Emara Season 1
Some of you may know I'm an fan of animation. Wither it be American, Canadian, Japanese or on some occasions British. But every now and then a show from another region or country surprises me with a show or movie that I enjoy. And today I'm gonna talk about a web cartoon that did just that. And it's name, is Emara. This here is a passion project produced by Eating Star Studios. An independent animation studio from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and directed by Fatma Almheiri. This show was created give Arab audiences a super hero character that’ll be as beloved as ones from the west. Originally I was gonna review RWBY but I felt that this show deserves more attention right now given how new it is. So with that said here's my review of Emara Season 1.
Story
The show follows Moza, a teenage girl who helps her widowed mother run a tea shop who is prone to spilling orders when things get too hectic and has little patience for rude customers. But when she's not working at the tea shop she transforms into Emara. A cape wearing heroine who jets around the city and fight criminals using her arm cannons. And along for the ride is Sultan, otherwise known by his super hero name Dhabian who tries to win Emara's trust for the sake of his bosses, Men in black lead by a mysterious woman named Zeina. As Season 1 goes on, it becomes clear that Emara's enemy is no petty criminal with a grudge but someone far more powerful, and Zeina's interest in her may not be benevolent. So far Moza doesn’t know that Sultan is Dhabian which is where I started to draw comparisons between this show and the French series Miraculous Ladybug. Both shows have teenage protagonists who have hero identities, both have a teenage girl that helps her family run a shop when she’s not fighting crime or attending school and both shows have two main characters where the girl’s super hero identity gets annoyed at the guy’s super hero identity for being too cocky. BUT at the same time Emara is different from Miraculous Ladybug. Marinette has both her mother and father where as Moza only has her mother as her father passed away. So far there hasn't been any mention of how he died but I kinda have a theory about her dad and her true identity. But that would mean spoiling the Season 1 finale and I'm not gonna do that here. Another difference is that so far Dhabian hasn't made any romantic moves towards Emara where as Cat Noir does towards Ladybug in most episodes. Also Emara and Dhabian don't have tiny flying creatures that help them transform and give them powers. So while there are some similarities to Miraculous Ladybug, Emara's plot is more original with what it accomplishes in a 8 – 11 minute runtime for each of the five episodes so far. And it also has even taken inspiration from classic anime such as Future Boy Conan(or Adnan and Lina as it was called in the Arabic dub)and other anime that the creator had watched growing up. I've seen other reviewers compare Emara to the main protagonist of Cutie Honey due to both characters being not entirely human. Which I can see character wise at both an age and culture difference as this show does not contain any sexualized fanservice scenes whatsoever. Also given her arm cannons, I also see a bit of Astro Boy in Emara in terms of similarity. There's a mystery surrounding it regarding Moza in the last two episodes of Season 1 which I won't spoil. The show itself is set in the UAE as Fatma Almheiri stated that she wanted to create a character that was tough, but down to earth. Not overly powerful, but not breaking down in tears every two seconds, either. But most of all: she wanted her to be Arab. She also said it was hard to find a character in the cartoons she grew up with that she could culturally identify with and that Jasmin and the title character of Disney's Aladdin were poorly researched. She wanted to create an Arab super hero and did just that along with a well written story that has humour, action and suspense for it's serious moments.
