Jaden and Willow Smith to Star and Executive Produce New Anime Films

Jaden and Willow Smith are stepping into the recording booth, and the producer’s chair, as the siblings team up with N LITE, a Black-owned anime studio with bases in the U.S. and Tokyo, to develop and voice new anime-style features aimed at widening representation on and off screen.

Jaden Smith will lead voice work on Mfinda, an epic fantasy rooted in Congolese folklore that’s currently in pre-production. The film counts Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions among its backers, alongside legendary anime producer Masao Maruyama and indie powerhouse GKIDS, distributor of The Boy and the Heron.

“When I met [N LITE founder and CEO Christiano Terry], saw the artwork for Mfinda and learned more about the story, I was blown away,” Jaden said. “A lot of people have asked when I’d get back into anime; I knew immediately this was it. I’m honored to work with N LITE and the legendary producer Masao Maruyama to bring this film to life.”

In the film, Jaden Smith voices Kozo, an ancient spirit warrior who guards both people and the forest in the Kingdom of the Kongo. Mfinda is billed as the first anime feature crafted by a blended team of Black and Japanese producers and animators.

Willow, meanwhile, is set to produce and voice Webe: Spirit Detective, a horror-thriller inspired by Gullah Geechee folklore. The story follows an amateur sleuth on a perilous journey through the Deep South to probe a string of killings tied to the vengeful Boo Hag spirit. “To me, Webe is more than an anime; it is a story about reconnecting with mystical ancestry and the power in discovering your roots and your tribe,” Willow said. “It is the type of film that I want to be a part of, and I’m excited to be doing this with N LITE.”

The Smiths—already fixtures in music, fashion, and film—are now helping push anime into new cultural territory. “They are pillars of this generation and talented storytellers at the zeitgeist of culture, art, fashion, music, and cinema,” Terry said of the pair. “I can’t wait for the world to see what we have in store.”