Anime / Kemono Friends

Welcome to Japari Park!^note clockwise from bottom right, the singers of the opening theme: Serval, Fennec, Raccoon, Rockhopper Penguin, Emperor Penguin, Royal Penguin, Gentoo Penguin, and Humboldt Penguin.

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 (of Sgt. Frog and Arcade Gamer Fubuki fame), centered around a mobile game by Nexon which was discontinued a month before the anime aired its first episode. The anime became a Sleeper Hit and revived the franchise in a major way.

Part of the franchise's unsuccessful period was a Slice of Life 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. A series of unofficial anime shorts followed the first season's conclusion.

The anime begins as a girl without any memories wakes up in the middle of a savannah before being chased and "hunted down" by a Cat Girl (who was actually playing "Predator and Prey" with her). Said cat girl, 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 Little Bit Beastly girls called Friends who are created when regular animals come into contact with a 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 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.

In the last week of September, 2017, a wrecking ball was 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 3.3% in a day after this event. Although Kadokawa publicly apologized for causing the fan outrage and began to negotiate with the staff, it was decided that both Tatsuki and Yaoyorozu were not 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, 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. This season was eventually retold in manga form in Shonen Ace, written by Ryu Naito. An arcade/mobile game based on the anime continuity was released by Sega, under the name Kemono Friends 3 on mobile and Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours in arcades.

Kemono Friends is currently being aired by Crunchyroll and is also available for streaming on Steam. Discotek Media has additionally licensed the anime’s first season on DVD and Blu-Ray, with an English dub done by Sound Cadence Studios.

The franchise includes:

• Kemono Friends, the 2015 mobile game by Nexon
  • Welcome to Japari Park, the 2018 ONA
• Kemono Friends anime by studio Yaoyorozu
• Kemono Friends 2 anime by studio Tomason
  • Kemono Friends 2 manga by Ryu Naito
• Kemono Friends 3 mobile game by Sega and later Appirits
  • Chokotto Anime Kemono Friends 3, a promotional ONA
  • Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours, a card battle arcade version
• Kemono Friends Picross game for Nintendo Switch
• Kemono Friends: Welcome to Japari Park!, a comedy manga by Furai
• KemoV Project, the group of Virtual YouTubers

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Examples:

General

• Abandoned Mascot: Not for the series proper, but the earliest designed Friend was Yoshizaki Mine's Twitter avatar, a bird-Friend based on Twitter's bird icon. However, Twitter is not considered a canon Friend when the project started for real.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Quite literally so. According to the creators, any animal turned into a Friend is always female regardless of the original sex, which is why some of them (such as Lion and Moose) exhibit male characteristics.
• Blob Monster: Some Celliens resemble slimes of some kind.
• Carnivore Confusion: Averted — everyone is content to eat Japari buns, with hunting just being a game. It probably helps that they're all biologically human.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The guidebooks reveal that the animal parts of the Friends are made of Kemonoplasm and are not actually a physical part of their anatomy, as they're all biologically human. The reason they can't be detached like this would suggest is because the Friends' self-conception strongly recognizes them as part of their body anyway.
• Endangered Species: Every Friend who's based on an endangered or extinct species has Reflectionless Useless Eyes.
  • Crested ibis: At one point there were exactly seven crested ibis on Earth. These were rescued from extinction, with all survivors descended from these 7 birds. Apparently one of them became a Friend at Japari Park.
  • Tsuchinoko: They're a bit elusive.
• The Four Gods: In the game, they're basically Optional Bosses of a Brutal Bonus Level where they're the strongest, at least in Cellien form.
• Green Rocks: The Sandstar is responsible for all kinds of weirdness.
• Hair Wings: Most bird Friends have their wings on their head. Or hair coloured to look like wings. It can be hard to tell.
• Improbably Female Cast: Not a single male character is to be found. The creators state that Sandstar will even turn male animals into female Friends. (Lion being the obvious one there, with her very not-female mane.)
• Little Bit Beastly: All of the Friends are humans with a few animal features.
• MegaCorp: Wildlife parks, cafes, food, hot springs, video games ... Japari is a very diverse corporation.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Japari Park makes no attempt to separate its animals and Friends by their original location, only by biome. And even then there's a lot of Friends in weird places, though that could be the result of them moving around unsupervised.
• Moe Anthropomorphism: The basis of the franchise are safari animals turns into animal girls.
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Even a Tsuchinoko got turned into a Friend.
• Patchwork Map: The Sandstar somehow allows the various regions to be right next to each other in defiance to the laws of geography. Which allowed the formation of the Japari Park itself.
• Tsuchinoko: One of the Friends is a tsuchinoko. Appropriately, she's shy and likes to hang out in secluded areas.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: All the Friends eat Japari buns, which are made from crops and found everywhere. This allows carnivores and omnivores to be friends with herbivores without all that awkward killing and eating that would hurt friendships. Since Friends are animals changed into humans, it may be that the buns were originally intended just for people.
• Virtual YouTuber: "Kemono Friends V Project" (or "KemoV"), which launched in April 2021.
  • Humboldt Penguin (Hululu), most notably remembered for her association with Grape-Kun (see Colbert Bump entry above).
  • African Penguin (Cape) (graduated in May 2022)
  • Island Fox (Shimahai)
  • Coyote (Coyo)
  • Dire Wolf
  • Caracal
  • Large-Spotted Genet (Genet)
  • Geoffroy's Cat (Geofu)
  • Brown Long-Eared Bat (Usako)
  • Jungle Cat (Gururu)
  • Siberian Chipmunk (Shimarisu)

