Filipino folklore appears to be making its strive in animation this year. While there have been predecessors in the forms of Netflix’s anime adaptation of Trese for instance, there are more works unrolling that seamlessly weave centuries of lore into stories for today’s audiences, across all the ages.

While the most notable example that’s still a few months away from release is DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island, viewers can turn to YouTube to fulfill that craving right now, by watching the pilot episode of Sun Chaser; an animated series about a Filipino teenager who, together with a group of kids and folkloric guides, must save the world from an ancient villain.

Co-created by Bernard Badion and Bobby Pontillas, the story is set to go beyond just a hero’s journey, but also be an exploration of navigating between two worlds — in the literal sense for protagonist Jordan Santos, and in the metaphorical sense for the Filipino American creators.

At the same time, it is also just as much an adventurous take on Filipino identity and culture itself, with the pilot being animated in its entirety by Manila-based animation studios, ToonCity and PlayLab. Not to mention that the cast is full of recognizable names from both Filipino and Filipino diasporic media, with Manny Jacinto, Eugene Cordero, Liza Soberano, and Charo Santos-Concio being just some of them.

The culture really is on full display. Beyond setting and folklore, inclusions of escrima, favorite pastimes like karaoke, and even weaponizing slippers find their ways into the pilot’s 11-minute time span. It depicts the culture and those who are part of it authentically.

However, depicting a culture in a story can only go so far, when the story itself has spots for improvement. While it is common for an animated series to have 10-11-minute episodes — especially, from a traditional media angle, are paired with another episode — pacing is key to keep it from feeling overwhelming, and the pacing of Sun Chaser goes by way too quickly. The beginning abruptly starts right as the kids are running away from something, Lola (Santos-Concio) reveals to Jordan (Jacinto) their family’s lineage and what he and the others need to do with little time to properly digest the life-changing reveal, and it takes Archie the duende (Cordero) consoling Jordan for the audience to learn that before all this, the latter has been feeling lonely (as opposed to just showing it).

The episode could really benefit from another 10 minutes or so, to really let the pilot breathe. However, as Badion and Pontillas revealed in the campaign video for the Kickstarter they launched to fund the rest of the season, so much was already put in to get the pilot off the ground. It’s tricky when — as they elaborate — if the Kickstarter is successful, the rest of the episodes will be about half the length in comparison.

All that said, Sun Chaser is a show to watch and, if able to, financially support. Despite it being one of two productions centered on Filipino folklore coming out this year, it’s still a rarity to find in media nowadays with the culture and lore taking center stage; especially in an adventure as rollicking as this one is posed to be. While yes, it is fast paced, what pilot isn’t without its flaws?

In that same breath, the co-creators will need to get crafty with how to tell the rest of the story if they’re going to limit themselves into even shorter episodes. As wonderful as it is to see Filipino culture and people represented in all corners of production, how the story is told needs to meet that level of quality.

The Kickstarter for Sun Chaser will be accepting funding up until Tuesday, July 28.