Kemono Michi
is a Japanese manga series written by Natsume Akatsuki and illustrated by Mattakumo-suke and Yumeuta. It was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace from November 2016 to August 2024. It has been collected in fourteen volumes. An anime television series adaptation titled Kemono Michi: Rise Up by ENGI aired from October to December 2019.
Plot
Genzō Shibata is a famous professional wrestler known in the world of wrestling as Animal Mask. On the night of the match for the title of World Champion, he is suddenly teleported into a fantasy world by a princess, who asks him to act as a beast killer and free the kingdom from the beasts inhabiting the land. However, Genzō, an animal lover, immediately refuses the order by knocking out the princess with a German suplex. Alone in a new world, Genzō soon sides with the wolf-girl Shigure, joining alongside her to the local guild and starting a new career as a beast hunter. However, instead of killing them, his goal is to befriend and capture as many monsters as possible, in order to realize his greatest dream: becoming the owner of a pet shop.Characters
Main characters
;Genzō Shibata / Animal Mask;Hiroyuki
;Shigure
;Hanako
;Carmilla Vanstein
;Jeeg
Other characters
;Macadamian Ogre;Joanna
;Rose
;Misha
;Wolfgang von Kraftman
;Edgar
;Orc King
;Altena Edgardo Ratis
;Celes
;Kobold wife
;Kobold husband
Media
Manga
Written by Natsume Akatsuki and illustrated by Mattakumo-suke and Yumeuta, Kemono Michi was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine from November 26, 2016, to August 26, 2024. Kadokawa collected its chapters in fourteen volumes, released from April 25, 2017, to October 25, 2024.Volumes
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced by Monthly Shōnen Ace on January 18, 2019. It was later announced that the adaptation would be a television series titled Kemono Michi: Rise Up, with animation by ENGI. The series was directed by Kazuya Miura, with Touko Machida handling the series composition, and Tomoka Noumi designing the characters. It aired from October 2 to December 18, 2019, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, TVA, KBS, SUN, and BS11. It was also streamed on AbemaTV. NoB and Katsuyuki Konishi performed the series' opening theme song "Fight! Kemona Mask", while Momosumomosu performed the series' ending theme song "Anecdote".Funimation licensed the series for a SimulDub. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.