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NEWS: Wakfu's English Dub Kickstarter Adds 2 Japanese-Animated Episodes

I love the animation and designs. It's a great use of flash without being stuck to x-y plane, flat vector animation.

configspace wrote:

I love the animation and designs. It's a great use of flash without being stuck to x-y plane, flat vector animation.

The animation is one reason I find myself unable to get into French animation. Most of their works use that floaty, puppet-like animation which I find too ugly and distracting. The recent Mysteries Cities of Gold remake uses it as well, which is quite a shame. I'm really disappointed that seems to be the main method they use to animate a lot of their shows. Canada has a similar problem as well. Flash is something I absolutely abhor and have yet to see it match up to traditional works and is too distracting.

I must admit I was really anxious when this KICKSTATER started. A lot of people had advised me against doing it. But we found ourselves incapable of having our series on a lot of countries' networks. “Too violent,” “too naked,” “too serialized,” “not our target demographic”... We met with every possible comment and started slowly giving up...

What I’m getting at is this: I already have ideas for all the stories that need to be told in a season 3. But I don’t have much hope. This is because many factors will prevent a channel from pre-buying season 3 from us if we make it as we envision it being made.

The first issue is that I want it to take place several years after the 3 specials, when YUGO is an adult. That might be the biggest issue. If he becomes an adult, channels will have a “target demographic” problem. No children in a children's show, that's only possible in Japan.

The other issue is that I want to make it darker, with bigger stakes. I loved how J.K. Rowling had Harry Potter evolve as his adventures went on. The more Harry would grow, the darker the story would be, and the bigger the stakes. I've been thinking from the start about something along those lines for YUGO and ADAMAI. As I was just telling you, our characters have become alive. Out of respect for them and our viewers, we just can't let them stay the same age forever. If they can't grow old, I don't want to tell their stories anymore. I'd rather, then, not tell anything at all, and allow us all to keep a pleasant image of them.

The last stumbling block comes from the fact that channels are looking for more and more “kid-friendly” serials, and most important, they have to be able to play around with their planning. Finding a show's best broadcast slot is an art in and of itself, and it is way more complicated to do with serials. In this way, “animated serials” don't really have a future. I know how sad that sounds, but it's the truth. We've already had an outstanding luck doing WAKFU the way we did. And speaking of which, I'll never thank FTV's Julien Borde and Voyelle Acker enough for that.

While in the USA and in England, serials have never been more powerful, we are forced, in many countries, to do sitcom...

.... In any case, if you have ideas or contacts in the offices of risk-taking media channels, I'd be glad to hear it. Once again, a big thank you to you all, and sorry for the big rant. ....

Wakfu makes MLP: FIM look like a high-school fan project.

It's also interesting to read about some of the difficulty they've had in getting Wakfu on some networks in some countries