Episode 49: Afro Anime

be Boondocks. Um and our friend Lashawn Thomas worked on that. Oh yeah he sure did. Yeah he directed, and uh it was really interesting. We had him on an episode of krilling It our Old our old anime podcast, which was funny because I didn't know that he wasn't a Dragon ball Z fan. Do you remember that? If so, we I asked him to come on and right before we were or it was a live show on hyper RPG, and he was like, oh, by the way, um, I

don't really like Dragon ball Z. Yeah. I was like, what why did you agree to be on our show? Is it? What? What do you what did you think we're going to talk about? Anyways? My favorite thing about that though, was that he brought up how so many we people argue about what's anime what's not anime? And he was like, no one has this argument in Japan where he works. He works in Japan, um and he

was like, nobody has this argument there. We're just creating everybody's creators and we're just trying to create and nobody is arguing about what's considered anime. I think that's a really Western thing that that people put on. So I am also interested in this conversation. Yeah, well, you know, before I introduced them, uh these are the day brothers on you and o b U day uh I know on you. We go back back when I started at BuzzFeed. I found out he was Nigerian. That was it. That

was it. I was like, bat I. I am like, it's so funny every time someone asked me about a Nigerian in a comedy and it's like, yeah, I know them. If I know you're on Nigerian, I'm gonna connect with you. I'm trying to create a mafia here, you know, and

so so me. You know, we clicked up and you know, uh I was wearing a DBZ shirt one day and then he was like yo, and then we just got into this whole conversation and he told me about his production company, calling Up Productions and Afro Anime and what he was creating. And I was like, you know, we gotta get you on ther defficent. And so that was pretty much the story and I kind of I'll let him take it from here. So yeah, without further Ado, Obie and Ony day, how you doing? What's hey, how

y'all feeling? Man, it's been a day? But I mean the energy and here is dope, you know, like I like what I'm feeling right now. Yeah, it's a nice I mean, I guess you will just jump right into it. For anybody who's never heard of it or don't know what what we're talking about. What is afro anime? Well, um, it's really based on like the first part of the word afro. So like when people hear afro enemy, you don't want to think about a throw like a hair.

Afro is more about that inspired by Africa, taking it from the African lens. So if you're talking about fighting with weapons, you're gonna look at African weapons. If you're talking about martial arts, you're not gonna see uh jiu jitsu. You're gonna see like lamb or um some sent other

Senegal wrestling techniques. You're gonna see African techniques. And that's the Afro so basically African inspired in terms of lore techniques, magic juju in an anime kind of medium, which is like you know, when someone's angry, you have that not on the head, you know, powering up some of those things. It's a you know, we in creating the name, it was kind of like it's very much African and die sport, but we we also are going to give you know, shouts out to the people that kind of you know

brought us to the genre. Like you know, So it wasn't like we're going to create a name that completely like disregards the contribution of those who did amazing work and anime that got us even thinking about creating stories in this media. Um, we're going to create a name that okay, shows show some love, but then very much lets you know, this is Afro anime. This is uh,

we're gonna tell stories through the African lens. Right. So I used to always say that you know, when you're painting, you have this like you know, your oils and all that and so anime is kind of like that you have always, but what you're drawing is the continent. You're drawing certain themes in the continent, Pan African specifically, Nigerian specifically, from Kenya specifically, these different ethnic groups spirits. So when you're talking about you know, now has the nine tails,

we have a tortoise. You know when we when we you know, shout out to a Nancy. You know what's talking about when we talk about Nancy, you know what we're talking about West African thing. So you know, that's sort of what Afro anime is. What were some of the because um, you both grew up watch anime, what were some of the titles? I guess that really got you interested in moving into animation. I mean I got

it first and foremost. Give a shout out to whoever made the decision um On Cartoon Network to create Y. You don't realize how you've affected an entire culture of people. I'm talking about from hip hop to like animation to even comedy. It's so much ingrained into the culture. I just heard this new artist um Dollion or something like that or the Stallion, and she had a bar that was like hair yellow like gog. I was like, see this is what I'm talking about, Like we know where

this came for us. So shouts out to tonomly like, I don't know. We used to rush and get our homework done just so we can get in at that primetime hour from DBZ Gundam Wing to Cowboy Samurai Jack like Ronnie Ketchens there, and that was like are like introduction. And then we were like we started getting on the internet more and were like, wait a minute, there's some more. You know, sometimes you got to get it, but that was the only way we could get it back. That's

what we're saying. These kids will never know. But you can go to Funimation and crunchy roll and get the subs and dubs immediately when they were leased. When you back in the day when you where you felt dope, like when anime was out. We all remember that summer. You you got those those subs, and you come to school and people who were still watching on two now and you're like, oh, I'm already ahead, that already happened. Let me tell you already got to the boot. Who's boot?

I don't know? Yeah, And then the thing about it was that for me especially was that it was a kind of an opportunity for me to kind of kick it with my bro. So I had another younger brother who was growing up and born in two thousand, so we all kind of found a pastime and watching the anime together. So like you know, like I seen I've seen things on TV when something happened to a girl or whatever and she's eating ice cream or whatever. For me, it was a bowl of cereal, my brothers and anime.

That was it. Like I would have the worst dead but yo, anime cereal and we just sit and watch anime and I feel good after that. And like I didn't realize that it was ingraining in me something like the thing about anime and cartoons, American cartoons that was different was the philosophy. And like no matter where I traveled, I remember, we wasn't. I wasn't. I spent time in China. I was studying out there, and there was something going on.

