With continuing corporate consolidation, there is an increasing push toward indie animation, particularly as a way to represent diverse stories, including those of Black people, away from executive meddling and/or threat of cancellation. Some have assembled small playlists of Black indie animation, said why you should care about it, and noted Black cartoons people forgot about. I wrote about Black animated series last year, have reviewed multiple series, and written about such animated series throughout my newsletters. However, I have never written a post solely about Black indie animation. This post will highlight five examples: Towards Galaxy’s End, The Chaotic Misadventures of Arch & Reggie. Wheels & Roses, Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl, and The Three Tomes. This is only part one. Further parts will spotlight additional Black indie animations.
It’s important to talk about this at a time that Disney is scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, removing queer characters from Win or Lose, shelving series (Neon Galaxy and Tiana), censoring queer storylines (in Inside Out 2 and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), and many animations centering Black characters have ended in recent years (the aforementioned Moon Girl, Craig of the Creek, My Dad the Bounty Hunter, Supa Team 4, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Iwájú, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, Karma’s World, and Young Love). All the while, some series are continuing like Iyanu, with a second season currently releasing, and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (season 4 will premiere this year), along with others in development (Hotties) and those which will release later this year (Bass x Machina).
Towards Galaxy’s End
I first learned about this series not from its official Kickstarter, or even the official Instagram, but from a posting by Breana “Bre” Navickas, creator of The Three Tomes (talked about later in this post). She talked about series with Black magical girls, saying: “Indie Animation has black magical girls out there thriving. Black Girl Magic is out there.” Towards Galaxy’s End is created by Kennedy “Kenzy” Freeman, a director, animator, and character designer who has her own studio named Luv Letter Studios, which I’ve talked about before. As I noted in my early April newsletter, Toward Galaxy’s End is a series of animated shorts following Amina “Ami” Amelia Watson (voiced by LaKira Porter) after a car crash, who saves her friend Rushi. She wakes up and is now an extinct space vampire. She later becomes a magical girl. The series raised, by the end of the crowdfunding period, a total of $11,962 with 210 backers, replacing a short-live crowdfunding campaign, also on Kickstarter, which ended in mid-July of last year. Freeman’s goal is to create seven high-quality fully-animated shorts with a unique take on the magical girl genre, with a colorful cast, with energy similar to series like Little Witch Academia and Delicious in Dungeon, the heart of K-On!, Sound! Euphonium, and Violet Evergarden.
Without repeating what I put in that newsletter, this series brings together an empathetic, sweet, and enthusiastic Ami, who at times overlooks the struggles of others. Her journey, according to the Kickstarter, is about “learning to lead with empathy, not just enthusiasm.” She serves as the story’s heart. She is joined by a Cuban exchange student named Sabrina Torres (voiced by Desiree Romero), who can be reserved and quiet. Sabrina avoids others until Ami brings her closer. Like many other magical girl protagonists, such as those in the Pretty Cure franchise, she is reluctant to be a magical girl. Over time, she finds a chosen family and strength in her vulnerability. As I noted in my newsletter, Sabrina and Ami almost have a familiar-of-sorts: a cosmic being named “Angel” (voiced by Nickeem Latty-Morgan). He gives them their powers and attempts to distance himself from them.
The other two characters described in detail in the Kickstarter description, are overseers of the mysterious reincarnation project, Liliana and Luciano, voiced by Madeline Blood and Ethan Waldrep. Each of them have their own motives and interests. Overall, Towards Galaxy’s End has a broad target demographic (ages 15-28), pulling in those who like animated series such as The Owl House and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Over seven years, ideas for this series have slowly developed, with the series first form as a school project/illustration. Towards Galaxy’s End aims to spotlight characters not often focused on while challenging the “concept of morality and choices.” Current plans, considering the finalizing of storyboarding, are, according to Kennedy, completing voice recording, and moving ahead with animation production.
