Not long ago I finished season 2 of a French cartoon called “Wakfu”. I originally discovered it when looking for artwork of characters I might be able to model with pipecleaners, and I sought to learn more about it because I studied French in high school and still retain interest in the country and culture even though I’ve forgotten most of the vocabulary by now.
It’s an animesque show, a genre I am very selective about. Some shows, like Teen Titans, allow anime influence to completely overtake them, resulting in a show with a lot of ugly lazy animation that turns me away, while other shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Wakfu know how to ration that influence and keep their characters on-model most of the time, so I can easily forgive the moments when the animation devolves into kindergarten doodles for the sake of exaggeration or expressing emotion. That Wakfu is animated with flash vectors probably helps it a lot; it’s gotta take more time and money to get the characters off-model that way, so it’s easier and more practical to keep them looking their best. Better yet, it has bonus episodes and specials animated by the likes of MADHOUSE and Studio Ghibli. Read More