Western Animation / Dofus: Kerub's Bazaar

It's Story Time.

"Each of these items has a story. Each of them was an adventure. And that's what makes them treasures."

Dofus: Kerub's Bazaar (FR: Dofus : Aux Trésors de Kerubim) is an animated series set in the world of the Dofus MMORPG. Unlike its sister series, Wakfu, there is no great overarching adventure to be had, nor any powerful villain to thwart. In fact, the central premise of the series is that all of Kerubim's adventures are already over. Instead, most episodes are about the eponymous character regaling his adopted grandson with tales about his adventures when he was younger, usually based around a trophy of some sort that he gained from it.

Each episode is roughly 12 minutes long, and with few exceptions, all focus on Kerubim telling a story to his adopted son Joris, live-in maid Simone, random friends and acquaintances, or any combination of the above. These stories are told via flashback, and revolve around an item that Kerubim had collected during his days as a young adventurer.

In 2016 a sequel movie was released titled Dofus: Book 1- Julith, you can find tropes for it here.

On November 2nd, 2017 an English Dub premiered exclusively on VRV in the United States.

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Dofus: Kerub's Bazaar provides examples of:

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Ecaflip City
• Action Girl: Lou, Simone, and pretty much every girl that Kerubim gets interested in, like Cacoon and Makra.
• The Ace: Kerubim himself, in his younger days. His rival, Indie, would also qualify. Though the biggest ace in the show would have to be Lou. She almost always puts Kerubim and Indie to shame.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Pupuce, a giant flea acts like one.
• Animesque: Like Wakfu, the animation and art style resemble Japanese anime.
• Anticlimax: Played for laughs in the Bouftout Set episode: while Kerubim is away, Simone and Joris speculates on how he obtained the pieces of the Set and thinks of a great, epic and nonsensical story. Near the end, Kerubim tells them that he simply got it from a shepherd after looking after his flock. Disappointed, Simone and Joris leave, and only then Kerubim starts narrating to Pupuce how he had to guard said flock from a horde of monsters...
• Axe-Crazy:
  • Ruby. Easily the most unstable villain seen so far, and the one capable of the most wide-spread destruction.
  • One episode also featured the normally sweet and shy governor's bride-to-be turned into this after being possessed by a Shushu.
    "A carnage! You promised me a carnage!!"
• Back in the Saddle: In the last episode Kerubium decides to become a traveling merchant, which is sure to cause a great many adventures.
• Badass Adorable: Kerubim, especially in his storys when he was younger.
• Badass Pacifist: Kanigroo, who's also The Big Guy of Kerub's former group of companions.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't call Simone a wench.
  • Again related to Simone: don't flirt with Julie. This is best shown in Episode 43. Heck, anything regarding hurting Julie is this for Simone, including being delayed thus causing Simone to be late for a date with her.
  • Leave the Ecaflip God's threadball alone, if you value your life.
• Blow You Away: In one episode, Simone wields a broom-like tool with a large leaf for a head which can summon forth squalls of wind.
• Book Ends: The First episode is about Simone coming to town and the last is about her leaving, Bob from Bonta shows infatuation with her in both.
• Born Lucky: Kerubim. His races' god, Ecaflip, grants his followers immense luck, but is occasionally prone to taking it away at the worst time.
• Break the Cutie: Lou suffers this in the Ecaflip City trilogy. She was invited by Kerub after his recent winnings in the titular city, a city where virtually anything can be gambled, won...or lost (we see one man lose a bet for his hair, which then disappears and reappears on his opponents head). She notices his new-found habit to bet on everything going on around him, and once he starts doing it with her, believes that his desire to play is more important than his love for her. As she leaves, Kerub stops her and proposes, which she accepts. But a moment later, he receives an invitation to play against the city's champion, The Baron, the whole reason he kept playing even after getting more than enough money to propose to Lou with dignity (he had previously sold almost everything he owned to buy her ring). Lou expected her fiancee to not go through with the game as she went to find a wedding dress. Sometime later, while being fitted for a weeding dress, she is shocked and angered to discover that Kerubim is playing anyway. She then watches in horror as he, goaded by the Baron, he bets her wedding ring, which represents her love for him, along with everything else in his wager. In the end, Kerubim loses everything including the ring. Somehow, this caused him to be wiped from her memory. She slowly looks down at her wedding dress and around the wedding boutique she was in, says "What am I doing here?" with a vacant look on her face and walks slowly out of the city.
