Middle Eastern Anime

Brace yourselves for Iranime.

The anime wave swept in from Japan, flooded North American and European markets, and is now slowly lapping on the shores of the rest of the world. Now Iran is hoping to make some anime waves of its own.

Behruz Yaghmaian is hoping to pioneer the anime scene in Iran with a new flick, "Jamshid and Khorshid," a cartoon inspired by Persian literature. The "First Iranian Feature Animation EVER" has a storyline based on Iranian mythology and offers a fun and subtle spiritual messages throughout.

"We admit that the film has its weak points, but we sensed a vacuum in Iran’s cinema in the area of animation, and this was the motivation for us to produce ‘Jamshid and Khorshid,’" director Yaghmaian said.

A movie like this is a gutsy move in a country like Iran, where media filters are incredibly high, and creativity is strongly restricted.

"Administrators of Iran’s cinema did not support us," said producer Nader Yaghmaian. "We worked with all our love and devotion all these years and aimed to promote Iran’s cinema. But we have not been able to get the opportunity to screen the animation in which over 70 people collaborated."

Character voices were done by well-known actors in the Iranian movie scene, with male voices by Parviz Parastuii, Amin Hayaii, Habib Rezaii and Rambod Javan and female voices by Sorayya Qasemi and Taraneh Alidusti.

For Qasemi, it was an honor. "When I work on a foreign film, the production process is less of a concern to me. But my interest in and sensitivity for an Iranian production heightens my sense of pride."

Could Iranime be the next big thing?