User Reviews

When one talks to animation fans about what they think the best animated TV series made outside of Japan is, he or she will probably encounter the same answers repeated several times: "Batman: The Animated Series", "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and "Samurai Jack", being perfect examples. The reasons these series are so beloved are that they have likable characters, excellent writing that doesn't talk down to children, comedic scenes that don't feel out of place but still provide levity to series moments, and superb animation, particularly during fight scenes. However, there is another series that not many people know about, but is just as good as, if not better than, these aforementioned cartoons: "Wakfu: The Animated Series" To give some background, "Wakfu" is a French cartoon released in 2008 based on a French free-to-play MMORPG (Massively-Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game, similarly to World of Warcraft) of the same name, which itself is a sequel to another MMORPG known as "Dofus". Unlike most animated series based on video games, "Wakfu" doesn't follow the story (or lack thereof) of its source material or even feature any of the game's characters, and instead features original characters and story that take place in the same universe as the game.

Giving an overview of "Wakfu"'s plot without giving any spoilers would require talking exclusively about the first season and overlooking the second season and its six TV specials, since events in the first season form the backbone of everything else. The general premise is that a young boy named Yugo, who is the adopted son of a restaurant chef, discovers one day that he has the ability to form wormhole-like portals with his hands (if you've played the video game "Portal", you'll get the idea), and then sets out on a quest to discover his heritage, alongside a group of other adventurers that aid him in his journey. As is expected of adventure shows, they constantly have to put their journey on pause in order to help people in need that they encounter along the way. While most would brush off these instances as nothing more than filler episodes, the main characters show growth and little bits of their personality, although not as much as during the main story. At the same time, these character developments and personality traits never feel forced and the characters always feel like themselves from start to finish.

Speaking of the characters, each of the main ones are all very likable. Unlike "Avatar: The Last Airbender", which has characters that only exhibit one or two personality traits each, each of the main characters of "Wakfu" have several different aspects to their personalities, including the villains. These multitudes of personality traits not only make the characters more believable, but they also make them more likable and more memorable.

Of course, a major ingredient in any animated work is the animation, and "Wakfu" has this category well tackled. While it's very obvious that the show is animated using Adobe Flash and involves motion-tweening sets of shapes (telling a shape to go from point A to point B and having the computer fill in the gaps) instead of animating one frame at a time, the movement still manages to be fluid enough that this flaw is hardly noticeable, especially during action scenes. Also to note is that the backgrounds, character models, and special effects are full of vast, beautiful details, and almost any single frame of the series is worthy of being hung up and framed on a wall.

"Wakfu" is one series that is sadly underrated, and more people should give it the attention it deserves. Currently the first two seasons can be streamed from Netflix, although I would recommend watching the original French audio with English subtitles, as the English dub leaves much to be desired.

This show is simply amazing. I've seen every episode of both seasons and was blown away. When I heard about Wakfu I thought it'd be underwhelming. I mean, a french anime based off of a game? Pffftttt. Boy was I wrong lol. The animation in this series is absolutely gorgeous and fresh. To my knowledge it was animated in flash which earns it points in my book because flash is quite hard to work with sometimes. Especially for large projects like this one. The voice acting is incredible and portrayed the emotions of the characters better than I'm sure an English dub or even Japanese dub could. The pacing, could be better, which is the only reason this series is getting a 9 from me instead of a 10. There are a fair amount of filler episodes that, frankly, despite my love for the show, could have been done away with. That's really the only bad thing I can think of when this show comes to mind. If you're bored and looking for an interesting anime to watch I'd HIGHLY recommend this series. Although, be warned. By the end you'll find yourself begging for more and at a loss as to what to do next. It's just that good in my honest opinion. I hear that there is supposed to be a third season at some point. I would love nothing more than for that to be true.

I recently started watching this show on Netflix called Wakfu. It's based on this turn based strategy game and made by a french studio. When I first watched this I cried because the animation was so good and well done. The English dubbing takes a little getting used to since they can talk kinda quickly.