And my bro was like, honestly, we just have a Dragon ball Z mindset where it's like, yo, we go through all this BS, if we don't die, we can power up, get stronger. I just keep going. Like that was you just said that to each other. It was like the most important thing was training. So when it came to language, we went hard in language because it was like training. So that's what kind of was. Or we tried to build a hyper time chance and you

know what trad part is he figured it out. Hey note went to our old coach and I was like, look, if you support us, I'm gonna come back. You know, help us build something that could both tracks star I did, like for real, like I wasn't bs and it probably training with the weighted cuffs and like Piccolo and I mean, yeah,

I gotta say to have to come back today. I totally relate to that, like sitting down and watch to see you're watching an anime if you if you haven't done it yet, it's always good to go back and do it, or like to just fully weep out as I was saying me and it was me, Brodie Reid and Bide and Bazoon. We went to go see your name and then from there drove to a little tokyo and had ramen and I was like, man, this I'm living my best sports ten year old life right there

and it felt good. So I'd say, you know, take time out your day to do that. But to get back on the track, let's talk about how did y'all end up coming together to to do this, Like were you already involved in art and it just kind of happened that way or was it just a kind of lightbulb moment? No, man, Um, I was in the Bay Area at the time. I was working for Apple, And while working for Apple, I just learned so so much.

Like tell people I went to Apple University because those like four or five years was just like incredible, Like I got to really understand how certain things and innovation worked. Right. So one of the things I learned while being there is how to identify, um basically the whole in the market, how to identify that X how to identify the X factor and then go for it before anyone else does. So, you know, it was what so, and I was like, I'm not going to go any further here, tired of

working for somebody. This is not working, isn't really meaningful to me, So let me take what I know and you know, look at the and just look at the industry. So I looked, and I happened to look at the chain industry, and I was like, Okay, let me identify these trends. Okay. I see they've literally squeezed every European folklore that they could and retold the story fifteen different times.

It's dead. Okay. I see Japan and the Asian community, they've they've taken their own stories and told it their way and now licensed it out. And now people are hip to that and they're loving it, they're learning it. They're some billion dollar industry. Great. I see they're starting to tap into a little bit of the Latina Latino community. Um, they're starting to do more stories there. Okay, wait m hm. Africa. No one's telling African stories nobody, And I'm like, this

is it. I know, we grew up with our father telling us oral folklores and traditions and like I doubt with our bedtime stories right uh Mazi and by the Tortoise, and we learned all these African folklores. This is what we learned. This is our culches, what we grew up with. And I was like, that's it, that's the next thing. So two thousand eleven called him he was in China. I'm like, yeah, I just come back from how I was in it. I was taking like a course on

Chinese art, art in China. Okay, you just come back from China? Okay. And I was like, yo, it's gonna sound crazy, but I want to start a studio and I wanted to create a show. And I'm like all right, He's alright, bet And I was like, I was thinking small scale, right. I was like, we can do like a you know, flip door of the Explorer type whatever. Whatever. He was like, nah. I was like what. He had a very Kanye moment. He was like, nah, I don't like that. That's not how we grew up. I'm like, okay.

He was like, what do we always watch? What what do we watch? I was like, watch Animal. He's like, say again, were watching? He said, we watched anime? All right, then that's what we're doing. I'm like, all right, but if we're gonna do anime, just it's it's not gonna be the same way. It's going to be different. He was like most definitely. So we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it the right way. I'm like, okay, so what do we do next? He said? We read? Like

we read. He's like, we read, so Obi, He's gonna tell this part of the story. But basically he said, we will not write Uni until we read the godfathers and god mothers of African folklore, mysticism and you know, Juju science fiction. We gotta we gotta know the greats who's on our mount rushmore until we figured that out, until we know the stories, until we read their work. When you're writing, so Obi goes and does massive research.

I mean, luckily for me, I had a job, so so Obie Obie would be like, here's the book, and I'll be like, here's the cash, here's the book, here's the cash. Here's the book, here's the cash, and then we we blinked in them. Those a huge library, over five pages written, and we had a solid, solid, solid story and it's like, okay, let's start putting faces to these characters. But um, just some of the people Obie

kind of had us go through. Ames Tetola ben O Cree, Nadio Kodafo, who eventually ended up being our writing consultant for Mysticism in Juju. She ended up being a just a dope friend. Now you know, we fam that right, So um even we got love from um, a man who wrote the novelization of Star Wars and star Alan Dean Foster. He gave us love for our work. He's like, yo, this is it. This, this is it. I'm tired of

all that other stuff. This, this is it. Um. So from two thousand eleven too, I want to say two thousand thirteen were developing I P. And then after we developed the show, our first premier show called Red Origins, we decided to do an animation right first Kickstarter felt we didn't know what we're doing. You know, we literally did not know what we were doing. We were learning as we're going, and you know, I know we talked about this saying, now you pay for your ignorance, like

physical cash. Everything you don't know, you will pay for it. For example, so you did a Kickstarter and it didn't go through. Okay, okay, we went hard, but then it failed. That was a hard elf me. I was like, it's a lesson and I was like, he becluse that chapter. I was like, no, no, no, no, we gotta how could you tell what you did wrong? Well, there's many things that it actually helped. One thing you have to

build that following number one. Number two like only said, whatever you don't know, you pay for so when artists are like when you don't know like character turnarounds, front backs, expressions, all those things, you end up paying for that in animation phase. So like we were over paying for like um for creating animation. We didn't know, okay, storyboarded, make animatic. Then you go to work with you know, just so people can understand this from the job. I and Obi

had zero animation background, yeah, zero. So yeah, but you know where we come from the culture of you know, if you don't know it, figure it out. Rather you manage, you manage, manages, manages. I was like, I was like, who's that my uncle? You only you only have three three wheels in the car again, it can drive, And that's like African mentality, like just just managed. I think what a lot of people don't know too, is that a lot of these if we're talking about anime, a

lot of these studios are in South Korea. Like even the one Japanese properties still made in South Korea. A lot of the animation here is still made. It like the really pretty anime that you see is made there. So the fact that you're trying to make something here right unheard of? Right, it goes back to only only was trying to only came from the Bay with this

like entrepreneur spirit. Baby, so we're gonna do it. I'm a researcher and my focus is on on the continent and in politics and Chinese African Chinese major and so he talked about just pushing all that research and then trying to make it happen. And so with the Kickstarter, when we figured out, okay, we had to have this art. We have to really look at our art, you know, we have to really look at our characters. And so when we got a stronger, like we got an art director.

