Bridging Fantasy Worlds: Ankama Co-Founder Anthony Roux & Studio Massket Producer Widad Noureddine Talk Welsh & Shedar
Mention some classic French-Japanese animation like The Mysterious Cities of Gold or Ulysses 31 and most fans of the genre instantly picture lush hand-drawn worlds and high-stakes adventure. Now, Ankama and Studio Massket are coming together to channel that exact golden-era magic into the Krosmoz. Enter Welsh & Shedar, a bold new action series that takes the storied universe of DOFUS and filters it entirely through the lens of a Tokyo-based animation house.
It’s a risky leap no doubt but it’s already proving that the emotional heart of French transmedia storytelling and the time-honored craft of Japanese anime can blend seamlessly without losing an ounce of identity. The Movie Nerds recently sat down with Ankama co-founder Anthony "Tot" Roux and Studio Massket producer Widad Noureddine to talk about bridging continents through animation, adapting French humor for Japanese voice actors, and opening up the World of Twelve to a global audience.There is a lot of in-depth information here for fans of Wakfu, Morshiken and Welsh and Shedar - so, please - read on.
Co-Founder of Ankama, Anthony Roux (ToT):
Salvatore Cento: Let’s start at the very beginning. 2000 was the year you met future co-founders of Ankama, Camille Chafer and Emmanuel Darras, while working for a web-agency. That’s over twenty five years ago now. What inspirations out there at that time, gaming or visual - helped you to form Krosmoz (the world of Dofus, Wakfu and Waven)?
Anthony Roux: First, a small correction: we officially founded Ankama in 2001, although the three of us had already been working together before that.
As for inspirations, I studied fine arts in Tournai, in Belgium, so I grew up with a mix of Franco-Belgian comics, Japanese manga and anime, American comics, and of course video games.
I was particularly influenced by games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Warcraft III and Diablo II. Those are probably the games I spent the most time playing, and you can definitely see some of those influences in DOFUS, especially in its tactical combat system.
But there was also a very practical reason behind our artistic choices. We were developing DOFUS in Flash, at a time when people were still using 56K modems! We couldn't afford highly detailed characters or sophisticated graphics. Japanese animation was a great inspiration because of its ability to convey so much with relatively simple designs.
And then there's our sense of humor. We're from northern France, right next to Belgium, and we have a particular way of looking at things. We love fantasy and epic adventures, but we also love making fun of them.
So, the Krosmoz is really a mixture of all those influences, combined with a lot of experimentation. We didn't sit down one day and decided to invent an enormous fantasy universe. We started making things we loved, and the universe gradually grew around them.
Cento: Before Dofus came to be, four flash games were developed - all in the Arty Slot “franchise” - Arty Slot, Block Battle, Chicken Quest and Duel. While they could be considered small when compared to what Dofus is now, what seeds did these games plant narrative-wise and story-wise for the animation side of Ankama?
Roux: Those early years were really about experimenting. We were a small team, we had very little money, and we were learning how to make games by actually making them.
I think the most important thing those early projects taught us was that you don't necessarily need impressive technology to create something people enjoy. A good idea, a funny character or an interesting game mechanic can be enough.
But narratively, the real turning point was DOFUS. That's where we started creating the World of Twelve, its gods, its classes, its monsters and all the mythology surrounding the Dofus.
And once you start creating characters, you naturally want to know more about them. Where do they come from? What happened before the events of the game? What happens next?
That's how I work. One idea leads to another, then another, and before you know it, you've created enough stories to keep yourself busy for the next twenty-five years!
I think that's also why animation became such a natural extension of our work. I didn't want to simply show the game on television. I wanted to tell stories that the games couldn't necessarily tell.
Cento: For Dofus’ sequel - Wakfu - where did the desire to create a transmedia universe come from? That is quite the large undertaking, to say the least. And in the fourteen years that this has been going on - connecting video games, animation, manga and comics - what are some of the toughest challenges you have faced towards making this work?
Roux: The funny thing is that people sometimes imagine we had an incredibly sophisticated transmedia strategy from the beginning. Well… Not really ☺ The truth is, we wanted to do everything! Video games, comics, animation, movies… We loved all those things, and we didn't really see why we should limit ourselves to just one.
So, we started with DOFUS, and once the game became successful, we began developing manga, animation and other projects around its universe.
