Tobu Zoo, the location where beloved penguin Grape-kun fell in love with a standee of Hululu from Kemono Friends, has denied ever starting crowd funding campaigns for the erection of a memorial statue in honor of the deceased animal, indicating that some insensitive individuals may have been attempting to profit off the emotional tragedy.
Supposedly there were numerous crowd funding campaigns that were actively seeking “donations” for the construction of a Grape-kun statue, whether or not these were money-grubbing schemes or earnest attempts to convince the zoo to build a statue, Tobu Zoo officially stated that they are not behind any of them:
“There have been several mentions on social media and in other places of donations being solicited to make a statue of Grape-kun, a Humboldt penguin who lived at our zoo. However, please be aware that our organization has not agreed to accept such a statue, nor is it involved in any plans to produce a statue or collect funds for its creation.”
Many have shown disgust over the possibility of greedy individuals attempting to take advantage of such a sad event, though this may perhaps convince Tobu Zoo to build a state of their own…
Insensitive people, do not respect the memory of the poor penguin. :'(
A penguin who like anime char and everyone lose their mind, worshipping him like there is no tomorrow. Seriously.
We elected an orangutan to honor a gorilla. You really think we won’t go this far?
I think a statue of Grape kun and Hulu together would be gold for the zoo, turning it into a shrine of sorts for otakus!
Agreed. This must be done!
How do you confirm stuff like this? Aside from the donating money without checking if it’s the actual zoo part.
Everything on twitter and facebook is true. You don’t have to confirm anything.
Some kind of confirmation would have been nice, would have helped in giving the donations to the right hands.
Why is this sad? Grape-kun have already been reborn as another living being somewhere in the universe. Cheer up!
Shut up, hindu scum. He went to animal heaven.
Shut up you two! He was reborn in the second dimension to live with his waifu!
A statute of a dead flightless bird. Why?…
Because people need legends.
A better question is: why not? This is Japan, dammit! If people can hold ceremonies for their departed robot dogs then by the name of Izanami they should erect a statue of the deceased otaku penguin named Grape!
Because Grape-kun’s story echoes the legend of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue. For Grape-kun to be immortalised in such a way would illustrate that he finally became closer to his beloved by becoming represented by an art fixture himself.
Also, people will crowdfund anything, especially where cute animals are involved.
Educated. Deep. Cynic.
memes
yep