Mirai: Difference between revisions

=== Backstory ===

Several years before the beginning of Kemono Friends, a young Mirai met the slightly older [[Kako]] at a zoo, and the two girls quickly hit it off. They would develop a close relationship in the coming years. Although Mirai already had a long-standing love for animals, her new friend and mentor would teach her a great many things about them. It was because of this friendship that Mirai would dream of following in Kako's footsteps to work at Japari Park. At some point before the events of the manga, she would actualize this dream.

[[File:miraimanga.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|left| Mirai, as she appears in the manga.]]

As depicted in the manga, Mirai has become an established member of Japari Park's staff and serves as the boss of the protagonist, [[Nana]]. The manga focuses on many characters, so she is seen only sporadically through the story, although it appears her responsibilities include assigning substitutes in other staff members' absence, as well as directing physical aptitude examinations. During the second volume, she dreams of Japari Park as if it were an all-girls high school, although this segment of the story is merely in her imagination.

[[File:anatahakemonogaosukidesuka.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|right| Mirai, as she appeared in the original mobile game.]]

Mirai accompanies the [[Towa|protagonist]] and their party through the game's adventure, providing all kinds of support to the player. She drives the Japari Bus, provides exposition and explanation of various Friends and in-game concepts, and gives detailed analyses of hostile Celliens using her high-tech glasses. Mirai was the one responsible for bringing the protagonist themselves to Japari Park, apparently at the request of Park's own founder, who believed them to have a special gift.

Note: Seemingly contradictory to her appearance in the manga, Mirai is a fairly new Park Guide during the events of the 2015 Kemono Friends game, although this detail may have been retconned at some point.

Although they do not learn her identity until much later in the story, [[Serval/Anime|Serval]] and [[Kaban]] first meet Mirai during their initial encounter with [[Lucky]], who identifies the feather accessory in the latter's hat and mistakes her for its original owner. This triggers the robot to play back an old recording of Mirai's voice, although Kaban herself had just fallen asleep and did not hear it. Fortunately, the robot would join them on their journey to the library as a guide from there, Mirai's recordings in tow. These short snippets of audio, ranging from narrations of park attractions to detailed research notes to conversations, assist in laying the foundations for the anime's complex and mysterious worldbuilding from that point forth.

At Kaban's party after the final battle, [[Raccoon/Anime|Raccoon]] explains that she had found Mirai's hat lying in the Savanna Area and was about to pick it up, but since it was hit directly by Sandstar as a result of the most recent eruption, a human form within it began to take shape and would soon become Kaban herself. [[Tsuchinoko/Anime|Tsuchinoko]] theorizes that this is because of a reaction with hair inside the hat, which was indeed the case, meaning that Kaban is a human Friend formed by the interaction of Sandstar and a strand of Mirai's hair. This is further confirmed by her final recording, which plays when Kaban and Serval ride the amusement park's Ferris wheel together. In the recording, Mirai states that she "just had to ride [the Ferris wheel] one more time" and that, while she's sad that the park staff ultimately needed to evacuate the island, she's grateful for all the miracles she saw during her time there. Nevertheless, she expresses hope that she'll be back again someday, and bids her farewell to Lucky-san, whom she simply calls "Lucky". She promises it that she'll be back soon, at which point a strong gust of wind blows her signature sun hat off of her head, presumably reaching the Savanna Area at some point after her departure. The serval Friend calls out to her one last time, and Mirai's final recording ends, leaving Kaban to ponder the world outside of the Kyōshū Region.

[[Domestic Dog]] discovers a drawing made by Kyururu, labeled "Park Friends". While the drawing features Kyururu, Serval, and Caracal, it also features Mirai with two other park employees and Domestic Dog. This indicates that Mirai and Kyururu both knew each other back when Japari Park was still active.

== Trivia ==

[[Category:Humans]]