Iwájú is a wonderful and heartwarming coming-of-age story that blends the artistic talents of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pan-African comic book entertainment company Kugali with Afrofuturism ideals.

While the resulting formula is familiar, the way that the six-episode limited series incorporates science-fiction, technology, and futuristic elements into a contemporary setting that explores class divide, socio-economics, family, and friendship, are refreshing, and quite frankly an eye-opening experience.

When translated Iwájú means future. As such, it only makes sense that many of the characters at the center of this story are focused on such. The series is set in a futuristic Lagos, a city divided into two different parts. One is the mainland, a working class and industrialized area that designed to house as many people as possible in huge towers that reach the sky. Then there is the island, a residential and commercialized area that only the upper class can afford. Though the socio-economic gaps divide the two classes, the two worlds will be brought together by Tola Martins (Simisola Gbadamosi) is an aspirational 10-year-old girl who refuses to accept the world for the way it is and prefers to see it for how it should be, and Kole Adesola (Siji Soetan) is Tola’s best friend, a teenager born into relative poverty and works on the Martins estate as a gardener. Though he struggles to make ends meet, everything he does is for is sick mother who can’t afford the expensive air filters that would allow her to breathe better.

Though the two young protagonists come from two different parts of Lagos, they represent the future. Each of them have their own opportunities, which are presented to them by dichotomous father figures. There’s Tola’s inventor and scientist father Tunde Martins (Dayo Okeniyi), who has little time for his daughter because of his dedication to work, and pressure from his hard-driving boss. He is tasked with creating a technology to protect kids from a recent rash of kidnappings. Then there’s Bode DeSousa (Femi Branch), a criminal mastermind who sees himself as a Robin Hood figure type but keeps all of the riches to himself. He uses Kole as a pawn in his recent kidnapping scheme.

Iwájú spotlights the power of international collaboration between two outstanding animation studios. The series merges immersive world-building that allows audiences to see the beauty and ugliness of Lagos with engrossing storytelling that examines the past, present, and future, while also challenging the status quo through the Pan-African lens. It’s a fun exploration of themes that dares to show us Lagos as it is and the potential it has to become something more than what it is now.

While it is refreshing to see an animated series tackle such themes in such an informative way, everything moves at such a lightning-fast pace it’s almost hard to keep up with what’s going on. It’s much like watching over kids, blink and you might lose track of them. Still, the character arcs are wonderfully nuanced. The adults of the series represent the past as their history on the mainland shape their current motivations and decision making. For Tunde, he was able to move from the mainland to the island thanks in no small part to his innovation and tenacity. He is determined to protect his daughter at all costs, but his determination blinds him from quality father-daughter time. Despite the fact that Bode has experienced the same hardships, the discrimination that he faced as a kid turned him into the antithesis of Tunde. He saw how the islanders treated him and his mother, and as such, he was determined not to live that life. As a crime boss, he has rallied a crew and promised them that they would not experience the same discrimination as he once did.

For all of its flaws in its pacing and somewhat stiff animation, the beauty of Iwájú comes through its heartfelt and humorous story, and the way it depicts Afrofuturism. Because authenticity is such a critical part to the storytelling, the spirit of Lagos into the very fabric of Iwájú. This is not just any ordinary coming-of-age animated series, this is an animated story featuring a Pan-African cast telling a Pan-African story that is shaped by two international studios so that it can be shared with a global audience. The food, the costumes, architecture, and even the holographic displays aren’t just simple storytelling pieces, they are all meant to inspire a sense of pride in what a collaboration between a legacy studio like Walt Disney Animation Studios and a young Kugali who had a lot to prove.

The collaboration helps make the world of Lagos accessible to a larger audience who may have been unaware of the city’s existence. Iwájú doesn’t romanticize Lagos as it focuses on the inequality of everyday life in Nigeria. It does, however, celebrate an overlooked culture and aim to show its international audience of the country’s hopes with a resonating story and authenticity. If Iwájú is the result of a collaboration, who knows what the future holds.

8/10