Season 1

• Actor Allusion: Royal Penguin/Princess is a popular idol singer voiced by Amanda Lee in the English dub. Lee is also a well-known singer in the anime/manga community, famous for doing many covers for various anime songs. The rest of PPP are also voiced by fellow youtaite (such as Kayli Mills) or people who have voiced in idol shows before (like Dawn M. Bennett), but Lee is the biggest name in town and the casting of her as the lead singer reflects that.
• After the End:
  • It becomes clear pretty quickly that Japari Park used to have humans maintaining it, but now... doesn't.
  • The girls walk past an old wreckage of a B-2 Bomber and some spent bombs; neither they nor the show comment.
• All-CGI Cartoon: The entire series is done in CGI that looks like 2D animation.
• All There in the Manual: A lot of the backstory was lost when the game closed, but is in the various Guidebooks. For example, the region Kaban finds herself in is the Kyoushuu Region of Japari Park, which was the first region of the game. In the game, it was a temperate grassland, in the anime the lack of maintenance and the unusual effects of Sandstar have caused it to have several Biomes.
  • The region she heads to at the end of Season 1 is Gokoku, the 7th region of the game. In the game, it was a temperate island that had both mountains and beaches. Notable is that both Kyoushuu and Gokoku were the only two regions not part of the Japari Park mainland.
• Amusement Park of Doom: The abandoned state of the park has caused some parts to be rather dangerous. This isn't even adding the threat of the Celliens.
• And the Adventure Continues: In episode 12, Kaban sets off to find humans in the Gokoku Region, which Boss indicates might have its own Friends in it since it's still part of the park. After she sets off, she runs out of gas for her boat, but is joined by Serval, Raccoon, and Fennec. Then a new unseen Friend comes by and asks what they're doing...
• Big Damn Heroes: In the final episode, all the Friends Kaban and Serval meet during their journey show up to help and rescue Kaban in the fight against the Black Cellien.
• Book Ends: In both the first and last episodes, a paper airplane is used as part of a plan to defeat a large Cellien, and Serval decides to follow Kaban after she parts ways.
• Call-Back:
  • In episode 11, when Kaban needs to climb a tree fast, she starts climbing and chanting the way Serval did in episode 1.
    Kaban: Mya, mya, mya, mya!
  • In episode 1, Kaban is forced to admit to Hippopotomus that she cannot swim, fly, run fast, or do much of anything. By the end of episode 11, she has done all those things to save Serval.
  • Hippo goes back on her first episode statement, telling Kaban in episode 12 that she can turn to them when she needs to.
  • A Friend was heard screaming in Episode 1 and mentioned that she may have been devoured by the Cellien. Then a normal aardwolf was shown in Episode 12 in the exact same location the Cellien was defeated.
• The Cavalry: Most of the plot-important Friends return to battle the black Cellien in episode 12—not to destroy it, but to rescue Kaban from its innards.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Kaban's hat. If you were a fan of the original franchise, you'll recognise it immediately, and the fact it still has a single feather in it is why Boss even works.
  • Also in episode 1, Kaban gives Serval some paper airplanes. In episode 12, Serval uses one of these paper airplanes to lure the black Cellien towards the boat so it can sink into the ocean.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • The ropes Kaban learns to make in episode 2 are used to make her lifeline in episode 11 and the Friends use it to modify the bus in episode 12.
  • In episode 6, Kaban rolls up some scrolls to give Lion and Moose non-lethal weapons. In episode 7, she learns paper burns. Her improvised torches in episode 11 are made by putting the two concepts together.
  • Every skill Kaban learns throughout the series is used in the climax to Episode 11: Tree Climbing, Rope Making, Athletics, Swimming, Creating Fire...
• Cliffhanger: Episode 11 really leaves the viewer hanging.
• Continuity Nod: Several heartbreaking ones, like the similarity Kaban has to a younger Mirai, She was a Friend created by accident when Mirai lost her hat while recording her message on the ferris wheel, which luckily had a hair in it which touched the sandstar. and the fact Serval looks very much like an updated version of Mirai's best Friend.
  • The most heartbreaking continuity nod is Boss. Every word, every factoid... Mirai herself recorded... especially that last message, which left the fanbase in doubt as to if she's even alive...
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Crested Ibis, as her singing can really scare off other Friends (Serval just tries to shrug it off).
• Darkest Hour: Fitting the Cliffhanger of episode 11, the start of episode 12.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Episode 12.1 is one for Raccoon, Fennec, and the Owls as they find a replacement for the broken Japari Bus.