Like the whole concept of having an art director I did. We had no idea that was an important concept. No idea like so, you know, building the following online on Facebook and Instagram, on Twitter or whatever, Twitter being a big part making sure your platforms are set up, then coming out with art incrementally. This is before Patreon all that stuff like slowly, slowly bring out your art, Um, go to more cons and start talking to more people.

We only went to like one you know what I mean, Um, telling your story online, telling your story online, keep giving behind the scenes stuff like when we say we did everything in house, we did everything in the house, even from the music standpoint, which is huge, right, um, and we would even like me just thinking about the concept of music, I was like a camera better beyond because this is content, we'll flip it out right, And then it just gets people more invested in the process, more

invested in the story, more invested in our success because they've been on the ride with us from the beginning, right. And then so once you got your art director and you've got your characters, you got to turn around your expression sheets, have everything figured out. Then you've got to sit down with your your writers and break down the stories. And that's what helped us get to our second kickstarter.

And then of course you know you will succeeded. Let's let's let's let's get that off the way first, which succeeded. And then getting your family involved, like that's the funny thing, that's one thing we made a mistake a little bit. Then enduring community is huge, huge, huge. I mean the Black Dice sport community is huge. There they're looking for that. This is the time before podcast, this era when we did this kickstarter, this is a time before podcast and

content push. So it was it was just a different time before the Facebook girls even came out and all that. So really your community was was critical. Well, if I can just jump in for the time you're talking about is very interesting because I feel like now black nerdiness is very mainstream. But there was a moment not too long ago where black people on Twitter figured out that we all liked dB Z for some reason. We all

thought we separately liked it and we didn't. But you had the same dudes who was jigging, dudes you know, who were also into d b Z. Yeah, yeah, and so like it exploded online and right around the time that now we hear it in music and all that. But there was a time when we all thought it was like our little corner and it wasn't as like in vogueer cool to just flaunt your nerdiness. So now we I think we are in the era now where people are super seeking it out too, especially when you

got taste of it like Afro Samurai and Boondocks. I know, people, there's something you you touched on that I think is is really important. I want to highlight because it's something we've talked about in past episodes where Hollywood, especially coming from this personal spot in Hollywood is there is a regurgitation of just the same Eurocentric stories. And then I think you were right. You did see that trend. You had Coco, you had Book of Life, and even then

we're slowly getting but it's slow. It's afraid because like because they don't know these stories. So it's either they're waiting for the Latin xt creator to come and bring it or still it. You know what I We're saying like all the way fun but like so that it was great because you know, I did have that flavor because I don't know if you know this kickstarter called Orian Legacy of Kreyo Don it was. It was a it's a Cameroonian game studio called Yeah. So when that came,

I just immediately supported. I didn't I didn't care, like people were like, do you well, do you know if I was like, I don't care. I want this to be made for reasons of like this, like they were telling a story, an African story, and those are stories

you don't hear. And you know, even within myself, I found more success because you know, you're writing pilot, you're trying to get stuff, and you start with like what you know, like Okay, what's a friendly ensemble husband and wife and now I myself and dipping into too, like all right, well let me go deep inside and you know,

without like you know, lasting too much. But it's just like, you know, I want to do a story about like a man who like has you know, uh connection, he's he's a shaman and he connected with mommy want to and like that's his connection. But that's like still very general, like y'all are talking deep cut stuff that aren't even touched like I'll say mommy wanted, and even some white people are like, oh yeah, I've heard of that, and

I'm like, oh, not you. And and just so you don't get surprised if it comes out later on you have a project like that, but yeah we'll talk, Yeah we'll talk. No, but yeah, but even just within working with people, because I've been lucky enough this year to work on a lot of fantasy stuff. And like my take is like I was, I I can bring a whole new look because Nigerian mermaids are different than very different. And I put people onto that and their mind was blown.

I was like, that's why you need Africans in this room, because we are our our myths, our folklore so different. Know what you're saying is crazy, It's like true because it really bothered me when during the hip hop time they were talking about there's no black mermaids. There's this thing that happened on Twitter or something like oh there's no black mermaid. That was like it blew my mind.

I was like, you know, the most basic like black mermaid is Mammy Water, Like that's like your Google like you like what I'm saying, like like basic, that basic black mermaid. You feel not even not even a black mermaid, black goddess like you know that on that O P level, like like she can probably if you do it right, she can body vegeta yeah, I'm not even I'm not trying to look I know and I believe it, you know,

so yeah yeah. And that that's when we talked about the research, like all that deep research to uncover what Google and wiki couldn't provide. Because that's my problem with Google wiki, like bump Google and wiki early on two times you're type in Africa whatever it flies, you know, all that crap. It was so hard to find stories. So people were like, oh Google, I was like, no, it's a popular search engine, they went that direction and Wiki like they don't really to me, they don't care

about what black people are searching for. We are searching for our stories. And that's what Colon Productions is about. Yeah, and that's and and the thing that that that is the one kind of minor flaw. And the thing like Wikipedia is it's it's it's built by users and then there's no if there's no information, like you know, once y'all start, once all these projects are working on drop, I promise you, it's gonna start to fill the coffers because people are gonna be now searching it out, seeking

it out, and that's what you hope to do. And that's why I like, you know, it is funny to see like kind of the gate keeping in there. We always we're actually working on creating our like internal wicki as we're going just so it's like put it out, We put it out, you know what I mean, Like, no,

we're not gonna let you write the story. Yeah, we're not gonna let you write about us writing the story, which we're gonna give it the truth, yeah, which he said, Like you said, one of the one of the writing requirements is you have to read Neddia Korford's which you can't write like people Jesus, Oh, well, I letna say this because he's probably gonna skip over this. So as we as we're building the studio, right, I kind of was taking over more of the animation side, was taking

over more of the writing side. When people would try to come and work for the studio, Obi gave them a writing a reading requirement, and that's how he was able to deconstruct a lot of these Western ideals from them before they touched any of the work. And if they refused to do to do any of the reading, they didn't get right because basically, like when you said, like, no matter what, we're naminering Americans, So we have to

deconstruct ourselves. Only know that pigeon that broke, I don't know that pigeon broken enguring like like that that language, I don't know. There's a lot of stories even though our fathers told us we were not there. You feel me so like there's a lot of deconstruction on our own, on our own, like really deep program how we see water spirit or mermaid, how we see what is a

warrior instead of a samurai? I had to erase that, you know, and even the idea of good and bad, we had to break that idea because and the African lens, that's not really a thing. Yeah you know what I mean.

