017

fufuf

Not Recommended

Kemono Friends is the My Little Pony of anime. Both franchises exploded in popularity after their shows aired, notably gaining an audience of adults. When My Little Pony was popular, I couldn't understand bronies and what they saw in MLP. Today, I can't understand what people see in Kemono Friends.
The story is ridiculously simple. The main character, Kaban, travels around with Serval to different habitats and meet different friends along the way. The closest thing to an actual plot or goal is that at first the two of them are traveling to a library to learn what kind of animal Kaban is, but this gets ... figured out before they even go to the library and the discovery adds absolutely nothing to the plot. It rinses and repeats the "meet new friends" junk for every episode with some little things thrown in here and there. People claim there are some "deeper, darker elements" to this story, but those elements are neither dark nor deep. The show's very obviously for children and as such these "dark elements" are hardly dark, not even for a children's show. If anything, it's just a very, very basic conflict.
The animation is incredibly awful. I have yet to see an all CGI anime that looks good, but this one was probably the worst that I've seen. The movements of the characters are very stiff and awkward. The characters suffer from sameface and all have the same bodies (not including their hair, but most anime seems to rely on telling their characters apart from a glance with their hair, which is a really bad thing). The backgrounds are actually drawn (instead of modeled) and look pretty nice, which is really the only good thing I can say about the art.
The voice acting is alright. It's not really anything special. A lot of the voice actresses are amateurs, so they're pretty good for newbies, but again, nothing too special.
The characters have little to no personality. Every episode introduces a ridiculous amount of new characters only to be ditched in the next episode in favor of new soulless characters. The writers slap a quirky gimmick or two to each character and call it a personality. As such, most of them are really forgettable and bland, but that's to be expected with a show with such a large cast, right? But not even Serval and Kaban have personalities. Kaban is...smart? Serval is...outgoing? That's all I got from them.
This show is overall insultingly simple and incredibly boring. I hardly enjoyed it. It was just as boring as every other slice of life moe anime, except these moe girls are animals and it's even more dumbed down since it's for children. If you're under the age of four or enjoy kid's shows like My Little Pony and, I dunno, maybe Care Bears or Barney too, you'll enjoy this show. If you aren't, please watch literally anything but this anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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