Hope to try out the game and hopefully the subtitled version when I can. You all should take a look for yourself and see watch you think. The animation is pretty much studio ghibli worthy to me and you should watch it when you can. Before it gets pulled just for being on too long for a certain time.

Watching this show was like the thrill of adventure. Please I don't want this show to end. Please make more seasons

I've watched the entire season one and two (and I heard there's going to be a season 3) and they were both amazing.

Great anime, couldn't believe how smooth the transitions and camera panning were. The artwork was exceptional (though is different from most Japanese art styles, considering this was done in France), voice acting was great, and the storyline moved on steadily without too many fillers.

This has everything a good show needs: some adventure, action, romance, and a few nicely placed puns every now and then.

The fight scenes were awesome and season finales completely epic.

A must-watch for any anime fan.

I really love this show i can't wait for season 4 my school is filled with kids that like wakfu but when you finish watching the whole series it feels like you have lost a friend you are just hungry for more episodes

For starters, I am no anime fan. My wife and daughter are. I grudgingly watch a lot of really weird television thanks to their love. Very rarely do I find one that I actually enjoy. Wakfu is one of those rarities. From start to finish, it is juss top notch. So glad this got picked up by Netflix. This is a must see if anyone. As a series, it has everything you could want. The characters are well developed. There is humor. There is action. There is so many levels of awesomeness going on. I juss keep waiting to grow tired or bored and have this desire to watch something else. Halfway through season 2 of our Netflix marathon, and I'm sitting here trying to find out if there's gonna be a season three.

Wakfu is one of the best animated shows that a cartoon/anime lover could watch. It is a cross-media show, building off of a world established in an isometric MMORPG made earlier called Dofus, the world of Wakfu has a very deep and expansive lore behind it, and the show creates a wonderful, diverse, well written and presented world that keeps the viewer interested constantly.

The show has a large array of characters, each with their own motivation, story, personality, and development. The main cast of characters that the viewer tags along with are each well developed and complex characters in their own right and they have a wonderful group chemistry with each other. The villains of the show are some of the best I have ever seen. There are two main villains throughout the main two seasons, and they are both tragic and complex with their own motivations and back-stories that make every moment they are in highlights of the show.

The story is also just as good as the characters, with complex but relatively easily understandable stories in which each element of the plot is important and relevant. The show knows when to sit back, relax, and have a good time, yet it also knows when things need to get serious. The jokes are pretty funny, and the writers poke fun at plenty of western culture here and there, and they are clever bastards, fitting in plenty of adult jokes and innuendos if that floats your boat. My only complaint would be the more lackluster filler in the first 12 - 13 episodes of the first season.

The animations, in particular, is one of my favorite aspects of the show. The entire show, and coincidentally the MMORPG(s) it is based on, are animated in Adobe Flash. But do NOT let that discourage you. The animation in this show is not top notch, but the animators work hard to keep things consistently pleasing and smoothly animated. The show has a good standard, and it never drops below it. The show also makes expert use of its color, using a bright and colorful color scheme for the majority of the time, but using darker colors when things get serious.

Lastly, the entire show is french-made. The original dub is in french, and it might be off-putting at first, but I highly recommend the original french version over the English dub if you can handle the quicker dialogue in french. The English dub has good voices, but the acting is plain bad at times, especially during action scenes, where characters needlessly grunt in weird and almost unenthusiastic ways that detract from the actual action going on. The french dub, in comparison, has awesome voices for the characters as well as good acting. The french dialogue can seem emotionless at times, but it is never bad in any way, only getting better as the show progresses.

This show is absolutely wonderful. It's one of the best shows that any cartoon lover can watch, and with a small spin-off series focusing on some of the secondary characters, three extra long special episodes expanding the characters, story, and world even more, and a variety of comics that tell the stories of plenty of the characters in the show, and two movies coming out in 2016-2017, there's plenty to watch and enjoy. This is by far my most highly recommended show for anyone and everyone who's interested.

Most criticisms of the show are based in truth, but exaggerated very irresponsibly. The audio, animation, dialogue, pacing, etc does leave something to be desired, but it's not near as bad as critics would have you believe. To loosely quote Eva, the (minor) faults of the show are all eclipsed by the most beautiful character and world design you will ever see. Every scene is a work of art and a feast for the eyes. The characters are lovable and engaging. The world exciting and fresh. 10/10 for an incredible show!

