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Mar 28, 2017
If I was told I'd bother to write a review for Kemono Friends a few months ago, I'd laugh it off. But here I am.
First off, Kemono Friends is a kids' show. It is not something with deep meanings hidden behind the scenes as some claim. Yes, there are a few hints at a post-apocalyptic setting, but they are merely hints - or easter eggs would be a more accurate definition. So, if you are considering to watch this show for these hints, be aware that those are very minimal and take up very little screen time, not even 10 minutes in the whole show.
But
...
what I found amazing about this show is its production approach. Kemono Friends was originally a mobile game that offered nothing ground-breaking, and failed due to that. It was shut down before the anime started airing, but after the production started.
What would an average studio do in such a situation, where a promotional series loses the object they are supposed to promote? Probably go full-fanservice as a nature of the antromorph genre. But Kemono Friends completely ditched the connections with the game, and instead wrote a screenworthy story just set in the same universe.
This story is a rather lighthearted and childish one, but still rather consistent in itself and potentially interesting for a kid. While not appealing to my tastes directly, I still could appreciate what the anime has to offer. The characters are diverse and far from boring, pretty fun even. The most amazing part with the plot for me was again, how the studio took their approach and actually tried to make something interesting from a rather uninteresting source material. I truly wish the Kancolle anime had this courage of deviating from the source material and creating a true adaptation.
The art is interesting. By techincal standards, it has pretty crappy CG. But for some reason, the CG in this anime bothered me less than it ever did (excluding cases where it was done so well to the point of being indistinguishable, there are a few rare cases).
One reason for that is, the models' movements are minimal probably due to budget issues. I always felt like the CG in other anime was "overanimated", 3d models are easier to animate and that's sorta the point for using CG. But, it sticks out from the 2d animation, as in anime, generally only essential movement is drawn. The minimal CG in Kemono Friends felt closer to this.
The second reason is, the CG didn't feel like it was trying to imtate or compete with 2d animation. It almost acknowledged its inferiority and stopped caring. As a result, neither did I. That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy a properly, 2d animated K.F. But, I would probably pick this over an "overanimated" CG version.
At the end of the day, would I ever watch this again, from the beginning? Probably not. Would I recommend it to my friends? Well, probably not. Did I enjoy it myself? Heck yes, and I have become a follower and fan. But I seriously doubt anyone oblivious to the production story or uninterested in background facts could appreciate this show as much.
TLDR;
This is a kids show, and a good one, but it is a kids' show. Keep that in mind when deciding and judging.
Story - 7/10 Fun enough to keep watching.
Characters - 8/10 Enjoyable characters for anybody including non-kids, but not character driven.
Art - 5/10 The designs are good, the execution not so much, but as long as CG in anime is concerned I found it humble and somehow more friendly than other CG.
Sound - 7/10 Some cool tracks, voice acting is okay/good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 25, 2015
I really wanted to like this show. I really did. Being the fan of Kancolle I am,
I just cannot hate it completely, but this show was a disappointment.
It is a huge potential wasted, thus a frustration to those familiar with he game and fandom.
-What potential?
Kancolle is a browser game that came out in 2013. It gained popularity far beyond the expected level, so much that the servers can't handle the demand and new players are allowed into the game via a lottery system, japanese and non-japanese alike.
What made the game this popular, was the doujin market around it.
The game had a vast amount of characters,interesting
...
character art, very good voice acting and music. The effort (and love) put into it was beyond the level of what one would expect from a free to play browser game. Thus, soon the fandom started expanding beyond the game.
Characters were given unofficial traits based on their lines or behaviour in the game, -Akagi having a huge apetite due to consuming high amounts of resources in the game, Nagato being into cute things, Murakumo becoming the badass for no reason I know of- theories were built around the enemies -such as them being the malice of war,sunken vessels, zombie ships so to say- which gave birth to many comics that are unique in their own way, fun or serious, action-packed or laidback.
