Khabar Khair (Only Good News) – Fatima Rashad

Anime brings back the stories of our childhood, the cartoons through which we lived unforgettable moments, we still remember the names of some of those cartoons, such as: Sally, Captain Majid, Grandiser, and (Fatat Almaraai) or Grasslands Girl…

    Cartoons that we have always loved, and that were able to shape our childhood imagination with the world that they draw innocently. Cartoon films and their well-known songs known as anime have become popular not only in the country of their producers (Japan), but Arab countries have begun to take an interest in such art since the 1980s., through dubbing to the extent that there are great voices specialized in singing opening and closing credits, such as Rasha Rizk and Tariq Al-Arabi whom and his family had voices that have been a near constant presence in the world of anime and its theme songs.

Anime in Yemen

     Recently, Yemeni singing voices have shown interest in anime songs, especially songs shown on Spacetoon channel, there were indications of interest in anime images and details of characters that we often saw on Spacetoon channel and other channels.

     Spacetoonat concert, which was held recently in Aden, reflected the creative aspect of youth in Yemen who are interested in such kind of art, and their ability to create an atmosphere for anime heroes.

     The big question remains, will the anime project succeed in Yemen? Is there support for a Yemeni anime film project? Perhaps this is a dream cherished by this art’s lovers including writers, painters, and singers.

    Storyteller Mazen Refaat, a fan of anime, says: “I hope to write anime stories. If I had the chance, I would be creative in this art, which I absolutely adore, especially since I had the experience of writing comic stories (comics), so I really hope that we would have the experience of writing anime stories.”

    He adds: “There are no indications for the future of anime in Yemen or its establishment, despite an attempt by the owner of a Jedaria Foundation, Yasser Abdel Baqi, who tried to provide us with a model for comics work.”

    Mazen called on supporters to support the anime industry initiative in Yemen and its programs.

  Amy Hatari, the voice of Yemeni anime

    In Yemen, we have voices that compete with the greatest anime theme songs singers in the Arab world, and one of those voices is singer Amy Hatari, who surprises us on her YouTube channel occasionally, with her songs and her lovely anime-style voice.

    Amy Hatari says: ” Anime fans in Yemen are a lot, but they need to be shown to the world and highlight the bright side of Yemen through art. Everyone is willing to do that, and I am the first of them, to dedicate my voice to such thing if it really exists.”

    Amy hopes to find someone paying attention to her voice from the competent authorities in Yemen, as well as paying attention to everyone wanting to get into the animation field.

She adds, “I suggest producing a cartoon series with Yemeni anime images.”

Spacetoonat in Yemen

   1990s generation knew Spacetoon channel, which has shown us the most wonderful cartoons – anime – which we really loved and that really broke into our hearts. Including, Remy, Hazeem Alraad, Alqanaas, and others

    Fans of Spacetoon channel in Aden got the chance to meet heroes of the Spacetoonat, with pure Yemeni voices. Mustafa Afara, who sang amazingly at the comcert, said: “There is a broad cross section in Aden watching anime, and I am one of them, and most of my friends who grew up watching Spacetoon are watching anime currently.”

He said, “I hope that fairs and symposiums related to the world of anime will be held in Yemen, especially since fan base of this popular art is growing in Yemen.”

   Regarding his first experience in anime songs at the Spacetoonat concert, Mustafa says: “This was our first singing experience, the three of us, Safaa, Samah, and me. We had never sung before on any occasion, so I felt very nervous, because we did not expect that the audience would be that big.”

Cute elephant

    The theme song says:

Once in our neighborhood *** a cute elephant visited us   He gently said no no        *** there is nothing to fear

We are good by nature   *We never accept injustice for weak

Only the honest people    ***        will live among us

Babar is an elephant        ***            clever noble

And the world of children *** is a wonderful world

      With a melodious voice, we listened to Samah’s singing, who hope to sing theme songs alongside Rasha Rizk and Tariq Al Arabi one day, so she is very ambitious because she wants to sing in all languages to be famous everywhere

     Moataz (Organizer of Spacetoonat Concert) tells Khabar Khair (Only Good News): “Anime in Yemen today is more watched by a large group of young people who can watch everything new regarding this art online.”

     He added, “The idea of ​​Yemeni anime cartoon is a good idea, especially if the anime is well written, in its characters and in the plot of its story.”

Anime is a conditional success with comics

      Creative anime images painter, Khaled al-Dabai, tells Khabar Khair (Only Good News): “The future of anime is mainly connected to comics, so if the idea of publishing comics work, and Yemenis become interested in it, and reading comics became a part of Yemeni culture , then we can talk about acceptable popular Yemeni comics, because animation which is called (anime) in Japanese and “animation or cartoon” in English, were derived from comics (manga and comics), which, if they were very popular and successful, could be turned into cartoon by studios specializing in this field.

    On his part, the painter and trainer Adnan Juman said: “We need support to produce a successful anime project in Yemen. There should be a kind of support because making anime is totally different from making comics in that it requires drawing more than one shot for the movement; more over those images are filmed and focus on the multiplicity of images, and this what makes the production of an anime movie more expensive.”

      Juman stressed: “In order to produce an anime movie in Yemen, we should support its artists, whether they are painters, writers, or singers, and this is an important point that to focus on.”

    A good preparation for creating a good environment for anime industry in Yemen can work by networking among its makers; meaning, it is possible to make anime painters more connected with singers to use their talents to produce an anime work of their own through images and sound and to make videos that are posted on social media.