I cannot believe this show has remained under the radar for so long. What's the deal? Is it the animation? Is that why no one is talking about it? I fell in love with the characters and the dub doesnt ruin the immersion at all. The show is packed with really awesome fights and meaningful moments that fall into place perfectly. Cannot recommend enough, great story.

This show's art is absolutely beautiful. Whenever our main characters go to a new location, I'm always looking forward to see what gorgeous scenery this show has, whether it be in a forest or some vast farmland. This show however, lacks in voice acting. I highly recommend the English Sub, as the Dub feels like it lacks at times with many of the voices. However, the Sub feels like it doesn't have the true potential it could. Despite the voices, this show has one of the best villains I've ever seen in a show before, and they actually ended up becoming my favourite character. It took a little while for me to finish it, but it was enjoyable, despite the voice acting.

After years of being told I should watch this, I finally did. Season 1 & 2 was a fun, lighthearted kid's show, with some depth to the villains and their motivations, and some things adults could enjoy.

My review reflects the more recent release of season 3. It watches like an angsty teen fan-fiction. The structure follows that of a video-game. Quite literally, the characters end up in a video-game dungeon with levels and bosses and stay there for the entire show. The plot holes contradict nearly everything we've learned about the characters and the universe in Season 1 & 2, and are so large, you could drive a cruise liner through them.

Up until this point, we'd seen the character design for young dragons (cute and as expected), and adult dragons (fierce and as expected). Apparently teenage dragons look like Dragonball villains. Someone tell the creators that Frieza wants his character design back!

Every episode in Season 1 & 2 was fun and made me look forward to the next one. Even based off a video-game, there rarely is a time when you felt like it was one. Nearly every episode in Season 3 feels really crummy, and feels like a clip-scene from a game. By the end of the show, you feel like the writers took it out to the field and shot it dead. Everything interesting that was introduced in the first 2 seasons was wrapped up in a way that makes you dislike all of the heroes. A few of the characters are outright ignored. What happened to the other dragons? Who the heck is raising Chibi?

Watch seasons 1 & 2. Maybe watch the movie and in your headcannon ignore anything foreshadowed. Don't watch season 3. It has none of the fun, and it'll make you hate the show.

First off I have to say that this show is honestly really great. It combines elements of action, adventure, friendship, and a little romance(although if you really aren't into that stuff like me there isn't much so don't worry). Not only that if you don't normally like, or just don't watch anime at all, you don't need to worry about this that much. I know that if most anime can be mature for younger audiences but when it comes to Wakfu it is pretty much fine for all ages. I saw this show on Netflix and started watching it when I don't watch this sort of thing at all, but I loved the story and characters.

The show has a love able cast of characters from different backgrounds that come together to do something none of them could do by themselves. The show follows: Yugo, Sir Percidal (Dally or Pinpin in french), Evangeline (Eva), Amalia, and Ruel. The characters are all different and come from different situations but they all end up becoming friends who fight together for the world of 12.

They fight evil villains (but not so evil its too much) that try to destroy the world of 12 such as Nox and others you'll discover later if you watch the show. Overall I can't tell you how great this show is its one of my favorite to this day (there is a season three for this show that I believe is set to release on April 2, of 2018 also).

I hope you watch the show and enjoy every minute of it, its great. Thanks for reading (if you did),

James

I love Wakfu. I saw all the three seasons (icluding the OVA) and I recommend it. It is incredible, a very good work. Characters and plot are awesome, the villains are among the best I've ever seen, really deep with great personalities, design and powers. The scenes are well made particularly in the season's finals. Obviously it's not always that good, there are several episodes which are not important for the plot and can be a little boring but the last ones ore pure gold.

It's too bad that this series isn't famous, maybe it looks too childish but it isn't, it's really well made so give it a try.

I love the story and the characters and everything in the series. I have seen the serie 3 times with the 3 ogres episodes. I hope they make more animated seasons. It would be more amazing if they make in high qualitie movie With real actors.

