Hey, How's This? A Pitch For A Teens-And-Up Cartoon Series Called Fanz

Hi. ConcernedAlien11780 here. I was originally thinking of posting this in the community called "Animation", because this is an idea for an animated television series, but I instead chose to post it here due to one of the rules there being "keep it kindergarten-friendly", which presumably means only family animation that doesn't push too many boundaries. While I believe that my concept could be reworked for any age group, demographic, and media format, my current ideal style is still animated television series that could work on a network like The CW. They've been airing Vixen as a series of five-minute animated shorts on CW Seed, so why not they take the next step and air an original twenty-two minute animated series on either the actual channel or CW Seed? This is the pitch for my main original concept, Fanz.

The show is set in a version of our world where humans (and it is occasionally hinted that this applies to primates, dolphins, and crocodiles as well) that heavily invest themselves in one or more activities relating to animation, sports, tabletop gaming, video games, music, and film have superhuman abilities, and fans of other notable fannish things often have advanced fighting skills. I limited those who have powers to those six things because making it so that all fannish things gave people superpowers would probably result in the entire human race being superhuman, and as Syndrome once said, "When everyone's super, no one is." That allows for a lot of people, but not exactly everyone, to be superhuman. Depending on the level of investment or possible mental state of different people, their powers are more or less powerful and/or dangerous. I chose to set it, or at least the first season, in the fall/winter of 2020-21. While I would try to design each season to tell its own self-contained story so that if the show were prematurely cancelled, as plenty of shows on network TV are due to the Nielsen system, whatever season ends up being the last one will end on a more emotionally satisfying note; I would ideally want the show to last eleven seasons, each one eleven episodes long, following its adolescent protagonists into young adulthood. The main characters are six eighth graders and their eccentric middle/high school principals. Their school combined the positions of principal, vice principal, secretary, receptionist, guidance counselor, and school psychologist. I chose to base the principals on myself, an old acquaintance of mine, and Proton Jon's old Super Smash Bros. Brawl-playing friend group, if any of you remember that. The leader of the principals, the one based on myself, Nelson Resh, is essentially myself if I had the freedom to be extremely unfiltered. Nelson is quite eccentric, has a checkered past, and doesn't care about many of the rules he is expected to be upholding. He has done away with many of the rules, yet has put a few others in their place that are meant to prevent minor personal slights that students might make against him. Let's just say he doesn't have the best priorities. His major fandoms are Lego and a handful of franchises included in Lego Dimensions, and because that is always being added to, the franchises chosen before 2020 will probably be vastly different than what is available for reference now. As of right now, Nelson's "placeholder interests" are Jurassic Park, The Lego Movie, the DC Comics TV shows Smallville and The Batman, and Ninjago. Nelson's power is the ability to see what others do and mimic their abilities for up to eight hours and eighteen minutes at a time. The second principal is Tawny Borden, Nelson's childhood best friend and girlfriend for the first five seasons. She does genuinely love Nelson, despite her frustrations with him and constant deadpan reactions to the things he does. Tawny is a fan of most major Eastern Pennsylvania sports teams and teams in the Wyomissing area, where it's supposed to be set. Her power is oxygen manipulation, a power I never saw in anything before but always thought would look cool if put in something. The third principal is Jack Whelehan, a guy loosely based on Proton Jon. He tries to balance his life with TheRunawayGuys (or whatever replacement name I'll give them) with the life of his principal friends. Jack is a fan of all forms of role-playing games, and has abilities similar to Ike from Fire Emblem. The fourth principal is Aidan Bladiel, who I based on AzuraBlade. His main struggle is with people who want to make him play video games that are designed for the sole purpose of angering him, just like the real Azura has had to deal with in real life, albeit played up to a fantastical extent. Aidan's fandom is video games in general, and his power is pyrokinesis. The fifth principal is Bill Magnum, who is based on CMSPyroWolf and his later YouTube identity as MysteryBen27, known for making animated short films set to music by the alt-funk band Mystery Skulls. He is generally good-natured, but has a tendency for communication issues with others. Bill's main fandom is Mystery Skulls and similar music, and his powers are similar to Wario from the Mario franchise. The sixth and last principal is Louis Butelli, who is based on the person who is supposed to be Deimlos of Jon's Brawl videos. As my reaction to him never managing to start a YouTube channel, Louis' main character arc is overcoming his fear of being a boring person. The six of them were public heroes using their powers to fight various villains connected to them through coincidence from 2008 to 2012, until a tragedy made them choose to retire. Eight years later, they managed to become the principals of Nelson's old junior-senior high school, take six of their superpowered students, and teach them how to focus their powers to become a new team and fight new dangers in the changing world. The main kid and series protagonist is fourteen-year-old Nelly Rushberg, a fan of almost all things Warner Bros. Animation with the ability to manipulate paint and paint-like products. He is insecure and aggressive, but good-hearted and will do anything for his friends. The second young Fan is Teresa Bakaar, a fan of rugby with the ability to control carbon dioxide. She is Nelly's best friend and confidante, and is protective of all her friends to a fault. The third one is Jansen Waz, a fan of the Pokemon Trading Card Game with the ability to control water. He is neurotic and occasionally inappropriate, but has a unique view of the world. The fourth one is Ava Barbarez, a fan of computer gaming with the ability to mentally control technology. She is girly and bubbly, but by no means unintelligent, and one of the more creative team members. The fifth one is Bailey Mol, a fan of R&B music with the ability to control soundwaves. He is probably the most mature of the group, but still knows how to have fun. The sixth and last one is Leslie Butaket, a fan of the DC Extended Universe with the ability to do almost anything with her eyes. She is the most idealistic member of the group, but usually not to the point of bad judgement.

The show is supposed to be a blend of over-the-top superpower action; internet-era comedy full of references to events in the respective industries and fan cultures of the things in this universe that give people powers in addition to whatever will end up being the semi-current events of the very late 2010s, all of the 2020s, and very early 2030s; satire on various things I would happen to observe as social issues that I have something to say about; drama that takes an introspective look at the psycology of fandom and what drives people to care so much about fiction in addition to other human behaviors; and nods to soft science fiction, urban fantasy, and even supernatural and cosmic horror in the storytelling. It might find success somewhere other than CW, but as long as it gets out to the public in some way within the next fifteen years, I will be mostly satisfied. I recently finished a draft of the pilot episode and am currently working on a script for the second episode. The script in question contains what will probably be one of the more controversial stories of the show. Most of those I would want to get out of the way early so that people know my views on what the episode tackles, and by extension a key part of the show's worldview, and so that I can focus my efforts on more fun, or at least less potentially alienating, storylines when or if the show hits full swing. Hopefully, people on Imzy are curious about this idea and want to know even more about it than what I already shared. If you would like to know more about Fanz or have feedback about the concept, please leave a comment and I will try to respond. Thank you, and I hope that I can get some support for the show from some people here.