Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik featured on Google Doodle
Born in Tanta, Egypt in 1962, Tawfik was one of the most influential writers in the Arab world
He wrote more than 500 books, on top of his other duties as a doctor and a professor
Updated 10 June 2019
Arab News
A renowned Egyptian novelist, known for his contributions to Arab horror, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, is the focus of Monday’s Google Doodle, for what would’ve been his 57th birthday.
Born in Tanta, Egypt in 1962, Tawfik was one of the most influential writers in the Arab world, particularly in the horror and science fiction genres.
He wrote more than 500 books, on top of his other duties as a doctor and a professor. He attended medical school and later earned a PhD in tropical diseases and became a professor at Tanta University.
But being a writer seemed to be instinctive for Tawfik, who grew up in a house full of books, and had access to quality literature by Somerset Maugham, Mark Twain, and Tolstoy, whom he drew influences from. He started writing his own adventure stories at the age of 10.
The Google Doodle also featured iconic characters from Tawfik’s books, including Refaat Ismael, the main chacter of “Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa,” a horror/thriller series of 81 novels that is slated to be a Netflix TV show.
Tawfik died of cardiac arrest at the El Demerdash Hospital in Cairo on April 2, 2018.
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. (Supplied)
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
While the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East. (Supplied)
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. (Supplied)
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