  • The flashbacks from earlier episodes of the season hint that this was not the end, as there are still questions if she regained her memories, or what led her to leave Kerub and their Shushu-possessed house, Luis.
• Cain and Abel: Kerubim to his brother Achtam.
• Cat Folk: Kerubim, like all Ecaflips. Both his rival and love interest are Dog Folk instead.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Joris has one, which sticks with him in the sequel movie, Dofus
• Cheerful Child: Joris, full stop.
• Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder: Croc literally suffers from this. He's a perfectly congenial guy who loves his friends... he just suffers an irresistible tendency to betray or double-cross anyone, even lifelong friends.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Lou. Even now, Kerubim is sullen over her leaving.
  • Hope Spot: The ending suggests that the two might meet again. Kerubim is pretty sullen when he says that, though.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Granted, Unreliable Narrator may be at work, but in episode 47, Indie and Kerubim fight none other than Djaul, the infamous Shushu, during their battle for the Ivory Dofus, and the clash ends with Djaul falling down the tower and into a black abyss.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Literally for the Iech'ti: He's completely stone-faced in reaction to Kerubim's series of gags and jokes, even admitting that they may be funny but he doesn't find them amusing, but then Kerubim finds out that he actually likes crude, tasteless gags with Keke hurting himself over and over again.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: in one episode, Kerubim bisects a giant, humanoid monster by wielding said monster's butter knife as a huge cleaver. Its upper half then tries to chase him, only to get pushed into the cooking pot Kerubim had just escaped from.
• Fatal Flaw: Being an Ecaflip, Kerubim relies on luck for his success. This tends to come back and bite him from time to time, but none more so than his time in Ecaflip City.
• Fixing the Game: Implied to be the case with The Baron, as he was under the control of Ecaflip. Since Ecaflip is the god of chance and luck, it would be literally impossible to beat him in any gamble, as they would be fixed on a metaphysical level by default. In the end he is only "defeated" by Kerubim choosing not to play.
• Forced Transformation: The cursed Snappers from a river near the temple of Ecaflip give ichtyan body-parts to those who eat them. Even the Ecaflip God isn't completely immune.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Not that there's a strong focus on continuity to begin with, but often earlier episodes will show things that are only fully explained in later ones.
  • In the first episode, Simone asks a few vendors how to get to Kerubim's shop. They all know him and where he lives, but one of them (Croc) tries to send her the wrong way for no reason. In episode 16, the vendors are revealed as former adventuring pals of Kerubim, and we learn that Croc has a psychological compulsion to betray people, whether he wants to or not.
• Formerly Fit: The Modern Day Ecaflip God is quite fat, but a flashback shown in one episode he had a Heroic Build (and only two arms).
• Future Badass: Joris in about 1000 years.
• Genius Loci: Luis, a Shushu possessing Kerubim's house.
• Giant Spider: One episode has a gigantic arachnee, who'a actually the docile and vegetarian pet of a travelling artist, who can speak to her thanks to a special headgear.
• Girl of the Week: Most of Kerubim's stories have a girl that he's trying to get with, but Lou is the only recurring one. Lou has a problem with this.
• God Guise: In Episode 11, Kerubim is mistaken for the Ecaflip God by some natives, and later on he actively pretends to be him (aided by the giant Arachnee he's befriended) to scare a family of Trools into releasing the girls they were about to eat. This time though, the real Ecaflip pays a visit and decide to make things harder for his favourite disciple.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Brutusse and Brutale, a pair of Iop sisters who first appear in a distant flashback as thugs hired to get rid of Kerubim, only to show up in the present, old and wrinkled, for one last attempt on his life.
• Gratuitous Italian: Played for laughs in a dream where Kerubim and Lou are riding a gondola with the Ecaflip God as the gondoliere, singing in "italian" (mostly repeating names of various dishes and foods.) Seen also in the name of Tortue's race (Tartaruga, which means Turtle).
• Happily Adopted: Joris.
• Hartman Hips: Every attractive female has very large hips, just like in Wakfu.
• Hate Sink: In-Universe, Kerubim has this amulet, called the "Love Killer", which makes the wearer this: everyone around him, even his best friends, will immediatly get mad at him and hate him. This almost cause a break-up between Simone and Julie.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Mad Xelor, a source of a lot of trouble for Kerubim in the past and even the present, never appears in the show.
• Hide Your Lesbians: Averted, while nothing much is said about Simone and Julies relationship, the hints that they are in said relationship are anything but subtle.
