kemonomyth

Kemonomyth by Giraffe-anon

“It seems that humans are long-winded.” - Professor

Forward

Kemono Friends is lighthearted and fun, and what follows is not an attempt to say otherwise. I began speculating on the series occasionally (starting with 153599113), but I always returned to a nice happy meal equilibrium in time for the next episode. Then I fell into a hole. In this essay we will take a detailed look at how Campbell’s monomyth manifests itself in the show and use it as a framework to uncover its themes. You may be skeptical about whether there’s value in this, and can I only ask you suspend your disbelief. Out of respect for you, I won’t try to frame what you should think or feel. I will let what follows speak for itself. As you are fans of Kemono Friends, I trust you’ll read a few sections before deciding to drop it.

We will look at how the monomyth ‘manifests’ because the intent of the writers is not at issue. Campbell’s tendency towards poetic fancy will have a reduced emphasis in favor of his more grounded sentiments and predictions. Otherwise we might find ourselves paining over /d/-tier madness like: “does Kaban’s hero-penis have a penis womb?” Such questions are unanswerable.

Kemono Friends (hereinafter KF) the anime will be also treated as a completely self-contained work without regards to the manga, game, or secondary materials. CR-sourced translations were used, but where important they were checked for accuracy. I’ll be working from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, not any derived or abridged works on the same subject. KF may be more accurately and precisely comprehended using eastern philosophies and their attendant parables, but as my knowledge of those is limited, we will make do with our knowledge of the monomyth and roughly equivalent concepts from the Western world. That is who we are and that is how we’ll read it. We will progress in general chronological order, but events from all points in the series will be discussed where necessary.

The Virgin Birth

Our hero Kaban (“Bag” to her Friends), was born like the first man of some degenerate folk myth—by accident, from stuff that was lying around. In her case, from a strand of hair left inside a hat. Just before her body forms, one of the hat’s two feathers is stolen. We mention this first because, as we will see later, the events of KF are set in motion by this separation.

Newly born Kaban wanders the Savannah briefly before being forced into a game of hunter-and-prey by Serval. After being pounced, Kaban begs Serval not to eat her. This is the first of many losses Kaban endures in the Savannah area, and also the first of many times we see that her greatest fear is being eaten. Fortunately for Kaban, Serval is a Friend—an animal-human hybrid created through the magic of the mysterious substance called Sandstar. Note that the word Sandstar is a compound word where heaven (star) and earth (sand) are joined together.

Serval explains to her confused target that she must have been ‘born from the Sandstar eruption’, a fact which Kaban clearly does not understand. The Sandstar Volcano is shown to loom over them in the background, an otherworldly place where stacks of huge iridescent cubes climb into the heavens from the summit of a mountain. As they speak, this magic dust glitters around them in multicolored fountains.

The Sandstar Volcano is the source of life for the Friends, a World Navel in Campbell’s parlance, and it is in its proper place at the center of the island. The entire journey to come will take place in the shadow of this axis, progressing around it like a wheel, until Kaban is called to go to the center. The World Navel, also called the world tree, axis mundi, and so on, is known in myth as the bridge between heaven and earth. If it seems like an esoteric concept, many of us venerate this gift-giving symbol every December from the safety of our living rooms.

Though it seems to the viewer that Kaban is human enough, she herself doesn’t know what she is. Serval informs her that she can find that out at a place called the Library and promises to take her part of the way there. So begins our adventure.

The Call to Adventure and Refusal of the Call

Briefly: heroes are given a call to cross from the ordinary world into the special world and may either refuse or accept. These early steps are well known and there usually is nothing much to them, but the unusual way they appear in KF requires consideration. The first problem we have to confront is: how can Kaban answer the call and cross the threshold into the special world if she was there from the start? To answer this we will describe the crossing as primarily an internal experience and only secondarily an external one.

On the lesser external crossing, note that the Savannah is a sunny, open plain where one can see in all directions without obstruction. That fact, and the presence of Serval, lends the place a sense of physical safety and at least superficial familiarity that the adjacent Jungle lacks. Campbell lists jungles among the regions typical of the special world for this reason—a tendency for the mind to fill dark and unknown spaces with imagined terrors.

The primary threshold is in Kaban’s head. To the degree that Kaban is in the special world from the beginning, she hasn’t accepted it (her first words: ”Where is this?”). Kaban must, therefore, cross two thresholds to enter the special world, one which is a physical threshold into the Jungle, and one internal threshold which leads to her acceptance of the responsibility for her own life and a concurrent recognition of where she is. Of the two, the internal threshold is the more significant. If this sounds like unfounded speculation (”tofu”), bear in mind that in saying this we have made a falsifiable prediction: the existence of split thresholds implies the existence of split calls to adventure, and split threshold guardians in turn. This winds up being the case.

