Yakari (2005– )

Yet another, great discovery I made while searching for some other cartoon in a search engine. I came across this in a row of animated T.V. series above the links to other sites. At that moment, it caught my eyes and got me interested in that the most, so I decided this is the next one I'd check out and, as usual, I'm glad I did. Another cartoon that was unbeknownst to me and seems to have passed American T.V. (I know at some point, this became available on Netflix), but I watched it on Youtube. Of this series, so far, I've seen only four episode segments, but I've been enjoying them well. It has since become another part of my favorite 2000s cartoons list, foreign or otherwise. This must be among those programs that has been slept on or skipped over by U.S. T.V.

Speaking of foreign, this is the second, made-for-T.V. French adaptation of a French-Belgian comic book or graphic novel series of the same title. But the co-creators of the books/novels are a Swiss writer known as Job (a.k.a. Andre Jobin) and a Swiss illustrator known as Derim (a.k.a.Claude de Ribaupierre). The previous adaptation is from the 1980s, but I've yet to see that. In addition to being a Western, adventure, and historical show, it can also be considered a fantasy, as it contains several mystical elements that make this even more of a thrill to watch. Yakari and the other Native American/Sioux characters are much far away from the negative side, depiction, and stereotypes of the indigenous peoples seen in various past live action movies/T.V. series and cartoons. They're shown in a more positive light, which makes that refreshing. This just may be even better than the Paw Paws, which I've never seen, but read about and from the description, it's the opposite, as the Native American-based bears may not be the best, accurate, or perfect representation of the Native peoples.

Concerning the technical aspects, I've seen and heard the English dub, and the voice actors of that sound like they voiced their roles well. Most of the cast I'm not familiar with, the exception being Sonja Ball. The animation quality is among the finer seen in T.V. cartoon programs. The character designs, colors, backgrounds, layouts, everything about the art is flawless. Everything about that probably outdoes the '80s series, based on the pic of the poster of the first series. The music is nice as well, but most notably that traditional Native American music featured as the theme. I never read any of the comics, but the writing of the teleplays of the stories seem to be well-written, whether they're based on a previous source or not. I understand that later on in the series, the animation form got switched from traditional to CGI animation. Even though I haven't gotten to those CGI episodes yet, I'm still not crazy about the sudden break in the consistency of the animation form, I just detest that. It's probably a petty reason, but just the same, I still detest that and that's the only reason why I took away a star in the rating.

This deserves a lot more attention than what it has been getting, because it's one of the few cartoons that feature Native American characters, especially positively, and shows, and movies like that don't occur often enough. This is a look at a Native community in a good light. It shows the relationship between the Natives and animals, and how they manage to co-exist peacefully, creating less friction. One of the better animated programs I've seen to date and European. Recommended to anyone who is looking for something that features Natives on the non-stereotypical end of the spectrum.