Nigerian-born author Roye Okupe has had a huge year with the success of Iyanu, the 2D-animated kids show based on his Dark Horse-published graphic novel.

Okupe is a showrunner on the Lion Forge-produced series, which launched in April and became a top-rated kids show on Cartoon Network and a top-10 kids and family series on HBO Max. With a second season on the way, Okupe is also busy with his next project—a YA-skewing feature film adaptation of his book Malika: Warrior Queen, announced last week.

We sat down with the multi-hyphenate to hear more about how he drew on Nigerian cultural influences to shape Iyanu into a standout kids series, as well as his ambition to create an Afro-Anime universe.

KS: How has anime influenced your work as an author and creator? 

RO: There’s just something about anime, right? I remember watching Dragon Ball Z in the ’90s and just being like, “My goodness, what is this?” and then I started going back to watch classics like Akira and all the Studio Ghibli films. 

When I founded my company [YouNeek Studios] and started writing graphic novels, I really wanted to tell authentic African stories—but like anime, I wanted to tell it in a way where a global audience could see themselves in the characters, the same way I was always able to see myself in anime characters. That’s one of the things I appreciate, when something can be so specific yet universal at the same time. 

KS: You have spoken about wanting to build an Afro-Anime universe on screen. In what specific ways are you channeling African culture into your projects?

RO: I always tell people that Iyanu was an appetizer in terms of what I’m trying to do with the Afro-Anime movement. I loved anime growing up, but I also loved [the popular West African music genre] Afrobeats. It’s why I use a lot of music in my storytelling and animation. Our humor is also distinct. Nigerians are often very sarcastic and we have a unique way of interacting with each other. There’s also obviously the respect for elders and for yourself that’s important in our culture. It’s like an amalgamation of all of these things—African culture, anime and Afrobeats—to shape a new sort of genre in animation. 

KS: The action also has been among the standout aspects of Iyanu.

RO: Yes, season two will really dive deeper [as] we’ve got a lot more confidence in what we wanted to do with the style. We’ve tried not to use Kung Fu or [other fighting styles] that are already very popular in storytelling. We focus on African martial arts. Capoeira, for instance, is one of the key fighting styles we use and we’ve also featured Dambe, which is a martial art form from the northern part of Nigeria. This ensures the way our characters fight is authentic, and it’s one of the many tenets [I see in] the Afro-Anime movement.

KS: What do you think makes the genre—and shows like Iyanu—so appealing to Gen Alpha on a global level?

RO: Kids are so smart today [due to] how much media access they have—so you can’t really fool them with watered-down content. One of the reasons kids love anime so much is because it’s never condescending. On Iyanu, for instance, we talk a lot about empathy and it’s why even our villains are not one-dimensional. A lot of times, one of the first things our protagonist tries to do is understand the villain and why they’re doing something.

I also think we’re in a moment now where Africa is a lot more accepted than it was a few years ago, luckily. Afrobeats is a great example: I remember seeing a video Kim Kardashian shared on Instagram of “Calm Down” [a song by Nigerian singer Rema] and a group of young children started singing along. They knew every line of this Afrobeats song, which is something that may not have happened 20 years ago.

KS: Music is so prominent in your creative process. In what ways are you integrating Afrobeats into your work?

RO: For us, we’re trying to immerse people in an African kingdom and an African place that they’ve never really seen or felt before. The opening sequence of Iyanu is performed by Yemi Alade, who is one of the biggest Afropop stars ever. So every time somebody watches an episode, the first thing they see and they hear is the sonic sound of Afrobeats.

We wanted to also layer [the background music on the show] with instruments heard in Afrobeats, like talking drums, which is very culturally specific to the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. The drums, the flutes, the shakers—even if you’re not from the African continent, it just helps put the viewer in a different headspace.

KS: Along with a second season renewal, Iyanu also received a greenlight for two movies—the first of which was out in August and the second releasing next year. How did you approach the films as a franchise touchpoint?

RO: Brandon Easton, who is our story editor and head writer on the show, and I had two goals with crafting the films. We wanted to make them as a standalone project, where even if you’ve never heard anything about Iyanu, it allowed you to easily jump in and immediately assimilate yourself with the world and the characters. So new fans could watch this and then go into season one to find out more. And for viewers who had already watched season one and paid attention to certain things, we wanted the films to provide extra context and offer a more in-depth look into why the world is the way it was in season one.

KS: Last week, you announced your next graphic novel adaptation, Malika: Warrior Queen, which will be adapted as a feature film. Was that always intended as your next project after Iyanu?

RO: The funny story is that before Iyanu launched on HBO Max and Cartoon Network this year, it wasn’t my most popular title. Malika was actually my best-known work. I released a Malika animated short film in 2018 on YouTube and it did very well—it’s close to a million views now. For the last seven years, at least once a week somebody calls and asks me, when are they going to see more of Malika? 

I went to [The Co-Production Company founder] Doug Schwalbe, who is one of the producers on Iyanu, and spoke about my push for Afro-Anime, and how I want to take it to another level with Malika [using the lessons learned from] Iyanu. Doug is like a mentor to me, and he was just like, “Yeah, let’s go. Let’s do it.”

KS: While broadening your Afro-Anime world, this feature will also be a little more aged up from Iyanu.

RO: Yes, Malika is going to be more of a YA type of story about a warrior queen who inherits this very massive empire and then all of a sudden, there’s forces within and also externally that [threaten the empire]. But on a deeper level, it’s really a story about going from trauma to triumph. She experiences a very hard life event that accelerates her into becoming the queen, so she sort of channels all the grief that she experienced into building the largest kingdom in West Africa. And then she finds out that when she does, it’s not enough.