Kemono Friends TV Anime Casts Mami Yamashita, Haruka Terui, Miyuhan
The official website for the anime of Nexon’s Kemono Friends smartphone game revealed additional cast, the ending theme song artist, and a new visual on Monday and Tuesday. It has cast Mami Yamashita (One Piece, Mr. Osomatsu), Haruka Terui (Brave Witches, Engaged to the Unidentified), and Miyuhan. Yamashita will play Margay, Terui will play Hippopotamus, and Miyuhan will play Sand Cat.
The site also announced on Monday that Miyuhan will also perform the ending theme song “Boku no Friend” (My Friend). Miyuhan wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the song.
The series will premiere on TV Tokyo and TV Osaka on January 10 at 1:35 a.m. (effectively Thursday morning), and the website lists the episodes with half-hour runtimes. It will also air on TV Aichi and AT-X, and it will stream on the d Anime Store. Though the premiere is slated for January, the original game will end service on December 14.
The anime will star:
- Yuka Ozaki as Serval
- Kana Motomiya as Fennec
- Saki Ono as Common Raccoon
- Aya Uchida as Kaban
- Mikoi Sasaki as Royal Penguin (member of PPP Penguins Performance Project)
- Ruka Nemoto as Emperor Penguin (member of PPP Penguins Performance Project)
- Kyōka Tamura as Gentoo Penguin (member of PPP Penguins Performance Project)
- Aina Aiba as Rockhopper Penguin (member of PPP Penguins Performance Project)
- Ikuko Chikuta as Humboldt Penguin (member of PPP Penguins Performance Project)
The anime’s story takes place in Japari Park, a “gigantic integrated zoo.” In the zoo, due to the mysterious “sand star” substance, the animals start turning into human-shaped creatures called Animal Girls. Japari Park is a place where many people visit and have fun at, but one day a lost child wanders into the park. The lost child starts a journey to return, but because so many Animal Girls join in on the quest it becomes an unexpected grand adventure.
Mine Yoshizaki (Sgt. Frog manga creator) is credited with the character concept designs. TATSUKI (Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono, Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono Encore animation director) is directing the series at studio Yaoyorozu (Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono, Minarai Diva). Shigenori Tanabe (Danchi Tomoo) is both writing and overseeing the scripts, Nobuyuki Abe (The Highschool Life of a Fudanshi, Bananya) is the sound director, Yoshihisa Isa is the animation director, and Yūko Shiromizu (background artist for Ghost in the Shell Arise, The Eccentric Family) is the art director.
Eight members of the main cast — Serval, Fennec, Common Raccoon, and the five PPP idols — will perform the opening theme song “Yōkoso Japari Park e” (Welcome to Japari Park). The song will ship on CD on February 8 with a version of the song performed only by PPP, as well as PPP’s song “Ōzora Dreamer.”
Nexon launched the smartphone game last year, and as of March the game is free-to-play. A manga adaptation by Furai titled Kemono Friends: Yōkoso Japari Park e! began in Kadokawa’s Shōnen Ace magazine in May 2015.