You might have your protagonists, your antagonist, but even uh quote unquote bad guy, it's someone who literally just has this different point of view and they and they try their best to make you understand the point of view, and it challenges your understanding, you know, and to add on that essentially like because of the American cartoons good versus evil, you know, and anime kind of mix it up a little bit, like Miyazaki when you see um

Princess Mononoke, which is my favorite and favorite anime, and the dude in the middle of protagonist is like, yo, she's hot. I really like her, but she's like she's gonna bother, She's gonna kill me, Like she's all about this forest. But like, I understand what's going on in this development, you know, in mining, I understand there are

people who live here. And so it was a very very nuanced story and so with the African cosmologies and stories and all that, I was like, there is that we have um this in between characters these tricksters, like it's not just this or that. And one of our our leading stories coming out with this key Electron girl, there's a there's a part in the show where she's about to like fight everybody to like make this world more clean, and her father's like, look, it's more complicated

than that. You can't just go around and just bust caps like Batman, Like. It's much more nuanced than that. And so that's what we introduce to make it still animate and not cartoon. You give me yea yeah, yeah, and uh, you know it's it's something you said stuck out to me because it's originally what what kind of uh made me gravitate towards on you so strongly, And we'll get into that right after these messages and welcome back. Hope you enjoy those, Masha Shaws. We are back with

the Day brothers. But yeah, no, something you said to me is how you know, uh how own you speaks pigeon and all that, and he kind of put that's kind of what I felt. You know, as I get older, get a road in age, you know something uh you know I see among a lot of my you know ethno peers, is their relationship with their ethnicity. And you know, my mom's from Louisiana, my dad from Nigeria, and you know,

my dad gives me what it gives me. But like you know, the way I grew up, I was never surrounded by a lot of other Nigerians, like you know, we went to the association meetings. I don't know, boared out of your mind. You gotta break it down association. So then juran Is like to meet in big organizations

men and women. They called associations associations with this so we're very You could be three years old and you know how to conduct a meeting because you like in no corporate meetings, nothing compared to what I have to sit through, you know. Yeah, and then usually your parents by the by the time your adults are salty with the or with the association because it's it's a lot of stuff go down. My minds are just for any Nigerians just listening and burning. Oguashi Uku Association and Oceanili

those were the two min as. Was the Hallo Association and they hal Association Association uh and then also the then Juring Evil Community San Berndino. Yeah, that's what's up. You need to find me one of those. Well, I'm gonna make the l a one. They're probably already this one. Let me stop um. But yeah, no, my dad was the president and like buying out like for my birthday.

You know how Facebook has the like you could donate it to the cause, and like I saw like and y'all in there, and I was like, yo, Dad, I'm gonna do He was like, don't do that. Like, yikes, what happened? Our dad started the Ninjeran community really, yeah, in Sambordino County. Oh that's so quick question. Did y'all grow about here? Yeah? Oh shop one time. I very rarely almost break the cursing room that all the time. Yeah,

So you're hitting on two points. Because I'm a big I like to have big connections with natives and big connections with Nigerian's. I grew up in Compton and we're out there, so we're so close. Yeah, you know, so as I grow older. You know, that's why I like the first thing I said when I met you, I was like, Nigerian Independence date, hit me up, let me go. He's like, I got you, and he's been keeping me in the loop. You know, I've been I was in this room and it was keeping me busy. But now

I'm back, so you see yeah, oh yeah I saw that. Yeah. So but let's we've been talking about Afro anime and there are certain things that stuck out to people as Afro anime. And you know, there's there's something we talked about during the break that I want to hear you display for all the listeners, but also why I think that's a good thing because you almost said it like it was a negative, But I think it's a good thing.

So we're gonna talk about Afro Samurai and the Boomdocks, which are like the two I think closest things people will think of if they're like Afro animate. Yeah, that's the problem if you google, if you google, But real quick, I will start by saying the good. Yeah, I'll start by saying the good. Um. Shout out to Aaron McGruder. I don't think he realizes what it meant to young black kids who had a newspaper in their hand and

will go to the comics section and see representation. Can we just take I'm gonna just take two seconds to really land on that, because you are so right. I would because I would run into the Sunday Funny and you know, first we have that one for better or worse. I think it was the other Black family and shout out to him too. I'm not gonna talk, but when I saw Boondocks, that changed my life because not only was it this this black family, but it also had

an anime style to it. So I was like, I'm in because you know, really truly like too, because before that like animate to me was just you know, your dbcs or Youku show Tinchi muo. So to see like an Afro done in an anime style, it just opened my eyes to a new world. So yes, you're I totally know, like that is the good of being like, oh you change my world. That's the best thing I'm gonna say. And then that can start off. So here you go. So first of all, to start with Boondocks, now,

I mean, and I do this with African futurism. Now, if you represent just the continent, you actually represent the largest amount of Black people in the world period, So that representation is actually small by Boondocks actually does not represent the Dia spore, like if you would actually start from a continental perspective, just by numbers, game. Yeah, that's number one. Number two is like Boondocks had this thing

where like like what's that? What's that? One? Um dude with the like like like why would I create a character give life to an imaginary character that hates on his own people? I can't do it? Like no, this is very important, Like you gotta understand the power of media. You gotta understand the power of media. This already is in our community. It's already there. Now we have a

name for them. And like, my my take on that is that because you it would do a disservice for what Boondocks was doing, because yeah, we created Uncle Rucks, but we still have Sheriff Clark out there. We still got what what about the Ben Carson? I know this, this just hurts to say because he's my man. But like right now in this plan, yeah, you know we

have those. So like I think that put like a word because there is this idea of like you know, there's this idea that like, you know, I feel like it is something to like he was speaking to like this type of person that we always see. And I think it's because like Boondocks is like specific, but I think that still drives home your point that it's only covering this small aspect of it. I'm the biggest, biggest, biggest.