Greetz Dylan van der Zee

This is perhaps the greatest underrated show in western animation history.

It has it all: memorable characters with great chemistry between them and consistent development, interesting plot that evolves without exposition dumps, rich world-building, mind- blowing fight scenes (really, this is peak fighting animation), tragic and sympathetic villains (fan-favorites for sure), and so on... I'd say my only two gripes with the show are: 1.that sometimes it can get a bit confusing for newcomers (there's a lot of places and races); 2.most episodes in the middle feels like filler; even if it's worth it in the end.

I'll never know why this show is so obscure, it certainly deserves more attention.

Do yourself a favor and go watch it now on Netflix!

Love the adventures, actions, power skill sets, lore, the characters' development and the world building itself. Not familiar with the language and the voice casts but they do suit the characters. Sound effects and scores can be improved but its a low budget animation, so i give it a pass. Only flaw is that it took so long to get new season. Higly recommended for family viewing, anime/cartoon lovers & gamers.

I looooove the first two seasons, and they made this my favorite animated series ever. But, then the third season happened and it was... not so good. It wasn't bad, but something about just wasn't the same as the first two.

Wakfu has some good episodes, sadly there is so much filler that the serie feels like a drag, animation is straight up bad at the start. Skip to the interesting parts.

When I first started Wakfu I was not a huge fan. The animation style took me some getting used to and I unfortunately listened to the English dub for which the audio was underwhelming. I also felt like the story was rushed and I found many of the characters annoying especially Amalia. The other thing that bothered me was how the 12 year old protagonist immediately upon gaining his powers knew who to use them without experimenting and started fighting and beating things despite never having any training. However since this is a cartoon geared towards younger audiences i think we can give that one a pass.

It may seem that I think this show is bad but nothing could be further from the truth, this show has many redeeming qualities. To start with, Wakfu has amazing worldbuilding. It doesn't give you a huge information dump, instead letting you use context to piece together a vibrant and magical world quite different from our own. The world feels fully fleshed out and rich with history and unique cultures.

Wakfu also has incredible character development. In the beginning I found the main characters annoying with the exception of Ruel. But as the show goes on you get to watch each of them grow as people and you end up deeply invested in all of them despite and in some cases because of their flaws. One particular character, Percedal who I initially disliked, had amazing character development to the point where he is one of the most realistic and my favorite character in the entire show. Even in the beginning each character has strong but different motivations for what they are doing and it is shown in every action they take.

Wakfu also excels at character design. If you look at any of the characters you can immediately tell a lot about each one based on their design. In addition to this the designs are all quite creative without getting carried away. Each character's appearance is distinct and memorable, a trait which is getting harder to find in animated shows today.

Another big selling point is how nostalgic Wakfu is. Immediately upon starting this show you will get hit by a shot of nostalgia. It reminds me of the shows I would watch as a young kid. At the same time this show is of high enough quality that it is enjoyable to watch at any age.

Let's talk about one of the most important parts of any story: villains. Wakfu has multiple major antagonists all of whom are brimming with character and full of life. Almost none are evil for the sake of evil and you can see where each is coming from. They all have strong motivations for doing what they have and even if you don't agree with them you at least can understand and even sympathize with them.

Lastly, plot. The plot of Wakfu is mid. The style is similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender being more episodic with a larger overarching story. The plot is nothing extraordinary but it is entertaining and it gets the job done.

Overall I give this 8/10. The first few episodes are harder to watch but after that it really kicks off. You grow to love the characters and the world while gaining a deep understanding of how it works. I hope you all found this helpful and if you decided to watch, enjoy this show as much as I did.

A little stiff in animation and awkward script acting at times, but overall it's a decent show to watch with interesting stories.

Very good series, from the beginning to the end. It needs more audience, it has a lot of bottle episodes but they are funny and they contribute to the story. The reason why I give it 9/10 is because the ending is very hard to understand. Also it took me two years to understand it, because I first watched it when I was 10 years old. So now I could understand it at 12 years old. The rest is really good.