With the pilot episode of their webtoon-turned-series debuting May 4 at Comic Con Cape Town, the award-winning Johannesburg studio’s founders, Kabelo Maaka and Dr. Tshepo P. Maaka, continue to focus their animated storytelling on the experiences of women of all ages.
Since it launched in 2017, Cabblow Studios has made great strides in the South African animation industry. The studio, run by mother-daughter duo Kabelo Maaka and Dr. Tshepo P. Maaka, has produced three of their own short films, launched a paid virtual animator residency that produced an additional five short films, and is now making headway on its webtoon-turned-animated series, Rorisang & the Gurlz.
On May 4, the show’s pilot episode, Rorisang & the Gurlz will premiere during Comic Con Cape Town. The series follows a K-Pop-inspired Afropop girl band group that attends an all-girls Christian school. The first screening of the pilot will take place at The Labia Theater then continue at the Comic Con Main Stage on May 4, as well as at Cape Town’s Academy of Digital Arts on May 6 and The Animation School on May 7.
Check out the first look teaser here:
“At the animation schools, we’ll talk to them about Rorisang and how we made this series, but also about building your own studio and career,” says Kabelo. “It’s very exciting.”
Cabblow Studios will also host a “ColourToon Cafe” event alongside the screenings, where attendees will get the chance to color scenes from Rorisang & the Gurlz. Cabblow also hosted a ColourToon Cafe at Johannesburg’s Comic Con Africa and at Menlyn Park Shopping Centre’s Menlyn Christmas Extravaganza.
“It’s like a giant coloring book and we give out color pens and let kids have fun in that space,” says Dr. T.
Kabelo adds, “The coloring pages spread across the wall and the floor. Kids and teens and parents can all come and color and get to know Rorisang and we also get to engage with our audience. It’s been great for families who just light up when they learn that this is something I made with my mom. We’ve also had a lot of young girls participate in the coloring, which is great because that’s our target audience.”
In its early years, Cabblow Studios primarily focused on health and wellness issues, with its initial three short films following the challenges and risks of those living with diabetes (3 Teaspoons of Sugar, The Little Teaspoon of Sugar and When It’s Risky). The studio also produced promotional animations for dozens of clients like Sun Pharmaceuticals and Healthforce. Then, the residency program broadened the scope of Cabblow’s animations to include mental health, tackling the realms of grief, anxiety, dependency and more.
But the stories of women – of all ages – has always been a through-line for Kabelo and Dr. T and, for Cabblow Studios, the future continues to be female thanks to the rock ‘n rollin’ high school student Rorisang and Cabblow’s upcoming collaborative short film, Crimson, a haunting and symbolic telling of what it’s like to go through menstruation.
Check out the trailer here:
“My films are always about my experiences and are like my own diaries formulated into scripts,” says Crimson’s creator Bianca O'Neill, also known for her animated film Yellow Daisy Butterfly, currently on the festival circuit. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve had very painful period cycles, and I wanted to recreate that in a creative way. I’m not an artist myself but in 2021, I connected with Kabelo and Dr. T and last year we got the funding we needed to get started on production.”
Kabelo adds, “It was actually the first time I got to interpret somebody else’s script. When we first did the treatment, we wanted to do a flat graphic style like Samurai Jack. We also designed the characters with simple colors for their skin tones. We made the main character Gwen pink and red and we made her boyfriend purple because we wanted him in the pinkish color family but mixed with blue to show he’s removed from this experience Gwen is going through. It broke away from our usual realistic style at Cabblow and became much more symbolic.”
While the film itself is still in production, Crimson’s trailer has won a slew of awards, from Best Thriller in the Short Movies category at the 2025 Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid, to Best Trailer at Pageant Film Festival, Cine Vista Oasis Film Awards and Elegant International Film Festival.
“People are really responding to it, and you can see that through the awards it’s winning,” says Dr. T. “Of course, as a woman, I’ve been through menstruation myself. But even as someone who's been through it, and even as a doctor who has dissected a body from head to toe, this physiological process is still difficult to describe and visualize. But Crimson uses animation to depict the frustration, pain, and mental stress.”
For Kabelo, the chance to animate something on the darker side like Crimson, as compared to the happy and joyful world of Rorisang, was also a learning experience.
“I always do such bright and colorful and happy animations, and this was the first time I’ve gotten to work on something super creepy and stressful,” says Kabelo. “There’s a fog present in the story that represents this looming sense that your period is coming, and you can feel your body changing. Whatever was lovely is now annoying. Whatever was a little stressful is now completely overwhelming. The fog gave us this great device of moving from one moment to another and serving as a metaphor, but it’s also, in certain ways, like its own entity in the story. It’ll be exciting to see how audiences react to the fog and this film.”
O'Neill, Kabelo and Dr. T are hoping to finish Crimson by 2026. Until then, the trailer will continue along the festival circuit, with O'Neill and Cabblow posting updates on their socials (@biancajulietteo and @cabblowstudios).
“It’s fun being able to explore this absurdity through animation and horror,” says O'Neill “And there are some great surprises in this story.”
But even Kabelo’s “happy” animations, from Rorisang to The Little Teaspoon of Sugar, illustrate moments of fear and horrific panic. But whether Cabblow Studios’ animations are grappling with periods, death or simple stage fright, audiences are connecting with the characters.
“Even gentlemen seem to be really interested in Crimson,” says O'Neill. “I show the teaser, and men will come up to me asking when the film is coming out.”
Dr. T adds, “It’s been a welcomed surprise.”
Until Crimson’s premiere, Kabelo and Dr. T are focusing on Rorisang’s debut, getting buttons, brownies, t-shirts, Rorisang lollipops (“Roripops”) and more merchandise ready for anticipating fans.
“We’ve gotten so much feedback from parents on this series, telling us they are excited to see a diverse group of girls in a show for their kids, that their daughter’s name is Rorisang or their son’s name is Rorisang,” says Kabelo. “We’re really looking forward to this event.”
Check out Rorisang & the Gurlz’s webtoon series here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/rorisang-the-gurlz/list?title_no=843097
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