  • The Owls also get major focus in the second special episode, which was made to promote the 2017 Animelo Summer Live.
  • Silver Fox and Edo Red Fox get one in Special 3, which is a collaboration with Nissin Foods.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The theme song repeats the lyrics "Welcome to youkoso Japari Park!". 'Youkoso' is Japanese for 'welcome'. So the line is translated into: "Welcome to welcome to Japari Park!"
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening, Youkoso Japari Park e^note Welcome to Japari Park is sung by Serval, Raccoon, Fennec, and the PPP, the latter of whom also do the ending commentary.
• Dramatic Irony: Kaban's Quest for Identity is obvious to the viewer, since we, of course, know what humans are, but most Friends have no idea. However, she's not a descendant of the remnants... not really, anyway. Kaban is a human Friend, cloned from Mirai's hair by the Sandstar.
• Evolving Credits: Animal silhouettes appear in each episode opening, to be filled in after the new Friend is introduced. After Episode 11 all of the silhouettes disappear. It's because there is nothing to add after it. By episode 7, it also evolves into Foreshadowing. The new Friends and silhouettes added are holding rope and wood. It's the scene that happens off camera in episode 12 where they modify the bus.
• Eye Catch: Instead of just a short still frame, though, you get a bit of narration from a zookeeper about the real-life version of a Friend introduced in that episode.
• The Four Gods: In the anime, these are the controls for the Sandstone Low filter.
• Fun with Subtitles: The final scene of the show. Serval and company's boat wipes away the "The End" subtitle. Right before the scene cuts to black, a faint "To be continued" fades in to replace it.
• Gamer Chick: Ezo Red Fox. Those arcade cabinets were built to last, apparently.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Friends get these when using Wild Release. These also appear when the two owls lead all of the other Friends into combat against the black Cellien in Episode 12.
  • Lucky Beast gets them when playing back recordings, or when sending out broadcasts to the other Lucky Beasts.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: The Lucky Beasts call in most of the Friends to help battle the black Cellien in episode 12.
• Happy Ending Override: 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 Put on a Bus to Hell. The concept design exhibition shows us some of the things that happened between the game and the anime: there was a massive Cellien eruption, which forced the Four Gods and Cerval to pull a Heroic Sacrifice 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.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Offscreen sometime between the Game/Manga and the Anime, the Four Gods and Cerval had to sacrifice themselves to create a filter to prevent dangerous Sandstar from being emitted from the volcano. This filter is knocked loose during the same eruption seen at the start of the Anime, and is repaired in Episode 11.
  • Kaban at the end of episode 11. Despite having saved her, the unconscious Serval is a sitting duck for the black Cellien. Kaban chooses to lead it far enough away with a torch so Serval will be left alone, despite knowing it will kill her. "Kaban-chan" trended worldwide◊ after this episode aired.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Discotek's DVD/BD release contains a blooper reel for the English dub, which can also be found on Youtube here.
• Hollywood Chameleons: The panther chameleon Friend's color-changing ability is treated as actual invisibility.
• House Pseudonym: Several of the Season 1 staffs are pen names of Tatsuki himself. They are all variations of characters from Kemurikusa and Irodori's older works, such as "Suzuki Rin" and "goto Ritsuri".
• Humans Are Special: Kaban learns that while she may not have super speed or protection from extreme temperatures like other Friends, humans are adept at creative solutions to problems and can be good at many things. Fire-building, tree-climbing, rope-making, athletics, swimming, and throwing things all come into play in the finale.
• Idol Singer: PPP is an idol group made up of five penguin Friends.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: While Kaban and Serval are riding the ferris wheel, Kaban wonders if it's dangerous, but Serval insists that the Professor fixed it and made sure it was safe. The seat right next to theirs immediately falls off.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Kaban's species is human. This is obvious from the start, but the Friends have little experience with humans (especially since they're all Little Bit Beastly who already share most of humanity's distinctive traits) and so treat the reveal as a big discovery. Her origins are a legitimate plot twist, however.
