Forum - View topicKemono Friends 2 (TV)
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Kemono Friends 2 (TV) Genres: adventure, comedy, fantasy Themes: animals, magical creatures, post-apocalyptic Plot Summary: Serval and Caracal find a "human" child in the forest. As they travel with the child, they meet new Friends, uncover the secrets of Japari Park, and become involved in an event that will "shake the earth." ---------------------------------- Episode 1 Okay, there is going to be a lot of mixed feelings coming into this, so I think it will be important to give some background on this franchise, on the off chance someone reads this without really knowing what the existence of this second season means. This is a second season, and while we never got around to having a discussion thread for the first season, we really should have, because the season managed to become a big phenomenon. Starting out as too childish, with janky CGI animation, and a feeling like it is talking to children, but the creators put in subplot of this being post-apocalyptic, and despite its edutainment like premise, it actually managed to make itself really charming, and capture peoples hearts. Despite the love, there is some controversy; the director, TATSUKI, pretty much made the first season what it was, after the game that Kemono Friends was based on, was discontinued and he was given a lot of creative freedom, and he made it gold. He was infamously fired though, reportedly from releasing Kemono Friends content (the horses I think) without permission, and it created a really big PR nightmare because people loving what he made. TATSUKI is actually directing Kemurikusa that is also coming out of this season. While people loved the first season, many people are upset at Kadokawa for what they did, that many are ready to hate what they release. And honestly, they had been releasing some shorts lately before this second season, that had really bad animation, not much of the charm, felt like it was really leaning on the mechanics of the debunk game, and unfairly on how good the first season was. With probably the slight exception with how each of those ended, playing up the passage of time and eeriness that I think captured a lot of people. I think the Serval also felt wrong, and was really pushing the Caracal character, who seemed to have little relevance in the first season. Kind of looked bad that that this second season also seems to be having Caracal alongside Serval. I tempering my expectations, but also did not want to outwardly hate it for no reason. Episode 1 Which goes into the first episode of this second season, I think it was pretty good. Serval has the same actress and does feel just like herself, with Caracal so far not feeling intrusive. I think that it is clear they put a lot of thought into how this would go, they seemed to have dropped a bit of the explain the animal thing, with no time with zookeeper, although not entirely gone, with a little more focus on the post-apocalypse stuff, although not feeling too depressing yet. In ways I would say this episode felt a bit cleaner. Possibly same with the animation, it being a bit more advanced than the first season which had a tiny team, but they have kept some of the jankiness that gave it charm. I am part of the argument that the lack of fluid animation, kind of worked in its favour. I think one of my greater surprises was who the main character is, in that it is not Kaban, the credits in ANN simply call them child. That creates a mix of feelings, that it is doing its own thing, which I think is exactly what made the first season, although with the fear that it maybe is completely ignoring the character, which would be way too sad. But, then Caracal mentioned hearing that Serval travelled with a human, and showed a silhouette of her, showing that it is acknowledging her, only to make it sad that it seems that Serval has mostly forgotten her best friend, possibly from a large passage of time. This feels inline with the atmosphere of the show, and a whole avenue of questions have been opened for the audience, like what happened to Kaban, and what the nature of this new kid is, the characters automatically assuming there is something human related with them, although there details like one of their irises are red, while the other is green, and they seem to like drawing. I also noticed that some of the cerulean seemed to have distinct camera like aesthetics, I don't really remember them having really distinct appearances before. In terms of theories, a certain reveal of the first season was that Kaban was not entirely a human, but a Human Friend, created from a hair on a hat. I kind of wondered if perhaps the kid is also a human friend, the eyes making me think of computers, and specifically of maybe a camera, as to explain the art and some memory. Although the cacoon they were in also bring up question. And in addition, perhaps something to the Welcome to Japari Park shorts, which are supposed to have their last episode in a few months, where they are chasing after a Cerulean that has copied the appearance of Serval, who had a green body and red eyes, where she seemed to be learning things. The strange thing that the child was supposedly in, I think sort of looks like the stuff that came out of Cerulean. Or perhaps like a Lucky, since they have similar appearance of blue, and I think Lucky's eye colour would change. Hope that there is going to be stuff for me to talk about going forward, I don't want to just hate on this because there director changed, it is not like this new one did anything wrong. Also, pirate Lucky. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
The marine animals Friends were interesting, with Dolphin and Sea Lion. Notable as the exact sort of animals often used in marine animal shows, and the seemed far more interested in getting rewarded for their tricks. I think that I saw someone saying that mystery or something is not there, but reading between the lines I think that similar to Serval kind of forgetting Kaban in ways, Dolphin and Sea Lion were similar in that they barely recalled that they must have at one time done shows on that stage that was now sunk. The clapping help to remind them, the way they would get stuck in doing a greeting until they got a treat was kind of funny. Pangolin and Armadillo also seem to be working for someone, so have to look forward for what might be going on there. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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I dunno, I've given this 4 episodes now, and nothing's changed. I feel brain cells dying as I watch it.