I don't know what I want to say say, I don't want to say I guess proponent, but I guess, like I say this a lot where there's truth to let that media you're controlling. And there was a point where, like, you know, you did have certain folks you know, Um, I don't think I need to say which folks who would take that character and really like him for the wrong reasons. Yeah, yeah, it's that Dave Chappelle off camera left. Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm

talking about. Yeah, So, so, like I that is extremely valid, and that was the main thing, like you said, like you have characters that can easily become these like caricatures.

It got really hyper and like that's what I'm saying, Like you know, you had your Hui, but he was dipped in Japanese philosophy, you know, Like it was like I couldn't like those things, like like we're again having this one individual of African descent fully involved in Japan full like as if we ebles your boss uh about something? How some Messaia you can keep going who don't have traditions that are really powerful that can help you navigate

the streets of whatever. And then so a lot of those things, like the kind of showed this kind of depiction that to me was very much, very close to what's that dude media type individual? Yeah, I put that in and I put in the same class because that's the thing is like like the fro like like that's it, and and the corn Rows like there's some there's like literally with African futureism and all these like what we're trying to do and independent creators are trying to do.

It's like even hair. Hair is the most political thing that literally we have so many different styles now whenever we try to have a character draw draw one of our characters, they draw Huey. Remember that. Yeah, there was just to kind of take you back when earlier when I talked about how everyone had to go through Obie's regiment of reading African literature. We had to deconstruct a

lot of our artists. A lot of our artists who we worked with, you know, they were taught Western styles, maybe Japanese styles, So when we brought them to an African story, they would bring that with them, and we had to literally break that because there would be a situation where there's a full description of how this character is supposed to look, and the artists would come back with this random, uh stock African mask, not even African masks, like a ticking mask on the arm, and then some

Hughey type hair and we're like and no shirt, Like wait, that's where did you get this from? And they're like, oh, this is like it's an African character, Like did you read the description? No? And then with one of our other characters, we have to actually stop one of our artists because we realized every scene the character was getting lighter and lighter and lighter, to the point where I was like, whoa, bro, what is what is going on? And he was like, oh, um, I don't don't. He

couldn't even answer me. He didn't he didn't even realize what was just and like what was internal? Well, yeah, that's totally systematic and you see it all the docks is part of that system. And even depiction of black women.

Let's talk about that. Boondogs like like boondogs is not it's not it in terms of like I'm being real, like, like, is there any depictions of black women that y'all that y'all could like vibe with in budogs have exactly exactly exactly, you ain't gonna get me before I look at I do want to say we. I mean, if he and I have these conversations that unfortunately also a lot of times when you are the first, you bear the weight of your entire community. And that happens a lot in

my community as well. And I think, like I totally understand that. Well, here's the thing is is that and here's one where I'm going to come in for aaron just for a bit. We are blessed that we we we and we have to admit that the three Nigerian sitting at the table, knowing like our culture where we from all those things, we have to remember that a lot of African Americans aren't blessed with that information and so they have to go off of what they grew

up doing. And I think that's why it's Afros and uh and I think it's corn Rows and I think like the the the caricature nous of it, that whole show is talking very specific and I think you're right in due time, especially now, if you look at that compared to what we see in Black Panther, the the diversity in not only clothing, Like I almost wept when I saw for the first time the big screen the clothes we see growing up display that being said, Riley

is a specific black person. Huey is a very specific black verson even whose cedric yarbrowers character uh the like whitewash black Tea. It is a show of yeah, I mean and right there in the name, it is a show of caricatures. And I think that was and I think the I think it wasn't for us in the sense of like like a black creator gets a show and it's not for black people. That's what I'm saying. See what I'm saying, That's what And it goes to Afro Samurai. We can jump, we can literally jump from

animate enemy. If you look at Afro Samurai, this is an opportunity. Afro Afro even though you don't I don't like the name Afro Samurai is a blank slate that you could have put the most. It's a dope character. It's a cool character, not even really a blank slate. If you know anything about history, what do you mean just the black Samurai who was no, but not right

right whatever, right right right? Everyone was. Some of these creators, I think, have had to buck up against people, tell people telling them that they can't make what they want to make, and sometimes they have to give in. I'm not saying anything about I don't know Aaron's story. I don't know that. I'm just saying I know that a lot of creators of color. I'm not trying to make an excuse for it. I'm just saying, this is what

they have heard. The generations before us. I know because we have had them on the show and we've talked to them about it, have had to go at the whims I guess of studios. And let me go back to what you said. What was our lessons from our first Kickstarter? When you're creative, the most important thing is to be fearless. Period. I don't after the first the first Kickstarter, the second Kickstarter, it was like, you want to talk about powering up, you want talk about living

under dragon ball z over nine thousand. It takes an incredible fearlessness and self confidence. The positive things that our parents are, communities associations put into us times nine thousand to come up with a work that depicts something as true as you possibly can make it, even when you know it's not popular, like how can you watch DBZ and then you try to water down your stuff. It's not gonna work. And that goes with Afro Samurai. And that's why we came out with our work. We knew

it wasn't popular. Then we still we still powered up and did it. Then Black Panther hit and now everyone's like, yeah, but kinda forever, what are you talking about? We was on that already. There's a lot of African futurists, African futurisms like um authors doing it. Now everyone's jumping on it.

