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ANNCast - Kemono Friends




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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Well Actually, the post apocalyptic show you were thinking of was Girls' Last Tour. Two Car is about motorcycle sidecar racing. Oh...

Anyways, Kemono Friends was a good show. I originally passed on it sight unseen based on the poor reviews in the preview guide but I picked it up after the feature on this site. The show's heart, derived from the creators' earnest efforts, was definitely a key draw for me. I'm definitely looking forward to the next season.

If I had to pick a favorite friend I'd have to go with Sand Cat.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Well this was nice I didn't give Kemono Friends a chance at first due to the first episode's awful animation and dropped it after fifteen minutes. Than I saw that it was getting three to four threads on 4chan and picked it back up and ended up loving it and now it's probably going to be my best Anime of the year. As far as favorite friend I'd have to go with Fossa
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Gewürtztraminer



Joined: 14 Nov 2007
Posts: 1028
Location: Texas - Its like whole other country.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:52 pm Reply with quote
A lot of the post apocalypse anime I like have this same duality.
A hopeful, even sometimes cheery side balanced against a profound melancholy of what has been lost.
Planetarian, Sound of the Sky, and even School Live.
The Shelter short also comes to mind.
Not post apocalypse, but post tragedy, Your Name brings out some of the same feelings in me.
Enjoyed Kemono Friends way more than I expected to.
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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:44 pm Reply with quote
Gewürtztraminer: If you haven't already, give Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou a watch. It's more in line with the more contemplative episodes of Sound of the Sky than most of the others you've mentioned, kind of like Aria but post-apocalyptic rather than utopian. I preferred the '98 OVA to the '02-03 one, but they're both great. Still haven't started reading the manga yet, though.
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rizuchan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 974
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 5:23 pm Reply with quote
It's funny because I was looking forward to Kemono Friends because I love gijinka and big cats, but the season preview guide made it sound so terrible I skipped it. I finally finished it the other day, but since the dialogue was so simple and animation so... not great, I tended to watch it while doing other things and it sounds like I missed a ton of the fun subtext. Sounds like I get to watch it again...
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David.Seth



Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 453
Location: near SF
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:47 pm Reply with quote
jymmy wrote:
Gewürtztraminer: If you haven't already, give Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou a watch. It's more in line with the more contemplative episodes of Sound of the Sky than most of the others you've mentioned, kind of like Aria but post-apocalyptic rather than utopian. I preferred the '98 OVA to the '02-03 one, but they're both great. Still haven't started reading the manga yet, though.


I'm glad I wasn't the only one to think of YKK. I love this one so much, and a big selling point is the peaceful post-apocalyptic setting. The first OVA is really good, the second OVA... not so much. But please, read the manga. It is so good, from beginning to end. It took me years to finally give in and read it, and I only did so after all the praise I heard. But when I finally caved and powered through it over a weekend it became one of my all time favorites.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:06 am Reply with quote
I genuinely loved Kemono Friends. Didn't catch it till after the season ended(literally that week), but I marathoned the whole thing in a couple of days and loved every second. I was actually sold from episode 1 too, and am surprised the first episode didn't elicit a better reaction. I guess it really was just the production values? Otherwise, it was a very charming introduction to the world and characters, in my opinion. Admittedly, knowing the surrounding hype may have made it more enjoyable for me.
Kid's shows aren't usually my thing, because there is a bit of a tough balance between being simple, and being condescending and/or dumb. And I think a lot of kid's shows really miss that balance. That wasn't the case with Kemono Friends at all. It was genuinely really well written, the pacing nailed the world-building, especially, and the characters were all endearing beyond belief. I also actually did really like the music and even bought the OP and the OST as soon as they were available.

Also, I've seen so much good writing on The Lost Village as a deliberate comedy/horror that I can't possibly agree that it was unintentional. My own experience watching it definitely led me to that conclusion even before reading about it. I'm a little surprised that none of you think it is. I thought after the podcast with Nick, at least one of you was partially convinced. I mean, you have so many call backs to previous bad horror films direction wise, like having the speaking character's face be obscured by a post in the middle of their epic speech. You CAN'T accidentally do that in animation. That post was deliberately drawn there because Mizushima wanted it there.
You can certainly argue that it failed at being intentionally bad, which is more subjective and just reflective of personal taste in comedy, but I think it's honestly pretty undeniable that it was at least going for that.
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zrdb





PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:02 pm Reply with quote
I throughly enjoyed this show-there was something about it that kept me coming back for more until the final episode.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:49 am Reply with quote
I thought Kemono Friends had a good balance between friendship, light hearted adventure, and a bit of post apocalyptic story. The show didn't feel coldly caculated in the way that a good amount of anime feel since they are slight variations on the same idea that has been done dozens of times. As for favorite Friend I would say Serval since she is brave and kind but is also boastful and impulsive.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:54 am Reply with quote
Hopefully there will be a sequel that delves more into what happened to the world. Loved the series though. As someone before me said, I just had to keep watching it.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:34 pm Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
Kid's shows aren't usually my thing, because there is a bit of a tough balance between being simple, and being condescending and/or dumb. And I think a lot of kid's shows really miss that balance. That wasn't the case with Kemono Friends at all. It was genuinely really well written, the pacing nailed the world-building, especially, and the characters were all endearing beyond belief. I also actually did really like the music and even bought the OP and the OST as soon as they were available.


Until the Japanese network thought "Those otaku LOVE animal girls!" and started showed it late at night--and captured the "Ooh, apocalypse! Shocked " cult-audience--it would have been a pretty darn good cute-educational kids' show, getting kids interested in zoos again, by teaching them that every animal has its own personality.
I've heard some cartoon cultists caught up in PBS's "The Wild Kratts" attempt to sell nature to short-attention kids, and well....this is cuter.

But no, the discussion soon turned into the binge-cult post-apocalyptic "Fear the Walking Catgirls" theorizing over what happened to all the humans, and drowned out our discussion of what really does make a good addictive cult children's series on Netflix or Amazon. (I'm an unrepentant "Beat Bugs" addict, who's tried to get over his withdrawal by becoming curious about Amazon's "Lost in Oz").
The fact that it could do both well enough to hook an audience on the line just drowns out any other argument, to the point that you just want to slap the next animation-nitpicker bringing back the old "Eww, the movement looks so cheap!" insider whine...Yeah, and Adult Swim looks even cheaper, what's your point? Razz
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