Kemonokaki Too
happy 2nd birthday kemonokaki!
two whole years now.. to kemonokaki, and to every single one of you 🐾
kemonokaki birthday 2
already two years.. it feels like only yesterday. somehow a whole extra year has slipped by since the last time i wrote to you like this.. it's so strange how time works when you're so focused on making things... time keeps going faster…
this year, something that has been stirring in the background for a very, very long time is finally starting to wake up..
back when kemonokaki was proto-sketches and a feeling that we wanted to make something cute and chibi.. there was already another part of it being dreamed up right beside it. while kemonokaki was busy learning how to be colourful and sweet and say "i love you very much".. its sibling was off in the gravity machine learning how to be strong… and cool!!
that sibling is kaijukaki.
cute & cool
kemonokaki is the little one who punches your enemy in the chest and then turns around and tells you "oh you got this".. kaijukaki is the lone wolf with one eye open, a clever little prince carrying all that saiyan power level rage that used to burn so bright back when you were a kid running on dirt roads with a cloud of dust behind you.. they really are a brother to kemonokaki. one is soft sweetness and a whole gang ready to come hurt you if you're mean to her. the other is hyper-violent neo-shonen.. samurai and demons and mecha and giant monsters, a LAN party in an abandoned warehouse, the boy in the mirror you forgot. cute, and cool. kemono and kaiju..
kaijukaki was made the exact same way kemonokaki was. by hand. no shortcuts.. by a team of artists pouring themselves into it, for well over a year..!
i can't tell you the specifics yet.. no numbers, no dates, none of that ( ˘ ³˘) so please don't try to squeeze them out of me, it won't work (okay it might work a tiny bit.. no it won't). all i'll say is that it has been a true labour of love this entire time. so much work, so many late nights, so many artists all working together.
kemonokaki was the cutest, softest version of ourselves.. kaijukaki is what happens when we go back to the care-free summers.. to a world not so grown up.. but still really, really cool!!
kaijukaki wants you!!
when you love kemonokaki, it turns out you've already been loving a little piece of kaijukaki too this whole time.. the cute one and the cool one, side by side, the way they were always meant to be.
i can't write one of these without thinking of putrid.. we all still miss her so much and it still makes us cry thinking about her.. she poured so much of herself into the kaki world, and that world is still growing today because of people like her. every new thing we make carries a little of her heart with it, always. we miss you so much, and we love you forever. ♡
to everykaki who is still hanging out with us day to day, to everyone who wandered in somewhere along the way, to the those who stuck with us through all the drama and the dark days and came out the other side still having some fun right beside us.. thank you. you are the entire reason any of it is worth it, and you're the reason we even get to keep making fun art to begin with.
two years of kemonokaki.. and a baby brother powering up on the horizon. i really couldn't have asked for a better birthday than this one.
happy birthday kemonokaki !! ♡ we love you so much !! (and psst.. your little brother loves you too!)