Wakfu Review

A few years ago, while I should have been studying, I ended up watching a French cartoon called Wakfu. The best way I can describe this show is a French made anime. But make no mistake, this definitely isn’t Japanese, but still managed to hold an all ages story a cut above the rest. I have never watched a French show before, but this show is absolutely gorgeous. It uses flash animation to its full extent, this is animation in the hands of masters. So what is Wakfu? The show is based of an MMO game by the same name and therefore exists in the same world, the world of the ‘twelve’ where there are twelve gods and whomever you initially worshiped you’re appearance begins to change to resemble them, so there are a lot of animal themed anamorphic people. Wakfu is life essence that is pretty much magic, what the show is named after. This particular story is an epic fantasy-adventure.

Anyway, the television series follows the exploits of an unlikely group of people as they party together to fulfill their own destinies. There is the orphan who must find out about his people, there is the princess, escorted by her bodyguard who must get back to her kingdom, there is the really old treasure hunter who will sell your left kidney for some money and an assigned guardian of a demon, who really sucks at his job. Together, they save the world.

Now you're thinking with portals! The fights and animation are amazing.

Not only is the animation fluid and beautiful, but the soundtrack and themes (Click me) are really stand out as well. But where this series truly shines is the characters. They are fantastically voiced, have unique designs and are really the heart of everything here, giving you something to root for. I have described the protagonists, but the main villain of the first series is really worth mentioning.

Nox has a serious fetish for clockworks, looks like a guy wrapped head to toe in bandages and armour, has an echoed, almost robot voice and spends the majority of the series siphoning Wakfu from all kinds of living creatures to build up enough energy to power an ancient and dangerous artifact he found centuries ago. Not bad, huh? With enough energy, he plans to reverse the flow of time, because, no, he doesn’t want to intentionally destroy the world, he just wants to see his family again and save them from his own madness. The thing is, his methods may be incredibly brutal and evil, but he doesn’t care because if he can reverse everything, the damage he does won’t matter. He’s just a husk of a former man who wants to rectify his mistakes from the beginning and protect his family.

He has a point...

But that's just the main guys, every episode is full of rich characters, lush scenery and daring adventure. Speaking of which: The story is mostly one-off adventures in the world (With the larger plot lingering in the shadows), as is to be expected from a French Saturday morning cartoon, but the you can tell the writers really love this world they had painstakingly created and once the plot really kicks in during the final half of the series, it paints a perfect heroes journey for our protagonists. I'll admit, as I was watching it, I was cheering, pumping my fist into the air, getting teary eyed and laughing along with the characters. It’s funny, charming, action packed and gripping whether you’re a kid or an adult. Light-hearted with some emotional weight behind it, this show deserves to stand with the best serialized animations of recent years.

And now they want to do and English dub of it, huzzah!

On a scale of 1-5, 1 being ‘This show killed my family’ and 5 being ‘Euphorically incredible’.

JJJJJ

FIVE SMILEY FACES.