''Onyx Equinox'' is a Mexican-American

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majori ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

series created by Sofia Alexander for

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

. It is based on the mythologies of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

, featuring deities of

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

and Zapotec myth, while also making references to the

Olmecs The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that t ...

. The series premiered on November 21, 2020. Alexander said that she hoped that fans of Western animation would "see the appeal of action-drama animation for adults." While Alexander was initially nervous about pitching the show due to the lack of "stories about Mesoamerica," a Crunchyroll executive, Marisa Balkus, loved the pitch, and the show became "the first original series to be produced entirely out of Crunchyroll Studios."

Synopsis

The Mexican god of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, has begun stealing blood sacrifices from the other gods, culminating in a Zapotec city being leveled. To these ends,

Quetzalcoatl Quetzalcoatl (, ; Spanish: ''Quetzalcóatl'' ; nci-IPA, Quetzalcōātl, ket͡saɬˈkoːaːt͡ɬ (Modern Nahuatl pronunciation), in honorific form: ''Quetzalcōātzin'') is a deity in Aztec culture and literature whose name comes from the Nahu ...

decides to close the gates to the underworld, but can't due to said gates being made of

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

, which is toxic against the gods. So instead he makes a bet with

Tezcatlipoca Tezcatlipoca (; nci, Tēzcatl ihpōca ) was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. One of the four sons of Ōmeteōtl, Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the God of providenc ...

: he will find a human, "the lowest of the low", and crown him his champion so he will close the gates before the equinox, when Tezcatlipoca will kill off humanity. Tezcatlipoca agrees to the bet, but sends his champion Yaotl along as an emissary so Quetzalcoatl doesn't cheat. Quetzalcoatl chooses Izel, a slave who lost his sister to blood sacrifice.

Characters

The Champions

* Izel (Olivia J Brown): A young

boy who lost his sister to blood

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

and begins to hate humanity for it. * Yaotl (Alejandro Vargas-Lugo): A jaguar emissary of

who is harsh on Izel trying to fulfill his destiny. * Yun (Patrick Pedrazza): A kind

teenager who plays Ulama ballgames and the

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother of K'in. * K'in (Juan Arturo Maldonado): A ruthless

teenager who plays Ulama ballgames and the

brother of Yun. * Zyanya ( Carolina Ravassa): A

warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

Zapotec

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

who lost her city, destroyed by the king of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli. * Xanastaku (Kimberly Woods): A

Totonac The Totonac are an indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a city wh ...

priestess who desires to redeem her dark past.

The Gods

Cástulo Guerra Cástulo Guerra (born August 24, 1945) is an Argentine actor who has appeared in several American films and television shows. He has appeared in the films ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995), ''The Mexican'' (2001) and '' The Purge: Anarchy'' (2014). ...

as Mictlantecuhtli *

Arin Hanson Arin Hanson (born January 6, 1987), also known by the pseudonym Egoraptor, is an American YouTuber, actor, rapper, and animator. He is well-known for his Flash cartoons, as well as being the co-founder and co-star of the popular YouTube Let's Pla ...

* Zeus Mendoza as

* Fayna Sanchez as The Healer/ Mictecacihuatl * Alicia Ross as

Tzitzimitl In Aztec mythology, a Tzitzimitl (plural Tzitzimimeh ) is a monstrous deity associated with stars. They were depicted as skeletal female figures wearing skirts often with skull and crossbones designs. In postconquest descriptions they are often de ...

SungWon Cho SungWon Cho ( ; ; born December 9, 1990), also known by his internet pseudonym ProZD, is an American voice actor and YouTuber. On his YouTube channel, Cho produces short comedy skits, unboxing videos, and reviews of board games and snack foods. H ...

Xolotl In Aztec mythology, Xolotl () was a god of fire and lightning. He was commonly depicted as a dog-headed man and was a soul-guide for the dead. He was also god of twins, monsters, misfortune, sickness, and deformities. Xolotl is the canine brothe ...

Supporting Characters

* Sofia Alexander as K'i'ik, Meque, and Nelli * Sanchez & Octavio Solorio Zyanya's parents.

Episodes

Release

The show was released on November 21, 2020. A trailer was released on June 25. A second trailer showing off the show's characters was released on September 4, 2020, with a final trailer on October 29. On November 11, 2020, Crunchyroll announced that the series would be dubbed in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German upon release. Crunchyroll released the remaining seven episodes of the series on December 26, 2020 due to a high demand of viewers wanting to

binge Binge or Binges may refer to: Behavior Binge, a behavior engaged in excessively over a short period of time, such as: * Binge drinking * Binge eating * Binge-watching Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Binge'' (EP), a 2018 EP by Machine Gun Kel ...

the series rather than waiting weekly for new episodes through February 2021. On May 18, 2021, it was announced

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

picked up the home video rights. It was released on Blu-ray on February 22, 2022 as ''Onyx Equinox Complete Collection''. In January 2022, Alexander revealed that the budget of Onyx Equinox was "near 1/3 of a lot of western shows" and said a main reason they unionized was because she "threatened to leave before production started." She also said that she was grateful to Crunchyroll because she wouldn't have been able to have a story about grief and trauma and have LGBTQ characters on other platforms.

Awards

In early December 2020, ''Onyx Equinox'' creator Sofia Alexander received

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outsi ...

's "New Voice of the Year" award.

Reception

Ederlyn Peralta of '' CBR'' said that the series is unique, with "mesmerizing and highly-detailed character designs for the gods" of Mesoamerican culture and noted that while it is an adult animation, due to the "gore, profanity and sexual content," it, in their opinion, fails to have "quality character development for Izel and his comrades," and reported that some viewers believe that the protagonists are annoying and unlikeable because of their "whining." In contrast, Monique Thomas and Steve Jones of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

praised the series, calling it a "big landmark for animation," as it is the first animated series produced by

and has a "diverse staff." They also argued that the series has more in common with Western animation than

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, arguing it is anime inspired, and an original "action-fantasy for adults" while pointing out the curse words and

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

. Thomas and Jones had one criticism, not of the show, but of Crunchyroll, asking why the show did not have

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

, leading one of the reviewers to watch using the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

subtitles instead. Melissa Camacho of family-oriented

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Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

noted the "brutal violence" and nudity in the series while calling it "an adult-oriented anime series set in ancient Mesoamerican history" with a "great plot" that is "worthy of your time." Raye Rodriguez, the creator of ''

High Guardian Spice ''High Guardian Spice'' is an American animated Streaming television, streaming television series created by Raye Rodriguez, who formerly worked for ''Danger & Eggs'' as a character designer. The series is produced by Crunchyroll Studios (formerly ...

'', recommended the series, calling it a "dark adult animation" which has "unique storytelling," beautiful music and art, and encouraged his followers to help it get a second season.

References

External links

''Onyx Equinox''
on

* {{IMDb title, 12605636 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American adult animated television series 2020s American LGBT-related animated television series 2020s American science fiction television series American adult animated action television series American adult animated fantasy television series American adult animated science fiction television series American adult animated web series Anime-influenced Western animated television series Crunchyroll Originals English-language television shows Mesoamerica in fiction Mesoamerican mythology in popular culture Sentai Filmworks Television series based on multiple mythologies Television series by Sony Pictures Television Science fantasy television series