History Anime / KemonoFriends

* AWizardDidIt: In the show, the tails of Friends can often be seen clipping through their clothes. According to the official guide book, this is actually because Friends don't realize their clothes aren't part of their bodies yet.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Hands up, how many people had heard of servals before? The animals featured are all over the place in terms of obscurity, ranging from very well-known (otter, lion), to nigh unheard-of (margay, campo flicker), and everywhere in-between.

* HappyEndingOverride: By the end of the mobile game, the Cellien Queen was defeated, Cerval became a Friend, Japari Park was opened, and everyone lived happily ever after... Then came the anime, which is set in an abandoned Japari Park, with the various fixtures of the mobile game being effectively PutOnABusToHell. The concept design exhibition takes this UpToEleven by actually showing us some of the things that happened between the game and the anime: [[spoiler: there was a massive Cellien eruption, which forced the Four Gods and Cerval to pull a HeroicSacrifice to save Japari Park. The Four Gods turned into statues, while Cerval turned into anti-Cellien. Together, they formed the filter seen in Episode 11.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The anime already has a rather large cast, but it's only [[UpToEleven a fraction]] of the game's [[http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=60528728 cast]].

One day, a girl [[AmnesiacHero without any memories]] wakes up in the middle of a savannah before being chased and "hunted down" by a CatGirl (who was actually playing "Predator and Prey" with her). Said catgirl, calling herself a Serval cat, reveals that they are in just one region of a vast integrated zoo called Japari Park, which is inhabited by LittleBitBeastly girls called Friends who are created when regular animals come into contact with a [[MutagenicGoo mysterious substance called Sandstar.]] The girl, given the nickname Kaban after her backpack, sets off on a grand adventure together with her new friend Serval throughout Japari Park [[QuestForIdentity to find out what kind of Friend she is]]. Friends ensue! During an episode, each Friend is introduced along with their scientific classification. For {{eyecatch}}es, zookeepers from all over the globe give short lectures on the nature of the featured animals.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: "PPP", pronounced as ''[=PePaPu=]''. Short for ''Penguins Performance Project''.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: [[https://aqua.komica.org/68/pixmicat.php?res=57831 The manga establishes Season 2’s time at year 4025]].

Despite this, the franchise continued on; aside from a couple of mobile spinoffs and [=CDs=] in the interim, a series of shorts titled ''Welcome to Japari Park'' aired summarizing the story mode of the original Nexon game. The second season, ''Kemono Friends 2'', premiered in January 2019. It was handled by Tomason, with its plot (much like season 1) being a soft reboot of the previous continuity. Serval is joined by fellow feline Caracal, and the pair set out with a mysterious child named Kyururu to find out what to do with him. An arcade/mobile game based on the anime continuity was released by Creator/{{Sega}}, under the name ''Kemono Friends 3'' on mobile and ''Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours'' in arcades.

''Kemono Friends'' is an anime that aired during the Winter 2017 season. It is part of a formerly unsuccessful multimedia franchise created by Mine Yoshizaki, centered around a mobile game by Creator/{{Nexon}} which was discontinued a month before the anime aired its first episode. The anime became a SleeperHit and revived the franchise in a major way.

* NonindicativeName: The first Celliens we see are indigo-blue. After that, they start coming in more colours and the name stops making sense. A popular view in Japan is that "Cellien" is a mistranslation and "セルリアン" is actually a portmanteau of "cell" (セル) and "alien" (エイリアン), which makes much more sense.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: The abandoned state of the park has caused some parts to be rather dangerous. This isn't even adding the threat of the Ceruleans.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:In the final episode, all the [[LittleBitBeastly Friends]] [[CallBack Kaban and Serval meet during their journey]] show up to help and rescue Kaban in the fight against the [[FinalBoss Black Cerulean]].]]
* BlobMonster: Ceruleans.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:In both the first and last episodes, a paper airplane is used as part of a plan to defeat a large Cerulean, and Serval decides to follow Kaban after she parts ways.]]

** A Friend was heard screaming in Episode 1 and mentioned that she may have been devoured by the Cerulean. Then a normal aardwolf was shown in Episode 12 in the exact same location the Cerulean was defeated.
* TheCavalry / ContinuityCavalcade: [[spoiler:Most of the plot-important Friends return to battle the black Cerulean in episode 12--not to destroy it, but to rescue Kaban from its innards.]]

** Also in episode 1, Kaban gives Serval some paper airplanes. [[spoiler:In episode 12, Serval uses one of these paper airplanes to lure the black Cerulean towards the boat so it can sink into the ocean.]]

