KemoV



Kemono Friends V Project, often abbreviated to KemoV Project or KemoV (Japanese: けもV or less often けもぶい, Hepburn: KemoV) is a Virtual YouTuber project announced in Official news on PPP ONLINE LIVE ~ Sekai Penguin no-chi Dai Kanshasai ~ on April 25th, 2021. There have been 11 members debuted and their Vtuber avatars are redesigns based on Friends from the Kemono Friends franchise. They livestream a variety of contents, notably gaming, chatting with viewers and singing. They often do collabs with various Vtubers outside KemoV as well.

Members
KemoV currently has 11 members debuting in two phases. As some members debuted individually and KemoV Project has not officially adopted the term "n-th generation", common in Vtuber industry to call a group of members debuting at the same time, this wiki will use "Phase" instead (this is also to avoid confusion with 'generation', a term used in the franchise to describe generations of the same Friends across different instalments). First Phase has six members including African Penguin, Humboldt Penguin, Island Fox, Coyote, Dire Wolf and Caracal, all debuted with 3D avatars; Second Phase (officially called KemoV Next Project) consists of a five-members group, often nicknamed 'Kemoren' (けもレン), all debuted with 2D avatars.

First Phase
The very first two Virtual YouTubers whose debut was announced simultaneously with the start of the KemoV project. Their first collaborative livestream took place at 22:00 JST on April 26th, 2021, on African Penguin's YouTube channel. The debut stream used 3D models with full-body motion capture technology. Afterwards, regular livestreams feature the 3D models from the torso up. All the following First Phase members use 3D avatars as well. African Penguin graduated from the KemoV Project on May 21st, 2022.

An additional Virtual Youtuber, Island Fox, was announced in the Kemono Friends 3 livestream on June 7th, 2021. Her debut and first livestream was on 19:00 JST, June 11th, 2021.

An additional Virtual YouTuber, Coyote, was announced via the KemoV Staff Twitter on November 30th, 2021. Unlike the other KemoV members, she's primarily an English Virtual YouTuber, but still speaks in Japanese frequently during stream. Her debut and first livestream was on December 4th, 2021 at 6:00 PM PST/December 5th, 2021 at 11:00 JST.

An additional Virtual YouTuber, Dire Wolf, was announced via the KemoV Staff Twitter on March 6th, 2022. Her debut and first livestream was March 19th, 19:00 JST.

An additional Virtual YouTuber, Caracal, was announced via the KemoV Staff Twitter on May 21st, 2022. Her debut and first livestream was May 28th, 20:00 JST.

Second Phase (KemoV Next Project)
KemoV Next Project was announced on July 1st, 2022 and consists of five members. Two of them, Large-Spotted Genet and Geoffroy's Cat were unveiled via the KemoV Staff Twitter on August 25, 2022. Debut livestream of Genet was on September 1st 19:00 JST while Geoffroy's Cat on September 2nd 20:00 JST. All the Second Phase members debuted with 2D avatars.

The remaining three memebers of KemoV Next Project, Brown Long-Eared Bat, Jungle Cat and Siberian Chipmunk were unveiled via Island Fox's livestream and KemoV Staff Twitter on 1st September. Their debut livestreams was on September 9, 2022 starting from 20:00 JST. These three members form the Kemono Gamers (けものゲーマーズ), a gaming-focused team of KemoV.

Timeline


This is a timeline about major events of KemoV. For the timelines of individual members please see their respective pages.
 * April 25th, 2021: Kemono Friends V Project was announced in Official news on PPP ONLINE LIVE ~ Sekai Penguin no-chi Dai Kanshasai ~.
 * September 19, 2021: African Penguin, Humboldt Penguin, and Island Fox represented KemoV to perform at Life Like A Live! 2, a three day online virtual idol concert. KemoV performed on the September 19.
 * March 25, 2022: Humboldt Penguin, Island Fox and Coyote represented KemoV to perform at Life Like A Live! 3, a three day online virtual idol concert. KemoV performed on the first day, March 25.
 * May 20, 2022: An online farewell event for the graduation of African Penguin was held, with Humboldt Penguin, Island Fox, Coyote and Dire Wolf joining the performance. For the first time, KemoV released official goods for African Penguin.
 * July 1st, 2022: A teaser showing silhouettes new five members was revealed at the end of Caracal's 3D debut stream that day as a surprise announcement of 'KemoV Next Project'. KemoV Twitter also announced it right after the stream. Their identities were later unveiled and they all debut in early September.
 * September 23, 2022: Humboldt Penguin, Coyote and Dire Wolf represented KemoV to perform at Life Like A Live! 4, a three-day online virtual idol concert. KemoV performed on the first day, September 23 and the last day on September 25.
 * December 18, 2022: Kemono Friends V 1stLIVE (けものフレンズV 1stLIVE) was held on TV Arashi with all ten current members participating. Official KemoV goods were also released.
 * January 20, 2023: From 1/20 to 2/17, 4 KemoV members participated in a game event of Rise of Kingdoms, "Rise of Oshi" (推し活対抗戦), to compete with each other with the help of fans. Island Fox has got the highest scores and appeared in the game's TVCM broadcasted in the Japanese TV station, TOKYO MX, from March 14 to 19, 2023.
 * January 23, 2023: From 1/23 to 1/28, seven KemoV members participated in a collab, viewer-participation gameshow, with よしもとfingger部 which is a group of Japanese TV personalities and comedians. Collab details on fingger HP.
 * February 14, 2023: For the first time, KemoV Project appeared on publication, a Vtuber magazine - Vtuber Mode Vol.3.
 * March 17, 2023: Humboldt Penguin, Dire Wolf and Caracal represented KemoV to perform at Life Like A Live! 5, a three-day online virtual idol concert. KemoV performed on the first day, March 17.
 * May 4, 2023: Presented by Siberian Chipmunk, a major Minecraft event, Kemono Stadium (けものスタジアム), will be held for the first time exclusive to fans with a membership of any KemoV member.
 * June 30, 2023: During Island Fox's Snack Shimahai, a regular stream at the end of every month, she with the rest of the members announced and launched 'KemoVRoadto200k' (けもVフレンズ２０万人計画), a plan to reach the short-term goal of 20k subs - counting all members' subscriber numbers collectively on Youtube.

Trivia



 * The introduction about KemoV Project in the Vtuber magazine - Vtuber Mode Vol.3 published on Feb 14, 2023 includes a short commentary by Mine Yoshizaki. He is credited for the concept design, Live2D character design and modelling for the project.
 * Park staff is the name KemoV members use to call any staff members of KemoV Project in general. Mine Yoshizaki who often produce official artworks for KemoV is addressed as 'Park staff who is good at drawing' by members and fans.
 * Akamimi-san(アカミミさん) is one of the park staff with a unique name. She helps run the KemoV Minecraft server and may join the game whenever KemoV members in need of assistance during a livestream or offline. Her in-game character's skin resembles Red-Eared Slider's design and has a shield with the character's stripy pattern. In early 2023, Lucky Beast 0156, a new Minecraft park staff, has joined to help run the server. They are in a blue Lucky Beast skin.
 * There is an unstated rule that KemoV members should avoid harming animals during their playthroughs, especially when playing as a human character.
 * The 'Kemono Gamers' formed by Brown Long-Eared Bat, Jungle Cat and Siberian Chipmunk is more focused on gaming activities.