Animation
The animation from what I can tell looks like it's done in Flash but I could be wrong as it also looks like traditional hand drawn 2D animation. For a show made by a studio consisting of thirteen full-time staff members between the ages of 20 and 35 and an arsenal of freelance creatives, the show looks pretty damn good. Characters are nicely drawn and fluid in motion. Which is where you can see that it takes a lot of inspiration from anime with the fight scenes and the expressions that characters have throughout. Some fights kinda reminded me of the 90’s Batman animated series and even the 2000’s Teen Titans series. A western animated that also took a lot inspiration from anime. Now in 2018 there's still shows out there that still use this aesthetic for their animation. Except this isn't American or Canadian. It's from somewhere that most people wouldn't expect to this style of animation. The backgrounds are simple yet nicely designed with what looks like CG for some of the dynamic shots. Eating Star Studios, the studio behind the series, consists of mainly Arab artists and animators. Several, including AlMheiri, graduated from Abu Dhabi’s now-defunct Cartoon Network Animation Academy, while art director Ahmad Beyrouthi has an Ubisoft background. AlMheiri is the only Emirati on the team. The quality of Emara's animation definitely shows in it's action scenes and in the Season 1 finale which again I won't spoil. And it's definitely a step up from other Arab cartoons I've seen. The last being a cartoon from Libya called Halima o Knayenha(According to Libya One's YouTube Channel). Which is... not good. At all. If you placed the theme song to The Nutshack over Halima o Knayenha's intro and some episode clips you could swear they were both set in the same universe because how bad it's animation is. I could only find 7 episodes of it on YouTube which could be a sign that it likely got cancelled. Thankfully Emara on the other hand, is a MUCH better Arab cartoon series.
Sound
The version of Emara Season 1 I watched was the English dub which is pretty good. The voice actors chosen did a good job at playing each character. The cast consists of first time actors and some that have worked on movies, shows and video games. Moza/Emara is voiced by Naomi Mercer who voiced 8 characters in Mass Effect 2 and Zeina is voiced by Tara Platt who voices Blake's mother in RWBY and voiced Yuri Watanabe in Marvel's Spider-Man for the PS4. I've only seen the first episode in both of Emara’s Arabic voice tracks which are good though I prefer watching the show in English. Oh yeah, there's two Arabic versions. One in Formal Arabic and the other in Informal Arabic. From what I can remember I could hear a few differences. I'd tell you the lines but despite being half Libyan myself I can't speak Arabic let alone write in it. According to the creator’s Twitter, The difference between them is that informal Arabic includes dialects and accents where as formal Arabic is the universal language mostly used for literature, news shows and children’s cartoons. The reason they provided both is because there’s actually a debate as to which is more suitable for cartoons since informal is more realistic and fun because it’s based on how people talk in real life where as formal argues that it’s the one version of Arabic everyone understands. The music is nicely composed and fits a show like this and the opening and ending songs are pretty good even though I can't understand a word of Arabic without subtitles. Also for whatever reason, in the English dub of episode 1 the ending song was completely muted. Episodes 2 – 5 had both their songs unmuted but episode 1’s ending was entirely silent. Don't know if this was an audio error as I've yet to find a reason behind it so I'm guessing whoever edited the English dub forgot to check the episode before uploading it and didn't realised the missing song.
Final Verdict
Overall, Emara is surprisingly a good show and one of the best cartoons to come out in 2018. You can easily tell this is a passion project as both the creator and Eating Star Studios put a lot effort and dedication into it. It has great writing, interesting characters and good animation and voice acting. I really hope more people get interested in this show so that we can get more episodes. Which considering the way Season 1 ended I can only but assume that Season 2 is already in production. It’s always so relieving to see a new action cartoon nowadays in what seems like an endless sea of comedy cartoons. Emara is a show that needs a bigger audience. If not on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon then definitely Netflix should pick up this show. Maybe even team up with the animation staff that did Voltron Legendary Defender. Well, if Eating Star Studios wants to collaborate with other animation studios that is. But since it's fairly new and Emara only has five episodes so far, I think they'll remain independent for now. And who knows, maybe as this show goes on we could see a home release of Emara on DVD and Blu-Ray, maybe a feature length movie and even a video game. Because I'd play it if Emara got a video game that isn't a mobile phone game. But for now you can watch Emara for free on Eating Star Studios' YouTube channel. Available in English and Both Arabic versions with optional English captions. I highly recommend watching this show if you're looking for more action cartoons and I wish Eating Star Studios all the best for the future of Emara.
