Lucky Beast

Lucky, the Lucky Beast who accompanies Kaban and Serval on their adventure in the Kyoshu Region.

The Lucky Beasts are a group of small, bipedal, armless robots tasked with the maintenance of Japari Park and the Friends living there. Called simply Boss by Friends, they are designed as robotic Park Guides and handle all varieties of tasks essential to keeping the massive, open zoo up and running. Lucky Beasts were first featured in the Kemono Friends anime.

Appearance

Lucky Beasts are small, bipedal robots with large, pointed ear-like appendages protruding from their egg-shaped bodies. The tips of their ears are a deep blue, but the majority of their bodies are a baby blue, save for a round white patch on their stomachs which extends to their three-toed feet. A fluffy, striped tail, alternating in color between the two blues found on the rest of their body, is connected to the back of the Lucky Beasts' bodies and bears resemblance to the hair ornaments worn by Kako. They have small, black, oval eyes. Lucky Beasts also wear a simple, gray belt resembling a collar. There is a black panel with lens-like hardware built in attached to the front of their bodies.

The formal announcement of Kemono Friends Pavilion debuted the pink, winged variant known as "Type 3 Lucky Beasts". They have tricolored (white at the base, then yellow and blue at the tips) wings on either side of their bodies, just below the ears. Like the standard model, their front side features a panel with a lens-like hardware built in, but with four circular markings around the diameter. The markings' colors correspond to that of the Four Gods, who themselves represent each of the four cardinal directions.

Additionally, a "customized" design of a Lucky Beast was revealed at Kemono Friends' exhibition at the Parco Museum in Ikebukuro. Its light blue/dark blue color scheme has been replaced with black and red-violet, and its collar now features the yellow and black stripes often seen on barricade tape. The panel on its chest has been replaced with the symbol for Genbu.

Behavior

Under normal circumstances, Lucky Beasts manage Japari Park and are responsible for the production and distribution of Japari Buns. They are numerous and can be seen all around the park. The concentration of Lucky Beasts appears to be roughly proportionate to the number of Friends in a given place -- if many Friends gather (e.g. for an event), more Lucky Beasts will accompany them. They almost never speak to Friends and complete their work in total silence. In fact, most Friends who meet Lucky, traveling in the company of the human Kaban are astounded to learn that Lucky Beasts can speak to begin with. Only when a human is potentially in danger will they address Friends directly; the robots were clearly built with the purpose of serving their human masters. All Lucky Beasts are linked to a group mind that shares information via telecommunication; through this method the robots are able to manage the entire park with maximum efficiency and coordinate their movements as a park guide unit. In a Lucky Beast's own words, "even if one breaks, another will come running."

In the presence of humans, the demeanor and function of Lucky Beasts changes entirely. Breaking their usual silence, they are capable of speaking on their own behalf. They perform a duty similar to that of a tour guide, asking for the human's name and where they'd like to go upon introduction. They provide directions to places and, when appropriate, explain facts and give trivia about Japari Park and the Friends living there. It should be noted that, while this information is extensive and based in fact, some of it is out of date. As Japari Park has fallen into ruin since the departure of humanity, some features (such as bridges or modes of transportation) that Lucky Beasts speak of no longer exist or are in a state of disrepair. Lucky Beasts are nevertheless intelligent, autonomous robots that are able to come up with backup plans or locate detours when necessary.

Amusingly, Lucky Beasts are as proud of themselves as they are Japari Park. The fourth guidebook, a Lucky Beast, describes itself and its peers as "super-excellent" and "tried and true".

History

Preceding Lucky Beasts were the Star Beasts, who (unlike the fully automated and robotic LBs) were merely mascot characters designed to advertise Japari Park. The Lucky Beast who narrates much of the content in the fourth guidebook says that "humans would go inside the Star Beasts and were tasked with entertaining the people who came to the park", which was later revealed to be referring to mascot suits worn by Japari Park staff.

Although the Star Beasts were not robots, they appear to have been the aesthetic inspiration for the final design of the real Lucky Beasts, who first appeared in the form of a "prototype drone" spotted around Japari Park by personnel. The prototype, capable of flight and with a jar of a substance heavily implied to be Sandstar around its neck, was seen as an auspicious symbol to researchers and staff members, whose experiments and investigations concerning animals seemed to yield more positive results on days it was spotted. Due to its association with good luck, the mysterious "creature" became known as the "beast of good fortune", or Lucky Beast. The prototype's creator is never named directly, but the Lucky Beast who introduced it poses the question, "Do you recognize my tail from somewhere?", implying that the drone was built by none other than Kako, whose hair ornament highly resembles the robot's tail.

The sequence of events following the first sightings of the prototype Lucky Beast is unclear. Mirai was in possession of one such robot (namely, Lucky, the Lucky Beast who accompanies Kaban and Serval on their adventure) late into her career in the Kyoshu Region and states that it will "one day" it will be used as a Park Guide. She explains this because the Serval accompanying her does not recognize it. However, Kyoshu by the time of the anime (and long after being abandoned) is filled with fully operational Lucky Beasts, implying that at some point prior to the island's abandonment, they were produced in a substantial quantity and installed in the region to keep the park running.