Adult Animation Revolution: Chatting With Bellolandia Studio About ‘Electro Andes’

Based in Buenos Aires Argentina, Bellolandia Studio creates hand-drawn animation deeply rooted in South American culture, from the design of its characters to its story content. The studio is heavily influenced by anime and Western cartoons, and blends both styles to create action adventures for young adults.

I had the opportunity to speak with Nacho Malter and Damian Fernandez Gomez, the directors behind Bellolandia’s exciting new cyberpunk project, Electro Andes.

Tito W. James: What was the core inspiration for Electro Andes?

Bellolandia: In 2010, Nacho traveled to Iruya, a mountain town in northern Argentinian Andes. Since then the idea of setting a mythical story on the mountain range inspired by the culture stuck. In the 2020s, Nacho and Damian started to explore cyberpunk dystopian stories. Electro Andes found its core inspiration in the clash of both inspirations.

Tito W. James: Bellolandia mixes animation traditions from both East and West to create something new. How can other aspiring artists find their unique voice?

Bellolandia: By taking the risk to do what you envision without paying attention to voices that presume to know what the smartest move is in your artistic career. When a project comes from a true place, it shows.

Tito W. James: Electro Andes blends folklore and mythology with cyberpunk sci-fi. How do you blend elements from disparate genres and traditions into a cohesive whole?

Bellolandia: We started playing around with dystopian stories in 2018. We found ourselves with a tendency to make stories a bit too realistic and thought that things would be more interesting and fun with a fantastical element in the mix. So, it’s a matter of choosing elements that open possibilities that each genre doesn’t usually have, like symbolism and allegory in cyberpunk or technology and gearporn in mythology.

Tito W. James: We’re seeing more cultures and ethnicities being incorporated into sci-fi and fantasy. What do you hope to accomplish by showcasing South American culture within Bellolandia?

Bellolandia: Whenever we imagine a sci-fi setting, it is natural for us to do it from where we stand in the world. So, our imagery has reflections of where we live, the culture around us. But mainly we are serving a story inspired by our region. We have other stories, fully fantastical, like Shenku or Funky Hunters, which have their own needs and thus they don’t have a specific regional element to them. We tend to welcome variation and unexplored stories and settings. Using Andean culture adds a fresh element into a genre that lately has become rather repetitive.

Tito W. James: I believe that “animation is a medium not a genre.” This is hardly a new concept in Japan. However, in America it’s still rare to see animation being taken seriously as a mature form of artistic expression. If you had to advocate for animation’s potential as an artistic medium what would you say?

Bellolandia: I think that anime and adult animation have been consumed by the West for at least 20 years. In that sense, the appreciation for its cinematographic potential is obvious to generations that watch it. It’s the markets, and Hollywood institutions that are finally catching up to the fact that it’s a medium and not a category for a shallow award. We are glad that it’s happening though. But for whoever would like to take that quote to the test I would say: Go watch Tokyo Godfathers.

I would like to thank Nacho Malter and Damian Fernandez Gomez for taking time to do this interview.