Refusal of the call is an optional step. At first blush it seems that Kaban accepts the call without objection when she assents to go to the Library with Serval, but as we’ve seen she doesn’t know where she is and she isn’t really capable of accepting the call from a state of ignorance. The danger of the task ahead quickly becomes obvious. Assent is not the same as acceptance. One is passive and the other active. Kaban is soon beset by failures—she stumbles down a slope, requires Serval’s help to climb even the smallest of the Baobabs, and trips over herself when she tries to run away from the small enemy they encounter. All of the powers at hand—the earth, its flora and fauna, and even her own body—have suddenly become threats to her. The reason for all of this fruitlessness is that Kaban hasn’t yet accepted responsibility for her own life. Though they are not thematically significant, these everyday dangers of Japari Park are minor threshold guardians. Heroes who fail the threshold test are consumed, enter the belly of the whale, and undergo apparent death.

Her refusal of the call is made clear after Kaban becomes aware of the dangers of the world and falls into despair. Even so, some of her good qualities begin to shine through when Serval is forced by the heat to rest under a shade tree. In the darkness of the shade tree and the resting, slumped, eyes closed figure of the despairing Kaban, we see the image of the belly of the whale appear. Here Serval pants and ‘hardly sweats’ and Kaban sweats and hardly pants. Remember this. When they arrive at the watering hole, Kaban uses her hands to drink from the pool rather than doing so directly as Serval does.

Threshold Guardians and Supernatural Aid

One of the monsters of the setting is stretched across the gate on the bridge out of the Savannah. One might reasonably assume this is the threshold guardian. Kaban’s journey into the special world is an internal one too, though, and we predicted the appearance of two guardians. One half of the threshold is that of the known world, and the other is the dangerous unknown world. The monster at the gate is of the second class of guardian.

 It is at the watering hole where Kaban beholds, with momentary terror, the first of the threshold guardians. Hippo has two aspects, though: that of herald and that of threshold gaurdian. Campbell describes the figure of the herald of the call as a representative of the ‘unconscious deep’ and the waters whose bottom cannot be seen, and just so Hippo emerges from the water which had previously concealed her. Hippo appears to us as a sharp-tongued and grounded foil to Serval’s childlike enthusiasm. They are like water and fire. Serval has called Kaban to go forth into the world, Hippo will call her to receive the world into herself.

Hippo is also a threshold guardian. Amid all of the cutting words she has to offer there is an element of tenderness befitting of the protective type of guardian. Her matronly attitude and speech are those of the crone figure, and she has a simple message for Kaban: “In Japari Park you have to fend for yourself.” Kaban now knows what she is hearing: it will be dangerous, and no one can do it for you.

Hippo is not saying that it’s every Friend for herself in the park, but simply that no one should be passive about her own survival. This is a calling to Kaban to change her internal state. So there are two calls made, two thresholds to be crossed, and two threshold guardians. Kaban assents to Hippo without true understanding, once again, and she and Serval set off for the second and more dangerous of the threshold guardians. They stop briefly at a signboard to pick up a park pamphlet. This treasure is worth thinking about, because Kaban is shown to retrieve tools from it which will not only show the way forward and lead to victory. Serval could not open this box, would not have understood its contents if she had, and would not be able to use them in the way they needed to be used. As there is no one else in the world who could have drawn these particular weapons from that particular place, this is something of a sword-in-the-stone motif.

The second of the threshold guardians is the monster that has stretched itself across the actual gate into the unknown regions of the Jungle. Serval and Kaban hear the cry of one who has been eaten by this monster. They rush to the scene and, in a fit of emotion, Serval attacks the creature in an attempt to save the victim. The unseen victim here is Aardwolf (”earth wolf”), and we will see her again.

Campbell points out that ‘the overbold adventurer beyond his depth may be shamelessly undone’ by the threshold guardians, as was the case with Kaban earlier, and that is the case with Serval here. Having ignored the advice of Hippo, she finds herself in an unwinnable battle with a monster she has never seen before. She has revealed her inadequacy as a guide, and will soon be supplanted in that role. Kaban locates the weakness of the monster using her reason, but this is not enough to win passage through the threshold. Pure thought will not win the day. Neither is pure action the answer either, as we can see with Serval.

Hiding in the bushes and seeing that the fight is going poorly, Kaban finally comes to understand the meaning of Hippo’s words. She fashions a trick from the guides she picked up in the form of a paper airplane, which she then uses to distract the monster and allow Serval to get at its weakness. In taking action she has exposed herself, though, and the monster attacks her before Serval is able to destroy it.

