MUMBAI: US kids channel Nicktoons from the Nickelodeon stable will partner with Paris-based studio, Xilam Animation, for a series Shuriken School.

This is a quirky playground comedy with a martial arts twist. It tells the story of a boy's adventures at Ninja school. Produced by Xilam and based on an original idea by Zinkia Entertainment, the series is made up of 26 half-hour shows and will air on Nicktoons next year.

Nicktoons VP and GM Keith Dawkins said, "We are thrilled about our first-ever partnership with Xilam Animation and having such a fun and humorous show like Shuriken School on our air. We have already got a roster of hits and now we're serving our fans even more fresh, new and cutting-edge animation."

Shuriken School blends Japanese and European design. This has created a unique, stand-out animation style with intensive use of digital 2-D animation, combining all the detail of high-quality illustration with action sequences.

Targetted to 6-11 year-olds, the series tells the story of a 10 year-old Eizan Kaburagi's rite of passage in his first year at Ninja school,Shuriken. The action takes place in the fictional town of Tokirohama, a melting pot of eastern and western cultures. In many ways Eizan is a normal kid with big dreams, hopes and ambitions.

He hangs out with his best friends Jimmy B and Okuni; they pick conflicts with kids from the rival school, Katana, and have fun and drum up mischief. However, Shuriken School is not a normal type of school. It is a crazy place where the implausible and improbable happen: Children learn how to melt into the walls, fly over rooftops, disappear in a cloud of smoke and move as stealthily as an invisible cat. Teaching methods at the school are unorthodox and absurd things can and do happen.

Xilam Animation is an independent audiovisual and multimedia production company. It creates, produces and distributes worldwide, top-quality animated content both 2D and 3D CGI for TV, film and video game formats. Xilam has produced internationally successful animated series for TV including Oggy and the Cockroaches, Ratz, The New Adventures of Lucky Luke and Space Goofs (aka Home to Rent). It recently completed Kaena -- The Prophecy. This is the first European feature-length computer-animated 3D film.