What is Kemono Friends?
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Kemono Friends, also known as KemoFure, is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Mine Yoshizaki, that focuses on the adventures of anthropomorphized animal girls known simply as Friends. It began as a 2015 mobile game but has expanded into a manga, stage play and wildly successful 2017 anime with multiple new projects planned for the future. While it is a relatively new IP, the franchise has succeeded in making a name for itself on its path to becoming a "series that will last 100 years".
The universe of Kemono Friends, contrary to its innocent appearance, is expansive and complex. It boasts a cast of over 400 characters as well as an intricate and puzzling backstory. What's more, much of the series' media has never seen an official release outside of its native Japan. Our wiki, Japari Library, exists as a resource for the series' English-speaking fanbase. It features translations, detailed analyses of the franchise's lore, and information on Friends and the real creatures from which they came.
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Friend of the Week
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The Coyote is an incredibly adaptable canine native to North America. They're around 60cm tall at the shoulders, up to 1.3 meters long, including their bushy tail and weight about 20 kilograms. Their fur is grey at the top, becoming reddish brown at the sides and white at the belly.
Coyotes diet consists of almost anything they can find. While they prefer feeding on rodents, deer and fish, they will also eat insects, snakes and fruit in times of need. They are often regarded as pests because they also attack livestock and pets. They have a very strong sense of smell and form mutually beneficial partnerships with badgers in order to hunt rodents in their burrows.
Coyotes live in families and are very territorial. The female gives birth to around three to twelve pups which won't leave the den for a few weeks. The young will be ready to hunt in the coming fall, when coyotes often form packs for the winter. While they hunt alone, they will share what they catch and defend it from other coyote packs.
As opposed to many other animal species, the coyote has benefitted greatly from humans expanding across the North American continent. Originally found only in the south-western USA and northern Mexico, the range expanded to the entire USA, Canada and down to Panama in Central America thanks to the modification of landscape and decline of wolf populations by hands of settlers. Coyotes live in any habitat found in its range and is adaptive enough to survive in urban areas like Los Angeles.
In Kemono Friends, the Coyote first appeared in the nexon game with a design similar to other canid friends. She is a friend confident in herself in ability to adapt to any area she's in. As her real-life animal counterpart, she howls a lot and accidentally scares the other friends. She got a new design later which is used in Kemono Friends Pavilion. She's tanned with short, beige hair and white bangs. Her ears are a reddish brown. Her short skirt and tail, which has a black tip, have the same colour as her hair. Her gloves and thigh-high socks are yellow, her shoes white. She's wearing an open, grey west and a white tank top underneath. The tank top has "Route 212" written on it; the US Route 212 leads from Minneapolis to the Yellowstone National Park.
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2018 is off to a good start with our largest poll ever! How'd that happen when the poll got put up so late, anyway? The poll results indicate that the "main" style of Kemono Friends' art, the illustrations drawn for every Friend by Mine Yoshizaki, are the most popular with our readers. With less than half of the votes that went to Mine's art, the 3D models featured in the Kemono Friends anime come next in line. Furai's manga art, as well as the chibi style of the newly-released Kemono Friends Pavilion trailed behind both, with 13 and 9 votes respectively. I guess you can't beat the original!
This month's poll is, as I'm sure many of you expected, all about Kemono Friends Pavilion, which was released at the end of January. How are you liking it so far? We're curious as to what aspect of the game (if any!) our readers like the most.
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Projects
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Official Guidebooks (Lore-Relevant Pages) Translation Progress
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Kemono Friends (2015 Mobile Game) Translation Progress
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Kemono Friends News
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- Kemono Friends Festival has been announced as a new game, which is said to be an adventure RPG. Instructions on how to pre-regisiter can be found on it's page
- The Jungle Area for Kemono Friends Pavilion has been confirmed, along with confirmation of Okapi, Malayan Tapir, Tasmanian Devil, Indian Peafowl, and Fossa being planned to appear in the game.
- Japari Library has gained access to the full assets of the original Kemono Friends mobile game, as well as from Kemono Friends Pavilion and Kemono Friends Puzzle Puzzle Gokko. This will aid us considerably in our translation and documentation efforts!
- Kemono Friends Puzzle Puzzle Gokko has been released on February 21st, 2018, which is a Kemono Friends themed Match 3 game.
- Another Parco collaboration has been announced to run from April 26th, 2018 to May 13th, 2018
- A collab with Tobu Zoo has been announced, which will last from April 21st, 2018 to July 1st, 2018.
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Did You Know?
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- While the Generation ? Northern White-Faced Owl is called Professor Konoha, her Generation 2 counterpart was called Professor Konoha-chan.
- Most known types of Cerulean are based on real-world algae, both in design and name.
- The Kemono Friends anime only features a single island of Japari Park, known as the Kyōshū Region.
- Kemonoplasm enables Friends' tails to "clip through" their clothing.
- Kako and Nana are cousins.
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