  • The fact that they're in some sort of abandoned zoo is also obvious to the viewer, at least by the end of the first episode; but this takes the characters a long time to figure out because it's the only world they know.
  • Inverted by Mirai's recordings, which provide the viewer with lots of information about the setting but mostly come across as Techno Babble to Kaban and Serval.
• Iyashikei: It's surprisingly upbeat for a post-apocalyptic alien invasion!
• Kill It with Water: Thanks to her research, Tsuchinoko knows that water turns Celliens into volcanic rock.
• King of Beasts: Played with. Lion is in charge of a group of friends and acts noble (though more shogun than king), but in private acts like a fairly normal cat.
• Last of His Kind: Kaban may be the last human on Earth, or at least in Japari Park. The Quest for Identity becomes a quest for the Lost Colony.
• Left Hanging: 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 Celliens. The show ends before Kaban and her unexpected tag-alongs reach the next island.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Kaban is named for the bag she is wearing ("kaban" being Japanese for "bag").
• Made of Phlebotinum: Sandstar powers the entire show, causing both the Friends and the Celliens to exist. It also drives the Celliens 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.
• Missed Him by That Much: Raccoon and Fennec are pursuing Kaban on the grounds that she's a "hat thief". They visit each place she's been to, only to find out that she left not too long ago. They finally catch up in episode 11.
• Modern Stasis: Despite the state of the park showing that a period between 1 and 2000 years have passed since Humanity abandoned it the Friends have done very little to learn about their environment and the various technologies of the park, which are slowly decaying. Some, like Alpaca or Campo Flicker are content to imitate the most basic functions of the buildings around them, while others like the Owls and Tsuchinoko are actively curious about the extinct Humans, but mostly it takes Kaban and Serval traveling through an area to cause any change to occur.
• Mr. Exposition: Boss, aka Lucky Beast, provides background and information when entering new habitats. However, inside of attractions, it lets Kaban work things out for herself. In addition, in the event of something unexpected (such as a broken bridge), it freezes up.
• Mutagenic Goo: The mysterious substance known as Sandstar turns regular animals into the humanoid Friends (even their remains or a single hair). It also turns inanimate objects into Celliens.
• Nonindicative Name: The anime mistranslated Celliens as "Ceruleans". While the first ones we see are indigo-blue, afterwards they start coming in more colours and the name stops making sense.
• Non-Nude Bathing: In episode 9 the Friends jump into the hot spring fully clothed until Kaban points out that you're supposed to remove your clothing first. The Friends are shocked to find out their clothes even can come off, and comment once they've removed them that the water is much warmer.
• Nothing Is Scarier: There's no squabbling from the penguin girls in the preview for Episode 12. Just an incessant beeping and the sight of Japari Park's sign in ruins. It turns out to be setting up more than just the Darkest Hour.
• On the Next: Each episode ends with PPP discussing an animal that will show up next episode, which usually quickly devolves into squabbling. This is also the point within the show where the episode titles are given.
• Only Smart People May Pass: Being who they are, Kaban and Serval quickly forget the directions Moose told them to get to the library, and take a forest maze instead, requiring the ability to read. This alerted The Owl-Knowing One staff to their intelligence, which they take advantage of to... have Kaban cook tasty food for them.
• Ontological Mystery: Behind the fun Quest for Identity and meeting new Friends, there is a significant amount of unexplained background details that is gradually revealed.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Zig-Zagged. One of the owls at Japari Library is called "Professor" by all the other Friends, and the other is her assistant. And they certainly insist that they're wise. While they are smarter than most other Friends, and act as the leaders of the whole island, they still act childishly sometimes, like when they randomly crashed into Serval's head just to show off how they can fly silently.
• Peacock Girl: The Peafowl Friend who makes a brief appearance in episode 2.
• Phlebotinum Muncher: What makes the Celliens 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 Death of Personality. Kaban turns out to be mostly unharmed by the effect, as her base species is human to begin with.
• Prequel: The manga is a Slice of Life of the park before it was invaded by the Cellien. Which makes the anime's setting all the more heartbreaking.
