Kemono Friends

I assume most anime enthusiasts already know about this series (otherwise you have surely encountered references to it in form of memes), but just in case you missed it...

Kemono Friends is a cutesy anime series that was made with a really low budget, by 10 people, over the course of 500 days.
You would expect it to be really crappy under those circumstances, and it is true the animation is rather crude. Furthermore it's 3D, in the same manner as Studio Ghiblis "Ronja, the Robber's Daughter", which is a style I personally really don't like.
After getting in to the show though, that really didn't matter.

Furthermore, it may seem to have children as it's target audience, but a lot of adults have come to love it as well.

The creators of the show, Yaoyorozu, didn't really expect it to gain much popularity either under the circumstances. (Furthermore it was based on a mobile phone game that was defunct even before the anime was released).
But to everyone's surprise, it quickly became really popular, even more popular than many contemporary triple A productions!

Story

The show takes place in the Japari Park, a huge zoo inhabited by anthropomorphic animal girls known as "Friends". Hence the title; Kemono meaning beast/animal.
The show starts in the savanna with a girl who seemingly lost her memory, since she don't know where she is or even who or what she is.
When she encounters the Serval, she is asked what kind of Friend she is, and since she don't know Serval gives her the name Kaban on account of the backpack she is wearing (kaban being the Japanese word for Bag/Satchel).

The two then set out on a quest to find out Kaban's identity, which motivates the rest of the series.
Of course to the viewer it seems obvious that Kaban is in fact human.

Kaban, Serval, Otter, Jaguar, and Boss

They encounter several other Friends on their travels through the park, which all possesses abilities of their corresponding animals, for instance Serval herself being fast and good at climbing.
Early in the series it appears that Kaban isn't really good at anything, but it soon becomes apparent that her special ability is the unique use of her brain.

Every episode contains a segment where a newly introduced Friend/animal is described by the voice of an employee of a zoo from somewhere around the world. This certainly adds an interesting element of education to the show, but the poor quality of the audio, and the fact that they are sometimes cut short mid-sentence (especially the non-Japanese ones) further enforces the feeling that it is in fact a rushed low budget production.

-possible spoilers ahead-

As the show progresses it is explained that the Friends are created by an animal being hit by something called a Sand Star.
There are also monsters called Cerulians roaming the park. They hunt Friends, and if a Friend is captured by a Cerulian, the revert back to their animal form and looses all their memories of being a Friend.

As you get to see more of the park it seems that it is a long abandoned amusement park/zoo, with traces of humans. Humans themselves are no where to be found (with the exception of Kaban), and some Friends even refer to the humans as an almost mythical species they believe to be extinct.
All this adds a really dark undertone to what otherwise appears to be a really bright, feel-good children's show.
The implications, often shown rather subtly, is that it is in fact a post-apocalyptic world where humanity might have gone extinct.

Serval facing a large Cerulian

Episodes

The first season consists of 12 episodes at about 25 minutes each, with two bonus episodes uploaded to Youtube and Niconico in April and August respectively.

The first one called ばすてき (Bus-like) is a short in just under 3 minutes, featuring Fennec, Arai, and the two Owls (Proffessor and Assistant).

The second called けいばじょう (Racecourse), was a collaboration with the Japan Racing Association, also around 3 minutes.

It has Kaban and Serval come across a race track where they meet some Horse Friends.

Kaban and Serval meeting the Horse Friends

As of July 2017, a second season has been greenlit for production, so that's something to look forward to!

Zoo collaboration

As the show gained popularity, so did the interest in zoo's. Apparently visitors to zoo's in Japan had dwindled, but saw an increase due to the popularity of this show, and viewers wanting to see the real animals the Friends where based on.

Tobu Zoo in Japan collaborated with Kemono Friends, setting up cut outs of Friends from the show in front and inside animal pens of the corresponding animals.

In the penguin enclosures one of the penguins, named Grape-kun, took an extreme liking to the cutout of Hululu.

Due to this, even after the collaboration ended and the cutouts where removed, Grape-kun got to keep his cutout of Hululu.

Grape-kun and Hululu