There was also a very practical side to it: we didn't have the marketing budgets of the big studios. Creating new stories and experiences around DOFUS was a way to make the universe better known while continuing to develop it. But I never wanted those projects to be just advertisements for the game. Each one had to bring something new.
What was new with WAKFU is that it was the first universe we designed to be transmedia from day one: the series and the game were developed together.
As for the challenges, money is obviously a big one. Animation is extremely expensive, and making ambitious productions while remaining independent is a constant struggle.
Then there's the timing. A video game evolves continuously, while an animated series takes years to produce. A comic has its own production schedule. Making all of that work together can be a nightmare!
And I'll admit that we sometimes make things harder for ourselves. We have so many ideas and so much enthusiasm for new projects that we can get carried away. It's one of our greatest strengths, but also one of our biggest weaknesses.
And finally, there's the fans: they know the lore incredibly well, so you'd better not make a mistake. But that's also the best part. When all the pieces connect, it creates something that no single game or show could do on its own.
Cento: Being released on November 5th, Welsh and Shedar very much dips into traditional Dofus lore regarding the World of Twelve and dragon eggs. But the art style takes on a different style than usual. I can tell it is more anime-inspired this time around. Was this new series made within Ankama or with the help of outside sources? Why was this visual style chosen? As said in the Welsh and Shedar description on Youtube, “it’s not at all like the others.”
Roux: Welsh & Shedar is a very special project for me because I've wanted to make a real Japanese anime set in Krosmoz for a long time.
The series was created and written at Ankama, but the animation was entirely produced in Japan by Studio Massket, with Studio Dream Catcher involved in the production alongside Ankama.
Naoki Horiuchi directed the series, Saori Nakashiki designed the characters, and Widad Noureddine oversaw the production on the Japanese side.
And the reason it looks different is quite simple: I wanted the Japanese artists to make it their own.
I gave them 100% creative freedom on the visual approach, which, believe me, isn't necessarily my natural way of working! I'm usually very involved in everything.
But I've tried working with Japanese teams before, and I've learned that if you want to collaborate with artists who have a completely different creative culture, you can't simply ask them to reproduce what you already know how to do.
Of course, we still needed to preserve the story, the characters and the emotional heart of the project. But visually, I wanted them to bring their own sensibility.
Japanese animation has influenced me since childhood, so seeing our universe interpreted by Japanese artists feels like coming full circle.
And yes, "it's not at all like the others", we wrote that on purpose! It's still the World of Twelve, with the humor and the emotion you expect from us, but seen through Japanese eyes.
For me, that's the most exciting thing: when you've spent more than twenty years building a universe, it's amazing to see what other artists find in it.
Cento: Ankama is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. That is a great accomplishment, congratulations. Besides Welsh and Shedar, what else is in store for the world of Wakfu and Dofus? For example, is there any estimation for the release date of Wakfu season 5? And - this looks awesome - what is Morshiken?
Roux: Thank you! Twenty-five years already… Sometimes I still have trouble believing it.
There's actually quite a lot happening right now. WAKFU Season 5 is in production. It will have 26 episodes and will conclude with the animated story of Yugo and his companions. We're currently aiming for a French broadcast starting towards the end of 2027, possibly extending into 2028.
It's a very important project for me, because these characters have been with us for so many years, and I want to give them the ending they deserve.
But that doesn't mean the end of the Krosmoz in animation. We're already exploring new stories and new eras, including WAVEN.
And then there's Morshiken, which is something completely different!
It's an animated comedy that I co-directed with Malec, about a Sram who dreams of running a legendary dungeon. Unfortunately for him, his dungeon is a disaster, his companions are completely unreliable, and things rarely go according to plan.
It's irreverent, sometimes absurd, and it doesn't hesitate to make fun of our own universe.
What makes this project particularly special is that we developed it with fifteen students from e-artsup, who joined our studio and worked on a real animation production alongside our teams.
I love that kind of experiment. It's an opportunity to try something different while giving younger artists a chance to experience what creating an animated series actually involves.
And we're also changing how we bring our productions to audiences. We've just launched the Krosmoz YouTube channel, where we're making projects like DOFUS – Book I: Julith and Welsh & Shedar available worldwide for free.
We have plenty of stories left to tell. After 25 years, I certainly haven't run out of ideas!
