I honestly feel bad for this show.It's a well animated, "mature", action cartoon with lore. But it's 2026 and kids don't watch cartoons on TV anymore.15 years ago, it would have been a big hit, but in 2026, it's just fodder for a dying network.
>>153838563Is the wimpy guy Yakub?
I can think of one other reason why this show is not watched.
>>153838563me tooat least it's free to view on the government funded abc iview if you're in australia, but i don't remember seeing it air on tvhttps://iview.abc.net.au/show/iyanu
>>153838563>well animated, "mature"Something tells me it's not really either of those.
>>153838563it feels like shows that started last decade like miraculous ladybug can still go strong with their existing fanbasespeople gather around so many indie pilots with one or two episodes, but this whole show with many episodes is struggling to pick up a fanbase
>>153838669>well animatedIt's about as well animated as Jackie Chan Adventures, which means in 2005 it would have been average but in 2026 it's equal to a TMS Batman the Animated Series episode>MatureIt honestly is. Not a lot of humor in it at all.
>>153838698>It's about as well animated as Jackie Chan AdventuresPost some examples.>It honestly is. Not a lot of humor in it at all.Lacking humor is not the same as being mature.
>>153838684>>153838609It's set in Africa
>>153838563The voices are hilarious but everything interesting ends there. The show is boring and unremarkable.
>>153838946Why
>>153838563you know for how much the online sphere screeches about racism in trending cartoons they sure do love sleeping on black cartoons. Just thought that was funny
>>153839309Im still mad about Onyx Equinox (getting ignored), real mask off moment for the faggots clamoring for more diverse shit not putting their eyes where their mouth is. It was even available for fucking FREE, all they had to do was watch it and spread the word.
>>153838563Lol
>>153839407i think shows without heavy shipping fuel die off quickly nowadays
That is the most faggot ass trash i have ever seen in my life holy shit buy an ad
>>153841099no
>>153838563It looks like it shares the same problem something like Invincible Fight girl, that diet anime Superman shit, and Amphibia and Owl House all have where it appeals to an audience that's mostly female 20-somethings (oversaturated market) and not boys and young adult men who are craving a well animated action cartoon with good character designs and a decent plot with no romance drama
>>153843635This show doesn't really have romance in it.
>>153838563> "mature", action cartoon with lore.I feel like that was part of the problem, kinda took itself and its lore too seriously, but also presents that lore in a very boring way. Despite how much time is put into explaining the setting and its cosmology, Yorubaland feels vague, ill-defined, and uninteresting as a setting, and the main cast isn't too much better.I think season 2 improved things incrementally, but not enough to make the show more than a 4/10. Kinda want to check out the comics though.
I really liked this bit of animation from one of the episodes. It's a true testament of a show/movie's mismanagement when the best fight scene is between a main character and a random mook. Real TR-8R energy.>>153839407What is Onyx Equinox about? Do you think the show did a good job to present its concept? I feel like Iyanu's having a slow and boring start really hurt what little it had to offer later, and maybe that is what happened to OE.
Can we all just come to the realization that cartoons are dead?
i wonder if iyanu is having any offline popularity among children who might talk on the internet less. like how James Cameron avatar doesn't get talked about much, but is somehow still popular
>>153844048Forbes article is paywalled but:https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/10/01/7-things-you-can-learn-about-africa-from-a-popular-new-tv-show/Produced by Lion Forge Entertainment, a leading Black-owned entertainment studio in North America, Iyanu has become a breakout hit: It was No. 1 in the kids 6-12 category when it debuted on the Cartoon Network in April and became a top 10 kids and family title on HBO Max. Streaming internationally, Iyanu is the No. 1 kids show on Showmax across 44 African countries. It’s also available on cable on ITVX in the UK and ABCiview in Australia. And the momentum isn’t slowing down: Iyanu has been renewed for a 10-episode second season and two feature-length animated films, including The Age of Wonders, which was just released on August 30.wonder how the second season went
>>153838563Holy shit dude. I searched Iyanu and first thing that comes up is a reddit thread titled “Does anyone else find Iyanu to be kind of bad?” I don’t know anything about this show but this is so sad. Also that poster in the OP image makes the show look generic af. Everyone says it’s okay from what I see, I don’t think if it came out 15 years ago it would be a hit.
>>153843959>What is Onyx Equinox about?Gods make a bet that will determine if the World should end again or not, Pick a Chosen One (By resurrecting him from death/near death) that basically has to go and close gates to the Underworld, even if an Angry Big Cat Demi-God has to drag him into doing it while being very bad at explaining the stakes and basically hardcarry his ass. Other teenagers join the party as it progress for various reasons.>Do you think the show did a good job to present its concept?Very good actually, /co/ had threads about how well researched it was even with details. Even at worst i think one could deride it as "Edgy Avatar" since it did lean in on the mature side, it wasn't really a show for kids (but "Cartoons for Adults" was all the rage at the time so that is no excuse for how memory holed it was.)If you want context to it, it was one of the two "Western Animes" Crunchyroll made together with High Guardian Spice, and no prize for guessing which one made a bigger impact.
lmao this reeks "we have avatar at home"
>>153844530why is it that every action fantasy cartoon featuring tweens/teens get accused of trying to be avatar? how can someone make a cartoon in that genre and not get accused of trying to be avatar?