When Kaban shifted from a wholly passive to an active participant, she at last answered the call. In crossing this internal threshold, she passed the test of Hippo, entered the world of Japari Park, and became worthy of Hippo’s protection. Campbell: ‘One only has to know and trust, and the ageless guardians will appear’ to one who has answered the call, and they do. Hippo has been watching the pair from the shadows and prevents the monster from devouring Kaban. Serval delivers the blow and the monster shatters into pieces. This is the first of many bridges to be opened by Kaban. It can also be said that this is the moment Serval is drawn into Kaban’s adventure, having been shown a glimpse of her power to breathe life into the fallen world.

Crossing Of The First Threshold

At the edge of the Savannah, Serval’s duty as guide has come to an end, and it has been made clear by events that she has reached her limits. She can’t guide Kaban from here, even if she wanted to, and they part ways. Kaban reaffirms her answer of the call at the gate to the jungle when she, after pausing momentarily with fear, resolves to venture alone into the darkness. For her courage here in passing the physical threshold she is rewarded with a new companion, the now-curious Serval, who chases after her and catches up. Notice how the aid of the herald Serval and the aid of the herald Hippo were both contingent on the answering of their separate calls. To emphasize that Serval is no longer Kaban’s guide-figure, but a companion, they switch to the less formal suffix -chan.

Night has descended and Kaban stops beneath an old lighted signboard separating the Savannah and Jungle areas. Serval’s foolish behavior disturbs the domain and summons one of the guardian spirits, the robotic Lucky Beasts. Serval is shocked when the robot, nicknamed Boss, begins to speak to Kaban, referring to himself as a park guide robot. On registering that Kaban has one of the feathers, he begins playing a recording from the original owner of the hat.

We eventually know her as Mirai, the former park guide, and Kaban will receive many more messages from her as she progresses through the park. Despite being a woman, Mirai is actually Kaban’s father. Mirai didn’t give birth to Kaban (though Kaban grew in the hollow of her hat-we will not ignore this). It was Mirai’s hair that provided the spark of life to the Sandstar orb. What the hair and the orb stand in for is obvious.

Kaban is half-divine, and she herself is also playing the male role in the monomyth. Campbell notes that in societies emphasizing the mother-aspect of creation, the original female ‘plays roles that are elsewhere assigned to men.’ Kaban also wears shorts and uses the male pronoun boku to refer to herself. However she is not strictly to be thought of as male. A name could hardly be more yonic than Bag. That she is androgynous is indicative of the kind of hero she is in the taxonomy of heroes, and also a reflection of the active and passive principles.

It is implied that Kaban is able to speak to boss because she is what he considers a visitor to the park. However, Mirai’s recordings are played back due to Kaban’s possession of one of the park guide feathers. This is one of the problems that Kaban must face before she is worthy of the boon: the question of whether she is an alien or a native to Japari Park. This is similar to the problem that Kaban faced at the threshold about whether she was an active or a passive participant in her own life. Visitors and observers are both passive in nature.

Since Kaban passed the threshold test, she is not imperiled by the belly of the whale. She peacefully falls asleep in the darkness of the jungle. Campbell refers to this crossing as the ‘passage into the realm of night.’

Road of Trials

Most of the work is taken up by the road of trials, which is just a series of tests the hero must complete to prove their worthiness. As is so often the case in KF, it’s perfectly literal and involves an actual road. A detailed look into each episode and its themes is beyond the scope of this essay, so we will focus on what appears to be the pair of linking threads that run through it all.

Just because we are glossing over the material to follow isn’t to say that there is nothing more to it. One example stands out enough to note: Kaban’s trip through the labyrinth is very much an underworld journey. Tsuchinoko’s presence there can’t be explained without this interpretation, as the underworld is naturally the abode of mythical creatures. Tsuchinoko physically replaces Boss in this interval as guide, because she is the guide to the underworld and not any other place, and he is the guide to the living world and not any other place. Tsuchinoko’s name can be read, by way of homonym, as chthonic: tsuchi no ko, child of earth.

In the way tsuchinoko are said to move, by grabbing their tail and rolling, we clearly see the symbol the Ouroboros, one of life, death, and rebirth. That’s also why she’s the guide to the underworld. Campbell: “Life lives on life. This is the sense of the symbol of the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail. Everything that lives lives on the death of something else. Your own body will be food for something else. Anyone who denies this, anyone who holds back, is out of order. Death is an act of giving.” Ouroboros is also found in the ensō, the Buddhist circle, which is, incidentally, is the image on the cover of the modern edition of Hero With A Thousand Faces.

