Saudi Manga Productions, a cartoon production company owned by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s charity, Misk, has announced a partnership with Neom, MBS’s vanity project megacity.
The partnership is due to set the second season of internationally popular cartoon Future Folktales in Neom, giving the beleaguered project an international platform.
In what many will see as a PR exercise by the Saudi regime to bolster the poor international image of Neom, Future Folktales is itself a partnership between Manga Productions and Japan’s Toei Animation. The series claims to want to bring Arab culture to an international audience, reportedly being watched by 70 million people worldwide.
As there is little of Neom yet standing other than an airport and royal facilities, it is unclear what the series will showcase of the $500bn megacity. But it is unlikely to touch on the issue of the Huwaitat tribe, who have lived in the land earmarked for Neom for centuries and continue to face violence, harassment and, in one case, murder, at the hands of the Saudi regime to ensure they leave their land for the project.
Manga Productions CEO Dr Essam Bukhary said: “We are delighted to collaborate with NEOM for the setting of the second season of ‘Future Folktales’. This partnership brings Saudi Arabia’s creative industry together with NEOM, an incubator of creative capabilities and ground-breaking technologies that embodies the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.” He added that the goal was “to be part of the development of Neom and build a bright future for all humanity”.
The PR exercise also involves the launch of a competition encouraging people to design props for the new series.
Despite the “delight” of those involved at the partnership, it is little more than two projects led by MBS working together. It is beneficial to the regime, and could be seen as a form of propaganda to embed the idea of Neom in a young, international audience – who are unlikely to know about the forced evictions of the Huwaitat.
It can also be expected to whitewash the fact that Neom is suffering from economic strife in Saudi Arabia, part of which is due to a lack of investors, who are terrified of being associated with one of the world’s best known abusers of human rights.