** In the game, they're basically BonusBoss[=es=] of a BrutalBonusLevel where they're the strongest, at least in Cerulean form.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Friends get these when using Wild Release. [[spoiler:These also appear when the two owls lead all of the other Friends into combat against the black Cerulean in Episode 12.]]

* GondorCallsForAid: [[spoiler: The Lucky Beasts call in most of the Friends to help battle the black Cerulean in episode 12.]]

* HappyEndingOverride: By the end of the mobile game, the Cerulean Queen was defeated, Cerval became a Friend, Japari Park was opened, and everyone lived happily ever after... Then came the anime, which is set in an abandoned Japari Park, with the various fixtures of the mobile game being effectively PutOnABusToHell. The concept design exhibition takes this UpToEleven by actually showing us some of the things that happened between the game and the anime: [[spoiler: there was a massive Cerulean eruption, which forced the Four Gods and Cerval to pull a HeroicSacrifice to save Japari Park. The Four Gods turned into statues, while Cerval turned into anti-Cerulean. Together, they formed the filter seen in Episode 11.]]

** [[spoiler: Kaban]] at the end of episode 11. [[spoiler: Despite having saved her, the unconscious Serval is a sitting duck for the black Cerulean. Kaban chooses to lead it far enough away with a torch so Serval will be left alone, despite knowing it will kill her.]] [[spoiler: "Kaban-chan" [[http://i.imgur.com/ScP5vMO.png trended worldwide]] after this episode aired.]]

* KillItWithWater: Thanks to her research, Tsuchinoko knows [[spoiler:that water turns Ceruleans into volcanic rock.]]

* LeftHanging: [[spoiler:We never find out whether there was really an apocalypse that wiped out humanity, or if humans just abandoned the park long ago because of the Ceruleans. The show ends before Kaban and her unexpected tag-alongs reach the next island.]]

* MadeOfPhlebotinum: Sandstar powers the entire show, causing both the Friends and the Ceruleans to exist. It also drives the Ceruleans to attack the Friends and forced the humans to leave Japari Park. Serval even mentions that Kaban may owe her existence to Sandstar in the first episode.

* MutagenicGoo: The mysterious substance known as Sandstar turns regular animals into the humanoid Friends [[spoiler:(even their remains or a single hair). It also turns inanimate objects into Ceruleans.]]
* NonindicativeName: The first Ceruleans we see are indigo-blue. After that, they start coming in more colours and the name stops making sense. A popular view in Japan is that "Cerulean" is a mistranslation and "セルリアン" is actually a portmanteau of "cell" (セル) and "alien" (エイリアン), which makes much more sense.

* PhlebotinumMuncher: What makes the Ceruleans so dreaded. They exist and grow by absorbing the Sandstar in their environment, including any poor Friends that happen to be caught by them. Getting drained of Sandstar causes Friends to revert into regular, non-sentient animals, which the others treat as DeathOfPersonality. [[spoiler: Kaban turns out to be mostly unharmed by the effect, as her base species is human to begin with.]]
* {{Prequel}}: The manga is a SliceOfLife of the park ''before'' it was invaded by the Cerulean. Which makes [[SugarApocalypse the anime's setting all the more heartbreaking.]]

** [[spoiler:In Episode 11, the Black Cerulean is lured away by Kaban with a torch, much like [[Film/JurassicPark Rexy did with Grant and Ian]].]]

* SilentAntagonist: The Ceruleans.

* ThemeMusicPowerUp: The opening theme kicks in [[spoiler:as the Friends power up for the battle with the black Cerulean.]] Due to budget constraints, the start of this scene doubles as a poster render, complete with logo in the sky.

* WeaksauceWeakness: The seemingly invincible black Cerulean [[spoiler:turns to stone on contact with water. They destroy it by luring it onto a boat and sinking it, leaving behind nothing but volcanic rock. Other Ceruleans may have the same weakness.]]
** Normal Ceruleans have a hard stone in them, often on their back. A swift tap to this stone will destroy them utterly.
* WistfulAmnesia: [[spoiler:Serval starts to tear up when she hears the original Serval talking to Mirai in the latter's recordings. While it's an AmbiguousSituation, it's suspected to be hinting that they're one and the same, but that Mirai's Serval fell to a Cerulean, suffered a DeathOfPersonality and reverted to a regular serval, and was hit with Sandstar again, becoming the new Serval with none of the memories of the old one.]]

* InformedAbility: The [[spoiler:Friend-shaped]] Ceruleans [[spoiler:born from Kyururu's paintings]] are built up to be much more powerful than the regular Ceruleans... Yet all of them are still destroyed in one hit anyway.

* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:The cruise ship cerulean]] is not dealt with in the TV version, nor is the underwater volcano sealed off. In the Manga, all the Friends at the hotel worked together and destroyed the former.
* VillainDecay: Unlike the Ceruleans in the previous season, all the Ceruleans in Season 2 are easily destroyed in one hit without the need to aim for the weak point.

* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:The battleship and cruise ship ceruleans]] are not dealt with, nor is the underwater volcano sealed off.

** [[https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6445502556 Kaban’s home is modeled after Biosphere 2]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/716469.jpg]]

One day, a girl [[AmnesiacHero without any memories]] wakes up in the middle of a savannah before being chased and "hunted down" by a CatGirl (who was actually playing "Predator and Prey" with her). Said catgirl, calling herself a Serval cat, reveals that they are in just one region of a vast integrated zoo called Japari Park, which is inhabited by LittleBitBeastly girls called Friends who are created when regular animals come into contact with a [[MutagenicGoo mysterious substance called Sandstar.]] The girl, given the nickname Kaban after her backpack, sets off on a grand adventure together with her new friend Serval throughout Japari Park [[QuestForIdentity to find out what kind of Friend she is]]. Friends ensue! During an episode, each Friend is introduced along with their scientific classification. For eyecatches, zookeepers from all over the globe give short lectures on the nature of the featured animals.

''Kemono Friends'' is an anime that aired during the Winter 2017 season. It is part of a formerly unsuccessful multimedia franchise created by Mine Yoshizaki, centered around a mobile game by {{Creator/Nexon}} which was discontinued a month before the anime aired its first episode. The anime became a SleeperHit and revived the franchise in a major way.

''Kemono Friends'' is currently being aired by {{Website/Crunchyroll}} and is also [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/653320 available for streaming]] on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}. Creator/DiscotekMedia has additionally licensed the anime’s first season on DVD and Blu-Ray, with an English dub done by Sound Cadence Studios.

One day, a girl [[AmnesiacHero without any memories]] wakes up in the middle of a savannah before being chased and "hunted down" by a CatGirl. Said catgirl, calling herself a Serval cat, reveals that they are in just one region of a vast integrated zoo called Japari Park, which is inhabited by LittleBitBeastly girls called Friends who are created when regular animals come into contact with a [[MutagenicGoo mysterious substance called Sandstar.]] The girl, given the nickname Kaban after her backpack, sets off on a grand adventure together with her new friend Serval throughout Japari Park [[QuestForIdentity to find out what kind of Friend she is]]. Friends ensue! During an episode, each Friend is introduced along with their scientific classification. For eyecatches, zookeepers from all over the globe give short lectures on the nature of the featured animals.

** One will spot [[Disney/TheLionKing Pride Rock]] in the first episode, during the scene where Kyururu points to where he came from.

* VillainDecay: Unlike the Ceruleans in the previous season, all the Ceruleans in Season 2 are easily destroyed in one hit without the need to aim for the weak point.

''Kemono Friends'' is currently being aired by {{Website/Crunchyroll}} and is also [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/653320 available for streaming]] on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}. After the success of the anime a "new video project" was greenlit. Creator/DiscotekMedia has additionally licensed the anime’s first season on DVD and Blu-Ray, with an English dub done by Sound Cadence Studios.

One day, a girl [[AmnesiacHero without any memories]] wakes up in the middle of a savannah before being chased and "hunted down" by a CatGirl. Said catgirl, calling herself a Serval cat, reveals that they are in just one region of a vast integrated zoo called Japari Park, which is inhabited by LittleBitBeastly girls called Friends who are created when regular animals come into contact with a [[MutagenicGoo mysterious substance called Sandstar.]] The girl, given the nickname Kaban after her backpack, sets off on a grand adventure together with her new friend Serval throughout Japari Park [[QuestForIdentity to find out what kind of Friend she is]]. Friends ensue!

During an episode, each Friend is introduced along with their scientific classification. For eyecatches, zookeepers from all over the globe give short lectures on the nature of the featured animals.

''Kemono Friends'' is an anime that aired during the Winter 2017 season. It is part of a formerly unsuccessful multimedia franchise created by Mine Yoshizaki, centered around a mobile game by {{Creator/Nexon}} which was discontinued a month before the anime aired its first episode. The anime has gone on to become a massive SleeperHit and has revived the franchise in a major way.

Part of the franchise's unsuccessful period was a SliceOfLife manga about a new keeper called Nana coming to work at Japari Park with the Friends, which ended after two volumes. The anime's success resulted in the manga being licensed by Yen Press for release in 2018, collecting the two volumes in one.