The reason Boss gives them for abandoning them during this sequence is that it’s an attraction, but at the Library we see that he accompanies them through an attraction. So armed with the power of symbols, we can see that these events aren’t as senseless as they appear.

The first thread we’ll follow through the road of trials is physically illustrated in the first task that Kaban completes in the special world. Though she has arrived in the Jungle and has been there for some time, Kaban’s participation in the special world is passive (that of a visitor) until she meets the ferryman, Jaguar, who is pushing a section of the old bridge through the water. Kaban’s river journey can be thought of as an initiation into the special world. This mirrors again the external/internal transition we saw in the Savannah.

The task she is confronted with there is to unite the two halves of the Japari Bus, which is split in two—one half for the visitors to ride in, and the other for the guides to drive. After trying a few different things and failing, Kaban eventually decides that they will have to build a bridge. She will bring the two halves of the bus together by bringing the two halves of the river together. In this case the bridge is a physical structure, but it can also be used as a verb—to bridge, or to bring disparate people or places together.

Kaban makes bridges. She brings Crested Ibis together with Scarlet Ibis, brings Alpaca together with customers, ends the war in the Plains, prevents an idol group from breaking up, and so on. Other times, bridges will open for her as a result of her success at some other task, as was the case with the ropeway, the underground tunnel, and of course the bridge from the Savannah to the Jungle. They remain open after her passage, and we are shown examples of other Friends using each of the passages Kaban opens or taking advantage of facilities she has reopened. The world is healing before her and in her wake. Bridge imagery is present in important places. The first scene of the opening credits is of a bridge, and the last shot of the show prominently features a bridge in the distance.

The one time a bridge must be destroyed to evade pursuers, Kaban finds herself at a loss and this task falls to Tsuchinoko. Though there are good, concrete reasons for this to be the case, myth isn’t concerned with strict cause and effect. Kaban has passed every trial since her entry into the special world, and yet fails this one. All her methods of fighting and problem solving involve creation. Alternatively: it is also sometimes the case in the underworld where it is the guide who must pacify the resident monsters, a task Virgil performs time and again for Dante the Poet in Inferno.

The secondary theme of the road of trials is Kaban coming to master the art of thoughtful action. Humans are capable of quite a lot. Though they weren’t born with fur, they make igloos, or fire, or cloak themselves in the fur of animals to protect against the cold. They are not fast, but can fashion a vehicle to escape. They can even create things that are entirely new, like wheels, and so on. They can do anything. They can’t do anything, however, if they don’t turn their thoughts into action. This theme finds its purest expression with the figures of Prairie and Beaver.

Thoughtful action is the subordinate aspect of Kaban’s character, not the first, because it is morally neutral. The thoughtful actor who lacks virtue becomes a great danger, a villain, not a hero. These powers are the birthright of humanity, not its highest form. Her internal quest for humanity will not be complete until she comes to understand the highest virtues. To understand this distinction, imagine a sequence where she threw the paper airplane and then quickly fled down the hill before she saw if it worked. Though the result would have been the same, that would be art in the absence of virtue, which is more the domain of a trickster hero. For all her cleverness Kaban is no trickster figure. Her powers are used for the good of all and not for herself.

Early on during the road of trials we also meet Arai, the one who stole the feather from Kaban’s hat, and her companion Fennec. The role of trickster in fact belongs to Arai, the endearingly selfish thief who bumbles into a crucial role in (re)making the world. She is a raccoon, a classic trickster spirit in Native American legends. However, her companion Fennec is a fox, and foxes are tricksters as well. It would be more accurate to say that this inseparable pair collectively forms the single trickster figure. Fennec provides the cunning, passive mind aspect of the trickster, and Arai the foolish, active heart. Arai is convinced the hat belongs to her and is chasing after Kaban to recover it. At least, that is what she thinks she is doing.

The Meeting With The Goddess

The Queen Goddess in Campbell’s monomyth is described such that she is, essentially, any woman. Which is the point. However the meeting with her is not just any meeting with any woman—it must take place at the nadir of the quest, and must have a marriage theme. Campbell mentions that the sacred marriage may take place with the ‘lady of the house of sleep’, and the events at the Lodge do not follow the transformative or bridging themes that we found on the road of trials. In fact, the source of the trouble now is Kaban herself, specifically her relationship with Mirai. The Meeting isn’t actually necessary if the Atonement takes place, and the Atonement is definitely the beating heart of KF. It’s possible there is no meeting, and the Lodge is simply a muted and off-kilter continuation of the Road of Trials. That seems unsatisfying, however.

