Ny Rabe tells the everyday life of the Rabe family in Antananarivo: funny stories readers always want to come back to, in which everyone recognises themselves, their family and their neighbourhood. Humour comes first, tenderness right behind, and every story is told in Malagasy, the way people speak in the street.
The tone
- Humour first. Each story is built to make people laugh, with gags rooted in real life.
- Tenderness. Behind the jokes, a family that loves each other, even when it says so badly.
- A gentle comedy of everyday life. The small battles of life in the capital, told with a smile.
- A precise cultural setting. Everyday life as people live it, seen from the inside: precise, familiar, and far from the postcard.
What the stories are about
The stories stay with the family, the neighbourhood and everyday work: power cuts and traffic jams, the taxi-be, the market, weddings and ancestral customs, holidays, football, new phones and artificial intelligence, getting by, and young graduates looking for work. These are the things any of us might live, and any of us might do.
A few fantastical touches
Ny Rabe is realistic, with a handful of fantastical touches it fully embraces: Zézé, the zebu who sometimes speaks to the reader, Bebe Dety, whose witchcraft stays ambiguous, and the kung fu of Lita, two and a half.
Characters with a wish and a flaw
Every character carries a contradiction, a wish and a flaw together, and that is what keeps them alive: Datoa is the faux-clever man, R-Biz the fake rich man with real ambition, Bebe Dety the real healer with a witch's name, and Tsiky aims high without ever cheating. Ny Rabe makes its readers dream through ambition and dreams. See Who are the characters of Ny Rabe?
The forms the stories take
Ny Rabe is published on nyrabe.com in several forms, tantara an-tsary, stories in pictures and video:
| Form | What it is | On nyrabe.com |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | Animated shorts of the Rabe family | Videos |
| Gags | Short comic stories in pictures, more than 90 of them | Gags |
| Artwork | Illustrations of the characters, 22 of them | Artwork |
| Wallpapers | Images to download in HD for a phone or a computer | Wallpapers |
| Music | The songs of Ny Rabe | Music |
| Tutorials | Lessons in drawing and animating with Krita | Tutorials |
| Backstage | The team and the making of the stories | Backstage |
Counts recorded on nyrabe.com on 10 October 2026. New stories arrive several times a week.
A few stories
| Title, in Malagasy | Meaning | With |
|---|---|---|
| Fianakaviana Ny Rabe | The Rabe family | The whole family |
| Izahay dimy mianaka | The five of us | Tsiky, Miora, Njaka and their parents |
| Tsiky mère célibataire | Tsiky, single mother | Tsiky and Lita |
| Rehefa mandeha mariazy | When we go to a wedding | The family |
| Vakansa Ny Rabe | The Rabe on holiday | The family |
| Korotana anaty Taxibe | Trouble on the taxi-be | The family |
| Leo embouteillage, andiany I | Fed up with traffic jams, part I | The family |
| Ny malagasy rehefa miantsena | Malagasy people at the market | The family |
| Fomban-drazana | Ancestral customs | Fara |
| Mila finday vaovao | Needs a new phone | Datoa |
| Miketrika indray i R-Biz | R-Biz is scheming again | R-Biz |
| Bandy kely intelizansa be | A little guy with a big brain | Njaka |
| Ity Zézé ity | This Zézé! | Zézé |
| Alefa Barea | Go Barea!, the cheer for Madagascar's national football team | The family |
Who makes these stories is told on Who makes Ny Rabe?