Like That's why I want to make very very clear part of what African futurism and calling the production is is that fearlessness, that desire to fight for a story and and and that's what that's what I want to I wanna know, yeah, and that and that's true, and I think that's like definitely what we need now. But I think that that is where it's standard, where it's like you just didn't we gotta remember we're talking about

gate keeping, who holds the key. Luckily, we live in an era now where we don't have to go through the same door. You can. You can kick started. I know that when I when I make the thing we're gonna talk about when I make my joint, people gonna be like what because And this is because studios their job is to make sure they keep their job and prepare for the worst. And what the people with the money are gonna say. Uh, this definitely is gonna make it.

But I'm gonna just say it anyway. The show I took out was about a gym, but had nothing to do with with anybody being buff. It had nothing, not a single thing to do. I I said it in the pitch. I wrote it in the dock. I said that no one has to be dubbed. The message that this is sending is that anybody could be in the gym. It's just a workplace comedy that happens to take place in the gym. I don't know how many people passed on it because they were like, how are we gonna

find buff funny people. It's like I told you all a million times, but but like that's just the that's that's so that's but like that being said, it um like it's just like like for me, I think they're like, there's some things boondogs got right. I think there's some things that got wrong. I really do agree. People really took the the ruckiest thing and ran with it. There was I mean, but I mean we see this every day on Twitter where some people he was like, you're

going real wild on that joke. You just so like y'all get Dr Tona all the way back that I went over to Black Panther R. What do you mean? So? Uh? Watching Black Panther um first of all the world creating was kind of the way. I don't I don't even think people can truly appreciate Black Panther unless you've done research on African architects, sure one, and and African clothing and that you can't truly appreciate Black Panther unless you've

done some of this basic of research. Yeah, let's I mean, let's just take this quick side boll What did y'all think as soon as you heard my man? Uh? Yeah, well what did you say? I was like, what it was? I know, I was the only one who was like, uncle, that sounds very familiar. That dialect seems very familar. He said it, He said it, Yeah, he said he he didn't the Ebo Solucu, his accent, his whole demeanor, demeanor

was very much a Niningerian specifically Ebo culture. Ebo, So there's multiple ethnicities in Ningeria, so they have a caricature. Our guests are Riley of sewords of an uncle type who's very stubborn when he when he speaks, he speaks the attention. Yeah, yeah, we saw it. But I think with Black Panthers, and I know we talked about this. Um, I don't want to really destroy people's love for this, but we want you to try to think deeply, Okay,

just really think deeply. Everything starts at the root. Yeah, when we create stories, it has to come from something real that's happened on the continent or folklore or mysticism or whatever the case may be. Period. That's African futurism. That's called our production. That's how we wrote Black Panther was not written by someone of African descent. Start there

like the comics. The comics start there. So when you start there, you can just start to understand how if you keep moving and don't address what's happened in the past, something's gonna go horribly wrong. You have a wealthy society right of black people, of black people right in Africa, who's removed from the continent, who has all these resources, right, all this technology and all this stuff, and they do

nothing for the continent. Number one, they have they literally have the power to create hegemony, unity within all within the continent. Do nothing. Okay, at the end, after everything happens, they're gonna open up our boarders and start helping out people. Where do they go because technically what kind of supposed to be in East Africa? So the logical thing is, if you're gonna start helping people out, you probably start

to the person right next to you. Nope, you skip all Africa and Land and Ethiopia, Degeria, skip all that, and we end up in Oakland. Wait a minute, Homie,

charity begins at home. If you're gonna build this out, like you said, you're gonna build it out, you know saying you might don't want to start from the continent, and even the even with kill Marker's character, right, if you're really thinking from a strategic standpoint and you're trying to take over and do some clandestine stuff and you need an army, might make sense to start with the people that you can actually touch that are on the

continent that you're already currently on, because if you can rally them again around the message, you have a real army, right instead of kind of sprinkling out to diaspora where you know, I can I can go deep, I can go deep. But you know what I mean, I think with especially like a property like Black Panther and what we're finding for all the Marvel properties or these are these are properties that were written back in the seventies said by you know some Jewish white dudes in New

York who you know. So that's why I think even in that movie, I mean, at this point we're gonna get into it. You should have saw it by now, they tried to tackle one of the biggest I think plot holes in Black Panther, which is why the heck if you have this African continent with all this power money, you didn't stop slavery, and I think they're trying to do that, and it just kind of just it's just it's so please please, thank you so much, fine for

bringing that up. Let me because you know what's crazy, No, it's not crazy. After this movie, I know black people who genuinely had that sensement like, why didn't you guys come for us? Oh? Really, why didn't we come for you? It? Oh do you want to see it? He I mean, you may have a different perspective ahead. I mean, we were kind of dealing with our own colonization, kind of occupied with Britain, Portugal, Belgium, France, Italy. You can't, I mean,

what do you what do you like? Get lay? Wait? Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I do. I do like the way they went about that because the reason I said that is because just like everything starts at the roots, the responsibilities can start at the roots. I love the things I experienced as a black man

traveling around the world. I begin to understand that if those leaders in the continent, from Gohnna to South Africa to Mozambique to if they spoke up to some of the chocities that happened to our people in the diaspora, it would have a huge impact. This is really important. So that's so I kind of side with that idea that if you're the parent diaspora or whatever, act like it. And so that's my thing with leaders. I studied politics like you could have said something when when um Trey

