Exclusive Content: Kemono Friends Doujinshi Storyboards (1/3)
Added 2025-04-01 00:57:55 +0000 UTCLooking back over the past decade, I think Kemono Friends might be the most tragically wasted doujinshi subject of all.
If it hadn’t been for the director switch controversy back then, this franchise might still be dominating the doujin scene today.
It had, hands down, the strongest character designs and the largest cast I’ve ever seen—almost every character made you want to draw them.
To be honest, I had already outlined plans for a second and third book.
But in the commercial world—be it Hollywood or anime—there are often complicated reasons why things don’t go the way they should.
Especially in corporate systems, it seems like the birth of a "hero" is something to be avoided.
I’ve heard that when an editor and a manga artist become too strong as a pair, the editor might get replaced. I’ve heard that when an anime director performs too well, the company won’t let them stay on the same series for too long.
After all, to a commercial system, an overly powerful individual brings too many unstable variables—nobody wants another East India Company under their wing (or, to put it in anime terms, nobody wants another overleveled Charizard that stops listening to Ash).
That’s probably why legends like Hideaki Anno and Hideo Kojima eventually chose to start their own studios.
Even now, I sometimes find myself sighing, thinking, “If only nothing had gone wrong with Kemono Friends back then…”
Comments
Thinking of Kemono Friends in its prime will never not bring my blood to boil. I still remember the absolute cinema that was the anime, how the franchise exploded in popularity and into broader culture, all the way until the shitshow that ultimately lobotomized the series' creative drive and brought its meteoric rise back down to earth. I'm tempted to just call it sabotage instead of an immensely incompetent fumble. Either way, a passion project was smothered just as it bloomed and we'll never know how much more it could have been. At least my memories of the glory days remain, but it's little consolation.
swiffy
2025-04-01 01:41:27 +0000 UTC