Given this seemingly odd choice of setting and plot, and the fact that here Mirai appears over and over to Kaban, we might naturally conclude that Mirai is the Queen Goddess being met. It certainly is the place and time for it, Kaban does meet the image of Mirai for the first time, and it certainly seems like Mirai is a Goddess figure of the park that was. Case closed, yes?

Yet there are good reasons to believe that Mirai is the father figure—she is Kaban’s biological father, to give one. On the other hand, the Goddess is incarnate in every woman, so it is possible for her to perform this role in addition to her role as the father.

The episode revolves around Kaban coming to know Mirai in the depths of her own nadir, which is quickly becoming Kaban’s as well; they are becoming one. There are strikes against the idea of Mirai as Goddess, and missing elements, but some seem to fit. For example, Campbell describes the Goddess like so: “Time sealed her away, yet she is dwelling still, like one who sleeps in timelessness, at the bottom of the timeless sea.”

That somewhat fits the bill if we accept that Mirai’s recordings have sealed her away in timeless sleep until the one with the feather happens on them. The problem is that Mirai is not ‘dwelling still’, but is actually gone and a ghost. When Campbell gets lyrical, as we established from the start, it’s best not to worry about it that much.

Beyond all of the yeses and nos, it just doesn’t feel right. If the monomyth is a manifestation of human desires, then one might be able to feel things about it before he knows them. Kaban doesn’t engage in even a simulacrum of a marriage with Mirai, and such a thing would be strange given their assigned roles and the difficulty of Mirai being her holographic ghost mother-father. Not that such difficulties can’t be overcome with the proper symbolism, but in this case they are not. So let’s not pin this charge on Mirai just yet.

Upon arrival at the Lodge an unusual amount of attention is given to picking the room that Serval and Kaban will spend the night in. You may have felt on watching this that this is a strange thing to focus on. Why so much emphasis on where they are going to sleep? The rooms themselves are unusual and thematic, as well, and call to mind nothing so much as honeymoon suites. Then we see it: in the ghost play that drives this episode, Kaban and Serval take on the role of the newlyweds. Meeting the goddess is not used in the sense of meeting for the first time. You can mythically meet a woman who is already with you, just like you can biblically know a woman you already know.

It appears were distracted by the concept of Mirai as Goddess, for a time, when the true culprit was Serval. The theme of the Lodge itself is that of assumptions and misunderstandings. Giraffe mistook Wolf for a no-name mangaka, and Serval for a goat. Everyone except Kaban mistook Mirai for a Cerulean. We mistook her for a Goddess. However, as with Kaban, we didn’t jump to conclusions, and the truth became known to us.

To entertain Campbell’s fancy: does Serval also ‘sleep in timelessness’? Is she the ‘lady of the house of sleep’? She does actually dwell still, unlike Mirai, which is a point in her favor. The sleeping figure of Serval being awakened by Kaban was the very first scene we were presented with. It’s possible, if we understand the sleeping Serval that time sealed away as the figure whose memories of Mirai have been taken from her, and the timeless figure who was Mirai’s companion so many years ago but still appears to us as the same young woman with the heart of a child. Kaban opens Serval’s eyes to both of these things.

Kaban spends three nights in the house of sleep with Serval, as it is typical for the hero to spend a number of nights in bed with the Goddess. One does not treat the Goddess to a one night stand. This is a symbolic union, mind. Why would Kaban need to marry Serval, even symbolically? Because she is about to take the place of Mirai. Campbell: ‘with [the possession of his bride], he knows that he and the father are one; he is in the father’s place.’

Only after Kaban has spent three nights with Serval is she able to pierce the veil that conceals Mirai from her, and is then revealed a vision of Serval at Mirai’s side. Serval’s tears and our now-complete knowledge of the crisis underway mark the nadir of the quest. This nadir interval will continue until the four gods are unearthed and returned to their rightful places, and the flow of evil into the world is stemmed. The Meeting With the Goddess is expressed here as a complement to the Atonement with the Father.

Woman As Temptress

In Campbell’s world it isn’t necessary for temptation to take the form of a woman. The fact that it is called ‘woman as temptress’ is just to say that even the most transcendent hero is still of flesh and blood, and is weak to appeals to the flesh. Since most heroes are male (and even some female heroes are male, as we’ve seen) woman is most emblematic of that. The most important of Kaban’s temptations does in fact come from a woman and is exactly what the it says on the box. That isn’t her only temptation, though. Careful examination regarding the other points at which Kaban was called to abandoned her quest reveals that she denies two additional temptations in between the Sacred Marriage and the Atonement.