The Friends in the first season were innocent, but they weren't stupid. They had clear goals which Kaban helped them achieve, and had some fun along the way and learned some things. They were basically like the Rinas in Kemurikusa, with animal traits woven in. These Friends are idiots. They spend all their time chattering about totally vacuous things, or playing ridiculous games that would bore a four year old. They've all just been painted over with a veneer of every CGDCT trope in existence, but they forgot to add any depth or heart. I might give it one more episode to see if it can or will changes things up at all, but I'm not seeing much hope. The only thing going for it is Armadillo and Pangolin's drop-and-cover schtick when they're scared. That's funny. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I thought the addition of new Luckies was cute. The pirate one that drove the train, the South American one that would jump and use Spanish words, and now some sort of jungle Lucky that has knives at its sides and is supposedly a quiet type (although likely defective with its power).
I don't think that there has been any real drop in intelligence of the animal friends, their problems have always been rather simple things, that they were kind of dumb by human standards in most things, but really good at particular things their animal would be. Serval could not figure out how to lift a lid to get a map, even the proclaimed geniuses had trouble with simple ideas of cooking, and none of them realized they could take their clothes off. To be frank, the Rinas feel like know it alls that know very little, and still enforce their will on someone who seems to have a greater ability to draw conclusions from that information. Sure some of the new friends have been a bit boring, but I don't think there have been any that just feel annoying. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Yes, their problems were simple, but they themselves were not stupid. It's like if you found a group of people who were unfamiliar with modern tech being baffled by modern tech, vs a group of 5 year olds unfamiliar with modern tech. Their responses would be very different. The former group may be uneducated in that area, but you'd still recognize them emotionally as behaving like adults, or in the Friends' case, at least like not very young children. They were basically kids before, but they've lost at least 5 or 10 years of maturity from last season.
