Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Kemurikusa is the True Successor to Kemono Friends
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Wtv
Posts: 157 |
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I tried to watch it, but it's boring.
KemoFure 2 is better. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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(..."Smokeweed"? Maybe it should be on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim?  )
Thing is, Kemono Friends 1 is like the six blind men and the elephant: Every group of fans think their reason for watching the show is THE reason everyone's watching it. The Japanese thought "The cute girls!", the US fans thought "Oo, da APOKALYPZ!"...Me, I liked the original show's attempt at being a kids' "Educational" show that taught us about the personalities of animals (what happened to the Zookeeper-Friend eyecatches telling us about the real animals?), coupled with the humor of Kaban's bemusement at the Friends' odd animal-idiosyncracy behavior, like getting a kiss from Prairie Dog. The 2 series has kept a little of that gentle cute-comedy oddity (I still like Dolphin and Sea Lion refusing to do anything unless they get rewards, just like in their old stadium shows  ), but it doesn't 100% QUITE have the same cute oddity that came from the same designer that gave us "Sgt. Frog"'s Ms. Furrypants.
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Ultimately, I think most people ended up watching it because the entire show became one giant meme, which itself was due to its various incongruous elements (moe animal girls! apocalypse! dramatic irony! hilariously clunky animation! edutainment!) and the inexplicable whims of the internet. The second season is basically just a remake; without amping up the quirkiness, it wasn't likely to catch the webosphere's attention again. And that's not even getting into the whole corporate-politics scandal. Kemurikusa, meanwhile, is probably under the radar mainly because it's an Amazon Prime exclusive. What compelled Amazon to throw money at this is beyond me--I doubt they bothered to follow the whole allcaps-TATSUKI saga--but it's still kinda the black sheep of anime streaming because of that whole "Strike" mess and, like Kemono Friends, Kemurikusa's only likely route to popularity would be through the meme machine. The fact that that hasn't happened despite it literally being called "smoke weed" is kind of incredible, though. Maybe they needed to work 420 into it somewhere. Also, we can probably add "having the tree bus do a muscle pose" to the list of phrases never before concocted. |
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principeinquisidor
Posts: 26 |
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To help fight the ignorance I will repost this comment here for more visibility:
If you have watched KF S1 and both the old and new version of Kemurikusa, you may be already aware that basically Tatsuki took the basics of KF, that is the core lore made by Yoshizaki Mine and then mixed it with the basic story of Kemurikusa. Now with the TV version he is developing the story to its full potential and on the same format than KF S1, that is aa a 12 episodes TV series, so there are a lot of parallels like the sand star and Kemurikusa being pretty mysterious and important things on their respective worlds, the presence of an human character that appears from nowhere and without memories, the mushi and ceruleans being the mysterious and frightful enemies, the long travel with a new place every chapter or a very important character making an appearance on the tenth episode. So basically if you fell in love with KF S1 especially thanks to writing and directing, then you were also falling in love with Kemurikusa on Kemono Friends drag. Also those are the credits of Tatsuki and Isa and Yuuko, his two partners on his independent animation group irodori on KF S1: Tasuki: Director, series composition, script, storyboards, technical director, opening's storyboards and technical direction, art design. Isa: animation direction. Yuuko: art direction. irodori: animation character design*, modelling. *Original and animation character design are two different concepts. The credits on the old version of Kemurikusa of Tatsuki, Isa and Yuuko: Tatsuki: Direction, animation Isa: character design, 2D Yuuko: background art irodori: production Now the credits on the TV version of Kemurikusa of Tatsuki, Isa and Yuuko: Tatsuki: Original work, direction, series composition, script, art design, opening's technical direction and and storyboards Isa: Animation direction Yuuko: Art direction irodori: character design, modelling, edit |
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Wtv
Posts: 157 |
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I agree. I always liked the lighthearted parts more. I was never a huge fan, mind you, just found it fun. That's probably why I like the second season the same way. Kemurikusa imo the story was boring, characters were terrible (in special Wakaba is generic and annoying as hell) and animation...yeah. So I believe if it wasn't for the stupid drama around the director, most people wouldn't even care for it. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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I continue to doubt Amazon bothers to follow ANY of the reputations of the series they license, and just grabs whatever falls between the football-drafts of the shows grabbed by Funi and CR-- Netflix at least thinks it has a "classic" if it puts money into the studio production, but Amazon is a scavenger, and when they couldn't spin off "their own" double-paywall anime streaming channel, they didn't bother pursuing it beyond some demographic need to have anime Because Streaming. I don't expect much from second breakout shows by odd series-creators, as they usually struck lightning in a bottle with their first series, and were just allowed to indulge any other oddness from there, without respect to its marketability. Sort of the anime equivalent of "AfterMASH": The more a series comes out of nowhere, the more the followups make it look like it must have been a happy accident. |
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Curly91
Posts: 2 |
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I quite enjoy Kemono Friends 2 and disliked Kemurikusa (watched 2 episodes) and honestly this so-called conversation in the article is an insult to any long-term Kemono Friends fan. Not only did it get the ONLY THING STATED AS FACT WRONG but it also assumes people liked Kemono Friends for one reason alone while simultaneously discrediting any other reason. Sorry, try better next time.