The reason Kancolle keeps getting compared to Touhou isn't simply because its doujin market caught up to it in numbers, but because the way both their fanworks are: They hugely expand the concepts of the source they are feeding from.
Kancolle as a game, does not have a story. It also does not need one.
But when you're making a show, a scenario is needed. What the writers had to do was to do a throught research on the fanworks, and realize what Kancolle had been made into by the majority. But they failed this task.
-Characters: 3/10
Even this score may be biased because I simply cannot unlearn what I have from the fandom. But the anime does a terrible job on the characters. First of all, they tried to
include too many charcters into a very short airing time. There is a "let's show as many characters as we can so that we please every fan out there" mentality going on. Yes, I said every "fan" out there. Because if you are not familiar with the character already, it's not possible to actually get attached to any of them. The reason for this is the ridiculously short screen time supporting everyone but Fubuki (MC) gets, and their dialouges mostly consisting of their lines from the game. So to anybody who is not already familiar with them, what the characters say, the way they think and react will make little to no sense. Even for those who know, portrayal of the characters are super weak.
-Story: 3/10
Ah, yes, the story. The first 3 episodes had one going, so I give one point for each. After that, it just becomes a mess of events. It feels like the studio gathered 12 people for each of the episodes, then they had a meeting on the basic storyline. "Alright gentlemen, we are going to start from point A, then stop by B, and conclude with C."
Then, eveybody starts writing their own episode without knowing what the person before them wrote in their script. After the first 3 episodes we just have a major battle that keeps being postponed without seeing any real preperations for it, events that literally cancel each other out,(To keep it spoiler free,think of a character painting a wall blue for 3 episodes, then
painting it red for next 2), things just coming out of the blue and even a filler that doesn't even manage to fill anything. And then a VERY anti-climatic ending. Yeah, even if you were to collect random doujin plots and brought them together, it would probably make this much sense, if not more.
-Art: 7/10
Despite the 3d CGI, the rest of the show was pretty good I think. And 3D CGI looking bad isn't a problem unique to this series, I've yet to see 3D that doesn't stick out except Rebuild of Evangelion series. While the models look like slightly advanced MMD models, the animating of them were pretty good I think. The battle scenes were quite dynamic and in a series like this where combat is a major part, unfortunately this is inevitable. Other than the 3dCGI, everything was decent and enjoyable. We had very nice backgrounds, distinct changes in atmoshpere between different places of the Naval District. I enjoyed both the battlefield and recreation facilites. Character art was also pretty good, I think they handles Mutsuki's gradient hair pretty well.
-Sound: 11/10
Yes,if there's one part of the series that is perfect,it's the sound department. Both the voice actors and OST. Looking at the seiyuu list, you might think the developers were tight on budget, but this is a brilliant "tech demo" of the voice actors. Many charcaters are voiced by the same people, yet it's not noticable in the slightest. I watched a scene where 4 charcters talked to eachother, and was shocked to find out it was literally one person talking behind the scenes. My respects to each VA taking part in this show, that's incredible. I mean, being able to change their tone might be a crucial ability for the VAs, but it's impressive to be exposed to it in a single show and a single episode. The OST does a real good job too, was kinda disappointed that the show didn't have any OST from the game at first, but now I am glad it added to the already wonderful soundtrack of the franchise. Opening and ending are great as well.
Might be a disappointment in terms of a show overall, but I nominate it for the best OST of the year already, as there aren't many anime that manage to stand out in this context.
-Overall: 4-6/10
-If you are a regular person simply looking for a new anime to watch, unfortunately I cannot recommend it. 4/10
-If you are a person who wants to get into Kancolle, this is definately not the point to start. stayaway/10
-If you are a fan of Kancolle, it's likely you will enjoy it more than regular peeps, but cringe at the potential it's wasting. 6/10
-If you are a fan of military stuff, give it a try I say. You're here for torpedoes and planes anyway, and you will get it. 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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