The Legend of Korra studio teases new original series

Studio Mir, the South Korean animation studio behind The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defenders, is ready to take on a new project. A brief three-minute promo on YouTube shows off its prospective new animated series, entitled Koji.

The animated teaser for the fantasy series follows a lightning-powered young boy named Koji as he races a giant blue cat with ice powers across a fantastical alien planet. The official synopsis follows:

Koji crash lands on a colorful earth-like planet, inhabited by incredible alien creatures and hybrid animals. It’s here that he meets Tako, a giant blue cat with water/ice powers, who will become his lifelong best friend. They journey together to defeat the evil spreading throughout the land, and it’s up to them and a few valiant others they meet along the way to put an end to the Robot King and his mechanical army.

Studio Mir shared additional concept art for Koji in the lead-up to its debut on its Instagram, including some stills from the short itself.

Koji was first envisioned five years ago by Disney character animator Alexander Snow, who took the project to Studio Mir and will direct the full series, the company said. In a statement from Snow, he compared Koji to other action-based TV series, including Samurai Jack, Pokémon and, obviously, Avatar.

“Not only does the story have a lot of substance, but each character is believable and layered and throughout the series tackle real issues such as confidence, abandonment, racism, brotherhood, friendship, and purpose,” Snow said. “Everyone is a hero in their own eyes, until they see the truth through another’s.”

The studio is mostly known for its international collaborations with larger distributors; before forming as a studio, the founder and majority of staff worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Koji is their first television project that’s not already attached to a big production company. Studio Mir is currently seeking distributor and financial partners to bring this project to life, so it has not yet announced a release window for the full series.

Update: Studio Mir’s involvement with Avatar: The Last Airbender has been updated.