Furry anime: "Kemono Michi: Rise Up"

Kemono Michi: Rise Up (aka Hataage! Kemono Michi) is new anime series being distributed by Funimation. In fact, it's one of two new anime series that might interest people in furry fandom, the other one being Beastars which will be airing on Netflix very soon!

Based on the manga by Natsume Akatsuki, Kemono Michi definitely doesn't take itself seriously. Shibata Genzo is a pro wrestler who's having the biggest match of his career against his opponent, Macadamian Ogre. Suddenly, mid-fight, Genzo is magically transported to another world, where a princess has ritually summoned him to be the hero to save her kingdom from demon beasts and their demon king.

Thing is, Genzo is a friend to animals, so he's not going to do it. He suplexes the princess, leaves his cloak behind, and escapes the castle (along with his little pet dog).

The recent trend in anime has been Isekai stories, in which the protagonists find themselves in another world. Kemono Michi seems to be poking fun at that. Instead of the locals accepting a complete stranger who suddenly shows up, Genzo immediately draws the wrong kind of attention. It doesn't help that his wrestling outfit is a feline-themed mask, gloves, boots, black underwear, and... not much else. Everyone immediately starts wondering if he's some kind of pervert.

He hides in an alley for a while, then gets into a conflict with a trio of... criminals? Slavers? People's roles haven't been clearly defined in this first episode. But it's definitely a mixed human-and-anthro universe. There are regular people, there's a humanoid wolf, and there are two women who have ears and tails (one a cat, the other a wolf). Their characters, motivations and social positions haven't been explained yet. What's definitely certain is that Genzo's intense concern for animals - to the point of emotional fanaticism - clearly makes everyone around him confused and uncomfortable.

So where is this going to go? Funimation's website says: "Genzo opens a pet shop for his new beast friends, but he gets too attached to them and is unable to sell them which leads to constant financial problems for his new shop! Join Genzo and his cute demi-human employees as they find loving homes for the many beasts of the kingdom!" So now you know as much as I do. From the looks of things, there's going to be fanservice (showing off female characters), and Genzo looks like he's going to behave a bit creepily toward animals and animal-people. How much of this is entertaining (or off-putting) is going to vary from viewer to viewer. Things are probably going to get silly.

Judging by the opening animation sequence, there will be several secondary characters, mythical animals (like a gryphon), some dog-people, a humanoid ant, and a couple of antagonists. Heck, Genzo's wrestling opponent may even show up. If you want a short example to see if this series might interest you, check out this clip posted to Kandaresu's very-NSFW Twitter account. Uncle Kage describes it as "This is every security incident log at every furry convention in history."