Amin Abbas Dubai

The world of Arab cartoons has been expanding with more original content rather than just dubbed/subtitled animations.

Emirati writer Fatma Almheiri contributes to the creativity in the Arab world with several projects.

Almheiri created an animated web series about an Arab superhero, called EMARA.

“We started working on EMARA by the end of 2015 and we were able to release the episodes by Ramadan 2017. I don’t know if I’d call it ‘unique,’ but we tried to be unapologetic with EMARA’s identity as an Arab-Muslim superhero,” she said.
Almheiri added that the animated show was well received by the Arab community, as well as some countries abroad.

“At some point, I remember most of our viewership was from South America. The show is currently on a long hiatus,” she said.

The Emirati writer also worked on the set of the Arabic version of Sesame Street (Iftah Ya Simsim) and began assistant directing on an upcoming animated feature called ‘Catsaway.’

Almheiri told Arab News Japan that she thoroughly enjoyed Japanese anime and that one of her favorite series included Michiko & Hatchin.

She added that she admired the Japanese culture and food, but she was mostly inspired by Japanese arts and entertainment.

“My art style has very obvious influence from Japanese anime. It’s also influenced the way I write stories specifically with the characters. I find that characters in anime are a lot more loyal to their personalities than characters in western cartoons or even regular shows,” Almheiri said. “There tends to be a lot of inconsistencies with both character and story development in the west that I’m rarely inspired by it. Where as in anime, the story tends to have more wholesome endings and the characters usually stay consistent with their personal developments.”