The first and most powerful temptation comes from a woman, Serval, who suggests at the Lodge that it would be ‘fun to live together, like Prairie and Beaver.’ Even though Serval is honestly suggesting this be done after Kaban’s quest is complete, for the purposes of temptation the implication alone is sufficient. She has placed the idea in Kaban’s mind of retiring to a happy, safe, domestic life with her ‘wife’ rather than continue forward with her quest. Achilles was given the same choice.

This sort of domestic kingdom is an empty promise if it is attained without virtue by the coward who has turned away from his purpose. Kaban takes the longest to deny this temptation, indicating its importance, but she does. At the boat she balefully informs Serval that she intends to go beyond the ocean, not stay in Japari Park with her. The denial happens after the symbolic marriage with Serval, the Queen Goddess. It reminds one of a more lighthearted version of the temptation of Aeneas to remain with his false bride, Queen Dido. Fortunately for her, Serval is not a false bride and does not meet a tragic end like Dido.

The other two temptations are understated, but present. The second temptation comes from the Hunters and is also implied by Boss. Their message to Kaban is: you’re too weak, run and hide, or you’ll be hurt. This is simply saying to Kaban that she will experience pain and possibly die if she continues forward. The temptation at work here is the avoidance of pain and the concurrent increase of pleasure. Boss also implies this when he warns Kaban to ‘remain where she is.’ She ignores them all.

The third temptation occurs at the summit and comes from within. Kaban glances at the map and sees that her ultimate goal is actually in sight. All she has to do is walk down the mountain and get on the boat, and she would be there. This temptation is the appeal of selfish desires. She denies this as well.

One is reminded of the substantially similar Three Temptations of Christ. While it seems there is another temptation, namely the one by Serval to go down the mountain and fight the Black Cerulean before the four gods are in place, this is more aptly termed a distraction because there is no promise of some alternative good involved.

Atonement with the Father, Apotheosis, The Ultimate Boon

All of the three events listed above are intertwined too tightly in KF to treat as separate. The stage for the rite of Atonement (Campbell: At-one-ment) with the Father is the lip of the caldera of Sandstar Volcano, the World Navel, the source of life (Friends) and death (Ceruleans), the bridge between heaven (Star) and earth (Sand), where the four corners of the earth (The Four Gods) meet at the center of the world. It is also the house of the father, who symbolizes the center, and as such the Atonement should take place there.

In order for the son to become one with the father, to replace him and assume his role, he must first be properly initiated. Campbell illustrates the dangers of the improperly initiated son with the tale of Phaethon, which we’ll briefly recount due to its peculiar relevance: Phaethon was the son of the sun god Helios and was teased by his playmates over his parentage. He wished to prove he was the son of Helios, and went to his father and demanded that he be recognized and given the right to drive the  sun-chariot for the day. He was granted this wish but unable to control the chariot, leading to his death and the destruction of the chariot.
In KF this tale is retold when the uninitiated Serval demands to drive the Japari Bus and then crashes it, setting the stage for the events of Lake Shore. The nature of the Japari Bus has been previously noted, so this shouldn’t be too surprising. It’s even a hybrid vehicle—a combustion engine is driven by explosions, and batteries are full of liquid water and acid. The fact that it’s a hybrid is revealed at the end when it shuts down when its battery dies, which doesn’t happen in purely engine-driven vehicles.

Mirai is Kaban’s father, and Boss is the one who holds power over her. He is the guide who drives the bus and keeps Kaban in her place. They are a single father-figure. They speak with the same voice. We saw, in the Goddess-Meeting, Kaban replacing Mirai as the consort of Serval. The theme of Kemono Friends is the union of active and passive principles. Mind and heart. Masculine and feminine. Fire and water. We see this theme from the very start in Serval panting with her hot breath and Kaban with her watery, cool sweat. In the human world this is because humans sweat and servals pant to bleed off heat. In the divine world, it is fundamentally bound up with who they are.

We see the union of principles also in the joining of the two halves of the bus, in the marriage between Serval and Kaban (and its prototype, Prairie and Beaver), between the lazy Lion and the headstrong Moose, between Giraffe the fan and creator Wolf, and most importantly between Kaban the visitor and Kaban the guide. Remember that guides need visitors (properly, followers), too, or else they aren’t guides. We saw with Serval that a person can be a guide in one place and a follower in another, so the guided can become the guides and vise versa. More abstractly, we even saw it in the dual nature of the threshold guardians, the calls, and the thresholds Kaban crossed into the special world. Kaban has had a series of guides—Serval, Tsuchinoko, and especially Boss—through the park. She has accepted her status as visitor and ridden in the back of the bus. The time has come for that to change.