• Primal Fear: All the Friends fear fire, but Kaban, as a human, is easily able to control it. Note that Brown Bear is less afraid, similar to her Real Life counterpart. Brown Bear and the owls teach the other Friends how to be less afraid of fire in Episode 12.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Mirai, the park guide from the mobile game, acts as The Ghost and her messages help guide Kaban on her Quest for Identity. Kaban herself is a human Friend born from a strand of hair that was on Mirai's hat as it blew away and was later hit by a piece of Sandstar.
• Puppet Shows: The ending preview scenes are done puppet-style by PPP, the opening theme singers.
• Quest for Identity: Kaban and Serval are on a quest to discover what species Kaban is.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Prairie Dog and Beaver. In Episode 5, the Beaver, being the blue, constantly plans ahead and has a great amount of knowledge on structural engineering, but, afraid of messing up, can't commit herself to action. The Prairie Dog, being the red, is a heads-on person who does things quick and efficient, but without the ability to think things through or a team to rely on, tends to mess up multiple times. It's through the collaboration of Beaver's planning and knowledge and Prairie Dog's quick work and teamwork dynamic that they become a very impressive construction team.
  • Raccoon is the red to Fennec's blue. Raccoon is desperately trying to chase down Kaban as fast as possible while Fennec just follows along trying to keep Raccoon out of trouble.
• Robot Buddy: The Lucky Beasts seems to have been created to serve as guides to Human Guests. They will never talk to Friends as protocol unless a human is in danger.
• Running Joke:
  • "Please don't eat me!" "I won't eat you!" - Kaban and Serval's opening dialogue gets repeated several times.
  • Several Friends are surprised that Lucky Beast (aka Boss) is now talking, although only to Kaban.
• Science Hero: Kaban is about as close as you can get with no education to speak of. She regularly saves the day through quick thinking. Which is her Friend Special Attribute.
• Shout-Out:
  • Crunchyroll-hime makes a special appearance as a red fox Friend in the audience of PPP's concert, even being voiced by her official actress in the dub.
  • In Episode 11, the Black Cellien is lured away by Kaban with a torch, much like Rexy did with Grant and Ian.
• Shown Their Work: The series puts a lot of detail in animal biology. The dub even brought in experts from local wildlife rescues to make sure everything was accurate!
• Silent Antagonist: The Celliens.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Lion and Moose engage in this at the end of their first duel. The camera zooms out to reveal they popped each other's ball at the same time, resulting in a draw.
• Stealth Sequel: While the anime seems unrelated to the mobile game it's based on, and features a completely different voice cast, with the introduction of Mirai, it's revealed that the anime is a direct continuation. The reason for the different voice cast is also explained: the animals in the anime aren't the same ones from the game, they merely share the same species. This is evidenced by the fact that the Serval seen with Mirai still has her VA from the mobile game. Even more so, Kaban is to the anime Serval what Mirai is to the original mobile game's Serval, their first and closest Friends.
• Sting: Plays whenever the topic switches to the Ontological Mystery surrounding the park.
• Super Mode: In the final battle, the Friends release their wild sides. Ass-kicking and Glowing Eyes ensue.
• Support Party Member: True to the game that inspired the anime, Kaban acts as a support character in the anime. While slow and clumsy, she's the one who comes up with ideas to make the Friends more effective. Plus, she's one of the few characters who can read. Considering she's a Friend version of Mirai, it's a Justified Trope.
• Tempting Apple: No actual temptation involved, but the library building resembles an apple core, evoking the Biblical fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
• Theme Music Power-Up: The opening theme kicks in as the Friends power up for the battle with the black Cellien. Due to budget constraints, the start of this scene doubles as a poster render, complete with logo in the sky.
• Token Non-Human: The Lucky Beasts, who are little robots that serve as guides. Of course, until recently, there's been no humans to guide...
• Weaksauce Weakness: The seemingly invincible black Cellien 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 Celliens may have the same weakness.
  • Normal Celliens have a hard stone in them, often on their back. A swift tap to this stone will destroy them utterly.
• Wistful Amnesia: Serval starts to tear up when she hears the original Serval talking to Mirai in the latter's recordings. While it's an Ambiguous Situation, it's suspected to be hinting that they're one and the same, but that Mirai's Serval fell to a Cellien, suffered a Death of Personality 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.
• A Wizard Did It: 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.

