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's media has never seen an official release outside of its native Japan. Our wiki, Japari Library, exists as a resource for the series's 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 Suri Alpaca is one of two breeds of the Alpaca. They were domesticated and bred from the wild Vicuña in Peru. Both breeds have the same heights and weight, around 90 cm at the shoulder and 80 kg respectively. The difference in the breeds is the hair which grows perpendicular to the body for the Huacaya Alpaca, making them look wooly, while the Suri's coat hangs off their body like dreadlocks. They usually live in high altitudes in temperate conditions.
Alpacas are very social herd animals. Typically a herd consists of an alpha male, females and their offspring. They're quiet animals but can be agressive if provoked, startled or involved in territorial fights with other alpacas. Rarely, they will spit to shoo off threats or potential mates they aren't interested in. Breeding can occur year-round but is more common in spring and autumn. A single offspring is born after around one year of pregnancy, with rare twin births. They're naturally aggressive against canids and make for great guards for herds of sheep.
Alpacas are very clean animals with a communal dung pile, making manure collection and cleaning of their enclosures rather easy. Their fur was very important to the indigenous tribes of South America. As opposed to the larger Llama, Alpacas can not carry much weight and are unfit to be a beast of burden. Though Llamas were domesticated from the Guanaco, the other native South American camelid, all 4 species can interbreed with each other and produce fertile offspring.
Alpaca population took a massive hit during the Spanish invasion of the Andes in 1532. They had to retreat higher up the mountains where they interbred with Llamas and it was not until the 1800s that their use was rediscovered. Since then they're being bred back to their original state before the Spanish invasion.
Kemono Friends' Alpaca Suri appeared in most Kemono Friends media to date, bar the manga. In the Nexon Game, she's a haircutter, as she has to frequently cut her own hair because it keeps growing. She's confident in herself and not afraid to criticise others. Her anime counterpart instead happened to find an abandoned café on top of a mountain and long waited for customers to arrive. She helps Kaban by letting her charge the bus' battery, and in turn Kaban helps her attract more customers. Alpaca now appears in the after-credit skits in season 2 along other friends from season 1 as customers. She's a rather common friend in Pavilion and one of the initial 30.
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Mobile Games
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Latest Version: 2.1.2
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| Current Event: "Sakura Dancing! School Entrance Ceremony" (3/19/19-3/29/19)
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Kemono Friends News
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1/12/2019:
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Games
| Kemono Friends 3 and Kemono Friends: Planet Tours a new mobile and arcade game respectively, has been announced by SEGA. You can preregister here and instructions for preregistering are here.
11/2/2018:
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Collab
| A visual for Anime Jam 2018 has been posted on Twitter, featuring characters, including Friends, in Christmas-themed outfits.
10/29/2018:
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Games
| Kemono Friends Pavilion has received a major update, introducing Generation 2 Friends and a new area, the Generation 2 Savanna.
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Collab
| A new collaboration with the Hitachishi Kamine Zoo has revealed a redesign for Japanese Cormorant, along with a new Friend, Great Cormorant.
10/28/2018:
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Anime
| The official broadcast date of Season 2 has been announced as January 7th, 2019, via Twitter.
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Anime
| The seventh episode of the Welcome to Japari Park ONA has been released.
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Misc
| A new visual for Season 2 has revealed two new Friends; Greater Lophorina and Western Parotia.
10/16/2018:
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Music
| An official MV for Fennec Who Listens to Everything I Say from the Safari Drive album has been uploaded.
10/12/2018:
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Misc
| In honor of the Year of the Pig, promotional materials for New Year's 2019 have revealed a new Friend, Desert Warthog, along with a new design for Giant Forest Hog.
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Misc
| For Halloween, the official Kemono Friends Twitter account has posted a Tweet revealing two new Friends, Cerberus and Jack-o'-Lantern, along with an EX design for Common Vampire Bat.
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Projects
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Kemono Friends (2015 Mobile Game) Translation Progress
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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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