  • Also, during one episode it's highly implied (for laughs) that the tyrant of the Moon People and his second in command Naus were in a relationship. Not to mention the episode where Lou works in a Burlesque house - exclusively for women...
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: The Iop partecipting to the Dragonturkey race is several times the size of his own, sad-looking mount.
• Hurl It into the Sun: How Kerubim gets rid of the tyrannical leader of the Moon folk when strapped on the moon.
• Hydra Problem: The Infernal Hydra in the backstory could regrow his heads in an istant, so the Ecaflip God made the Nine Tails sword to chop off all his heads in one go, solving the problem.
• Ignored Enemy:
  • If Kerubim and Indie are aiming for the same enemy, expect them to ignore him and focus on each other. Notable in episode 31:
    Bad Guy: Hey!! Can you stop ignoring me? I'm the bad guy here!
  • Deconstructed in episode 13: Kerubim and Indie bicker while on the Crackler's head instead of attacking Ruby who, after a while, simply flings Ke-Ke off the golem.
• Improvised Golem: The red jewel which Ruby asked for can summon one from the nearby enviroment upon pronouncing the magical words "Krak-la-Cadabra!" nearby. It's unstoppable as long as someone doesn't speak the words again.
• Incompatible Orientation: One of many reasons Simone has no interest in Bob from Bonta, probably the least important.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Kerubim at times, but most notably Sanata from the Dragonturkey Race episode: the amount of slapstick she gets through is something worthy of a certain coyote. Since she is a Dick Dastardly Expy, this is kinda expected.
• Ironic Fear: Simone, a member of the monster-taming Osamodas race, is utterly terrified of arachnees (small spiders). Kerubim is not impressed.
  Kerubim: An Osamodas, afraid of an arachnee. What is the world coming to?
• Jerkass God: The Ecaflip God: he's a divine being. And also a Cat. Though in Ke-Ke's case, he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Luis is, most of the time, grumpy, sarcastic and unhelpful to his master Ke-Ke, but is kind to Simone and even openly cries when she leaves in the final episode.
  • Bashi is still bitter and rude to Kerubim after all these years, but the look on his face when he sees his long-forgotten friendship badge he made with him implies that, deep down, he still cherishes those times.
• The Jinx: Koalak infants, at least according to Kerubim. He doesn't even want to have one in his shop and has invented a specific, jinx-banishing dance to keep away the Koalak's bad luck. A flashback reveals how one infant's bad luck almost gets him killed and loses a long sought out treasure.
• LARP: One time, Kerub's gang set up a Role Playing service, fabricating adventures when there wasn't much to go around.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Lou loses her memories in the "Ecaflip City" incident when Kerubim bets on a representation of their love. After recovering a serious loss, he searches high and low to find her. Unable to restore her memories, he decides to start fresh and atone for taking their love for granted.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Simone and her girlfriend Julie.
• Love at First Sight: Julie falls for Simone when they first lock eyes in Episode 1.
• MacGuffin Guardian: In his stories Kerubim had his shares of these guys. Including the giant metal soldier at the top of the Mad Xelor's tower, the giant Mosquito guarding the Likrone Horn and the Minotauror.
• The Magic Poker Equation: Happens twice in one game in the Ecalflip City arc. Possibly justified due to the manipulation of the god Ecaflip.
• Make Up or Break Up: Kerubim and Lou break up frequently, but almost always find a way back togther. Kerubim screws up royally during the "Ecaflip City" incident and sets out to find her.
• Mundane Utility: At one point, Kerubim uses a device that allows him to rewind time to help him get more money out of one of his customers.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Subverted with Croc: he's a friendly Master of Disguise who suffers from a literal Chronic Backstabbing Disorder which urges him to betray his friends once in a while. Other than this, he's a nice guy.
• New Job as the Plot Demands:
  • Though Kerubim and his acquaintances are usually standard adventurers, they have done everything from Art to Transportation of Goods to Racing to Law (though Kerub only became a defense lawyer to win Lou's affection from Indie, though Lou was already a judge and Indie a prosecutor.)
  • Really, this applies to both Indie and Lou as well. All three have gone through multiple professions over the course of the series.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Kerubim ended up pissing off someone so much, he hired two Iop thugs to kill him years later. Kerubim remembers this, but we never find out what led to that point. He is no less annoyed that the one who hired them is still bearing that old grudge.
  • We never know why Lou left Kerubim and Luis years ago, but it was enough to break their heart. At the end of the series, they and Joris set out to find her.
