News
Kemono Friends Gets New Stage Play in November
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The official website for the Kemono Friends stage play adaptations announced on Sunday that the franchise will get a new stage play titled Butai "Kemono Friends" Japari Stage! ~Kimi no Ashioto ga Mata Kikoeta~ ("Kemono Friends" Stage Play Japari Stage! ~I Could Hear Your Footsteps Once Again~) that will run in Tokyo at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club eX from November 8-17.
The overall franchise also revealed a visual for its 10th anniversary. The below visual features the text, "Do you, like Kemono?"
Hiroki Murakami is again directing and writing the play. The play will star NANA Oda. Other cast members include: Azusa Inamura, Rihona Katō, Caracal, Haruka Satō, Ruka Nemoto, Mao Noguchi, Mashiro Yagi, Chikara Andō, HIna Iwata, Tomoka Kanazawa, Nozomi Shinohara, Ikumi Nakano, Ui Hinagata, Hino Mimura, Ruri Yoshimiya, and Yuka Ozaki.
The previous stage play in the franchise, Butai "Kemono Friends" Ōkina Mimi to Chiisana Kiseki Re:Japari Stage! (Stage "Kemono Friends" Large Ears and Small Miracles Re:Japari Stage!), ran at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club eX in Tokyo in October 2023. The play was the first in four years.
The franchise's first stage play debuted in June 2017, and a second stage play debuted in November 2018. The third stage play ran in fall 2019.
Nexon's original Kemono Friends app game launched in early 2016 and ended service in December of that year — before the Kemono Friends anime even aired. The 12-episode television anime then premiered in January 2017 and ended in March 2017. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired. Kemono Friends 2, the 12-episode television anime's second season, premiered in Japan in January 2019. Crunchyroll streamed the anime worldwide outside of Asia. Discotek Media released the first season on Blu-ray Disc.
Sega's Kemono Friends 3 game launched in Japan for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 in June 2022. Its smartphone game version launched in September 2019, and the Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours arcade game also launched in September 2019, but ended service in September 2021.
The franchise has also inspired smartphone apps and manga. A Kemono Friends Picross game for Nintendo Switch launched in Japan and in the West in October 2018. Neocraft launched its Kemono Friends: Kingdom game on the QooApp games app, on Android, and on iOS in July 2023 and the game is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.
Sources: Kemono Friends stage play's website, Comic Natalie