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Hindustan Times

Notice me, senpai: Why Indian anime artists deserve some of the spotlight

A few years ago, if you stopped someone on the street in India to ask them what their favourite anime was, they'd say Dragon Ball Z. Or Naruto. Or One Piece. Or Demon Slayer. Mumbai animator Jazyl Homavazir has been publishing his own manga, Beast Legion, since 2010. Today, you'd probably get more niche picks: The Apothecary Diaries, Re:Zero, Rent-A-Girlfriend, and Zenshu. Streaming networks have tapped into the genre's popularity. Last month, Tiger Shroff and Rashmika Mandanna teamed up with anime streamer Crunchyroll to promote new Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu dubs of current and classic series. Fan clubs thrive as far away as Nagpur and Ranchi. Indian brands such as The Souled Store and Bewakoof sell Naruto and One Piece merch. At Comic Con India this year, there were ninjas and princess commanders amid the superhero and videogame cosplayers. Artists in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Goa are trying to put out their own manga and anime too. But Indian manga has boss-level battles to fight before it can captivate fans. Here's what it's up against (hint: It's not an enchanted katana). For Kolkata-based Vaibhavi Studios, producing just one episode of their anime Trio has taken years. Source code Anime is special. Unlike films and TV shows, the source material can't come from books or video games, but from manga, the serialised Japanese graphic-novel format. In Japan, new manga volumes are released every week, and are quickly picked up for anime adaptations, which creates a rich, fast-replenishing well to literally and figuratively draw from. But in India, 'there are no existing scripts for anime to begin with,' says Mumbai animator Jazyl Homavazir, 39. So, our manga are largely passion projects. Homavazir has been publishing his own series, Beast Legion, about an exiled prince trying to reclaim his homeland, since 2010. In Kolkata, Vaibhavi Studios publishes Trio, an ongoing manga about three tribal girls who are thrust into a battle against technologically-advanced aliens. And comics-publishing platform Cosmics has been publishing novels by young Indian manga creators since 2020. It's a mere trickle compared to Japan's tsunami. Illustrator Derek Domnic D'Souza says Indian audiences want anime that doesn't look too desi. State of the art India's closest brush with anime was with the mainstream anime-style mythological film Arjun the Warrior Prince (2012), the Legend of Hanuman series (2021 - 2024), and the 2019 Netflix film, Bombay Rose. And… Chhota Bheem. 'That's India's public perception of anime as an art style,' says Sourav Roychoudhury, 52, the founder of Vaibhavi Studios. We have no formula for what works and what doesn't for Indian anime. It's probably why Vaibhavi Studios has been struggling with an anime version of Trio since 2020. 'You need context and culture that Indian audiences will recognise, but it can't be so niche that it doesn't have a universal appeal,' says Roychoudhury. They've created, and trashed four versions already, and are only now figuring out the style. The trio from the novels, tribal girls from Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Punjab, look generically Indian enough that viewers across the country will connect with them. They're also Sailor-Moon-coded – brightly coloured hair, sparkly personas – but inhabit a Jamshedpur that has all the markers of rural village life. The story plays out in Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Kerala, and also in West Asia, Poland, and the US. Every setting requires imaginative visuals in an India-Japanese style, which means getting it right takes time. In contrast, Goa-based Studio Durga have been clear from the start that their anime, Karmachakra, should have global appeal. The pilot episode – the show has been in the making since 2017 and won them the Best Animation Short at Los Angeles's 2020 Independent Shorts Awards – might seem familiar to fans of the genre. It feels Japanese, highly stylised and 'devoid of most cultural elements', says founder Rajorshi Basu. It's set in Kolkata in an alternate reality, you can't tell it's Indian. Derek Domnic D'Souza's art lies somewhere in between the two nations. The 28-year-old Bengaluru illustrator worked at Disney. But his personal style might remind viewers of Makoto Shinkai's films such as Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name, 2016). Soft evening light filters into an empty Mumbai train, a young girl in a hoodie scrolls on her phone against the backdrop of a housing society, young teens hang out on warm tin rooftops and gaze out at the busy skyline. 'The Indian audience still prefers anime styles that aren't overtly Indian,' says D'Souza. He's popular on YouTube for his art tutorials. Goa-based Studio Durga has been working on their anime Karmachakra since 2017. Work in progress Producers and distribution platforms aren't yet sure that locally produced anime will have commercial appeal beyond metro audiences. 'Anime fans in metro cities are not even 2% of the population that companies such as Disney and Netflix cater to,' says D'Souza. 'There is not enough demand to justify the investment in high-quality work.' Besides, fans already have enough to binge on via Japanese and American anime imports. So homegrown shows such as Karmachakra, which aims to be a 13-episode series, and Trio remain exquisitely crafted dreams. 'We're hoping someone sees our work and decides to bet on us,' says Roychoudhury. Basu of Studio Durga isn't willing to chase producers down in order to prove that the demand exists. 'Our fans have been clamouring for a release for ages. We already have the first three episodes ready.' And the government seems to be interested. At the WAVES summit in May, it unveiled an initiative dedicated to nurturing, and promoting original Indian anime, manga, webtoon and cosplay work. Winners of a nationwide anime and manga contest (in student and professional categories) each received grants between ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 and will represent India at Anime Japan in Tokyo next year. Homavazir expects the field to start hotting up over the next five years. 'It's just a function, now, of the right people finding each other.' From HT Brunch, July 05, 2025 Follow us on