Romantically Apocalyptic - Part 1: Review

I hope you’re all having a great March Break because mine has been pretty boring thus far.

So, I was pretty happy with last week’s post, but it didn’t get that many responses and absolutely no suggestions as to what I should critic. Oh well, I’ll keep pressing out quality posts until I do, I have an arsenal of things I can tell you about! 

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This week I’ll be taking a look at Romantically Apocalyptic. 

Romantically Apocalyptic is a web comic series created by Vitaly S. Alexius, a Russian turned Canadian. It is drawn in a style that he likes to call “Dreaminism”, which is a mixture of photography and digital artwork that he achieves with Photoshop. Let me just say, he really does achieve. 

The series, although not complete yet, has lovable characters, a diverse storyline and beautiful setting that I just can’t help but appreciate. 

There are four “main” characters that are “a part” of Zee Captain’s Army; first of which being Zee Captain.
 

Zee Captain is the most ridiculous character that I’ve ever come across [Note: probably not true] in the sense that he does things that at first just seem really silly, but somehow have a huge impact on everything. When he was captured by aliens, he threw the tea from his mug at one, gave an evil glare at another, and finally stole the last one’s pants, somehow harming each one. Then they were after him like Tom after Jerry, getting thrown into the major plot. Captain’s origins are unknown, but it is known that most people are after him because he’s done something terrible to them. The one problem I have with Captain is that he’s sort of a sensational character in the sense that he’s made for fandom. I mean, you can have likeable characters, but his whimsical attitude and goofing off seems to be something that causes people to want to swoon him.

It is also unknown what the gender of Zee Captain is. I use ‘he’ not because that is what Zee Captain is usually accepted as, but Alexius has not yet told the audience the gender of Zee Captain. This has led to many debates on the forum. 

Next in Zee Captain’s Army is the unwilling Sniper A.K.A “Mr. Snippy” or “Snippy.”  [Fun Fact: Snippy is his actual last name]

Snippy could be considered the main character as we follow most of the story through his eyes. He is Captain’s go to when it comes to ridiculous missions, like finding a Hello Kitty purse. Snippy has an obvious distaste for the Captain and whether that is because of the ridiculous and usually harmful missions or the warning he was given by a woman he worked with in one of his flashbacks is unknown. With Snippy we get a real sense of what the world used to be like, as he worked for Good Directorate Incorporated through a series of flashbacks of him going to the “Dead Zone” and other happenings. Mr. Snippy’s background story is a little mixed due to the non-linear fashion of storytelling that Alexius presents his audience. Personally, I really like Snippy as a character. He’s very dynamic and very developed at this point. I can definitely sympathize with him at points and I understand why he is so annoyed by Zee Captain.  

Then, we have Zee Captain’s number one fan, Pilot.

Pilot has the continuing mission of finding Zee Captain a flying machine and often sees Snippy as a threat to his relationship with Captain. There is one comic in which he is sitting in salad with a series of drawings in the background that tells the story of how he came to Zee Captain’s Army. What I get from it is that he was working for a company, but he tried to run away (I’m going to guess to see Captain because of the picture he has of him with “Messiah” written on the back), only to get arrested. Pilot is one of the very few characters who actually like Zee Captain, but he is sort of a minor character right now. I feel that he should be more developed after 75 comics and I’m sort of disappointed he has not as I really do like the dynamics of this character. 

The next character isn’t really a part of Zee Captain’s Army, but has a huge impact on the story: Engineer or “Engie” or Dr Alexander Gromov. 

Engie hates the Captain because he is the reason why Engie’s creation, Annie, was completely ruined and why Engie had to destroy Annie. We aren’t introduced to this character until about halfway through the series and he is probably one of the most serious characters, along with Snippy. I’m weary about going too in depth with this character simply because his background has so much to do with the entire story. I enjoy that Engie, who is such an important character, wasn’t introduced until later in the series because then the reader isn’t bogged down with so much information about characters from the get-go. He is probably one of my favourite characters for his way of moving the plot forward and telling the reader more about the past. Overall, I enjoy this character. 