Season 2

• Artistic License – Biology:
  • The bird-type Friend is called a Spotted-billed Duck in Episode 1, while drawn with Mallard coloring
  • Greater Roadrunners are fast runners with limited flight ability, yet the Greater Roadrunner was seen flying rather than running for the entire episode.
  • The narration for Tanuki in episode 8 implies that Tanukis prefer to live in wetlands and forests. Tanukis don't usually live in wetlands, and Japanese fans speculated that the staff simply quoted a passage from the Japanese Wikipedia article when doing research.
  • In episode 8, Crested Ibis was captioned as a mammal.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Episode 8 ends with Kyururu being captured by Arma and Sen and taken to their client, a canine Friend.
  • Kyururu falls into the ocean at the end of Episode 10.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Kyururu is a noticeably more assertive character than Kaban.
• Distant Sequel: According to the Kemono Friends World event, Season 2 took place two thousand years Japari Park was closed. The manga established the precise year as 4025.
• Informed Ability: The Friend-shaped Celliens born from Kyururu's paintings are built up to be much more powerful than the regular Celliens... Yet all of them are still destroyed in one hit anyway.
• The Reveal: Episode 12 shows Serval has completely forgotten about Kaban and their adventure together, and The Stinger reveals that Kyururu was with Serval back before Japari Park closed.
• Shout-Out:
  • One will spot Pride Rock in the first episode, during the scene where Kyururu points to where he came from.
  • Kaban’s home is modeled after Biosphere 2’s residential building while the detective agency (lost-and-found office) is modeled after The Rock bar and restaurant of Tanzania; at first, The Rock was to be a public restroom that Serval resided in.
  • Greater Roadrunner’s “BEEP” T-shirt.
  • In the Manga, Kaban briefly wore her hair in Rin’s style, just for it to be cut short by debris and return to her Season 1 look.
• Stealth Sequel: It seems like a reboot until Kaban shows up.
• The Unfought: The cruise ship Cellien 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.
• Villain Decay: Unlike the Celliens in the previous season, all the Celliens in Season 2 are easily destroyed in one hit without the need to aim for the weak point.