Cento: Wakfu - as much as it first appears to be a colorful cartoon, more mature, emotionally complex themes quickly start to emerge - even by the end of the first season. We step into even more like-minded scenarios as the series goes on. Without revealing any spoilers - all I’ll say is Nox!! haha - was this always the plan to journey into adult conventions or did this creative stance come upon gradually?
Roux: Ah, Nox! He's still one of my favorite characters.
I think it's a bit of both.
From the beginning, I didn't want WAKFU to be one of those cartoons where everything is fine at the end of every episode and the characters never really change.
Nox is a perfect example of what I wanted to do. He's the villain of the first season, but when you discover his story, you realize he's also a deeply tragic character. He's lost his family, and he's willing to do terrible things because he believes he can get them back.
I love writing characters like that. Characters who aren't simply good or evil, whose motivations you can understand even when their actions are completely wrong.
And I don't think children need to be protected from every difficult emotion. They're perfectly capable of understanding loss, sadness, sacrifice or complicated family relationships, as long as you tell those stories sincerely.
What evolved was probably how far we were willing to go. The audience grew up, the characters grew up, and I grew up as a writer too.
But the basic idea hasn't changed. I love making people laugh, but I also want them to feel something.
There's something I particularly enjoy about a story that makes you laugh for twenty minutes and then suddenly breaks your heart.
That's very much how I see WAKFU.
Cento: For my last question - I want you to speak to American audiences - why should they take a chance on the world of Krosmoz (if they have not yet)? and what is about this universe that sets it apart from others in the fantasy genre?
Roux: Because it's a fantasy universe that doesn't quite behave like other fantasy universes!
It's a mix of Franco-Belgian comics, Japanese anime, video games and a rather strange sense of humor from northern France.
You'll find dragons, gods, magic, heroes and epic battles, of course. But you'll also find completely ridiculous creatures, characters who make terrible decisions, and stories that can go from absurd comedy to genuine tragedy.
I think that's what makes the Krosmoz special. We don't always take ourselves seriously, but we take our characters and their emotions very seriously.
And it's a universe that has been growing for more than twenty years, not something we created around a marketing plan. It has its own history, mythology and characters, and our audience has helped bring it to life.
That's probably what makes me the most proud. We've had players who met through DOFUS, became friends, fell in love, got married and had children. And now some of those children are discovering our universe themselves. That's quite extraordinary.
For American audiences, the good news is that it's becoming much easier to discover our work.
You can start with WAKFU, play DOFUS, or discover DOFUS – Book I: Julith and Welsh & Shedar on our new Krosmoz YouTube channel. Everything there is free, and we're making more and more content available in different languages.
You don't need to know twenty years of history to get started. Just pick a story that looks interesting.
And if you enjoy it, well… there's quite a lot more waiting for you!
Studio Massket Producer, Widad Noureddine:
Salvatore Cento: On the official Studio Massket website, there is a long list of projects that the studio has worked on - which goes all the way back to 2020. Some of the more notable titles include One Piece, Pokemon, Bleach and Spy X Family. When it came to Ankama and their newest installment in the Krosmoz universe - Welsh and Shedar - what was it about their vision that drove/motivated you to work with them?
Widad Noureddine: I first met Tot back in 2018 when he visited the anime studio I was working at in Tokyo at the time (Emon Haoliners). Being French, I grew up familiar with the Dofus and Wakfu universe, but we didn’t really talk about Welsh & Shedar back then. Fast forward to around August 2023, he brought up the idea of producing it together with me at Studio Massket. We were already in the middle of our first main production, The Weakest Tamer, so I knew that technically we had the capacity to handle it in-house.
The real hurdle with Welsh & Shedar was the international co-production aspect. What really drove me was taking on that challenge: putting together a genuine co-production between France and Japan for the first time since the 80s. There used to be plenty of those back in the day—shows like Ulysses 31, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, or Inspector Gadget—but back then, Japan was essentially acting as a subcontractor for foreign companies. The industry has completely changed since; Japan is fully aware of the global weight of anime and stands as the leader in original IPs, which means the very concept of a "co-production" had to evolve too.