There are other characters in the story, like the Crazy Straw Guy and Cancer, but I don’t want to give too much away to those that I inspire to read this comic [Please read as: READ THIS COMIC AFTER MY REVIEW!]

Okay, I’m going to sound like a broken record and please forgive me for it, but I don’t want to give much away about the storyline, much like the characters. For the most part, the story is following Captain and his adventures in an apocalyptic world. He is joined by Snippy and Pilot and is chased by many people. Though a lot of the story has been revealed, not everything adds up just yet. Sometimes, however, I feel the storyline is a little hard to follow because it is bogged down by viral jokes or just the whimsical actions of Captain. I’m not sure if Alexius does it on purpose to make it harder for the reader to know exactly what’s going on, or if he’s just using it as a device to bring in people who aren’t as interested in plot as they are in comedy. If you can get past this, though, it is a non-linear story that you have to work hard to piece together, which I personally enjoy. I think this engages the reader and makes it work reading over and over to find the tiny clues that lead you to the theories you have about the story. I will be going over my theories about this series in the second part of this review. 

The Post-Apocalyptic setting really seems to play into Alexius’ strong suit, as he does it quite beautifully.

Despite the fact that it is such a disastrous setting, he remembers both the human aspect of it and the natural aspect of it. What the humans built is decaying, what once were buildings have been mostly reduced to just their frames and what once were streets are now cracked pieces of hard earth. Even though most of the nature is not evident, you can see the sun through the thick smog, and large, ever-standing rocks jutting out of the wreckage. If you read through, you’ll also find that there are skeletons of where people used to be and that new creatures have taken over the land, defending their territories like animals. I honestly don’t have a complaint about the way Alexius presents his world to the audience, it’s diverse and detailed and he doesn’t seem to forget what was once there. 

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. I’ve decided to do this blog post in two parts, one for the review and the other for theories on the storyline. If you’ve read this and do not want the storyline to be spoiled for you, but rather read it on your own and come back to my theories, then I welcome you. I hope I’ve inspired you to read my favourite web comic and I’ll catch you later.

P.S. I’m still looking for some suggestions as to what I should review. Don’t be shy!

Wakfu: First Impressions

Come around here often? Yeah, I know, you probably don’t. We’ll see if I’ll be able to change that somewhere down the line. 

So, I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty opinionated person, when I want to be, which is why I’ve decided to make a critic blog. I will be reviewing things such as television shows, movies, games, fashion, and anything else that strikes my fancy. The vast majority of the blog will probably be dedicated to television shows and movies because, considering the fact that I live out in the middle of nowhere, I spend a lot of time watching that stuff. Most of what’s written will have bias to because if I like it, I will tell you, but I’ll also point out things about it that could be improved or that bothered me, same goes for things I don’t like, I will point things out that I actually do enjoy about it.

I don’t want to always choose what I’m reviewing, though. I’d rather the readers (Note: That means YOU) can write suggestions as to what I should look at. I honestly will watch anything and I have a tendency to spend time on media is not very popular among the general public. So, in the comments, you can suggest some things you think that I should look at. It can be anything, short books, movies, video games, board games, etc. 

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This week, I will be writing my first impressions of Wakfu. 

                

Wakfu is an animated series from France that has visual similarities to Japanese animation.

My first experience with Wakfu was through a friend in England who suggested that we play the Massive Multi-player Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) of the same title. I loved the game and I had tons of fun playing it. About a week after we started playing, though, my boyfriend suggested that we watch the children’s cartoon.

The opening impressed me right away. The animation for the series was much like that of the game, which, may I add, is utterly impressive on its own. It’s hard to tell it’s aimed towards children off the get-go because of its anime-esque opening and style. After finding out it was aimed towards children, though, it made sense because the movements were fast, it was colourful and the music, though upbeat, held little relevance to the actual show. 

 Sadly, I could not find the opening with subtitles.

Yes, the animation is the same as the opening…throughout the entire thing. Yes, it is amazing.