• No-Sell: In episode 21, the tyrant of the Moon people wields a scepter that can disintegrated his subjects with an electrical beam. When he uses it on Kerubim, though, he's zapped but doesn't die, possibly because the scepter works better (or only) on the invertebrate Moon folk.
• Obviously Evil: In the Dragonturkey Race episode we have a rider named "Santana" and her mount "Dialobos". Uhm...
• One-Winged Angel: The Ecaflip God, when he thinks Kerubim has destroyed his yarn ball. He looks genuinely frightening.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: One episode has Kerubim and Indie captured by a Giant girl living in a castle in the sky with her pet. On the one hand, she only wants to have friends, on the other she's dangerously childish and treats her playmates like dolls. Literally.
• Panty Thief: Kerubim blatantly points out that after obtaining a pair of a giantess' "ploomers" saved him from a fall to his and his rival's deaths, he started a collection of sorts. Naturally, this fact sounded too embarrassing to Simone, and demanded the shopkeeper wash his own clothes from now on.
• Paper-Thin Disguise / Master of Disguise: Croc, played as a hilarious combination. He is capable of disguising himself perfectly into anyone he pleases only by wearing a single piece of accessory, for example a hat or a necklace. To viewers, his appearance doesn't change at all, but to other characters in the show, his disguises are perfect, and it is impossible to tell him from anyone he is acting. For example, in Episode 48:
  Croc: [simply puts on Kerubim's necklace in order to disguise himself] Ta-dah!
  Kerubim: [gasps] Unbelievable, it's just like me!
• The Pigpen: During a story made up by Joris and Simone, Kerubim has to steal the Gobball Greaves from the feet of an undead knight. Said feet are so atrociously smelly that normally all rogues who tries to take them drop dead on the spot. Also Joris, compelled by the Fountain of Noffoub's curse, reveals that he bathes once a week.
• Prequel: This series takes place long before the Wakfu series.
• Real Men Wear Pink: In a flashback episode, Kerubim accidentally puts on a pair of magic ballet shoes that force him to dance and cannot be removed for 4 hours. Despite being mocked by Indie and his gang, he still manages to beat them at Gobball while tiptoeing and waltzing around.
• Retired Badass: Kerubim is seen as one of the greatest adventurers in the world. His entire collection of magical items (including an elusive Dofus egg) is proof enough, but he is always up for telling stories of how he got each one.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • Joris, especially when he is excited for a story.
  • Pupuce, Joris' pet flea.
  • Kerub himself, especially in episodes where he's really young and taken to 11 in the movie when he gets turned into a baby. He still retains being cute well into his old age.
• The Rival: Indie, to Kerubim.
• Rotoscoping: Gullivette the giant girl, which makes her stand out a lot even compared to other characters.
• Sapient House: Luis, a shushu sealed into the form of a house. Rather than being evil like most shushus, he's generally just a grump. He's been especially moody ever since Lou left, though Simone's arrival cheers him up. She's the first person he's let clean himself in years. Keep in mind that, beforehand, he refused to let anyone but Lou clean him. He's still a sarcastic grump even hundreds of years later, demanding that Joris, Kerubum and Atram ask him politely to be let in out of the pouring rain.
• Shark Man: Bashi, Kerubim's former friend, is a member of this race. Normally nice, he can become very, very dangerous when angry.
• Shout-Out: see the subpage.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Kerubim and Indie kinda hate each other or so they say, but most episodes, especially when they're older, have them forced to work together. At least two episode specifically show that underneath their rivalry are two people who really care about one another.
  • One of the episodes focus on them actually getting along after near-death experience, to the point where their girlfriends try to make them hate eacher other again. They start fighting again because they couldn't agree on a name for the shop they have set up.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Bob from Bonta. He considers himself to be an exceptional adventurer and ladies man, but his supposed exploits and charm utterly fail to impress Kerubim and Simone, respectively. It's especially humorous to people who've played the game. All the deeds Bob brags about are low-level challenges. Lampshaded when Kerubim examines his stuff... and quickly evaluates everything as useless trash, much to the latter's shock.
• Stalker with a Crush: Patafiks, or as Indie called him, "Psycho-Pat". Once Kerubim lets him enter the club he starts annoying Kerubim to no end and copy every single things he does. When he's banished he grows even more desperate and insane, stalking Ke-Ke like a zombie while thinking that it's just a trial to gauge his loyalty.
• Sudden Video-Game Moment:
  • Happens at least four times, respectively referencing Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Bomberman and Metal Gear.