As of this review and onwards I'm doing away with Final Scores as I feel they’re unnecessary in the grand scheme of things when I review something. If I think something is good, it's good and that's all there is to too it. Same with anything I think negative about. So yeah, a slight alteration to how I do written reviews.
Thank you all you for reading and I'll see you all next time!
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Watch Emara for free here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNszWQypQeqAApRmr8ACcqA
Story
The show follows Moza, a teenage girl who helps her widowed mother run a tea shop who is prone to spilling orders when things get too hectic and has little patience for rude customers. But when she's not working at the tea shop she transforms into Emara. A cape wearing heroine who jets around the city and fight criminals using her arm cannons. And along for the ride is Sultan, otherwise known by his super hero name Dhabian who tries to win Emara's trust for the sake of his bosses, Men in black lead by a mysterious woman named Zeina. As Season 1 goes on, it becomes clear that Emara's enemy is no petty criminal with a grudge but someone far more powerful, and Zeina's interest in her may not be benevolent. So far Moza doesn’t know that Sultan is Dhabian which is where I started to draw comparisons between this show and the French series Miraculous Ladybug. Both shows have teenage protagonists who have hero identities, both have a teenage girl that helps her family run a shop when she’s not fighting crime or attending school and both shows have two main characters where the girl’s super hero identity gets annoyed at the guy’s super hero identity for being too cocky. BUT at the same time Emara is different from Miraculous Ladybug. Marinette has both her mother and father where as Moza only has her mother as her father passed away. So far there hasn't been any mention of how he died but I kinda have a theory about her dad and her true identity. But that would mean spoiling the Season 1 finale and I'm not gonna do that here. Another difference is that so far Dhabian hasn't made any romantic moves towards Emara where as Cat Noir does towards Ladybug in most episodes. Also Emara and Dhabian don't have tiny flying creatures that help them transform and give them powers. So while there are some similarities to Miraculous Ladybug, Emara's plot is more original with what it accomplishes in a 8 – 11 minute runtime for each of the five episodes so far. And it also has even taken inspiration from classic anime such as Future Boy Conan(or Adnan and Lina as it was called in the Arabic dub)and other anime that the creator had watched growing up. I've seen other reviewers compare Emara to the main protagonist of Cutie Honey due to both characters being not entirely human. Which I can see character wise at both an age and culture difference as this show does not contain any sexualized fanservice scenes whatsoever. Also given her arm cannons, I also see a bit of Astro Boy in Emara in terms of similarity. There's a mystery surrounding it regarding Moza in the last two episodes of Season 1 which I won't spoil. The show itself is set in the UAE as Fatma Almheiri stated that she wanted to create a character that was tough, but down to earth. Not overly powerful, but not breaking down in tears every two seconds, either. But most of all: she wanted her to be Arab. She also said it was hard to find a character in the cartoons she grew up with that she could culturally identify with and that Jasmin and the title character of Disney's Aladdin were poorly researched. She wanted to create an Arab super hero and did just that along with a well written story that has humour, action and suspense for it's serious moments.
Animation
The animation from what I can tell looks like it's done in Flash but I could be wrong as it also looks like traditional hand drawn 2D animation. For a show made by a studio consisting of thirteen full-time staff members between the ages of 20 and 35 and an arsenal of freelance creatives, the show looks pretty damn good. Characters are nicely drawn and fluid in motion. Which is where you can see that it takes a lot of inspiration from anime with the fight scenes and the expressions that characters have throughout. Some fights kinda reminded me of the 90’s Batman animated series and even the 2000’s Teen Titans series. A western animated that also took a lot inspiration from anime. Now in 2018 there's still shows out there that still use this aesthetic for their animation. Except this isn't American or Canadian. It's from somewhere that most people wouldn't expect to this style of animation. The backgrounds are simple yet nicely designed with what looks like CG for some of the dynamic shots. Eating Star Studios, the studio behind the series, consists of mainly Arab artists and animators. Several, including AlMheiri, graduated from Abu Dhabi’s now-defunct Cartoon Network Animation Academy, while art director Ahmad Beyrouthi has an Ubisoft background. AlMheiri is the only Emirati on the team. The quality of Emara's animation definitely shows in it's action scenes and in the Season 1 finale which again I won't spoil. And it's definitely a step up from other Arab cartoons I've seen. The last being a cartoon from Libya called Halima o Knayenha(According to Libya One's YouTube Channel). Which is... not good. At all. If you placed the theme song to The Nutshack over Halima o Knayenha's intro and some episode clips you could swear they were both set in the same universe because how bad it's animation is. I could only find 7 episodes of it on YouTube which could be a sign that it likely got cancelled. Thankfully Emara on the other hand, is a MUCH better Arab cartoon series.