Like this episode it was almost like they'd never seen it rain before. I dunno, last season I was never bored even in the early wtf is this episodes. Now there's like two minutes of plot that's engaging and the rest is just them chatting and playing and whining and being shocked at everything else and I feel like I'm babysitting. I did welcome the Lucky Beasts, though the stereotype Mexican Beast was kinda cringey. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Kind of feels like that would be more genuine. Can't imagine the people who made the park (was it always Friends, or did it have animals?) could have made a Lucky Beast they dressed up as a Mexican not come across as cringey. Their robotic voices already kind of feel that way. As a silly aside, I was just thinking how Lucky Beasts could have a bit of a Claptrap thing. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Kind of feels like that would be more genuine. Can't imagine the people who made the park (was it always Friends, or did it have animals?) could have made a Lucky Beast they dressed up as a Mexican not come across as cringey. Their robotic voices already kind of feel that way. As a silly aside, I was just thinking how Lucky Beasts could have a bit of a Claptrap thing. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 5
What do you know, Kaban is back. The first hint was the fire paper aeroplane, the same trick used to distract the big Cerulean at the end of the first season, for some reason the trick looked to work on a Tiger Friend that was corrupted or something. Serval surely recognised it, and there is a little bit of a reunion at the end. An interesting point though is that it seems like Kaban is turning into Mirai, the human who's hair she was born from. In terms of other things in the episode, I do have a soft spot for Panthers (Black Leopards), kind of my favourite animal. As well as Saltwater Crocodiles, they are pretty popular in zoos here in Australia, the friend looked pretty cool. And the Gorilla Friend herself would have been interesting, in that she comes from an animal closer to humans than most others. Wonder how a Serval and Caracal managed to out strength animals that should be stronger. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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I liked Gorilla's outfit. I liked her too, since she's the first one we've met who didn't act like a child. I was frankly kind of worried about what they'd do with Gorilla, given past representations of the animal and people depicted as gorillas. But right now, she might be my favorite character in the whole franchise.
The sequence at the end was very confusing. The plane came from the right, Tiger ran off to the left. Everyone else then also runs off to the left while Serval remains staring off to the right, which was where I expected the mystery Friend to be. Then suddenly Kaban is among the group off to the left while Serval slowly turns to the sound of her voice. I had read your post before I watched the episode, so I was actually looking for Kaban, but even so, I had to rewind because I didn't realize that was her among the group, since I was expecting her to still be off to the right where Serval was staring. (maybe I would've noticed her sooner if not reading subs) Anyway, I guess that was enough plot to finally get me interested for another episode, if I can just grit my teeth and bear all the childishness from the Friends. Oh, and I think the Park originally had animals who became Friends after whatever catastrophe created the Ceruleans - i.e. the Friends were created the same way as Kaban was, from DNA of the original animals. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 6
The strange exception to what Kaban said of a friend forgetting all their emotions after being eaten by a Cerulean, is that she herself was eaten by one, and seemed fine for the short time afterwards that we saw her. Their time with Kaban felt short for how they are moving on, I was reading comments that apparently a lot of people are disappointed. But I do think there were things to mull over in general Kemono Friends manner. Another thought people had was that perhaps Serval was eaten by a cerulean, and thus lost her memory, but I don't think that is a good explanation as she did talk about it to Kaban, so unless there is a delayed memory loss from something like that happening, where perhaps Kaban would lose her memories over some time, and maybe decided to have Serval happy in her territory to think fondly of the memories as she had them, before Kaban seeing it might just distress Serval if she knew she was supposed to remember something but could not. At this point, I am more in line to believe that Friends forget things after a long enough period of time, and perhaps Caracals have a better memory over Servals, or just because she heard it more recently before forgotten. Maybe it is lifetime related or something, but Kaban did seem to have some memory loss to Serval also. On these points, I think people are finding it kind of painful, that after all of that, they are practically like strangers. And I think that is possibly the most in the spirit of the original series that it has been. Remember the ED of the first season, it was all sorts of fun and beautiful things, things that have become abandoned, they have lost their colour like no one remember what they used to be for. I am a big baby, and will admit that at least on one occasion have kind of cried at the whole theme of things forgotten and lost, but it is also kind of a beauty to it, that I think I feel the same of even how Kaban and Serval are now. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Yeah, I was disappointed that they just went on their merry way afterwards, with nothing really brought up.
When they were talking before about humans trying to control Friends, I thought it was a reference to wild animal tamers or circus trainers or something, but no, they were trying to restrain them because they were more dangerous than ceruleans. "This is super dangerous, so be careful handling it." How about not handling it at all? 
