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Post by kristian on Oct 17, 2017 23:17:38 GMT
So, for those of you who don't know, there was a Humboldt penguin living in a Japanese zoo by the name of Grape-kun (apparently because of the purple identification band on his wing) who became an internet sensation earlier this year. He had a mate of 10 years by the name of Midori and they had a little baby penguin together. Sounds like a nice love story, right? Well, he was taken in for medical treatment and Midori left him for a younger mate, with whom she also had a kid. It was noted that Grape-kun stopped eating during this time. That's pretty harsh. Anyways, some anime called Kemono Friends held a collaboration event with the zoo and a bunch of their anthropomorphic animal character cut-outs were placed everywhere. One of those characters is Hululu, a Humboldt penguin girl. Hululu was placed in Grape-kun's pen and he noticeably became more active and started eating again. He would stare at Hululu and even try to climb the rock to get closer. The zookeepers decided to leave Hululu in his pen even after the event had ended. A couple of twitter posts later and he became famous on the internet as the penguin who fell in love with his anime waifu, touching the hearts of many fans. Cue all the artwork and an eventual visit from Hululu's voice actress herself. Unfortunately, Grape-kun was taken in for medical treatment on October 10 and the following day, he was unable to stand on his own. Grape-kun was about 21 years old, which is actually really old in penguin years. He passed away quietly in the afternoon of October 12, with Hululu by his side. Waddle on, Grape-kun. We salute you. The following link made me tear a little. imgur.com/gallery/cv9cM
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Post by randomnobody on Oct 18, 2017 22:05:02 GMT
My girlfriend watched Kemono Friends and followed Grape-kin's story from its beginning. We were both sad to hear of his passing, but we take solace in knowing he'd lived a long life and found new love at the end, even if it was a little strange. Grape-kun is something of a hero to his own little niche of folk; not many of us get to spend our days in the company of our 2D loves. Fan art varies from amusing to amazing, too. I think I checked his tag on pixiv, a popular site for artists to share their work, and he had over 250 images tagged. Many of which, sadly, were tribute/memorial after his passing. One of my favorites: Oh, and correction: it's now 350+ tagged images. Popular penguin.
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