The first animated short may be released in mid-late 2026. Towards Galaxy’s End has an ending song, entitled “Towards Shinin’ Shalala” (written by ゆきですの and performed by 癒月). Keonte “Acro” Bolden serves as music composer and Quincy A. Campbell as sound director, editor, and composer. This series is part of a broader push for indie animation, including Black indie animations. I briefly talked with the aforementioned Navickas, about that, on Bluesky, earlier this year. Freeman was part of a Keeping You Animated podcast episode (an screenshot from that is shown at the beginning of this post) hosted by Navickas (creator of The Three Tomes). She, Navickas, and three other Black femme creators (Pearl Low, Shara Kirby, and Kiana Mai), talked about their magical girl series. Freeman said that HeartCatch PreCure! was a big reason she liked magical girls and noted that Beth in Ojamajo Doremi made her feel seen when she was younger. She also said she wanted to test the waters with this series and called Ami a naive optimist. She further talked about the challenges of crowdfunding.
The Chaotic Misadventures of Arch & Reggie
I’m not sure exactly where I learned about this series but it may have been from fanart by the aforementioned Navickas of the series characters. Unlike the other creators, the creator of this series, known as Arch & Reggie for short, Shara Kirby, is best known for her voice acting work, particularly for characters like Chalce in Pokemon Horizons: The Series, Kennedy in Hailey’s On It! (who becomes a recurring character because she later becomes Becker Denoga’s girlfriend), and a variety of other video game voice roles. The series will be produced by her company, Chaotic Fable Entertainment, which aims to “create diverse, polarizing stories in all mediums.”
The series follows optimistic Reggie Connor, described on the Ko-fi (pivoting from an unsuccessful Kickstarter) as “a young 20-something Black actress in LA, as she battles an otherworldly evil with the help of Sir Archibald the Brave, a knight templar whose soul was placed in a magical sword.” At present, Arch & Reggie is in need of additional funds on Ko-fi to begin production and ensure storyboard artists are appropriately paid. Presently, only 10% of the $5,600 goal has been reached. Hopefully, more people donate as time goes on. In fact, it received more attention as of late following Kirby’s presence in the aforementioned Keeping You Animated podcast episode hosted by Navickas.
In that podcast, Kirby and others agreed that this year is the “year of the Black magical girl.” Kirby described Arch & Reggie as a young adult, coming-of-age Black comedy, which will be an animatic, about a young Black actress who becomes the “chosen one” after she makes a random wish while playing a video game. However, she has to defeat the Ivory Witch, who she called a “very crazy White lady.” That description makes me think a little of Reincarnated as a Sword, and of other series with chosen ones (Star Wars is most famous, but this is a common trope across fiction), although this series is unique in its own way. Kirby said Arch & Reggie was originally going to be a mockumentary, but she changed it into an animation, and she later realized it was a magical girl series. She further suggested that indie creators grow their fanbase first before beginning crowdfunding and shared her own experiences.
Wheels & Roses
In my newsletter on January 13th, I highlighted the official pilot short of a queer indie animation, Wheels & Roses. Created by Pearl Low, this indie animation garnered over $100,000 on Kickstarter. It is much more than a coming of age story where Sailor Moon meets roller derby as Orange Blossom Studios, the company producing the series, states. As I noted in my newsletter, there is certainly an emphasis on the power of (queer) female friendship, spells, and fighting against impossible odds to beat back “evil.” That reminded me of some similar themes within series that are part of the Pretty Cure franchise. Often, the heroes are beaten down but always rise up, gain their strength, and win when they work together, maintaining a strong bond of friendship. Racial and gender diversity are clearly central to the Wheels & Roses pilot short, which is full of Black and Brown characters. It differs from any other animated roller skating characters out there over the years and many magical girl series airing these days, which I talked about in my newsletter on January 30th, while listing this indie animation along with The Three Tomes, Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl, and Toward’s Galaxy’s End. All of those are talked about in this article within different sections.
The pilot short, which is eight minutes long, begins with Sahara (voiced by Lauryn Alexandria) who tries to rally her teammates from Rose Academy to win the roller derby competition. However, they are soon outmatched by the other team representing Sunflower High, who use their magic and advanced roller derby moves. While they pull together, using their combined strengths, despite being completely exhausted. The game abruptly ends when Principal Scott (voiced by Ashely Biski) blows a whistle. She declares they are engaged in “illegal roller derby” on school grounds and tells them to cease the activities immediately. At the short’s ending, Sahara says that viewers will see Wheels & Roses again, hinting this is not the end of this story and breaking the fourth wall. This pilot short, in some ways, reminds me of the very memorable yuri-coded golf anime Birdie Wing, but with badass magical girls instead.
