Web Animation / Emara

Who is Emara?

"What is Emara's secret?"
"Who is hidden behind that disguise?"
"Who is Emara?"
"The one with the brave heart?"

- First Opening

Emara is a web video series featuring the titular superheroine fighting crime in the UAE. Produced by Eating Stars Studios and directed by Fatma Almheiri, it can be found on YouTube here in both English and in formal Arabic and the local Emirati dialect.

By day, Moza is a teenage girl helping her mother run a tea shop, prone to spilling orders when things get too hectic and with little patience for rude customers. But after that, she is Emara—a cape-wearing superhero who jets around the city, fighting criminals with her Arm Cannons. She's wildly popular with the citizens, viewed with skepticism by the authorities, and when the series starts she's already pissed off enough bad guys that one has offered a substantial bounty on her head. But just as she's about to be captured, a boy with rocket-powered legs and going by the name Dhabian breaks her out, and she lives to fly another day.

Emara starts to investigate the origin of the bounty, while Dhabian—whose real name is Sultan—tries to win her trust for the sake of his bosses, Men in Black led by a mysterious woman named Zeina. It becomes clear that Emara's enemy is no petty criminal with a grudge but someone far more powerful, and Zeina's interest in her may not be benevolent.

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Tropes:

• Artificial Limbs: Emara's arms, Sultan's legs and Zeina's right hand.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Ali is transformed into a skyscraper-sized monster in episode 5.
• Badass in Distress: Both Emara and Dhabian have fallen prey to this.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Jassim and a criminal are fighting for control of a car that's barrelling towards a child in a shopping center. Fortunately, Emara uses her arms to bring the vehicle to a stop.
• Body Motifs: Hands/arms for Emara and legs for Dhabian.
• Body Horror: The transformation of Ali into a huge monster is a disturbing, fleshy affair with rapidly growing limbs, a gaping fanged maw, and skin the color of overcooked meat.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Episode 4, Emara is mind controlled by a robotic parasite that uses her body to fulfill its hidden agenda.
• Britain Is Only London: The producer has stated she wants to show that the United Arab Emirates contains more than just Dubai.
• Clark Kenting:
  • Sultan/Dhabian, his only real disguise being his tinted visor and the fact that he doesn't have legs in his civilian identity. Emara/Moza nearly recognizes him at one point.
  • Moza's guise as Emara is more thorough, as she wears an entirely different outfit and her glasses, though translucent, cover much more of her face.
• Cliffhanger: The first season ends with Zeina and Sultan, both having revealed guns in their prosthetic limbs, aiming at each other as Zeina tries to take Emara into custody. There is a Smash to Black, then a gunshot.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: In the robbery in episode 2, Emara/Moza is trapped in her civilian guise and can't use her powers. She does use them to save Sultan when the gunman is about to shoot him, but everyone is looking away at that point.
• Da Chief: Moza's uncle Jassim is the leader of Dubai's police force.
• Disability Superpower: Sultan lacking his legs lets him use his powerful prosthetics as Dhabian.
• Disappeared Dad: Moza's father is dead.
• Empathic Environment: It's raining heavily at the start of episode 5 while Emara sobs over her actions in the previous episode.
• Finger Gun: Quite literally with Zeina's artificial right hand.
• First-Episode Twist: Sultan/Dhabian is revealed to be working for Zeina’s group in the first episode.
• Fun with Subtitles: Each episode being released with a transcript makes it prone to this◊.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • The mind-control devices gives Emara and then Ali these, as the cap extends down to a pair of glowing goggles.
  • Emara gets them again when she enters her Super Mode, apparently unconscious of her actions.
• Greater-Scope Villain: A mysterious figure named Solomon is shaping up to be this.
• Handicapped Badass: Even without his power-giving legs, Sultan is brave enough to stare down an armed robber.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: A downplayed example. Emara is beloved by the public and the authority figures do respect her, but they don't completely trust her and want to take her in for questioning. It also doesn't help that Solomon has been making wanted posters of her and scattering them throughout the city.
• Hiding in a Hijab: Played with. Considering it takes place in Dubai, Emara's costume having a hijab is less for disguise and more her following tradition, although it disguises her true identity as Moza more than enough.
• Hollywood Cyborg: All over the place. Notably Emara and Dhabian, but also Zeina and possibly Ali.
• How Do I Shot Web?: In episode 4, Emara starts having trouble making her limbs function properly, which is bad in the middle of a fight.
• In Love with the Mark: More like "grows to like the mark" thanks to the show's brevity, but Sultan starts growing uncomfortable with his assignment th more time he spends with Emara, especially when Zeina is evasive about what she actually wants Emara for. He shoots at her to prevent her from capturing Emara in the finale.
• In Medias Res: By the time of the series' start, Emara has been a crime-fighter long enough to become famous among the citizens and infamous among the underworld.
• Inspector Javert:
  • Ali has various shades of this towards the super hero protagonists. He doesn't trust Emara and would rather deal with her himself and he has no problem showing his contempt for Dhabian.
  • Jassim is another minor example as he requests that Emara come with him for questioning at the station even though she helped stopped the car chase.
• Instant Sedation: The man in the dog mask wields a dart pistol that gives its victims just long enough to realize they've been hit before falling unconscious.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Episode 3 features a villain who wears a box shaped dog mask and ends up knocking out Emara to use for his diabolical scheme.
• Mama Bear: Maitha makes a joke about cutting out the tongues of two lady customers who were badmouthing Moza behind her back.
• The Men in Black: Zeina's organization. It's unclear if it's a government agency or a group with their own agenda.
• Mind-Control Device: Moza and Ali are forced to wear it, and go on destructive rampages.
• Mood Whiplash: The intense car chase in Episode 3 ends successfully and follows with a cute montage of Emara taking photos with her fans. Then things take a dark turn when she ends up kidnapped by a creepy man in a dog mask.
• Mundane Utility: When her tray flies into the air, Moza sneaks a look and then uses her extendable arm grabbers to catch everything before it hits the ground.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Emara reacts this way when she sees Dhabian on the floor with one of his prosthetic legs broken and realizes that she was responsible. She leaves in shame before Dhabian can fully explain what had happened.
• Prosthetic Limb Reveal: Zeina yanks off a glove to show a prosthetic hand with a firearm built in, which she levels at Sultan.
• Protagonist Title: The show is named after Moza's heroic alter-ego.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Zeina, Sultan's boss. She's patient with his method of working with Emara and refuses to take drastic measures in fear of scaring off Emara.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: In Episode 2, Sultan learns of Emara's secret identity but doesn't tell Zeina about it.
• Shout-Out: While talking with Sultan in Episode 3, Zeina does Gendo Ikari's iconic hand pose complete with having her glasses covered in light.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Moza apparently resembles her dad more than her mom.
• Super Mode: Episode 5 has Emara going into a trance when she believes she's about to die, unlocking a more powerful mode of her prosthetics that extend from her shoulders.
• Visual Pun: In episode 5, Zeina has literal finger-guns.

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"Hurry, to the rescue of the weak,"
"Your conscience will be your guide."
"Hurry and answer the call,"
"Your strength is a kind heart and a bright mind!"
"EMARA!"

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