>>153844488How are the OE characters and how do they interact with each other? I feel like a lot of Avatar clones miss this, the Gaang's character chemistry was more or less perfect and no show has been able to really replicate that. Sometimes a good concept and setting can carry a show (Scavenger's Reign), but it can be held back if its leads are lacking. Iyanu kinda suffered from this.
>>153844624To be fair, Iyanu was explicitly trying to be Avatar but in Africa. lol That said, I've heard people compare it more to Kipo. I can't really verify the similarities outside of both series being about a test-tube baby saving the world from rouge animals though.>how can someone make a cartoon in that genre and not get accused of trying to be avatar?IDK, don't make it a coming of age road trip story with a magic system?
>>153844673I liked em, but Yaotl kinda stole the show, i remember getting Mowgli and Bagheera vibes between him and Izel. It was very character driven which did mean all of the characters did not always get along.
>>153838563wrong place, wrong time >Culture war retards will overlook it because nig=woke >Glitch took the entire autistic man children audience that would shill this>Stuck on CN which is a rotting corpse >People who preach "diversity" only want troons and lesbians Worst of all>It's just average
>>153838787What makes you think I didn't know that? I called them "literal spearchuckers". I saw the pilot months ago and it was mediocre as fuck. AND I'M BLACK. If the target demographic is over this bullshit, there's no hope for it.
>>153841053>>153841062>>153841099get lost parrot
>>153838563No one cares about Africans being presented as orderly heroes especially given what a mess the entire African continent is. Its too unbelievable. And the only reason trash like Black Panther made money is because its always been riding that MCU hype even now.
>>153839473whats so funny?
>>153839407>Onyx EquinoxThe creator of that show also pitched a new show about twins set in Mesoamerica to Disney. The short pilot animatic was fun. Disney probably passed on it because:>The Primos controversy made them wary of greelighting more mexican inspired shows. and>The show looked like it would have been pretty expensive to animateI hope Disney at least let her keep the rights of that (probably not).
>>153839407>>153843959I self-identify as chud and can tell you that it was decent. Interesting concept and it wasn't particularly shy about the weirdness of South American pre-Spanish culture. It definitely had an ATLA feel to it. I thought the shy priestess girl with wings should have gotten with the main protagonist, but apparently he's a little gay boy who was going to get with one of the twins who was also traveling with them.
>>153838698This isn't anywhere near as good as TMS, let alone Tonic DNA.
>>153847927Are you illiterate?
>>153838563Ugly black trash.
One of the major issues with black lead series is that they often lean to heavily into the black lead angle. Now I realize this is probably based on some kind of African mythology so that kind of thing is inevitable but that's sort of my point. You don't really need to call attention to something so obvious. You can't just make something based on the mythology and go HEY HERE'S A GOOD SHOW. It's I'M BLACK Y'ALL! I'M BLACK Y'ALL! And it just kind of kills anyone else's interest. This is what happened with Milestone comics. Also it's very clearly an Avatar knock off.
>>153848199No.
>>153839407Onyx had nothing to say and wasn't even a proper adaptation of mythical cycles so at least the autismos could latch on to it.I admire the effort but just with making things ethnic its not enough. Dress it roman, dress it 800BC nubian, dress it polynesian, whatever - if you have NOTHING TO SAY, its going to stink
>>153848277Actually, nobody in this show refers to themselves as "black" lol. What tribe/ social strata someone is in is more important, which is pretty "African".The show's about a lot of things, but one of the more prominent themes is about inter-tribal conflicts and discrimination and how those divisions harm society and how important empathy is. >>153844488I'm watching OE, it seems pretty cool but Im only on the first ep. It's probably a spoiler but why do gods need to inhabit and kill human bodies to talk to each other? I get the feeling that the gods in OE see humans as an important, but disposable, resource in this show.Also, yeah Izel sounds like fag. lol
>>153848571>hat tribe/ social strata someone is in is more important, which is pretty "African".west african and specifically nigerian.most other cultures in west afrca and the rest of the continent don't speak of "tribes", they consider each other simply foreign, irrespective of the failed states that claim to ownd their ethnic group's lands and tax them, if they tax them at all.This is not the case for nigeria that has the whole >muh 3 ancestral tribes (actually like 20 but we meme'd up the rest) thing going on and lands very firmly drawn on the sand.I don't know the specifics for the show's creation but anyone going off about "tribes" is 100% nigerian or something like a very westernized ghanan
>>153844077so it is actually being watched by actual kids and not people wo like to chatter online
>>153845116It’s a fantasy show, so it doesn’t really matter.
