At a Glance
- Creator: Niklas Hundemensch / Christian R. Schönle
- Rights holder: Christian R. Schönle
- Format: Multigenerational, transmedia story world / character IP
- Current visual material: 2 completed illustrated seasons / 40 episodes
- Current audio material: 3 audiobook stories in 5 languages / 15 audiobook editions
- Languages: German, English, Spanish, French and Italian
- Audience: Older children from approximately 8–10, adults and older audiences
- Narrative structure: Chronological continuity with developing characters and relationships
- Main characters: Niklas and the rescue dog Nikita
- Locations: Real places and travel destinations, currently mainly in Europe
- Core themes: Everyday life, travel, family, friendship, responsibility, trust and shared experiences
- Conflict principle: Everyday challenges, misunderstandings and conflicts without malice or traditional villains Visual status: Existing illustrations serve as a creative prototype, not as a final professional art direction
- Current development stage: Open to professional development in animation, publishing, illustration, audio, licensing and other media
- Purpose: Long-term development of Niklas & Nikita as an international story world across suitable media
Welcome to the World of Niklas & Nikita
Niklas & Nikita is a multilingual, multigenerational story world about a man, his rescue dog, and the small encounters from which a much larger world can grow.
The stories are inspired by real life with Nikita. They do not describe what actually happened, but what might have happened. Real places, everyday situations, familiar emotions and a touch of imagination come together to create stories that remain grounded in ordinary life.
At the heart of every story is a relationship that can be understood almost anywhere in the world: a man and his dog discovering life together. Around them are family, friends, neighbours, children, animals and people they meet along the way.
Niklas and Nikita do not experience traditional heroic adventures. Their stories usually begin when everyday life takes an unexpected turn: through a chance encounter, a misunderstanding, a journey, a moment of uncertainty, a change of plans, or an ordinary situation that suddenly becomes something worth remembering.
Conflict is never driven by malice. No villain has to be defeated for a story to work. Humour is not created at another person’s expense. Instead, the stories are built around trust, responsibility, friendship, respect, consideration and the willingness to understand one another.
This forms the emotional DNA of Niklas & Nikita.
The world is designed to remain open. New characters can become part of it naturally. New places can be discovered. Relationships can develop over time. A neighbour may become a friend, a friend may become family, and a seemingly insignificant encounter may later become important.
The stories follow a continuing chronology. Many individual episodes can be understood on their own, but their full emotional value grows through recurring characters, shared memories and relationships that develop over time. What happens in one story can still matter later.
The stories are intended to feel familiar and welcoming across generations. They are accessible to older children from approximately eight to ten years of age, while adults and older audiences are equally part of the intended audience. Children and adults may discover different things in the same story without needing different versions of it.
The first visible form of this world was a collection of illustrated stories. Two complete seasons with a total of 40 episodes were created as a way of making the characters, locations, relationships, atmosphere and narrative style tangible.
These illustrated stories should be understood as a creative and visual prototype, not as a permanent visual definition of the project. They show how the world can work visually, but they are deliberately open to professional reinterpretation and development.
The story world has since expanded into audiobooks. Three stories have been produced in German, English, Spanish, French and Italian — 15 audiobook editions in total.
The audiobooks are both independent commercial products and a practical first proof that Niklas & Nikita can work beyond the original illustrated format, across languages and for an international audience.
But the project is not intended to end with picture stories or audiobooks.
The characters, relationships, tone and narrative world are designed to develop naturally into other professional formats — including animation, illustrated books, publishing, audio productions, television, film and other suitable forms of family and multigenerational entertainment.
Most stories so far take place in real European locations and combine authentic surroundings with an emotional language that is not tied to any single country or culture. The world does not need to end at the borders of Europe. Niklas and Nikita can travel wherever a good story takes them.
What matters is not the size of the first professional step, but the preservation of the identity of the story world: warmth, humour, friendship, respect, inclusion, everyday realism and an absence of cynicism.
Niklas & Nikita has so far been developed largely as a one-person project. The stories, characters, relationships and world already exist.
The project currently includes a defined story world, recurring characters and relationships, two complete illustrated seasons, three audiobook stories, five language versions and 15 audiobook editions already in international distribution.
That one-person approach made it possible to bring the project this far. It is not intended to remain the model for every future professional discipline.
The next stage should therefore not depend on one person trying to perform every professional role alone.
For that reason, the project is now open to conversations with experienced partners from animation, publishing, audiobook production, illustration, IP development, licensing and media production who see potential in developing Niklas & Nikita further.
Professional development is not expected merely to reproduce the existing material. New expertise, ideas and visual approaches are welcome. The existing work is intended as a foundation — not as a limitation.
The essential constants are the characters, their relationships, the warmth of the world, the absence of malice as a storytelling principle, Nikita remaining unmistakably a dog, and a respectful, human view of everyday life.
The rights to Niklas & Nikita are currently held by Christian R. Schönle, who develops and publishes the project under the author name Niklas Hundemensch.
It is a world in which everyone is welcome who wishes no harm to others. A world that does not claim life is always a fairy tale, but invites people to imagine what life might look like if we were perhaps just a little kinder to one another.