''Kemono Friends'' is currently being aired by {{Website/Crunchyroll}} and is also [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/653320 available for streaming]] on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}. After the success of the anime a "new video project" was greenlit.

On April 5, 2017, the director [=TATSUKI=] released an unofficial short titled "Episode 12.1" on Nico Nico Douga. He has stressed that it was just for fun and not the aforementioned video project currently in the works. A couple of additional shorts have followed, again none of them the project.

In the last week of September, 2017, a wrecking ball have been taken to the franchise: Kadokawa fired TATSUKI over the 12.1 episode, which led to Japan's social media exploding and the ''entire staff'' resigning in protest. The reaction in Japan was so bad that the company's stock dropped over 33% in a day after this event. Although Kadokawa has publicly apologized for causing the fan outrage and began to negotiate with the staff, it was decided that both Tatsuki and Yaoyorozu will not be returning for the second season.

Despite this, the franchise continued on; aside from a couple of mobile spinoffs and [=CDs=] in the interim, a series of shorts titled ''Welcome to Japari Park'' aired summarizing the story mode of the original Nexon game. The second season, ''Kemono Friends 2'', would premiere in January 2019. It was handled by Tomason, with its plot (much like season 1) being a soft reboot of the previous continuity. Serval is joined by fellow feline Caracal, and the pair set out with a mysterious child named Kyururu to find out what to do with her.

An arcade/mobile game based on the anime continuity is released by Creator/{{Sega}}, under the name ''Kemono Friends 3'' on mobile and ''Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours'' in arcades.

Creator/DiscotekMedia has licensed the anime’s first season with an English dub done by Sound Cadence Studios.

* TakeThat: The entire ending seems to be one directed at Season 1. Not only has Serval completely forgotten about Kaban and their adventure together, but TheStinger reveals that [[spoiler: Kyururu was with Serval back before Japari Park closed]]. The implication is obvious: Kyururu was the true protagonist all along, Kaban was just a random nobody.

** It becomes clear pretty quickly that Japari Park ''used'' to have humans maintaining it, but now... doesn't. What crosses over almost into TearJerker territory is that the franchise was effectively DEAD when the first episode aired. How many franchises do you know which have a new installment set after the end '''of itself'''!?[[note]]Most sequel series expand a series premise in a new direction. Kemono Friends begins with the setpieces of its previous incarnation literally missing or ruined.[[/note]]

* {{Prequel}}: The [[http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Kemono-Friends manga]], which is a SliceOfLife of the park ''before'' it was invaded by the Cerulean. Which makes [[SugarApocalypse this all the more heartbreaking.]]

* 20MinutesIntoTheFuture: [[https://aqua.komica.org/68/pixmicat.php?res=57831 The manga establishes Season 2’s time at year 4025].

* ShoutOut: One will spot [[Disney/TheLionKing Pride Rock]] in the first episode, during the scene where Kyururu points to where he came from.
** [[FilmAnimated/LoonyToons Greater Roadrunner’s “BEEP” T-shirt]].

* 20MinutesIntoTheFuture: [[https://aqua.komica.org/68/src/1569817637754.png The manga establishes Season 2’s time at year 4025] .

** [[WesternAnimation/LoonyToons Greater Roadrunner’s “BEEP” T-shirt]].

In the last week of September, 2017, a wrecking ball may have been taken to the franchise: Kadokawa fired TATSUKI over the 12.1 episode, which led to Japan's social media exploding and the ''entire staff'' resigning in protest. The reaction in Japan was so bad that the company's stock dropped over 33% in a day after this event. Although Kadokawa has publicly apologized for causing the fan outrage and began to negotiate with the staff, it was decided that both Tatsuki and Yaoyorozu will not be returning for the second season.

Despite this, the franchise would continue on; aside from a couple of mobile spinoffs and [=CDs=] in the interim, a series of shorts titled ''Welcome to Japari Park'' aired summarizing the story mode of the original Nexon game. The second season, ''Kemono Friends 2'', would premiere in January 2019. It was handled by Tomason, with its plot (much like season 1) being a soft reboot of the previous continuity. Serval is joined by fellow feline Caracal, and the pair set out with a mysterious child named Kyururu to find out what to do with her.

An arcade/mobile game based on the anime continuity is in development by Creator/{{Sega}}, under the name ''Kemono Friends 3'' on mobile and ''Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours'' in arcades.

Creator/DiscotekMedia has licensed the anime with an English dub done by Sound Cadence Studios.

* ShoutOut: One will spot [[Disney/TheLionKing Pride Rock]] in the first episode, during the scene where Kyururu points to where she came from.