Apart from featuring voice actors like the aforementioned Alexandria (also voicing Sunflower Pivot), Biski (also voicing Danielle, Sunflower Captain, and Referee), Wheels & Roses brings in Kiera Please (as Kai, Bree, Nina, and Sunflower Jammer). Paul Fraser serves as music composer. The pilot’s casting is by Low herself and Ashley Ngyuen Dewitt. Kensei Morita serves as art director and Sam Goff as producer, along with many others in the crew. Legends Animated serves as fiscal sponsor. Alexandria is a well-known performer, voice actor, singer, and more, creating “content that celebrates anime and gaming culture while advocating for inclusive spaces for Black and Brown nerds.” In addition, Biski is an accomplished voice actress, including dubbing voices of characters in video games and anime. The latter includes Synduality: Noir, KonoSuba and PuraOre!: Pride of Orange.
Please, for her part, is known for a variety of animated voices, including within indie animation, like Spice Frontier. She had a production company (Pretty Bizarre Productions), show, and comics. Some of the latter are within a book entitled . Morita worked for Orange Blossom, NuBoom, and Zipped Up Films. For the latter she served as art director for series such as Bit Wars. Dewitt is an accomplished animation casting and voice director. She worked on series centering Black characters. This included Jessica’s Big Little World and Ada Twist, Scientist. Another of one of her projects is the always relevant anti-racist PSAs bringing together characters from Steven Universe, particularly Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl, and Greg Universe.
Low, in an interview with Jacque Aye, mentions Haikyuu, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and the magical girl genre, as influences. As she said, with indie animation there is a “lot more freedom in expression,” allowing people to pick who they work with, choose their aesthetic, and not compromise their vision. Low is still trying to pay union wages. She is, by doing that, going against the constant criticism that indie productions underpay people. Some have alleged that is present within the indie-ish animation powerhouse Spindlehorse (which created Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss). She also aimed to represent queer characters and noted challenges at promoting the series, including rampant A.I. scraping on social media. In the aforementioned podcast interview, she said that knowing your project’s scope is important.
Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl
Last April, I first mentioned this magical girl indie animated pilot, by Kiana Mai (also known as Kiana Khansmith), which centers around a 15-year-old Black girl, named Aika, who doesn’t want to be a magical girl, and described it as wonderful. Apart from comparing it to other magical girl series which came last year, and putting it in the same category as Wheels & Roses, I also noted laudatory articles it had received in pop culture publications (The Gamer and Polygon). Since then, I briefly mentioned it in a review of a slice-of-life music anime, K-On!, last year, and mentioned it in my pop culture news roundup in a newsletter in December, along with other magical girl series which previously aired and have been announced. More directly, I reviewed the first episode in another newsletter, in December of last year, saying the following:
…As of the writing of this newsletter, it has garnered over 4.3 million views [now 4.5 million], and fostered a fandom across Tumblr, Instagram, AO3, Bluesky, TikTok, and elsewhere. It even has a TV Tropes page and a fandom site. Some pair Aika and her best friend, Zira, together. Mai implied romantic feelings in-between them. This pilot has as…taken the “blerd/nerd side of the internet by storm”…The 11-minute pilot, i.e. IDWTBAMG, features voice actors like Anairis Quiñones (voices Aika) and Bennett Abara (voices Zira)…15-year-old Aika is aided by a sentient star named Hoshi (voiced by Christine Marie Cabanos) as she battles evil forces led by Lady DeVoid (voiced by Shara Kirby), with Eclipse (voiced by Aleks Le) as her henchman. However, she no longer wants to be a magical girl. She wants to live a normal life…On her first day, she meets a shy girl named Zira. They begin a friendship, even after Aika beats Eclipse with a lead pipe. It’s a humorous take on magical girl tropes…The music is whimsical and there are cute character designs…Mai noted the magical girl series she watched as a kid (Tokyo Mew Mew) and as a adult (Little Witch Academia). She described Aika’s outlook on being a magical girl as mirroring her “own experiences as an artist in the animation industry.” She has come around thanks to friends, inspiring Zira’s character. She also said she wanted to have a Black/Japanese lead (like herself) and a Black love interest. Although the pilot is “pretty subversive,” in her words, it is an “earnest take on the genre” that fits in “naturally without it seeming like a complete deviation from what it means to be a magical girl show”…Hopefully we see more of spunky Aika, nerdy Zira, and the evil they fight, in the future in some shape or form. Check out the pilot above if you have a chance.
