Futuristic Lagos: The Unique Blend Of Sci-Fi And Culture In "IWÁJÚ" (Review)

I saw this mini series with my mum and brother, I wasn't the only one fascinated by the fact that animated characters were using the pidgin to converse. Mum was like "No be small thing all these people dey do o" to mean that she's surprised they could actually come up with an animated movie like this. She laughed a lot on it.

Just last week, I shared a review of one of my favourite Disney movie and emphasised on how much role Disney played in my childhood. I'll say, I felt some inner joy to find out that Disney was a big part of the first animated African mini series and it's a huge success considering the reactions it got from viewers that followed after it's release.

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"IWÁJÚ" is the first animated series I've seen in a very long while, a huge deviation from the kind of movies I've been spending time on so it kinda made the experience more fun for me. I thought I needed a break from my other series and this was recommended to me since last year and I finally got to see it now, a nice treat it was for me.

Set in the future of Lagos, Nigeria, "IWÁJÚ" is a mini series released in 2024 to display the culture of Nigeria in a futuristic way, full of sci-fi and good comedy. I'm not a yoruba by tribe but I totally loved that it was the tribe that was displayed in style, maybe because it's a Lagos based story. The storyline is quite regular though.

Tola (voiced by Simisola Gbadamosi), the star of the story. A curious girl born to a wealthy man on the Island, she just turned 10 and wants to explore Ajegunle (mainland) where her father grew up and her best friend Kole lives with his mother. Because of the child kidnapping news around, Tola is not allowed to leave the mansion.

As a birthday present, Tola gets an agama lizard she is to treat as a pet without actually knowing the purpose her dad gave her a robot. Unknown to her father, Tola and her best friend sets out to the mainland to explore Ajegunle and she gets kidnapped without realizing the betrayal from her friend and the trouble she has brought to her dad.

Kole (voiced by Siji Soetan) is the best friend to Tola, a tech smart boy raised by a poor single mother. His mother falls sick after taking a loan from a cunny lender and he has to be at his beck and call to pay back the debt. He is made to lure his friend, Tola out of the island mansion so she would get her kidnapped for ransomed money.

His tech smarty self was quite intriguing to see especially when he said something his mother taught him "If you look well, you can fix anything" because his mother dreams of him becoming a medical doctor but his skill says other wise and oh my! I couldn't get used to how he speaks the pidgin language and even tries to correct Tola's.

Otin (voiced by Weruche Opia) is a robot disguised as a pet and gifted to Tola on her birthday. Turns out it was designed to learn about Tola and protect her although her father thinks the robot will never have to go the extreme to protect Tola but it happened and that is where Otin displays her strength to give quite a scene.

Tunde (voiced by Dayo Okeniyi) is the father of Tola who has been tech smart since a young age and is working on a robot that can protect his child with the rampant cases of kidnapping. He is quite distant from his daughter and that led him to face troubles in rescuing her from kidnappers and learning to accept his humble background.

Bode (voiced by Femi Branch), the villain of the story and almost my favourite character lol. Maybe it's because I found out who voiced the character but a villain is a villain, I had to root for the protagonist to have victory over him. He made use of the yoruba language more than the other characters, proving right in his wrongings.

Other characters like the driver to Tunde, mother to Kole, and the assistants to Bode, the villain all played their roles well. The comedy, the friendship between Tola and Kole and the ease of getting things done using artificial intelligence was quite fascinating to see in this mini series. By the way, the series has only 6 short episodes.