  • And in a metareferencial way, when Kerub and Indie start their battle against a dojo master, the scene is briefly shown in Dofus's game interface.
• The Man Behind the Man: It's unclear whether The Baron was a creation of Ecaflip or simply being controlled by him, however when Kerubim refuses the rematch against him, The Baron is shown to be controlled by strings extending from Ecaflip's hand, which break, causing The Baron to slump down immobile.
• Threatening Shark: Bashi, a hammerhead shark-man who stands at least twelve feet tall and has the strength and temper to match.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Short Kerubim and tall Lou.
• The Tooth Hurts: When Kerubim is nearly swallowed by the monstrous D-Rex he hides in the monster's rotten tooth and proceed to tickle and yank the exposed nerve to make lose control from pain and recover his tooth.
• Tragic Mistake: In the Ecaflip City trilogy, Kerub's past adventure in the titular city had him foolishly betting everything in a game of cards against Escaflip city's champion, The Baron, which included a wedding ring symbolizing his love for Lou, his fiancee. Contrary to his belief that he had a winning hand, the Baron defeated him, and so not only did he lose everything he had (or won) up to this point, he caused Lou to lose her memories. Kerub's desperation led to an unhealthy addiction to gambling, causing him to be sent to a mental institute that helps rid people of said addiction. By refusing to play against Baron again as a final test, he sets out to find Lou. At present time, he continues his yearly vow to never set foot in the city.
• Trash of the Titans: Enforced. Luis, the Shushu possessing Kerubim's house, had refused to allow Kerubim to clean up for years before the series started, though whether he was doing it out spite or genuinely preferred the filth is unclear. It stemmed from the fact that Lou, Kerubim's old girlfriend, left them both and he entrusted her to clean him. He eventually lets Simone clean up the mess.
• Treasure Room: The shop is filled to the brim with some of the rarest treasures and items Kerubim aquired in his adventures, and some rare ones hidden in the back room. He even has a rare Dofus egg.
• Unreliable Narrator: It is implied that Kerubim is embellishing his stories or sometimes even making them up from scratch. Still, the fact that he possesses the genuine rare and powerful relics that the stories are attached to gives credibility to his stories, so figuring out how much of Kerubim's stories are true and how much is made up or embellished is left up to the viewer. This dynamic is part of the show's charm.
• Very Special Episode:
  • The Ecaflip City trilogy had Kerubim conquer his addiction of gambling after losing everything in a game of cards.
  • To a lesser extent, there is an episode about addiction to television.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Kerubim and Indie, they may profess to be bitter enemies but many episodes show that they are probably the closest thing either one has to a best friend.
  • Kerubim and Bashi fit the trope a little better, as the two at least tried to maintain a friendship which was frayed by adversity. Bashi still ends up hating Kerubim in a far more hostile way than Indie does.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kerubim, at one point, rescues Lou from a "Groundhog Day" Loop style labrynth (sometime after he broke up with her), but makes the mistake of mentioning that he was Forced to Watch her die several times before he succeeded. It results in a brutal slap from her before dumping him, though it was implied they got back together later.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: The most recent memory Kerubim has of Lou was when she had to leave him and Louis for an unexplained task, and they can't follow her. The final episode has him, Louis, and Joris travel in hopes of one day finally finding her.
• Whip of Dominance: Lou's weapon of choice, which she used, among various things, to "tame" Luis the giant House-possessing Shushu by literally beating him into submission.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The Dragoturkey race episode is a blatant Wacky Races reference, with a female Sram in Dick Dastardly's role^note Her name is Sanata, witch is almost an anagram of Satanas, Dick Dastardly's French name; her Dragoturkey's name, Dialobo, is also an anagram of Diabolo, Muttley's French name, and just like Dastardly she would have won if she didn't keep stopping to cheat.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Ruby's standard motivation: she used to be an adorable but incompetent Summoner, failing school since she could only summon Bouftouts. As soon as she gets her giant Krackler she rubs this in the face of her old teacher.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In one episode Kerubim decides to crossdress to be close to an amnesiac Lou, who's working in a women-only Burlesque House. He comes to enjoy it a tad too much. And at the end of the episode, it turns out the owner of the Burlesque house was a male in drag too!

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