Kemono Friends creator is Mine Yoshizaki, Tatsuki was merely the director of season 1. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11624 |
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I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but "smoke weed" is just a very literal translation. It's actually the Japanese word for tobacco, not marijuana. Even some of the nushi they battle are modeled on tobacco plant viruses, and they use the leaves as weapons against the bugs, just as nicotine is an insecticide. Now why this is built around tobacco, I have no idea yet, but there's no question that it is.
I'm totally loving this show. It's like a darker version of KF1. I've been really disappointed with KF2, in part because their eyes are so weird, but mostly because it has lost its heart. The Friends are just flat out stupid now, rather than innocently childlike, and they prattle on and on about nothing until I want to scream. The last couple of episodes have been a bit better, but still, it almost hurts to see what it's become. |
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WANNFH
 Posts: 1864 |
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The thing is: do many people liked KemoFure first season before episode 4 happens? Because Kemurikusa direction is totally, completely the same, except Wakaba is not really Kaban, and the other character is not quite the Friends. |
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Curly91
Posts: 2 |
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This still doesn't make him the creator of Kemono Friends as a whole as calling him "the creator of Kemono Friends" implies. The reason the original game was dead was because the gameplay and gacha elements were terrible. The game was actually praised for its designs, story and writing which is why the Japanese fanbase made an effort preserve every single line of dialogue. I talk to a lot of Kemono Friends fans and most of them liked the show before episode 4. |
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Wellington
Posts: 39 |
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That annoying piece of green turd Wakaba is what is wrong is this anime and Tatsuki hiding him until the first episode aired is a BS move. He made a mistake of making this another crappy isekai harem anime. He should have given Kemurikusa the very same experience as Kemono Friends of being females only instead of it being a reboot of the OVA. The fact that this biased article's writer claims that this is a "true" successor to Kemono Friends simply because of that Tatsuki-Kadokawa drama is just freaking disgusting. I would say the current Kemono Friends is "in name only" if Kyururu turns out to be a male. For now, despite the crappier CG art, Kemono Friends S2 is doing good. |
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FukuchiChiisaia
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Tatsuki's anime caters to Akiba-type moe nihilism fandom tho. And, the fandom often pours a ton of money just for merch. Amazon probably saw that market and want to fill it. I mean, the anime production itself is not that pricey compared to other production in the current season. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5958 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Didn't realize there was such a divide between fans of Kemono Friends 2 and Kemurikusa.
I kinda of agree with Gina Szanboti about KF 2. Watching KF 2 is like seeing all your favorite characters from KF 1 turn into pod people. I like Kemurikusa because of the characters, it is a bit slow, but has been a nice ride so far. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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After we get the big "...OHHHhhh!" revelation about Kaban and the setting (which raises the whole series question, for lack of any real compelling storyline to the Ceruleans, to "Okay, is this 'our' Serval or not, and if so, why does every other old-series returnee remember what happened?") I treated it more like one of those years-later contemporary series reboots where the old actors come back twenty years later, and we see what happened to them. More like that cable Dallas one with Grandpa J.R., than that weird Twin Peaks reboot where Agent Cooper stumbled around in a daze. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2696 |
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Totally mirror Tars' and Gina's observations and find it odd that people actually like TOBACCO and try comparing with KF1 (because of TATSUKI?). They are very different shows IMO and have only superficial similarities. Watch the 2012 OVA, it's better! You will also see smoking as a superpower...I really, really wanted to like Kemurikusa but just can't as I still can't figure out what the show is about or where it might be going. The packing is slow, but that isn't so bad for me as that it seems aimless other than killing the Red Tree and Red Bugs. What are those supposed to represent, exactly? My best take is a hidden diatribe against anti-smokers and obnoxious Vapers (and nothing about Climate Change at all). I also find it mildly charming in a way KF2 really isn't but I'm afraid Irodori will have to do better to keep from becoming "one-hit wonders".
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