I should probably start by clarifying that I am not a ‘furry,’ nor am I particularly a fan of ‘Kemono’ style design. If you’re not familiar with the term, there’s a whole subcultures out there that you can do your own research about, but considering the design of this product, I wanted to point out that I am not exactly an expert on anthropomorphic animal design, tail fluffiness or anything else that might qualify me to do this review. Today I’m writing purely as someone looking to build something fun!

Aoshima has a rich history with making detailed and accessible model kits, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not a complete amateur in kit building, but it’s not something I regularly get time for, so I was curious about whether Aoshima's now highly popular ‘Kemopla’ series - which features a range of anthropomorphic animal style designs - was going to work for me or not. I’m pleased to say that the kit surpassed my expectations.

Straight out of the box, there were more runners than I anticipated, but it didn’t seem overwhelming. Instead, the number of runners here isn’t due to a complicated kit, but rather owing to the wide variety of optional ways to present this character. ‘Customisation’ and creating unique characters is a big part of kemopla, and swapping parts between the kits to kitbash and even using the optional human parts set to create more human Kemopla is easy - there’s a lot of freedom here.

By starting the build process with the head, you’re jumping in with one of the most vibrant parts of the kit right off the bat. This character Khao has heterochromia, and there’s faces with static expressions and ones with movable eyeballs, which is an impressive feature! All of the faces seemed great to me, but out of fear of creating a strange expression with the eyes, I opted for the standard face piece.

The pieces and how they fit together in the head initially seemed a little confusing - there’s a lot of layers to the head and hair to create a dynamic look. But ultimately, the instructions are very clear, and before long, I had a complete head!

When I got to the arms, legs and torso, there emerged a choice between two types of arms - a ‘high’ kemo arm and a ‘middle’ kemo arm. Same for the legs. This is essentially what allows you to create two different body types with the kit depending on your preference. The ‘high’ type is a bit more cartoonish and exaggerated, whilst the ‘middle’ type has a much smaller frame overall.

Although the number of very small parts that go into creating the chest and shoulder seemed high, there is a clear logic to the order of part construction, and by the time I was at the legs, I reached a flow state that was really satisfying.

With that being said, although the kit was overall a fairly easy build. There were some incredibly small parts to make the paw pads with plastic moulded in a different pink color which required some precision in their attachment, and although it was a little tricky, that’s part of the joy of model making, I think.

When I was done, I was pretty happy with the finished product and how much articulation there is in the model itself.

If you’re into kit-bashing or making custom animal themed characters, you’ve definitely got to check out Kemopla - I think these kits provide a great base for making custom characters, especially if you’re interested in painting to give a more elaborate look - Kemopla would work great with that kind of creativity!