The ‘Jaadugar’ Stars Want Knowledge to Be Cool Again & We 100% Agree

In a world full of misinformation and with an ongoing literacy crisis, Crunchyroll’s newest anime series Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is here to remind us that the pursuit of knowledge will never go out of style and that it’s always cool to be smart!

With a gorgeous animation style and based on the manga series A Witch's Life in Mongol, Jaadugar tells the epic story of Sitara, an orphaned girl in the Persian city of Tus who, after losing her biological family, is sold to slavery to a family of scholars. “After losing her mother and her homeland, Sitara’s despair transforms into determination with the power of knowledge,” the series official description reads. “New possibilities unfold when a family of scholars takes her in, deepening her education. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire conquers nation after nation, nearing Sitara’s new home. After the Fourth Prince of the empire takes her captive, a flame of revenge is ignited.”

Episode Ever After got to sit down and chat with the show’s English dub stars, Sitara actress Cristina Vee and Yussef Benelbar (who plays Sitara’s friend Muhammad), and they opened up about bringing representation to middle eastern viewers who love anime, being part of a series that tackles hard topics in accessible ways, and why knowledge and wisdom will always be important and noble for people to pursue.

“I do feel like it’s something we do take for granted these days,” Cristina Vee said when asked about Jaadugar’s major theme of education and knowledge. “We have so much access to knowledge and books now, but I feel like it is taken a little for granted. It was very fun in those first couple of episodes to see [Sitara] genuinely fall in love with reading and books and learning as much as she can and then seeing her use that in future episodes.”

Watch our full interview with the Jaadugar cast in the video above. Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia streams weekly on Crunchyroll.