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 9
So the one try get Kaban to them is not really a bad guy, in fact they are much more of a good girl, because they are a doggo. Of course a domestic dog friend would be desperate to have a human join them, since love for humans is practically in the DNA of dogs. So cute, but also so sad that she had to say goodbye to them when realizing that Kyururu is not one of her owners, has her own journey to find home, and Domestic Dog seems stuck on its job in looking after the home that she thinks humans in the past left her with. In specifics, it does seem she was a pet to humans that lived there. Seems tragic to leave her there, perhaps they could help her later. An interesting point is that Serval managed to scare of the beast tiger, doing so by her own eyes glowing. This has me wondering if Serval is on her way to also becoming a beast, and perhaps that was a reason Kaban thought it best Serval separate from her, and possibly causing memory loss. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
Took a quick look at some online reactions, and indeed it seems to be a rather unpopular ending, and show in general. In that sense, I will likely be taking an unpopular opinion in defending it. They all fight off Ceruleans as they decide to evacuate Kyururu after she gets the picture back, before her and Kaban have beast tiger show up and they take her to back to the hotel to help the rest, although she is a little unfocused, before they all leave before the hotel sinks. Kaban then decides that she doesn't need to continue on her mission to find a home, because she has one as long as she is with her friends, Serval and Caracal. Kaban seems praises the trio to Serval, and of note is that Kaban actually seems to try and remind Serval of the past, but gets not much of a response except for Serval having a tear as a reaction. I am seeing some responses that the ending being unsatisfying, like things unresolved, but I can only think this as done on purpose a bit. Kyururu thought that she got to the drawing before any of beast Tiger, but we see that a few did actually form and yet didn't actually show up later. The beast Tiger also some vague motivations that we are to believe is lost because she stayed back on the collapsed hotel, but something about it has me believe it was done with intent. We also went back to Domestic Dog at the end, where she went over pictures that we can only guess were from the past before everything fell to ruins. The picture including Kyururu with Serval and Caracal, like this series' events, but also includes Mirai which points to the past, and also what looks like two other humans, one of which is patting Domestic Dog Friend, likely pointing to who Kyururu was before humans disappearing, and a connection to Serval and Caracal, Serval and Caracal were together with Mirai in "Welcome to Japari Park", still waiting on the last episode of their dealing with what seemed to be a Cerulean in the form of Serval. I don't know a lot of the extra sources, but I think that there is room for theorizing and things left purposely vague. Ceruleans apparently attracted to things with human emotional attachment. The attraction of Ceruleans to Friends may thus be a hint to the true nature of Friends, like the Stardust maybe reacts to a human's thoughts or feelings on animals, explaining why even a mythical animal like a tsuchinoko was a Friend in the first season. Just theory, but could explain the nature of a the Beasts, with perhaps Beast Tiger not being the same sort of happy feelings of other Friends, but maybe fear, this creating something like a Friend but more dangerous. We also know that there seems to be reason that Kaban stopped being around Serval, for some reason Serval lost her memories, and a couple changes like Serval's eyes occasionally glowing, and maybe even there is an explanation of why she punches rather than scratches like before. I am going to believe that there is some reason for this, that they were not mistakes or forgotten, but perhaps things that could show up in another season. I am going to admit that that this season did not entirely have the same charm as the first season, there was just something about the really simple things that are hard to pin down about the first season. Something that just exuded fun and passion with a really limited resources. But I am not going to call this season a failure that was better off not trying. There was a graphical improvement, that regardless of how I praise the firs season's work, I think made it a little more watchable, beyond charm, I would say it actually looks good, movement was all sharper and felt more natural, feeling a lot less cheap. Truthfully those are things that could simply be fixed with more money, which flies a bit in the face of how many people love it as part of a series of being an underdog which made it with such a shoestring budget. But I really think people a fooling themselves to think that is all that happened, and the spirit of the original design was totally neglected for something that just uses more resources. I strongly suspect the director they chose took great effort to recreate the feel of the first