The series, which consists of 13 episodes, is set in the year 2050 with a flexible timeline which revisits the past via stories being narrated by a grandmother to the children.
Saudi-based production studio Manga Productions is working on a 2D animation series called Future’s Folktales, Mariam Ali, Marketing Specialist at Manga Productions told BroadcastPro ME in a recent interview.
The series is being co-produced with Tokyo-based TOEI Animation and consists of thirteen 23-minute episodes. It is due to be released in early 2020.
The story revolves around a Saudi family that lives in Riyadh in the year 2050. Each episode begins in the future and the grandmother then narrates stories to the children that take them on a journey through the past. Each story is set in a different period of the past, and therefore different types of animations have been used to reflect this.
Manga has around 30 people based between its offices in Saudi Arabia and Tokyo, but 400 people worked on this project which in addition to storytelling, focusses on promoting Saudi culture.
Commenting on the series, Mariam Ali, said: “We focus heavily on the Arabic language through our productions. Since this IP is co-produced with TOEI Animation, we added the Japanese language to reach a wider audience in different markets locally and globally and engage with the significant number of Anime fans who prefer watching the production in the original language.”
