https://blacknerdproblems.com/iyanu-season-1-review/

Maaaannnnnn, Iyanu is cooking up something cool for Max.

After interviewing the creative team, I thought I was ready for whatever would be thrown my way. I viewed three episodes from different parts of the season, and I was blown away by the two things the team said they focused on. First, Iyanu is as authentic as it can be. Hearing an African voice cast in a Yoruba-based, fantastical setting set my imagination on fire. If you listen closely, you can pick up on some of the language nuances – there’s so much intention in the way the characters speak to one another! Second, Iyanu is bringing Nigerian culture to the global mainstream stage, leaning heavily into narrative inclusivity to bring audiences into the culture. 

Iyanu walks the hero’s journey in the vein of some of our favorite animated series. It gets compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender a lot. Which makes perfect sense, seeing as the cultural competency level needed to pull Iyanu off is S-tier. The pacing of this origin story here is more akin to Spider-Man: Homecoming, skipping over a lot of the more obvious or typical tropes and jumping right into the world. What separates Iyanu from the pack is the unfamiliarity of East African culture. American audiences have had access to aspects of Asian culture for so long that the aesthetics of The Last Airbender were easy to read. With Iyanu, many of us are learning about East African culture while we’re watching.

What has me hyped are these very African moments, like the ‘oh’ affirmation at the end of a sentence. Or how Iyanu hits the floor with some Capoeira Angola during the opening credits. Vibrantly colored regional clothing. Touchpoints that make African culture accessible. Bringing in Yoruba and spiritual concepts that aren’t Judeo-Christian, or Greco-Roman, or Norse – ground that is already well traversed in media. We get something that feels new and original – that makes Iyanu worth its weight in gold (or NFTs and user data, these days).

If you haven’t already, go check Iyanu on Cartoon Network and Max. Run these numbers up so we can get more original and cultural animated series on air. If Velma can get a second season, this better get a few arcs.

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The post Indigenous Futurism on Tap: ‘Iyanu’ Season 1 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.