The red feather is representative of the active principle—that’s why it’s red. It was stolen from Kaban at birth by the trickster Arai. Of the trickster-pair, naturally, Arai is the active one. Being born incomplete is the reason for Kaban’s initially timid personality. It is here and at this point that her initiations have earned her the right of the feather’s return. The feather is necessary for to her to begin her Atonement with Mirai. In true transcendental fashion, Kaban doesn’t have to lift a finger to accomplish this. It is delivered to her by fate at the precise moment when she needs it and is ready for it. Arai finally catches up to her and takes the hat, replacing its stolen feather, and is then promptly subdued by the knowledge of Kaban’s name and great deeds. Of course, if Arai had caught up to Kaban earlier in the journey, she might not have been so persuaded, and Kaban would not have earned the red feather back. In fact she would have suffered the theft of the other.

The complete hat, however, does not immediately return to Kaban. It goes to Boss/Mirai, the father and the true guide. It is, after all, Mirai’s hat. She is the park guide. Kaban has earned the right to confront the father, but has not yet done so. Boss commands her to go down the mountain and leave the park, yet he is silenced when she gently informs him that she is not a visitor and takes the hat, replacing it on her head. Recognizing her possession of both feathers, Boss then affirms her status as ‘temporary park guide.’ Whether this recognition is the result of his programming is of no import, as cause-effect relationships in myth are at the symbolic level. We saw that illustrated clearly with the way the red feather found its way to Kaban. On the surface she had nothing to do with it and it was pure chance. Viewed another way, she had everything to do with it and that its return was foreordained. Kaban, Serval, and the tricksters Kaban has subdued return the gods to their rightful places and stem the flow of evil into the world. At this point the Atonement is almost complete.

We will also say here that the luring of the Black Cerulean does not meet the criteria for the ‘Magic Flight’ theme, which is fine as it is neither significant or required. In the magic flight the powers pursue the hero who has stolen the boon. In this sequence Kaban throws herself into its body to gain the boon, which is completely the other way around. One might speculate,emphasis on speculate, that if the Black Cerulean can be said to represent anything, it is the terrifying ogre aspect of the father. Its only purpose is to enable Kaban to complete the Atonement. That isn’t a required image, but it is a convenient one, as it would reinforce the following sequence and add yet another layer of depth to the Atonement.

We say that the Atonement is not quite complete because, even though we are not explicitly shown Kaban riding in the passenger section after this, she is implied to have done so, and Boss is still shown driving the Japari Bus. Kaban is riding in the driver section with him during the flight from the Black Cerulean, which is a step up in terms of status, but even Serval is riding up front at that point. If the Atonement really were complete she would be in the driver seat, not just the driver section. There is also that little caveat that Kaban is a ‘temporary’ guide.

Full atonement requires, Campbell says, “abandonment of the attachment to ego.” Kaban has not demonstrated this, so she still has one thing left to do: face her greatest fear, and in so doing demonstrate the highest virtues of courage and self-sacrifice. This act shows that Kaban’s marriage of active and passive principles, the reunion of the two feathers, is mediated by guiding virtue. Kaban set out with a desire to find out what kind of animal she was. Knowledge of what it means to be human, in the finest sense, is the boon she attains here, the end of her internal quest for humanity that began with her separation from the red feather. Even as her external, stated goals have changed, they become one at this level, and so the quest is really about one thing. The philosophical machinery at work here is a Western interpretation. It would however be surprising if there were an eastern idea that accounted for all these events without a virtue principle of some kind.

Her complete Atonement with Mirai will not come without her apotheosis. Why would Kaban need to be a perfect being, and sacrifice herself, to become a park guide? I will let the savior himself speak on this: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn't own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees.” - John 10:11. You can cut and paste in guide, Friends, visitors, Ceruleans. Being consumed, Kaban then dies and, some time later, is reborn. After this point, the hat is just a hat. On the beach she finds Boss/Mirai, who has been reduced to a talking lens, and straps him to her wrist, becoming literally one with the father.

Refusal of the Return, Rescue From Without

Following her rebirth and atonement, we open back on Kaban to find that she has been dwelling now in the paradise of the amusement park, the tail of the ensō, the not-quite-closed circle that Kaban has been tracing through Japari park. She opened the way to this place not only for herself, but for all the Friends she has met. Kindred spirits from every corner of the world are brought together. Any misunderstandings that may have been spread by Arai have surely been dispelled, and Kaban learns the mysterious circumstances of her birth. Though she has not sought this knowledge, Arai places it before her.

