Sunday 1 June 2014

Dofus: Aux Trésors de Kerubim / Dofus: The Treasures of Kerub – series 1 part 2


Indeed, as expected, the series wasn’t over when I wrote my impressions of part 1 of The Treasures of Kerub, but had a season break – just as with the Thundercats revival.

We left Papycha’s stories with the suggestion that at some point, he lost his love – Lou – forever. It was not to be, though. She lost her memories, but Kerub was determined to follow her and win her once again.
This is largely more of the same, which with a series that thrives on nostalgia and light adventure stories is no negative. There are some pleasant bits of variety: the parodies extend to detective films, horror, disco, kung-fu movies and Wacky Races, there’s a rather odd critique of getting hooked on simple things on television – presented on the television, of course – and there’s a very entertaining episode about a cursed puzzle that, if the wrong answer is given, forces the challenger to run to the centre of town and shout out their darkest secret. There’s a fun episode that shows that Kerubim’s old nemesis Indie Delagrandaventure is living in just the same way, telling his old stories to a ‘grandchild’ who hangs on every word. Indeed, their rivalry is one of the series’ most well-developed, interesting and clever elements

There’s a lot Dofus hasn’t yet revealed. Simone leaves the others’ lives – at least professionally – and opens them up to resuming their adventures, but we don’t know how this leads to Joris becoming an adventurer – and an immortal – in his own right. We don’t know why Kerubim took him in as an adoptive grandson. But that, presumably, is all for the big-screen movie announced so long ago but finally heading to big screens in 2015. I’m even considering a trip to France to see it. Well, a trip to France that will include a detour to see it. Then, of course, there will be the Kickstarter-funded translation that I gave generously to – for the high-quality blu-rays rather than for the dub, I must say. And I hope that Kerubim gets a similar treatment as well!

I’m honestly quite worried what Ankama have in store for poor little Joris. He’s so adorable in this and so grim in Wakfu – what happens to him in the interim, and will it be in line with what happened to poor Ogrest?

The online fandom for Wakfu and related properties has very much quietened down now. Ankama no longer bring a stall to the London Expo (still makes me smile that my friends and I were in their little Youtube clip of the convention), and I don’t know if they still have such a big presence at Paris’ Japan Expo.

But it could be that it’s the Dofus movie that takes Ankama into an even bigger league. If that happens, expect me to be first in line to see what they do next. In the original language, of course. Always in the original language.

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