Have you noticed the fact how the anime world has been spreading its wings in the regional sections of India? The increasing amount of viewership during the lockdown has let the children escape boredom and enter into a colourised world filled with imagination and entertainment.
The realm of anime has no restrictions which led to the blooming of viewership from the Indian kids sector. Animations released in different regional languages not only creates relevance but also serves as a learning kit about their mother tongue even if they live in foreign states. It successfully opened doors to create many unique and relatable homegrown content that offers a local flavour through authentic voices, India-centric characters, and regional language features. This pushes the brands to focus on localization of IPs helping the kids relate to the content even if it’s under a global animated landscape. Data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India earlier this year had revealed that the viewership of the kids’ genre had increased by 20% during the pandemic.
The following list of series’ gives parents and kids living in and around India an opportunity to celebrate this holiday season together in a fun-filled manner-
Ekans – Ek se badhkar Snake – Cartoon Network’s first local sci-fi superhero CGI series, ‘Ekans – Ek Se Badhkar Snake’, started airing since 22 November, 2021, where fans can enjoy the latest adventures of Ekans, the teen superhero. The head of Cartoon Network and companion channel Pogo South Asia Network, Abhishek Dutta got a great response from the audience for its unique mix of sci-fi themed action, relatable characters and humour. This series is airing in different languages like- Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English.
Penelope – Akatsuki Inc., an entertainment company based in Japan has licensed the India distribution rights of Penelope IP, based on the popular French Book Series which has sold 3M+ copies globally. Revolving around the character of a 3-year-old blue koala, Penelope’s content is extremely relatable to the everyday life of a pre-schooler. The edutainment value of the animation IP makes the launch of Penelope more opportune for its young audience, as they stay out of playgrounds and preschools. Penelope already enjoys huge popularity in Japan with loyal fandom both for the animation as well as the merchandise. Akatsuki is looking to replicate the same success for the IP in India to profit the Indian kids about learning the trivial values of life and celebrate the small victories that are being achieved daily. This series is released in different regional languages in India i.e Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Hindi and Kannada.
Little Singham – Discovery Kids launched Little Singham in partnership with Reliance Animation Studio. It’s an Indian animated television series produced by Rohit Shetty Pictures. Little Singham is a Make In India superhero series, which is a bold and at-scale attempt by the channel. The series will be aired in four languages — English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu where Rohit Shetty, the well-known director ventures into the animation world and is personally involved in promoting the animation series and reaching out to kids of the country.
Doraemon – Doraemon, a globally famous character of Japanese animation, is a time-travelling robotic cat from the 22nd century on a mission to aid Nobita, a young boy who lacks athletic skills and academic discipline. It is a cartoon series that enhances kids’ imaginations and creativity. It also talks about the power of friendship and love. Doraemon is largely famous in India which is available in regional languages like – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English because of the huge market expansion. Kids in every Indian household are very much acquainted with this Japanese character and watch the show religiously.
Lamput – Lamput is an Indian animated television series created by Vaibhav Kumaresh and produced by Vaibhav Studios for Cartoon Network Asia, consisting of 15 seconds micro shorts that were extended to 2 minutes for the second season. It’s one of the few Indian animated series with any international success. This series is airing on Cartoon Network in APAC, EMEA and LATAM. Lamput is also being aired on Boomerang.