Sound
The version of Emara Season 1 I watched was the English dub which is pretty good. The voice actors chosen did a good job at playing each character. The cast consists of first time actors and some that have worked on movies, shows and video games. Moza/Emara is voiced by Naomi Mercer who voiced 8 characters in Mass Effect 2 and Zeina is voiced by Tara Platt who voices Blake's mother in RWBY and voiced Yuri Watanabe in Marvel's Spider-Man for the PS4. I've only seen the first episode in both of Emara’s Arabic voice tracks which are good though I prefer watching the show in English. Oh yeah, there's two Arabic versions. One in Formal Arabic and the other in Informal Arabic. From what I can remember I could hear a few differences. I'd tell you the lines but despite being half Libyan myself I can't speak Arabic let alone write in it. According to the creator’s Twitter, The difference between them is that informal Arabic includes dialects and accents where as formal Arabic is the universal language mostly used for literature, news shows and children’s cartoons. The reason they provided both is because there’s actually a debate as to which is more suitable for cartoons since informal is more realistic and fun because it’s based on how people talk in real life where as formal argues that it’s the one version of Arabic everyone understands. The music is nicely composed and fits a show like this and the opening and ending songs are pretty good even though I can't understand a word of Arabic without subtitles. Also for whatever reason, in the English dub of episode 1 the ending song was completely muted. Episodes 2 – 5 had both their songs unmuted but episode 1’s ending was entirely silent. Don't know if this was an audio error as I've yet to find a reason behind it so I'm guessing whoever edited the English dub forgot to check the episode before uploading it and didn't realised the missing song.
Final Verdict
Overall, Emara is surprisingly a good show and one of the best cartoons to come out in 2018. You can easily tell this is a passion project as both the creator and Eating Star Studios put a lot effort and dedication into it. It has great writing, interesting characters and good animation and voice acting. I really hope more people get interested in this show so that we can get more episodes. Which considering the way Season 1 ended I can only but assume that Season 2 is already in production. It’s always so relieving to see a new action cartoon nowadays in what seems like an endless sea of comedy cartoons. Emara is a show that needs a bigger audience. If not on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon then definitely Netflix should pick up this show. Maybe even team up with the animation staff that did Voltron Legendary Defender. Well, if Eating Star Studios wants to collaborate with other animation studios that is. But since it's fairly new and Emara only has five episodes so far, I think they'll remain independent for now. And who knows, maybe as this show goes on we could see a home release of Emara on DVD and Blu-Ray, maybe a feature length movie and even a video game. Because I'd play it if Emara got a video game that isn't a mobile phone game. But for now you can watch Emara for free on Eating Star Studios' YouTube channel. Available in English and Both Arabic versions with optional English captions. I highly recommend watching this show if you're looking for more action cartoons and I wish Eating Star Studios all the best for the future of Emara.
As of this review and onwards I'm doing away with Final Scores as I feel they’re unnecessary in the grand scheme of things when I review something. If I think something is good, it's good and that's all there is to too it. Same with anything I think negative about. So yeah, a slight alteration to how I do written reviews.
Thank you all you for reading and I'll see you all next time!
Follow me on social media!
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Watch Emara for free here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNszWQypQeqAApRmr8ACcqA
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