season, while not simply just taking things and adding in new things. Would people be happy if the director did a season all about Serval and Kaban, right after all the controversy? There was wiggle room, and hints to a greater narrative, just like the first season did, while also staying that sort of kid friendly. I honestly think that people are kidding themselves into believing that Kemurikusa managed to capture what everyone loved about Kemono Friends season 1, where it lacked things like the vibrant setting, light hearted and friendly adventures and characters, and with a dualistic element of environmental storytelling. I would even say that some of the animation styles of how characters moved there, felt pretty unnatural and did not work if it did in Kemono Friends season 1, and contrast strongly with this second season that had more focus on such movements. I would say to compare the movements of the main characters which keep taking me out of the moment. But yet people are still having a strong reaction, picking apart all faults they find in this season 2, while really pushing themselves into liking Kemurikusa. I fear that it is getting yourself for the underdog, for pretty much its own sake, only interested in the story behind the scenes, colouring opinions regardless of how it actually is. Despite what I am saying, I am not hating on Kemurikusa, I still think it deserves to exist, and probably worth note for what resources it had, and a win of a creator I want to see more of. But that sort of thing is not colouring how I feel of Kemono Friends, I really don't think the second season deserves to be punished for the sin of simply existing after what Kadokawa did, I think that the idea of "No Tatsuki, No Tanoshi" is stupid, and flies in the face of what drew me to the first season. Something that made a statement about looking for the good in everyone or thing, without trying to compare it to something else, or having biased opinions outside of something's own worth. While I might be okay with criticism if turned its back on what made Kemono Friends what it was, I think it did fine, and the hate is sort of unfairly spitting in the faces of people who clearly worked hard on it. I give the second season a rating of Very good (8/10), I think that it fixed some of the technical elements that dragged down the first season, and although lost a bit of what made it a surprise hit, I don't think it should be missed regardless of thoughts about the controversy. I just want people to give it a fair go. I am still a fan of Kemono Friends. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Projection much? I think you see KF2 as the underdog and want to defend it no matter what. While I'm sure there are some people prejudging it with "No Tatsuki, No Tanoshii," I don't think that's the majority, though ironically, for me at least, that slogan turned out to be true. This wasn't fun for me to watch. I don't know why you can't accept that many people just don't like the changes in character designs, behavior, and ambience, regardless of why those changes exist. Yes, I think they treated Tatsuki and crew really shitty, but that's not why I didn't like this season. And I certainly didn't have to force myself to enjoy Kemurikusa. Hurray that you found something in this to enjoy. But please stop assigning prejudicial motives to those of us who didn't. If there'e a KF3, I don't think I'll watch it, even though I'm very curious about what happened to Tiger. I was hoping they'd bring her into the fold with the Power of Friendship™ or something, instead of leaving her on the collapsing island. :/ |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Really? Because the majority of discussion for the show I saw before it even started, included the phrase "No Tatsuki, No Tanashi", like a mantra that was ready to discredit it beforehand. Why would it even be an underdog over Kemurikusa? I can't really make comment on what your exact thoughts and feelings are, only trust your self reflection, but I think that I went into pretty good detail to explain how each one did. Although I guess that I could go into an entire essay in talking about the two seasons of Kemono Friends Kemurikusa. I feel pretty confident on definitive facts of evidence to the two series. If you preferred Kemurikusa over Kemono Friends 2, could you explain features that you think are the defining features, it could be a good chance to contrast and maybe even understanding of what might have made the first season such a surprise hit. Based on your comments so far seem to point that the Rinas have the pleasing traits that the Friends should have had, with these ones acting more childish. I can't quite see it as the Rina often felt like almost a hostile force to the main character in Kemurikusa, threatening him, and not only not understanding, but making fun of him for his interests. Sure they had a not quite normal person side of them, like eating large metal objects, but it just kind of felt alien, where I don't have much of a frame of comparison like to an animal, like hearing Rina sometimes show interest consuming metal objects, as well as taking them out later. |
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