Welcome to Japari Park

• Ambiguously Evil: Cellval being a Cellien Evil Doppelgänger of Serval is a red flag, but she appears to be more of a clueless troublemaker than an actual threat. She tries to save Thomson's Gazelle from Celliens when asked, but gives up half-way and makes other Celliens attack the cast. She also makes Celliens passive during the filming of Margay's pirate movie and enjoys acting.
• Amnesiac Hero:
  • Turns out Silver Fox was asked by Oinari-sama to accompany the Park Manager, but forgot about it until being pushed into cold water.
  • Serval remembers her time as a cat, but is missing a period when she activated KemoHarmony in animal hospital at drive Celliens away, becuase Cellval currently has that memory.
• Amplifier Artifact: A pendant-like Charm the Manager has gives Friends power to combat Celliens they wouldn't be able to otherwise. Some Friends are fine without it.
• The Anime of the Game: The series recaps the plot of the Nexon's 2015 mobile game the franchise originated from and uses the same sprites.
• Assimilation Plot: It's heavily implied that Cellien Queen acts on misguided belief that Kako would want extinct spieces and even diseased humans to live forever, even it means turning everyone into ageless Cellien that don't have the originals' appearance or intelligence.
• As You Know: Mirai and Serval retell the events that happened in Japari Park. A few times Serval asks for more exposition and Mirai comments that she should already know since she's been there as well.
• Back for the Finale: Episode 31 shows all Friends featured so far fighting barrier bosses across the Park.
• Barrier Maiden: Oinari-sama is trapped at Park Central trying to keep the Celliens at bay until the cast arrives.
• Be Yourself: Serval tells Crested Ibis to not mind that her singing hurts everyone's ears and her feelings are more important.
• Big Bad: Cellien Queen is an evolved Cellien who makes Cellval use other Celliens to attack the Park and drain it from its Shine.
• The Big Race: The Japari Bus gets modified into a pedal-powered blimp and for no specified reason enters the Sky Race with many bird Friends. Raccoon also chases behind on a winged bicycle and gives up as Fennec isn't helping her.
• Bloodless Carnage: All battles are presented with a Friend making a swing animation and then Celliens popping like balloons in one hit. Just once Serval is shown to have scratches after a battle.
• Broad Strokes: Each episode starts with a warning that the series is only a reconstruction of the events, which basically asks the viewer to disregard inconsistencies with other entries.
• Brutal Honesty: Northern White-Faced Owl tells Crested Ibis that her singing is a bigger issue than the Celliens, something Serval and Caracal avoided bringing up.
• Cerebus Syndrome: At about the last third, the series tones down the fun part as the post-episode antics stop appearing. Kako is found comatose, and in order to fight the Cellien Queen, Cellval is required to be destroyed despite her becoming own person. The The Stingers also bring up the possibility of Celliens becoming Humanity's Wake, though they are stopped here before it becomes an issue.
• Chekhov's Gun: Serval mentions to Cellval that all Friends keep a diary of their activities. Turns out Cellval also decided to write one, so it and Margay's film become the basis of her Heel–Face Turn and evolution.
• Childhood Friends: Episode 29's flashback shows Mirai and Kako studying animals together when they were just kids.
• The Chosen One: Turns out Serval was granted KemoHarmony by Oinari-sama when she was still a cat because of her feelings towards the Park, which is a special ability to neutralize powerful Celliens. It gets stolen by Cellval and used by the Cellien Queen to become stronger.
• Cliffhanger: Due to episodes being about 4 mminutes long, some plot points have to suddenly be split.
  • The second episode ends with Cellval jumping on Caracal and Serval complaining at such abrupt pause in exposition.
  • The fifth episode abruptly ends right when Crested Ibis tries to sing after drinking medical oleoresin. Next episode starts with everyone knocked out becuase it doesn't work, except the owls who happened to have earplugs prepared.
  • In the sixth episode Northern White-Faced Owl starts saying she has figured out why Crested Ibis attracts Celliens then leaves it for the next episode.
  • The 8th episode ends with Raccoon interrupting the party.
  • In episode 14 Cellval appears in the middle of the party when the episode ends. By the next episode she's already captured, then manages to escape and Mirai again stops the exposition.
  • Episode 21 ends with Serval and White Rhinoceros being surrounded by Celliens.
  • Raccoon and Fennec sneak onto the Japari Bus in Episode 25, but didn't expect it go underwater. Mirai tells their fate will be known next time.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Cellval seems to have trouble understanding what she's doing wrong, or what others are trying to tell her, often parroting back their questions and making vague statements in general.
• Devour the Dragon: Cellval's purpose was to take KemoHarmony from Serval and be consumed by Cellien Queen, who'd turn it into CeluHarmony and take all Shine from the Park at once. Cellval is saved when she barely has any Shine left.
• Dramatic Irony: It being first installment chronologically, the audience knows that Japari Park doesn't last, as the second Cellien Outbreak causes it to close down for good, and everyone's wishes to make human visitors happy don't come true.
• Edutainment Show: Each episode until close to the finale ends with a trivia factoid about the animal the Friend of the Week is based on. Mirai also sometimes interrupts dialogue to comment on animal behavior.
• Eye Contact as Proof: Crested Ibis laments how her singing attracts Celliens instead of Friends and notes that Serval and Caracal are avoiding looking at her while omitting something when they say they want to help her.
• Fangirl: Mirai has a drooling expression when she talks about animal girls and tends to space out.
• Fighting from the Inside: As part of Margay's film, Serval calls out to Cellval while "fighting" her. Which is ironic considering outside the film she's still an enemy with identity crisis and this exchange helps her pick a side.
• Fisher King: The sky above the Park Central becomes bright again when Cellien Queen gets defeated.
