2024 began slowly, with the premiere of the ecchi magical girl series, with yuri themes, Gushing Over Magical Girls, on January 3, and Pon no Michi, a yurish anime centered on mahjong, on January 6. While the former was on HIDIVE, the latter never aired on any streaming platforms available in Western countries. Following that, […]
Tag: indie animation
Hazbin Hotel Season One Spoiler-Filled Review
Hazbin Hotel is a mature animated series by Vivienne Medrano. It began as an indie animation by Medrano and her company, SpindleHorse Toons, followed by Helluva Boss not long after, with both in the same universe. The franchise began as a YouTube pilot in October 2019 and garnered over ninety-four million views. Most recently, it […]
Supa Team 4 Spoiler-Filled Review
Supa Team 4 is a computer-generated superhero action-comedy series. Malenga Mulendema is the series creator and co-executive producer. It comes from Trigger Fish Animation Studios, known for the recent animated series Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes and Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, and various television specials and films. This series shows its Zambian roots from the get-go, beginning […]
Gods’ School Review
Gods’ School is an indie animated series. It has elements of fantasy, mythology, and romance. 2D French animator Gaylord Cuvillier Philippe Libessart is the series creator. It received support from the French National Center for Cinema and Animation in 2018. Currently, seven episodes have aired on YouTube. This review will have spoilers. This series, which […]
Things Get Better?: LGBTQ Representation in Animation in 2022
In January 2022, I wrote that there was a possibility that in 2022 things would “get better” in terms of LGBTQ representation, with new fandoms developing from shows which take risks by telling diverse stories. Although 2022, in some regards, more than lived up to this possibility and went beyond, there were challenges. In the […]
An Alternative to the Studio System?: Indie Animation Forges Ahead
Indie animation is on fire as of late. This is clear from the hundreds of thousands of dollars given to Final Space creator Olan Rogers for his animated project, Godspeed, which will document the “entire process of developing, writing, boarding, animating, and even pitching” an animated series. Sara Eissa, the creator of Astur’s Rebellion, an […]
The Promise of Rad Sechrist’s “Project City”
In November 2021, Rad Sechrist, creator of the well-regarded series, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, announced the creation of a platform known as Project City. Writer, comedian, and musician Ethan Becker, director and storyboarder Chase Conley, and character designer, storyboarder, and illustrator Coran Kizer Stone, joined on as co-creators of this platform. Project City […]
The Indie Animation Boom Continues in 2022
In August of 2021, I wrote about the boom in indie animation, consisting of almost exclusively crowdfunded animations. Earlier this month, I expanded on that and wrote about various indie animations, specifically noting Hazbin Hotel and Wild Card which are in development. As storyboarder Amber Avara put it on January 7, “2022 is the year […]
Metal Family Review
In recent years, there has been an increase in indie animations, including on platforms such as YouTube. One of those series is the musical-themed Russian mature animation series, Metal Family. The action-adventure and drama series focuses on a Russian family of metal fans, each with their own personalities: there are Victoria and Glam, two metalheads […]
The Indie Animation Boom and Crowdfunded Animation
On August 21, Vivienne Medrano happily promoted the newest episode of Helluva Boss, calling it the “most ambitious” episode they had done so far, thanking the Spindlehorse Toons team, and adding, in part, “Indie animation has POWER! Enjoy our hardwork!” Another indie animated series, EddsWorld, praised the episode, which garnered 800,000 views in a few […]