When Tot shared the rewritten script, I was immediately hooked. It gave me pure 90s fantasy anime vibes. As a fan of the medium, I felt this story had huge potential to speak to people who miss that classic fantasy tone—especially those a bit burnt out on modern isekai. Plus, the fact that anyone can jump into the story without having to know the broader Ankama lore beforehand was really the clincher for me.
Cento: This new anime-style visual that is being brought forth for Welsh and Shedar - it’s quite the change from the norm for Ankama. During your talks in collaborating with the french entertainment company - and as much as you understand their perspective - what is the goal behind this visual change?
Noureddine: To put it simply: we’re a Japanese animation studio, and our craft is anime. There was no point in trying to copy Ankama’s existing style. You can’t beat the original anyway, so if the plan had been to mirror their look 1:1, it would have made far more sense for them to do it in-house.
The whole idea behind this collaboration was to create a series that would speak to anime fans both in Japan and internationally. Giving it a proper Japanese anime look felt like a genuinely interesting way to reinvent the project, especially since different overseas artists had already tried their hand at designs 15 years ago. Seeing his world filtered through the lens of a Tokyo-based studio was actually what caught Tot’s attention in the first place.
I brought Saori Nakashiki onto the project—she’s a fantastic animator and character designer. She connected with the story right away and drew some initial rough designs for the leads. Tot loved them, so we pushed the concept further and redesigned the dragon with a strong Record of Lodoss War influence. We really wanted to channel that specific golden-era feel—Lodoss, Slayers, Escaflowne, that whole vibe.
Cento: Correct me if I’m wrong, but behind The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash (2024) - Welsh and Shedar will be the second only project where Studio Massket is the primary animation house. What does being the primary animation house actually involve when compared to what goes on for all the collaborations under “production cooperation” (as stated on The Studio Massket website under “works”)?
Noureddine: While The Weakest Tamer is often billed as our first in-house production, that’s not entirely accurate. Before that, we produced a 12-episode web anime series (15-minute episodes) for Season 3 of Onmyoji: Heian Monogatari, based on the NetEase game. The scale was smaller, but our team was much leaner back then too. The Weakest Tamer was really the first full-length, broadcast-level test for our crew.
Having managed in-house projects at other studios before, I knew firsthand how tough the lead studio (moto-uke) position is. Massket built its reputation primarily on outsourcing (gross-uke), so most of our team had only worked under pipelines run by other companies, like Wit Studio, MAPPA, or Toei. Taking the reins of a production is a completely different job, and very few studios can actually pull it off. There are over 800 animation studios in Japan, but fewer than 10% have the infrastructure to produce complete TV series in-house. That figure alone shows the gap.
Instead of just following someone else’s schedule and management, you have to build, understand, and steer the entire pipeline yourself. Many studios can deliver high-quality short cuts—from 30 seconds to 5 or 10 minutes—but sustaining over 300 minutes of consistent broadcast-grade animation under tight deadlines, while continuing our outsourcing commitments, takes serious organizational muscle. The groundwork we laid on The Weakest Tamer allowed us to carry over half the production on My Deer Friend Nokotan, and eventually take on the full production of To Your Eternity Season 3. We actually started pre-production on Welsh & Shedar while right in the middle of producing To Your Eternity.
Cento: I’m assuming at some point that you found out that Welsh and Shedar was originally crafted just about fourteen years ago (2012). Was there anything at all from that original starting point that you kept design-wise . . . in terms of visuals or animation-side - or was it in the best interest for Studio Massket to start from scratch?
Noureddine: Of course, we made sure to use everything Tot shared with us as references. The story and cast had evolved quite a bit since 2012, and over the years they had put together multiple graphic bibles by different artists, all with very distinct aesthetics. We kept elements of those earlier concepts, but adjusted them to fit Tot’s updated story and our team’s creative direction.
Tot was genuinely curious to see how Japanese creators would interpret his world, so the back-and-forth was a lot of fun. Whenever a character didn't have an established reference, we’d pitch ideas, get his thoughts, have our artists work up roughs, and go back and forth until everyone was happy with the result.
I often say that Ankama’s identity isn’t just in their art style — it’s in how they tell stories. So even if we revamped the designs completely, that Ankama touch would still be there. Starting entirely from scratch might have been simpler logistically, but keeping Ankama’s lore intact was essential; we wanted long-time fans to feel that respect on screen. For existing fans, there are subtle clues and connections to pick up on, while for newcomers, it works just as well as an accessible entry point into the universe.