Von got hit. You know what I mean, when that happened, when all these individuals was dying. I was in China when it was happening, and I was like the most embarrassing thing. So I mean, we're getting really really deep because I mean there's I mean, there's so we can get we would we there from this, We're able to get so deep that we will everyone will not know what we talk about it because I got some takes, because there are some some Nigerian takes on American politics

that leave me. But can I say this one thing about Afraid I mean Afro Samurai. The main thing by Affro Samurai that we could at least guy and was at least an African sword as some African like Afro Samurai. The thing is Afro Samur's a really cool character. But his name is Afro. He has a father, don't know his name, don't know where the mom is again black woman disappearing and no, he's like the best, Like where does that come from? Why do we have a ultra

dope swordsman? Can we say where the techniques are coming from? The swords And then he had a person who's like kind of had this joint in his mouth the whole time, which is like, like my thing was like Samuel Jackson for real, No, no, no, Like I put Samuel Jackson Aarma Guder in this box. So you said before the Jewish people were depicting sort of our stories or whatever, and it's not right. Then we have Aarona Gruder and Samuel Jackson and it's like, yo, your your characature a

certain caricature. So then when are we gonna get it right? So that's what I'm talking about with CLA Productions, Red Origins, but we're coming out with these will all be in the footnotes for y'all to click the link. And here's the thing I was gonna I was I was going to throw to you because I because everything you're saying

is valid. Everything is great, And even if people don't agree with you who are listening, it's good to have these discussions because it will get your mind thinking about it and it'll get you think in a different way. That's what I why I like these discussions. I think right now we're in this era where we feel like there's only a right or wrong answer, or you can't have hard discussions. This is how you think, This is

how you see another perspective. But all I can think about more than anything, is that the reason these stories haven't been told is because no one knew them. And right now I'm sitting across from two people who talked who who are you know? Who know this story? And I'm excited to see what's gonna happen when these stories come, because if you look at just what happened, because I was it was so funny, because I had that same

smirt y'all have when we talked about black panthers. Because when people were talking about like this like so cool, I was like, man, you don't even know the type of stories that was coming. But it's because all this time and this is this is the type of stuff people get salty and leave one one star reviews about. But if you haven't figured out right now, we don't care,

So we can. I just say, Iffy that I'm able to sit here and listen, like I'm able to sit here and listen and learn, And you have been able to sit and listen and learn as we have had different conversations with different people that don't look like us. I don't understand why people that listen aren't able to do that. I think they because they don't want to, But like, why wouldn't Like you're saying why wouldn't you?

I just wanted to say that, because yes, we do get one star reviews from people, like you know, they won. I think one was like they hate white people, and like we've had so many white people on this that doesn't make sense. But also like I can sit here and learn about something from a culture that isn't mine, and that is that is helpful to me. Like I

like that. That's the whole point of this podcast is not just nerds stuff, but how each of us as nerds have been affected differently based on our culture representation that we've gotten to have in the nerd community. I mean, just based on people who have who have been talking to us in the discord and tweeting at us. All those books y'all mentioned. I'm gonna need y'all to say I'm slow and quick because people are gonna want to read. We'll put we'll put them in there, we'll put them

in the footnotes. But but the thing is is we have a unique opportunity, all three of us, because all three of us are storytellers, creators sitting in this room, right, Danny's a storyteller, but I'm talking about African stories. Danny's gonna be telling these bomb ass Latin X stories. I'm so excited, but like it truly is like the closest thing I have. This isn't this is an African this

is an African American thing. But I was in I was I was in a situation where I was in a room full of white people and I mentioned Tales from the Hood. I was like, oh man, that was so crazy that end when he transforms into demon, nobody saw it. And when you think of nobody seeing tales from the Hood, and then if you think back even further, these are the people who are telling stories, and you think that every black person has to ingest the story.

Now run me back how you all said, y'all hurt these African stories where they not traditionally from the mouth of our parents traditions. Yeah, it's up to us to present them to inspire the next generation so that we can get these new afrocentric versions, and and the onus is on us to also respect. That's why the one thing that got me so hyped is how you said, the first thing y'all had to do was to read and research, because if y'all want to do it, y'all

want to get it right. There's so many people who's just so quick to just tell a story. They don't want to get it right. No, but look enemy, these Japanese creators, they sit there and do my Kashi Naruto like some of these. I studied the grades, and jay Co said, I studied the grades. That's what we did. I went back to eighties enemy, study the grades. What's

the best enemy? One piece? Narrowto you too, most highest gross sing I went back studied it looked at um um like Toto the mass Layer, Moroni Kenchen one of the most best historical animies. They told you so much about the Major era, like they went into their history. How come I know more about Japanese history and some of the stuff I like my own, like like you know history, you know what I mean? That's the part of meeting this part of like anime they really respected.

I don't know about Yakuza us Like, how do I know? I don't want to know about Yakuza. How do I know about the Edo period? Yeah, well, we're gonna We're gonna get some final thoughts, uh and wrap this thing up. This has been great, It's good, it's such a this is I'm having the most fun I've had in a while. I mean, I've had fun on every episode we just did Captain Marvel. I love my job. Uh So, but

when we get back, we're just gonna wrap up. I'm gonna I'm gonna give one thing I like to do when I have Creators on is to hit us with that elevator pitch to get everyone on that and uh, and then we'll just say where people can find you and then close it out. So thanks for listening. I hope everyone's having as much of a good time as we are. We'll see you in a second, all right, and welcome back to Nerd Efficent. This is the afro