• Ghost Ship: In Episode 23 the cast sees a broken ship coming at them, which turns out to be overrun by Celliens and Cellval. Serval decides to add this to Margay's movie. The ship is later explained to be moved by an underwater Cellien.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Mirai's glasses have a built-in scanner and tracker.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Professor Kako researched the application of Sandstar to revive extinct animals and becomes Mirai's friend and teacher. The only time she appears in person is when she's hospitalized.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Park Director / game's protagonist seem to be present among the cast but are never shown or even spoken to until Episode 18. In Episode 28 their hands are visible when they choose to no abandon the Park.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Crested Ibis's infamously poor singing causes earthquakes and attracts enemies. When she's given a medical copaiba sap and tries singing, the recording even has to censor it out. Northern White-Faced Owl even suggests Celliens aren't actually attracted to it, but are trying to forcefully shut her up.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Black Rhinoceros non-subtly asks White Rhinoceros if she can "test" the Japari Buns and then feed her piece-by piece. Everyone has already started eating and Black Rhinoceros assures everyone it's all part of the "princess-knight" roleplay.
• Hot Springs Episode: In episode 17 the party enjoys the Lazy Hot Spring, which as the name implies, makes Friends sleepy. They search for another one next episode but the lake proves to be cold.
• How We Got Here: The series is presented as a recording made by a half-broken 2021 LB Mk1 Lucky Beast unit when the conflict is already resolved and the Park is under reconstruction. The final episode shows the repairs complete and the Park ready for visitors.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: In Episode 20 Serval starts crying when the Manager brings up they took care of a "fox" before the Park opened, implying it may have been her or someone she knows.
• Informed Attribute: Large Celliens are stated to be stronger than others, but it hardly matters when any of them pop in a single hit, including the Final Boss. A Cellien in episode 12 manages to No-Sell the attack until Crested Ibis boosts the party.
• Inside a Computer System: Each episode ends with Mirai and co being in the VR room with park's reconstruction in the background. There doesn't seem to be a twist and the finale shows the cast in the Park ready for the re-opening.
• It Can Think:
  • Being a Cellien-Friend clone, Cellval shows higher intelligence compared to Celliens and grows a will of her own as the series progresses.
  • Cellien Queen is shown to be surprizignly highly intelligent for a monster and is able to come up with an Evil Plan. She's implied to be a Cellien clone of Kako or at least having some of her memories.
• Last Episode, New Character: Last episode shows the recording being watched by seemingly Serval and unidentified human character.
• Limited Animation: All characters are drawn with one or two sprites that have little animation aside limb and facial movement and hop around, not too different from the game it's based on. The Imagine Spots drawn in pencil-like style are more versatile.
• Mistaken Identity: Some Friends can't distinguish Cellval from Serval despite the former being completely green, and Serval has to prove her alibi.
• Monster Lord: The Cellien Queen is a sentient Cellien who is behind the Park's invasion. When defeated, she reverts to a basic slug Cellien and runs away.
• Nice Girl: Serval tries to befriend Cellval and gives her a name despite her clearly being an enemy at that point.
• One-Winged Angel: Cellien Queen uses her remaining energy to transform from a giant humanoid to a giant squid.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Silver Fox gets some Opaque Nerd Glasses before meeting the party for the second time, but everyone recognizes her right away.
• The Power of Friendship: Cellien Queen's CeluHarmony gets repelled by the energy of everyone in the Park having fun.
• Power Parasite: Cellval turns out to be created by Cellien Queen to steal Serval's memories and the KemoHarmony ability. It can't be regained without killing Cellval, which Serval refuses.
• Prequel: Being the adaptation of the original game, the series takes place unspecified amount of time before the first season when the Park wasn't completely abandoned.
• Sanity Slippage: Margay starts to despair when Celliens steal her movie script, then for reasons she doesn't understand are helping her film it. Then she starts Laughing Mad and asks everyone to film it despite the situation.
• Shown Their Work: The earplugs owls use are visibly at different heights, as real owls have asymmetric ears.
• Smash Cut: In Episode 22, Crested Ibis' singing is hidden by the episode's title cutscene.
• Solo Mission Becomes Group Mission: Thomson's Gazelle tries to investigate the water shortage alone to not rely too much on Arabain Oryx and has to be rescued herself.
• The Speechless: Serval temporarily loses her ability to speak when she gets hit by the Gao-Gao Disease, and only Cellval can understand her. Others note that for a Friend meowing shouldn't be too unusual.
• The Stinger: Most episode not only the cast narrating How We Got Here, but with the recording of Kako researching Celliens or Racoon messing with the video getting left in.
• Take a Third Option: Between running away and using purifying salt to get Shine back from Cellval, Serval instead eats the salt to not destory her friend and passes out from the strong taste.
• Title Drop: In the final episode Serval shows the Cellien Queen "the power of Kemono Friends", which is literally the Friends they've met along the way.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: When Racoon tries to catch Serval, a Cellien bumps into her and sends her flying with a sparkle.
• Villain Override: Cellval often hears Cellien Queen's orders to use Celliens for attacks and stops whatever she's been doing. Serval comments she feels like a different person.
• White Magician Girl: After being enhanced with the Charm, Crested Ibis' grateful singing heals injuries of other Friends and makes them stronger.
• The Worf Effect: Cellien Queen has almost won and has a barrier preventing anyone from attacking her. She gets knocked out by Ibis' deafening singing. She quickly recovers though.