>>153845002You must be 18 or older to browse this site
>>153848760not really. East and North Africa are full of tribes. A "tribe" in many cases is a subdivision of an ethnic group. Somalis are an ethnic group divided into clans/tribes, but they differentiate between themselves and other Somali tribes on one hand, and foreign non-somalis. Same goes for Nubians, Arabs, Chadians, Berber groups, etcMany times "tribe" is used for a nation/ethnic group, and for a clan which is a subdivision of an ethnic group which leads to this confusion.
Looks too kiddy and tumblr. The only thing that could get me to watch black toons is if the budget was way higher and it was gritty and sexy. Like Conan or something.
>>153838787ThisI'm not even sure if African Americans even long for unga bunga jungle land even on the same level a White American longs for a sandy beach holiday
>>153849238Someone should try to adapt the Imaro books.
Onyx Equinox has some funny casting.
>>153844929>>153849255I couldn't even make it through the pilot episode. There is just something about Afro-fantasy and Afro-futurism that I don't like. It's completely unrealistic. If Africans are capable of building futuristic cities, why aren't they doing that now? Why are their cities full of slums instead of looking like Shanghai or Dubai? I don't like the idea of treating Africa as one entire setting, it's an entire mega-continent. I don't like mixing various African, Caribbean, and Black American accents and just mashing them together. These various tribes of people would be at war with each other very quickly in real life. I'd rather just see something more based around local black culture. Why not instead make a cartoon based on Jamaica and have stuff like weed, voodoo, reggae, and exploring the jungle? I'd rather just have a black cartoon based on one tribe or nation than this awful attempt of mashing all black tribes together.
>>153838563I tried to watch it but everybody spoke like baboons and I didn't feel like having to turn on the subtitles for a show this ugly.
>>153839407Onyx Equinox was fucked even if it did amazingly well because it was on Crunchyroll.
>>153838563It doesn't help that it's just black Avatar.
>>153848838i wonder what other cartoons are popular among kids but not online
>>153852531I loved Atlantis: The Lost Empire. But it was upfront about being a literal fantasy empire, taking INSPIRATION from other cultures perhaps but ultimately having no direct analogue.Afrofuturism is something that the Boondocks would've made fun of before S4. It's always come across as the ultimate and final cope for your ancestors being literal slaves traded by local tribes to white men for cashmoney. It is the same level of writing as a feminist power fantasy about kicking your ex in the dick. It is hollow because of how committed it is to pure escapism.
>>153839407I'm mostly sad that Onyx Equinox had less budget to animate certain scenes than fucking Invincible, and as such oscillated between being okay and characters awkwardly jolting across the screen or speaking out of synch.
>>153843846The thing with lore is that indulging it as a viewer should be optional. ATLA has a lot of worldbuilding, but it's basically window dressing for cool bending shit.
>>153846421OP deluding himself into thinking this shit would've been popular in 2011
>>153852531Iyanu is based on West African, specifically Yoruba, culture. It's not really a mix of disparate African things but rather a reflection of the ethnic landscape of a very specific region in western Africa.
>>153854943I think another issue with Iyanu is that it is really detailed about presenting Yoruba cultural touchstones, but it doesn't really explain that culture well so it just comes off as vaguely "African" rather than specifically Yoruba. I know it's not really an "educational show", but I think if it put more effort into presenting and explaining a culture that isn't too well known in the rest of the wold probably would have elevated the show more.
>>153852531>Afro-futurismReminder disney put out two afrofuturist shows, both immediately forgotten.
>>153849255It’s aimed at actual Africans, I’m guessing. They are the fastest growing population.
Not watching this. I just want to scream about how this is the only new cartoon that's allowed to air in the morning. Everything else has to air at midnight or go straight to a streaming service for no fucking reason.
>>153858116anon, you want to watch the showyou want to watch iyanu
>>153857980I liked Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes, and to be fair, Iwájú was only 6 episodes and was a streaming exclusive show.
>>153858116Is he the worst CN president?
>>153858209Make that 3 shows then.
>>153858335He won't fire Demarco, so yes.
>>153838563First time I have seen a thread past 50 posts
>>153858106They are also the poorest population on the planet, so probably not a great idea to make animation aimed at them considering animation is expensive as fuck.
>>153859324wasnow all it takes is a prompt
>>153858901It takes a village to raise a thread, anon.
>>153859893AIslop has a similar problem insofar as even if it's far cheaper, no one is actually willing to pay for it since they know it took little to no effort to create.It'd be like trying to say your 4chan posts are actually "micro-stories" and trying to sell them.
>>153860164What happened to that "this post is art" dude?
>>153838563I don't feel bad for itIt has really wooden voice actinga chosen one plotthe main character has way too many powersthe political intrigue stuff gets revealed in some of dumbest wayscharacters are stupid for the sake of the plotIt feels like some generic YA novel complete with different group with odd names (inners) and finding an exiled group that's 110% behind the MC who is unsure if she wants to work with them, then they get BTFO to give her a motivation to do the thing they asked her to do.
>>153858106Well, they should have left this lame shit over THERE.
>>153844488>Gods make a bet that will determine if the World should end again or not, Pick a Chosen One (By resurrecting him from death/near death) that basically has to go and close gates to the UnderworldThey made a Shin Megami Tensei V series?