A month has passed and the Friends are still feasting and playing as if it were the first day after the battle. Campbell describes this sort of state of heart’s ease, soul and body food, as a “Paradise of Milk That Never Fails.” Who in their right mind would leave Japari Park? But Kaban has the elixir, or rather, she is the elixir, who will bring about the regeneration of the fallen world for Friends and humans alike. That work cannot begin until she leaves Japari Park, where her work is complete. The boat has been destroyed, though. The outside world, Kaban rationalizes, can wait. She still desires to go out and seek humanity, however. Serval and the others must rescue her from this state of bliss.

Fennec quietly tells Serval to distract Kaban so they can wheel in the Japari Bus without her noticing. A postscript to the Atonement occurs on the ferris wheel where Kaban finds out that Mirai and other humans may still be alive, out there, and that Mirai is her mother. It’s a postscript to the Atonement because she receives the information after she’s become one with Mirai via the same esoteric paths as the feather came back to her. Campbell: “here is a great key to the understanding of myth and symbol—the two kingdoms [divine and human] are actually one. The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know.”

The ferris wheel ride also puts the size of Japari Park into perspective for Kaban, and can be thought of as the passive form of the Rescue. At Serval’s unknowning behest, Kaban comes to better understand the smallness of Japari Park and the potential of the big world outside. After the ferris wheel ride, it is revealed that the Friends have transformed the Japari Bus into a boat, giving Kaban the active ability to leave the island.

Master of Two Worlds, Crossing Of The Return Threshold, and Freedom To Live

The two worlds, the active and passive principles, are also associated in KF with the animal and human worlds. Kaban doesn’t need to demonstrate her mastery of the human world, or teach it to them, because she has been doing that the entire time. To quell the nervousness of the Friends, though, she climbs the tree and shows them that she’s learned the active principle from them in turn. In a reenactment of the Savannah-Jungle passage, Kaban pauses at the return threshold, then steels herself and runs forward. This time she pauses out of love, and not fear. The hat remains behind with Serval because, as we said, it’s just a hat now. Kaban is now the guide, one with Mirai (”Future”), and she takes hold of the wheel with her own hands. She is free to live, without being fearful “of the next moment as destroying the permanent with its change.” as Campbell says.

Of course, she is the guide, and we’ve already said that guides have followers. This is exactly what Serval and a few others have become: her disciples. In the final, perfected form of the Japari Bus, the guide only shows the way, and the followers come along under their own power.

Coda and The Atonement Revisited

The mind reels. One can’t help but wonder if what I and my fellow deepfags were straining at, as we were distracted by such things as the shapes of bombers and the hidden status of mankind, was the promise of something moving beneath the surface. Being unable to get at the truth, we drove ourselves mad. If a man reads a book that other men have apprehended, even if he doesn’t know what they’ve said, he knows his searches will be fruitful. But Kemono Friends? Sheer confusion. What was going on?

This was an attempt to clear that up for myself. Now I’m at peace and my restless mind has become happy meal again. I see now what’s important about Kemono Friends. The important thing is the way Ezo Red Fox draws out the last syllable of Silver Fox’s name, which makes it sound like Silver Fox is her older sister.

I’m sure many more mysteries remain in KF, and if you intend to find them, hopefully this helps make your future efforts more fruitful. A good theory should illuminate and reduce elements, not multiply and conceal them. It should have predictive power. It should exhibit internal consistency and be supported by evidence. If you find that I’ve fallen short myself on any of these points, which is probably the case, I did try.

Near the end of the writing the major problems seemed to have at last yielded themselves, I found there was still one little remaining annoyance. It was such a small matter that I was tempted to ignore it as a technicality. I admit I concealed it from you earlier in the interests of presenting it here, though not without planting a clue. We established that the Atonement is most properly done at the World Navel, the father’s house, but they’re no longer at the caldera of the Sandstar Volcano when the Atonement is completed. You might think, as I briefly did, that it doesn’t matter. They initiated it in the proper place. Still, we’ll turn our attention now to that scene and a pair of curious images which appear side-by-side. Following the defeat of the Black Cerulean, characters are shown wandering the beach and many shots were made which could have and should have shown the sun, but none do.

When Kaban finds Boss lying in the sand, she and Serval kneel down in premature mourning and the sun is prominently featured overhead. This is the real sand, the real star, and the real water from which life springs in our world. This is the true World Navel. We then cut, seemingly for no reason, to the panting aardwolf way back at the bridge into the jungle, now reborn as an ordinary animal. We are suddenly made to see that this is what we’ve been talking about the whole time in this silly parable of talking animals—our world and its complementary rhythms, the advancing and receding of the ocean, the inhale and exhale.