×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Kemono Friends: This Season's Sleeper Hit


Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:19 am Reply with quote
When I started picking up the after-the-end/post-acopalyptic undertones in what otherwise felt so much like a children's show, I started wondering if I was going mad or something. Glad I'm not the only one who picked up on something like that.

After the first episode, I planned on giving it just one more, since I wasn't a fan of the talking-to-children way everyone spoke. But now I just have to see where they're going with this.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:31 am Reply with quote
The article hit upon some of the elements that make me like this show so much: cute girl animals, gentle humour, educational info on animals and travels through widely varying environments and an intriguing background mystery. I think the seiyuus are doing a bang up show conveying the humour and cuteness. Yeah, I would never have picked this title as a potential breakout hit when it started - nice that anime can still lay on some surprises.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:49 am Reply with quote
The visuals are horrid though, it's worse than the full CG Precure movies I often complain about. I've seen college projects that have better 3D visuals than this, It would've been alright if it were 2D because the backgrounds just scream a unique 2D artstyle as it could've had a coloring book style due to the backgrounds or even just a generic moe artstyle.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:19 pm Reply with quote
Oh, who cares? Hey, I like nice visuals as much as the next person, but whining about the look when there is so much else to enjoy just feels so trite and banal. I remember talking to a Western animation director about how much I enjoy anime and his only comment was, "yeah, but it uses such a low frame-rate." Besides, for me at least, there is something kind of charming about KF's not professionally slick look.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Parsifal24





PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:24 pm Reply with quote
I originally dropped this five minutes into the first episode because the visuals where so awful But picked it back up after I saw it was getting something like two to three threads a day on /A/ over on 4chan. Admittedly a lot of those threads where the "I want to plow that character like a verdant field" kind of discussion that /A/ has a tendency to devolve into.

But I binge watched the first five episodes and fell in love with it episode two has a Fossa for Pete's sake that's a "deep cut" as far as the choice of animals to anthropomorphize. It's success is a pleasant surprise as it very much feels like a show you could watch with anybody and they could get something out of it.

Which is a good thing as it's often hard for me to find shows I can share with non Otaku or not have to give a long involved discussion of what the series is about.
Back to top
darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5459
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:31 pm Reply with quote
I am very curious how long the staying power of this show will last especially once the Spring 2017 season comes with its onslaught of mega-hitter shows. Hopefully this show will not be another one of those seasonal fads.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
shadowmaksim



Joined: 01 Feb 2017
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:01 pm Reply with quote
I don't know, even ignoring how bad the CGI animation is, I'm just not seeing the appeal of this show much at all.

I'd even go as far as to say that of the 17 series I've been following this season, this is easily my least enjoyed one by quite a margin. Then again, I'm unironically enjoying "Hand Shakers" so I guess I'm just the crazy one as usual.

Well, regardless of what I think, it's nice to see a series getting enjoyed decently enough despite its shortcomings. Most series nowadays with even less and minor issues usually don't get that far.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DanQ



Joined: 07 Feb 2004
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:38 pm Reply with quote
YeS! My favorite post-apo for kids anime this season ^__^.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
WANNFH



Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 1679
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:51 pm Reply with quote
Well, what's is really works in the series, that is the ability to work with the atmosphere of the show. On the one hand, there is an attractive child show simplicity and friendliness of the Friends characters (especially Serval with her cheerful easy-going nature). On the other - the mystery behind the plot with its sad undertones - the spoiler[unknown fate of the humanity (is it really extincted, or just abandon the park?), the mystery behind what Sandstar and Ceruleans - and also what really happened to the main heroine? Is she really the last human being on this park, or maybe the real last human?]. Props to the script writer of the show - with not ruining the atmosphere of cutesy and friendly nature, he gives a really good hints about what hiding in the shadows, gives a good bunch of suspense questions and answers to them. Seriously, he's really care about the setting of series.

And yeah, the ending with the black-and-white photographs. Just simply watch it. It shows the real abandoned places (like Six Flags New Orleans theme park, destroyed by hurricane Katrina, Bois Blanc Island theme park dance hall (Canada), Aqua Claudia, the old Ferris wheel in the Pervouralsk (Russia) (photo made before the renovation of theme park)). It really can give you a hint about what things this series hiding.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
Posts: 1090
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:34 pm Reply with quote
Guess I'll check this out since it's getting so much attention.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sunny milk



Joined: 22 Jan 2014
Posts: 695
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:52 pm Reply with quote
darkchibi07 wrote:
I am very curious how long the staying power of this show will last especially once the Spring 2017 season comes with its onslaught of mega-hitter shows.


Really not a huge amount of overlap with Kemono Friends' fanbase. Most are for the more casual fans.


Last edited by Sunny milk on Fri Feb 24, 2017 3:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DanQ



Joined: 07 Feb 2004
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 3:00 pm Reply with quote
WANNFH wrote:

And yeah, the ending with the black-and-white photographs. Just simply watch it. It shows the real abandoned places (like Six Flags New Orleans theme park, destroyed by hurricane Katrina, Bois Blanc Island theme park dance hall (Canada), Aqua Claudia, the old Ferris wheel in the Pervouralsk (Russia) (photo made before the renovation of theme park)). It really can give you a hint about what things this series hiding.


Glad you mentioned ending – do you know meanings of that "invisible" silhouettes (propably of Friends) in photos?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 4:32 pm Reply with quote
I've kinda grown fond of the MMD-style animation. It just works with this somehow, adding to the series' childlike feel. I enjoy the creativity that Bag-chan shows and that she does so without lording her intelligence over the other Friends. I also find it intriguing that the Friends seem to be aware that they are not as they (? or their ancestors?) once were, though they're totally unconcerned about it.

The post apocalypse/abandoned park thing was evident from the first episode and was what kept me watching. But the Friends are all just delightful, and they make the journey a lot of fun even without the mystery in the background.

As for what Serval eats, all the Friends seem to survive on "Japari buns," which of course raises the question of who is providing the Japari buns? Is it some automated feeding system that hasn't broken down yet, like Lucky Beast?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Shaterri



Joined: 03 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:30 pm Reply with quote
There's just something deeply, ineffably strange about this show - in some ways it reminds me of amateur productions (be they media productions or games or what-have-you) where the people involved don't have the industry experience to know all of the 'shortcuts', idioms, and structures that are completely standard and so wind up producing something that just feels innately different from the professional work in the medium. That's not to say that it's better, but in a world where so much stuff comes out feeling same-y, that difference can make a show innately more interesting.

That said, I'm really enjoying the hell out of it (and the fact that it hits a couple of interest buttons doesn't hurt), and for all its laconic pacing it's got me glued to figure out where in the world (figuratively and literally) it's going from here.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:37 pm Reply with quote
JAPARI BUNS IS PEOPLE!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group