A New Friend is Revealed from the "Kemono Friends" Collaboration

“Kemono Friend’s” popularity continues on the rise as it continues to team up with zoos and botanical gardens in Japan. This time the franchise gains a new character with a collaboration with Nagasaki Bio Park.

The Nagasaki Bio Park is a nature park that offers visitors hands-on experiences with various animals in a cage-free environment and the new friend created in result of the franchise’s collaboration with the park is named Degu. Degu is an anthropomorphized version of the common degu, a rodent of the Octodon genus known for their fluffy fur and long, bristly tails.

A fun fact on the people behind the show, Kana Motomiya, who voiced the character Fennec owns a degu named “Kisuke” as an animal companion. This resulted in an inspired work created by Kemono Friends illustrator / concept designer Mine Yoshizaki and featuring Fennec and Degu together.

To mark the collaboration the parks reveals plans to hold stamp rallies and other events featuring Degu and the other Friends of Japari Park.Any other information for the event and the park itself can be found on its official website.

“Kemono Friends” is a Japanese media franchise created by manga artist Mine Yoshizaki. Beginning as a game developed by Nexon in March 2013, the franchised had released its manga work in May 2015. It was created by Furai and serialized serialized in Kadokawa’s Monthly Shōnen Ace with a total of 2 volumes before ending in March 2017.

The anime adaptation of the series was released in January 2017 and had a total of 12 episodes before ending in March 2017 as well. It was under studio Yaoyorozu and had Tatsuki as the director with Yoshitada Fukuhara as its writer.

The story of the series takes place in a large zoo known as Japari Park. Here, endangered species, extinct species, cryptids and some legendary creatures. Due to a strange henomenon involving a mysterious substance known “Sandstar”, all the animals have become anthropomorphized into girls known as Friends. Between the manga and anime, both took focus on a different protagonist.

For the manga series, the focus goes onto Nana a park keeper who looks after the various Friends in Japari Park. The anime on the other hand took focus on a girl named only as Kaban. She wakes up in Japari Park with no recollection of who she is or how she got there and encounters a Serval friend.

Source: Crunchyroll News