I’m not going to go through every single scene of the first five episodes I have watched, but I’m going to highlight one of the really good scenes and one of the really bad scenes. 

The best scene in this entire show thus far has to be the opening scene. It introduces the origins of our young hero, introduces the villain, starts the plot in a subtle matter, contains an amazing fight scene, and introduces the meaning of Wakfu. We start out with a town scene, a man, whom everyone seems intimidated by, transports in with a cradle and pushes it out of town like it’s nobody’s business. The man gets into some minor fight on a bridge, which stalls for the real villain, who shows himself immediately afterwards. He says he’s interested in sucking the Wakfu out of all living things (which, out of context, sounds like an innuendo). Wakfu, therefor, can only be assumed to be a life source or magic force of some kind. In any case, the villain finds out the man is truly a dragon and then duke it out in a, for a lack of a better word, epic battle. We learn that the villain is a Xelor time mage, whom inevitably gets burned to all hell by the dragon, who then continues to walk like it’s nobody’s business and he didn’t just set a whole bridge [and the forest behind it] on fire. The plot is then started by the villain getting over-excited by the fact that he found a dragon, which he will obviously search for to steal his Wakfu. This scene is so utterly mind-blowing because it does contain a lot, but all the information is placed so perfectly and so precise that you only notice how much is actually in it by analyzing it.

Too long to read?:

Now, for the bad. This scene I’m going to go through here is also in episode one and I like to try and forget it.

Looks pretty delicious right? I thought so when I saw the first few plates. However, this plate is really special. There is a certain scene before it that makes this plate of food seem magnificently disgusting due to scene transition. The scene before this food is plopped onto the plate; there is a living scarecrow in the outhouse, reading a playboy. 

You know, for the family. 

He is yelling at a monster for him to wait his turn, and then his face goes red with effort…the scene then changes to the food being thrown down onto the plate. Before the scene with the scarecrow, I was watching food porn, guys. Stupid Europeans and their poop jokes.

One of my favourite things when it comes to children’s shows is if there are one episode stories as well as an over-arching plot, which Wakfu does. This leaves the target age a little more open because if it were one episode stories, older people would lose interest, and if it were one over-arching plot, younger people would lose interest. Much like most children’s shows, the episodes hold a valuable life lesson that children can learn in front of the television as opposed to going into the outside world and learning it for themselves. All the lessons are really good, until the fourth episode. There are a bunch of ugly princesses who are stealing princes to try and break a cruse that was put on them for rejecting a bunch of princes and being rude to them. After the whole episode, our knight in shining armour character, Sir Sadlygrove, learns the valuable lesson of not judging someone by how they look, but by how they act. Then the lesson is ruined in the final scene of the episodes when the princesses GO BACK TO DOING THE SAME EXACT THING THEY DID BEFORE THEY GOT A CURSE PUT ON THEM. Sure, it’s supposed to be a joke scene, but it’s completely negating the lesson of the episode. But, despite that episode, the lessons are taught in a cute and educational fashion. 

One of the great things about this series is the characters. When they are first introduced, they are stock characters. We have the hero, the greedy one, the knight, the princess, and the princesses’ guard. Now, even though I only watched the first few episodes, I was able to see some little points that would change the stock characters into something more interesting. The knight, although stupid, can be really sweet and the princesses’ guard, although strong and mighty, seems to wish she could appear beautiful all the time. I honestly hope these characters continue to grow because I already love them for their obvious good and bad traits. 

From Left to Right: Sir Sadlygrove (The Knight), Yugo (The Hero), Evangelyn (The Princesses' Guard), Amalia Sheran Sharm (The Princess), Ruel Stroud (The Greedy).

Overall, despite the bad parts, I really do like this series. Its animation is stellar, the story is interesting, the characters are lovable and the fight scenes are just plain epic. 

P.S. My boyfriend said people are going to avoid my Blog like the Black Plague because of long posts. What do you think? Should I shorten it? Keep it the same? Give me honest feedback!