It looks like Japari Park is almost ready to open!
Earlier today, the official Kemono Friends anime website updated with a new key visual, as well as the core cast and crew members.
We break the details down below.
Key Visual
The new visual is identical to the last “savanna” visual, albeit with a Lucky Beast in the front of the group.
Staff
Ryuichi Kimura (Aikatsu!, Sakura Wars: New York NY.) was tapped to direct the project at studio Tomason, with Takuya Masumoto pulling double duty to write the screenplay and tackle series composition.
Other confirmed crew members include:
- CG Director: Hideo Taniguchi
- Sound Director: Nobuyuki Abe
- Sound Effects: Yasuyuki Konno
- Music: Akiyuki Tateyama
- Animation Producer: Shinnosuke Numata
- Original Character Design: Mine Yoshizaki
- Original Work: Kemono Friends Project
- Original Proposal: Kemono Friends Project
Cast
The series will star the following:
- Serval: Yuka Ozaki
- Fennec: Kana Motomiya
- Child: Yui Ishikawa
- Caracal: Riko Koike
- Lucky Beast: Aya Uchida
- Royal Penguin: Mikoi Sasaki
- Emperor Penguin: Ruka Nemoto
- Gentoo Penguin: Kyōka Tamura
- Rockhopper Penguin: Aina Aiba
- Humboldt Penguin: Ikuko Chikuta
Aside from Riko Koike and Yui Ishikawa, all of the confirmed cast members are reprising their roles from the first series.
Premiere
Kemono Friends will hit Japanese TV on January 7, 2019. The series will air at 26:05 (1/8/2018 at 2:05AM) on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and AT-X.
The series will revolve around Caracal, who meets a human child in the forests of Japari Park. Together, the two travel, and meet various animal friends as they discover the secret of the park. It’s also speculated that a big, globe-shaking conflict will take place.
Kadokawa originally confirmed that a second season of Kemono Friends was in the works in 2017.
Kemono Friends began life as a smartphone game from publisher Nexon, which launched in March 2015. The game ended service on December 14, 2017, ahead of the anime’s January 10 première. In February, Nexon announced that, despite the anime’s popularity, the game wouldn’t return. A spokesperson softened the message later, stating that it’s “possible” for a revival of the game.
The Kemono Friends anime is based on said smartphone game. TATSUKI directed the show at Yaoyorozu, with Shigenori Tanabe (Danchi Tomoo) writing and overseeing the show’s scripts. Sgt. Frog creator Mine Yoshizaki is credited with the original character concept designs.
Crunchyroll streamed Kemono Friends as it aired in Japan. They describe the show as:
About The story takes place in Japari Park, an enormous integrated zoo built somewhere in this world. A mysterious substance found there, called “Sand Star,” causes the animals to turn into humanoid beings called “Animal Girls”! These new creatures spend every day peacefully with the zoo’s visitors… but after some time, a lost child turns up in the park. The child’s attempt to find the way home turns into a great adventure with the Animal Girls!
A Kemono Friends stage play is in the works, along with an unspecified “new screen project” that’s separate from the previously-released “Episode 12.1” special. A second season of the series was unveiled in July with the release of the show’s official guidebook.
In September 2017, Kemono Friends anime director TATSUKI announced that he was no longer attached to the franchise. Kadokawa Dwango President Nobuo Kawakami reported that he was concerned about the incident and that discussions were going on between Dwango and Kadokawa.
On September 27, 2017, the Kemono Friends website posted a notice, which stated that Yaoyorozu “made use of the franchise without sharing information, or reaching out to all relevant parties” through the proper channels and that Yaoyorozu left production due to being unable to comply with these terms in advance.
The entire incident prompted outrage among the fan and creator communities, alike. In December, Yaoyorozu president Keiyo Fukuhara issued a statement regarding Yaoyorozu and Kadokawa’s relationship on the Kemono Friends project. Fukuhara announced that his studio was no longer attached to the project.
Source: Comic Natalie
