UAE's Anime Scene Shifts From Fans to Homegrown Creators

TDT | Manama

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The UAE's anime culture is entering a new phase, moving beyond fandom and consumption towards locally created stories, comics and animation.

The shift was highlighted at this year's Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC) in Abu Dhabi, where streaming executives, artists and publishers discussed the growing creative ecosystem around anime and manga in the region.

Crunchyroll, which has almost 1,350 shows in its global library, has produced 40 Arabic-dubbed titles for Middle Eastern audiences. The company says viewership of its Arabic-dubbed content has tripled over the past six months, reflecting the growing demand for locally accessible anime content.

At the same time, UAE-based creators are developing original intellectual property influenced by anime and manga while drawing on regional culture. Abu Dhabi-based Sandstorm Comics, for example, has created titles such as Solarblader, a science-fiction story set in a future Abu Dhabi and inspired partly by the UAE's renewable energy ambitions.

The trend suggests the region is gradually building an industry where anime-inspired creativity is not simply imported from Japan or the West, but adapted into stories, characters and worlds created by Middle Eastern artists.

The UAE's growing anime community could therefore become a platform not only for fans, but for a new generation of regional creators.