Mai, who has worked as a storyboarder and director at Disney Television Animation (also known as DTVA or Disney TVA), has fully embraced the series popularity. She has even published fanart of Aika, Zira, and the two characters (Jay Johnston and Christian Miller) from a boy’s love drama, created by Joshua David King, named Project Super Crush. The latter is in CD, podcast, and physical book forms. It can be listened to on YouTube, as an audio drama. Project Super Crush describes itself as a “queer, coming-of-age multimedia series,” with character art and design by Marisa/Marsh who has a webtoon entitled Shining Star.
Others have done IDWTBAMG fanart bringing together Aika and Jentry Chau (from Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld), Tokki and Zira, along with other series. The series fanart is often reblogged by Mai on her Tumblr account. Some creative individuals have written fanfiction for the series. They focus on characters in the fandom or crossovers with indie animations (Epithet Erased), superhero series (My Adventures with Superman and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), magical girl series (Puella Magi Madoka Magica), or video games (Persona 4). Mai was part of the aforementioned Keeping You Animated podcast episode hosted by Navickas, where she and three other creators, the aforementioned Low and Freeman, and Shara Kirby, talked about their projects. Mai called her series a “silly thing” about a magical girl who… doesn’t want to be a magical girl. She further said it was meant to parallel what she felt about working in the animation industry, reflected in the fun and not-fun parts of being a magical girl.
The Three Tomes
In my newsletter in late January, I profiled this indie animation, describing it as whimsical at times, and a queer young adult coming-of-age story, focusing on a 17-year-old girl, Tammy Harris (voiced by LaKira Porter) making a short horror film with her best friend, Sia Choudhury (voiced by Anjali Kunapaneni). Tammy gains witchy powers from an ancient tome and soon meets two handsome male vampires (who she is attracted to). There’s allusions to Cardcaptor Sakura. Series creator Breana Navickas, a queer Black woman and 32-year-old Millennial. who has been mentioned throughout this article, was interviewed by Cartoon Brew and Crunchyroll about building fantasy on her own terms, particularly a Black fantasy with vampires, magical girls, and more. As she put it, “fantasy should be…unapologetically Black.”
She saw the series as an “external creative outlet, free from studio oversight and executive second-guessing” and mashup of various genres through inspiration from Cardcaptor Sakura, Twilight, 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Fruits Basket, and Sailor Moon. She noted that when Black kids show up in fantasy it is questioned. While she grew up loving magical girl series, anime, and supernatural romance, she never saw herself reflected in those series. Otherwise, she described Tammy as a bisexual character in a podcast reference throughout this article.
Navickas said that instead of waiting for studio interest in her idea, she released the series as a full pilot animatic with a few sequences which were fully animated. She criticized the U.S. studio system for having a lack of animation focused on teens and young adults. In the interview with Cartoon Brew, she noted that she built the audience for The Three Tomes on Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube, where she shared “character-focused extras, illustrations, mini-animatics, and small moments that wouldn’t fit cleanly into an episode.” She closed by saying that The Three Tomes is a team effort composed of various professionals, voice actors, artists, and more, including Luv Letter Studios, an independent animation studio, which animated the pilot. That studio is run by Freeman, who is described, as is her series-in-development Towards Galaxy’s End, earlier in this post.
In the interview with Crunchyroll, she described The Three Tomes as a “magical, vampiric tale,” and noted the influence of Sailor Moon on her. Additionally, she said that for years, she went back and forth as to whether she would be a showrunner or not, and she eventually decided to do so. She noted how some of the ideas for what later became The Three Tomes began in 2018 and 2019. She also said that the magical girl genre and shojo were important influences by focusing on emotional aspects. Specifically, she pointed to the series Fruits Basket and Nana. Some staff who worked on the latter came back together for a series entitled A Hundred Scenes of Awajima, based upon Takako Shimura’s Scenes from Awajima, which will begin airing on April 10th. Navickas said she is a sucker for romance. She noted that seeing Black girls and femme people being loved, and adored, in fantasy, and media, is great, but “we don’t see it enough.” She further stated that she loves gothic stories and gothic romance, and noted influence of Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket characters, like Usagi Tsukino and Tohru Honda, on Tammy. In addition, she noted that the vampires are inspired by characters from Pharoh 90, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, and Durarara!!.
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