Cento: Studio Massket has made music videos (for Cyberpunk Edgerunners) and cutscenes / opening cinematics for video games (Orbitals, a puzzler adventure for Switch 2). How does working on those projects compare to what you did for Welsh and Shedar?
Noureddine: These projects were initiatives I personally brought to Massket to prove that international collaboration could actually work in practice. On the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners music video, our main job was to stay faithful to the game's established identity, which gave us a ton of creative freedom. Orbitals was much trickier because the game itself was actively being developed at the same time.
We had to "nerf" our style a bit to nail that authentic 80s anime look, and we constantly had to adjust our cuts whenever their in-game assets changed. In the traditional anime industry, once a model sheet or layout is approved, it’s locked—that’s an absolute golden rule.
With Welsh & Shedar, the scale and the stakes were on another level. From day one, I told Tot that the only way this would work was by running it strictly within the Japanese production framework. International co-productions often run into trouble or end up compromised because conflicting workflows derail them. We agreed that Ankama would focus on the script and music, while we at Massket took full charge of the production pipeline in Tokyo—with Tot regularly checking in on milestones and sharing his feedback.
Cento: In your opinion - as a producer at Studio Massket - what would you say was the most important responsibility when it came to bringing Welsh and Shedar to life?
Noureddine: On a series like Welsh & Shedar, the core challenge of executive producing is that you're constantly balancing responsibilities that often pull in different directions.
First, you have a duty to the creator: keeping the project faithful to the world Tot imagined. Then, you have a responsibility to your studio team: getting them excited about working on an unusual, cross-cultural project while keeping their daily workflow structured just like any other production. On top of that comes the artistic responsibility: delivering solid animation quality that lives up to Japanese broadcast standards. And finally, the biggest one is delivering something that connects with the audience—whether that’s longtime Ankama fans or general anime viewers.
Many co-productions fall apart because foreign companies tend to treat Japanese studios like simple vendors who just take orders. Real co-production is about working together on equal footing. It requires healthy compromises, not a top-down relationship. At the same time, keeping the budget in check and hitting broadcast deadlines is a massive part of the job. In animation, you can tweak and polish a cut forever if you have endless time and money. The real test for a producer is knowing what to fix and what to lock down so you keep the artistic ambition high without blowing the schedule.
Cento: While doing research for this interview, I learned that you are fluent in Japanese, French and English. Very, very impressive! How does that come into play with a collaboration like this? Did you ever find it challenging being the language liaison? Or did creative direction ever get lost in translation?
Noureddine: Thanks for noting that! It was definitely a big factor. The fact that Tot and I are both French made building that initial trust much easier, especially with the original script being written in French. That said, within the studio in Tokyo, we work entirely in Japanese. We don't use English in production meetings, so switching back and forth between the two languages was fun, but undeniably exhausting.
I’m always very deliberate with the words I choose in Japanese, because a slight misunderstanding can quickly cause friction in production. Being bilingual isn't enough to act as a bridge—if you pick the wrong term, it can derail an entire sequence down the line. It goes beyond the language itself; you have to understand how people think. In Japanese, there's the concept of kuuki wo yomu (
Did things get lost in translation? Naturally. There's that Italian saying, traduttore, traditore—to translate is to betray. When you take a French script, you run into jokes, sarcasm, and rhythms that just don't exist in Japanese dialogue. Tot’s writing relies a lot on dry French wit and conversational irony that feels completely unnatural if you translate it literally into Japanese. Irony simply doesn't play out the same way in Japanese narrative tradition.
Bridging that gap meant doing substantial adaptation work on the script. We stayed true to the core narrative and emotional beats, but we reworked lines and scene timing so the drama would land properly with Japanese voice actors and audiences. When we wrapped that adaptation phase and both sides were happy with the result, I knew we had cleared the hardest obstacle. Welsh & Shedar wasn’t just about getting a series out the door; it was about taking a dormant project, bringing it across the finish line, and showing that a modern, respectful co-production can really work.
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If you want to dive into the world of Krosmoz yourself, check out the official Krosmoz Youtube channel where you can watch numerous Ankama productions for free!
Welsh and Shedar episodes will be uploaded (the first episode is available as of this writing) as well as the entire movie of Dofus – Book 1: Julith!
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