Anime episode. I mean one thing before we go in the closing thoughts that I think like if if people you know, because you know how people being, if people came in was like afro Anime, the names you just dropped before that break you you can't help but be salved that y'all know what you'all talking about. But you know, I guess, like, what are you what are some closing thoughts that you want people leaving this episode, you know,

thinking about and knowing, Uh yeah, no doubt. Um so one, I just know there's a lot of people that want to tell stories. Please, you owe to yourself and you old to the people that are going to be consuming your media to do your research. Like, media is powerful. It's so powerful, and you have to understand and respect that power and that responsibility to tell the right story. Right. You don't have to draw from the Western lens when there's an African lens. Go to a library like, it's

there for you. It might not be on Google, might not be on Wikipedia, but it's there. And if you, if you do yourself the honor of researching it, you'll find out how fascinating our culture is because we have some of the most craziest folklore, secret societies, mysticism that you will ever ever experience. And it's your birthright, it's your culture. So again, Oh that was that was deep and I like it. Okay, then let's go. Let's go

to the fun part. Give everyone who's listening now an elevator pitch why they need to check out colon Ut productions. And you know you dropped, You dropped some some some of the projects you're working on, So hit us with some of those two no doubt so Colna Productions. We are a studio that tells stories to the African lens. We dabble in mysticism, African futurism, um juju, which is African magic. We really go deep and explore the content in the way that you've never seen before, and it's

all rooted and just amazing storytelling. Our first project Read origins amazing story about this young boy and it's two friends that mystically get transported to Neo Africa and they have to save the continent because there's a power struggle between the ancestral gods and the new age tech. So that's one of our projects which is amazing and dope.

We have Kissi the electron Girl, this little girl who has an affinity for technology and one day she goes to an e way site and she finds something that changes her life completely. She's able to fuse with technology in a crazy way and she develops this amazing relationship with this robot and we take it from there. We explore how African rock with technology, right. So that's also dope. Man. We have so many projects. But we also got to give a shout out to Neddio kodaf Or. She has

a lot of projects that are out there now. Uh Kata which an amazing series, BNTI series, amazing series. One of her books, Who Fears Death, just got picked up by HBO and it's going to be executive produced by George R. Martin. There's some other projects going on that we can't even talk about. But you know, it's it's mixing, it's working. We're on web tunes. You can find Red Origins on web tunes. You post the comics there. You see the Electron Girls about to drop us on web tunes.

You can follow us on Conda Productions uh dot com. Actually no, you can follow us on YouTube. Go to Colner Productions. You'll see a lot of our animations like that. Ko l A n U t Production just indeed and ConA Productions. We we do a lot of our own original music. So we do Afro hip hop. So what does that sound like? All of our scores are original. We get traditional, real African instruments. We take you on a journey. It's it's wild stuff, man, I'm telling you right, now,

um yeah, Facebook, follow us, Instagram follow us. Then Neptune is Blue. So Natur's Blue is also one of my favorite projects about to come out this year. Um. And it's a musical space odyssey. We're taking Black people into space and we're exploring how that is. And these are musicians that go into space and we explore what it means to have a relationship with money, and also we explore what it means to feel and have feelings and how us as a culture and Black people in the diaspora,

how we deal with pain. And we do this through these musicians and these amazing characters. And I literally we we take you on a journey through music from the continent through the diaspora. Even the spaceships are different, and the spaceships are different as well, man, even the space outfits are different. It's it's wild, it's aliens, all of that. Man, We we dive in. We are in the future. It's afro futurism. Um, with African futurism ConA productions. We just

tell them in stories and we do dope. So basically, yeah, like as he described, like you know, musicians, everyone can vide with that. And an African musicians, like, let's bring them up, you know. And I saw on the wall something called they said they had the Cotton Club, and I was like, that's Harlem, That's that's that's that's the African Americans. So like we do all all these cool stuff,

but from the root is African. So you're not going to just see people with spears and it's you know, we're gonna take it to the anime level, that like extreme dope level. You know, you're Kabo Bebop, you know what I mean. We're gonna you see these dope anime, we take it to the next level. We're gonna educate you. It's gonna be the Really when you dive into Afro anime. It's almost like a lot of people ain't feeling him right now, but hear me. I'll just hold on for

a seconds, almost like listening to a tract from Ya Kanye. Right. One of the reasons why I really loved Kanye was it was like listening to his music was a history, a history, you know, tests from museum, Right. I got to dive into his samples and learn more about Nina Simone, you know, Curtis may faild uh you know, uh kids Charlemagne, like, I got to really learn, you know, Alan Parson projects, I got to really learn more about music. And that's how we approached this. After anime, we we we give

you the front, and the front beautiful is dope. But then if you start diving in, really get into the culture, you know what I mean. So that's what it is. Oh, that's great, Okay, And now that that's out of the way, and everyone's already trying to download everything you all made, where can people find you online? Online? So, like I said, you can find us on YouTube calling up Productions. You'll find a lot of our animated shorts were thrown on their um a lot of our projects YouTube. Facebook, you

can find us Instagram. You can find us calling up Underscore Studios. Um. Yeah, we'll put all of this in the show. Web tunes on web tunes yea, So web tunes is Patreona. We need that support. Let if be fearless, the part of a saying, the part of a saying, you know, it's tough. So we need that Patreon, need that page ain't cheap creating. We need that Patreon shows support. You know, we talk back. You know what I'm saying.

I'm not afraid to talk to anybody. I know. We will talk to you, will engage with you, and we take feedback. Man fearless feedback culture. That's how we rock because we're African and our fathers just you know, would say crazy things to us. When you have to eat it something, you don't say that little feedback and I've

hurt nobody, and you know me. I'm always if y W A D i w E on Twitter and Instagram, if d S on Twitch if you want to see me play video games and have discussion about movies or episodes or why I'm dying so much in Apex Legends, and don't forget the discord Discord dot g G slash Salt Squad and that's where we talk about all types of stuff and it'll keep you up to date. When I'm streaming, I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez. I am at Wonder Con. I will be there on Friday, four pm.

It's room two c D. I'm on LGBT and Minority host How to Break Through to and then Saturday Most Dangerous Women. Uh, it's at eleven am, same room to thirteen c D. Both have stacked panelists and so excited and many people that have appeared on here. We have a uh Wandser is coming on. We have Chris Lamb

who's coming up in a future episode. Markie McCarty. Yeah, a lot of a lot of dope guests that are going to be on the Pan Dope Dope, so definitely show up, hang out and where your nertives and shirts to wander go so we know where you are and as always, stay nerdy.