The One about the Kemono Friends – Japari Cafe in Harajuku

Posted onAuthorDennis A. AmithLeave a comment

While I was on my coffee tour in Japan, while in Harajuku, near Cat St., as I was on my to a coffee shop, I saw the sign for Japuri Cafe Concepts – Kemono Friends Cafe.

And realized, I have to check the place out to take photos but because I was going someplace to eat and drink within minutes, I figured why not take a peek at the location.

I know..I know…I am posting this several months late, because the place is now closed down (it closed back in March as it was only up for a year).

So, what is “Kemono Friends”?

“Kemono Friends” is a Japanese media franchise created in 2015 by manga artist Mine Yoshizaki, who is well known in Japan for creating “Keroro Gunso” (a.k.a. “Sgt. Frog”) but also worked on “Dragon Quest Monsters +”, “Arcade Gamer Fubuki” and the “Gradius” shooter spin-off, “Otomedius”.

“Kemono Friends” would receive a mobile game developed by Nexon in 2015 and 2016 and a manga was serialized in Kadokawa’s “Monthly Shonen Ace” from 2015-2017.  An anime series was created and aired in Japan from January – March 2017.

The concept of “Kemono Friends” is that a zoo known as Japari Park, home of endangered and extinct species, were affected after the “Second Eruption” which left the zoo abandoned.  And the animals were affected by a mysterious substance known as “Sandstar” and these animals were anthropormorphized into girls known as “Friends”.

A girl named Kaban wakes up in Japari Park with no recollection of who she is and with the help of the park keeper, Nana and a Serval cat friend, Kaban and Serval go on adventures inside the park and find out what kind of friend she may be and meet new friends along the way.

And so a cafe was created in support of this popular Japanese franchise.  But it was opened only for a year before its closing on March 31st.

It’s important to note that because I was meeting with others to eat in a few hours, I decided to not eat and take photos.

The place has a lot of themed drinks to hamburgers, curry and steam buns and a lot of desserts.

But it appears there are fans of the series loved visiting the place and surprisingly, unlike anime/video game special concept restaurants which only last for weeks or months, the Kemono Friends Cafe last for a year, so that was pretty cool!

The cafe had their final goodbye and a final tweet from the staff on Twitter:

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