English Dub Review: The Bizarre Stories of Professor Zarbi “Hellz Ketchup”; “The Space Arcade”

 

 

Overview:

“Hellz Ketchup”

A small town is being overrun with rage as friends and neighbours begin fighting in the grocery store. When Professor Zarbi and Benjamin come to investigate they find a culprit in a new brand of ketchup. Infiltrating the factory, they discover that the ketchup is being made by demons set on turning everyone evil. But getting out with their lives is going to be a tighter squeeze.

 

“The Space Arcade”

When a mysterious new game shows up at the arcade, a young girl ends up being captured within the pixels. Enter player two, Professor Zarbi jumps into the game to help save the damsel. And with a little help from Benjamin, Zarbi will have to jump and battle his way to the end boss. Although they will quickly discover that the origins of this game are out-of-this-world.

 

Our Take:

This episode puts a wrap on the first season of the English dubbed Bizarre Stories of Professor Zarbi. Thankfully, that is not all for the strange professor and his occult adventures. The original French version of this show has been releasing a second season parallel to the English premieres. Though when the next volume will find a release in English-speaking Canada is yet to be confirmed.

There is more good news, however. This final edition to the season may be one of the strongest. In place of simplified retellings of classic monster stories, these final two stories are as original as they come.

“Hellz Ketchup” puts Professor Zarbi and Benjamin in the heat as they sneak into a demonic factory. Run by Lucifer, this ketchup brand is seemingly made of body parts of the same hellish monsters that work there. The product is intended to cause chaos and evil on the human plane, with hopes of making the world a darker place.

The story plays out much as you would expect, with our heroes saving the day. However, it does take the ultimate sacrifice as Benjamin puts his mentor first in a Terminator-style play. Making this a fun original story with enough parodies and references to keep it interesting and fun.

The final story of the season may have been one of the best. A mysterious arcade game arrives on Earth to challenge human players much like The Last Starfighter. Though this version puts the controller directly inside the pixelized side-scroller. And with only four lives, the player must beat the game or be captured within the console forever. Honestly, if the Pixels movie were more like this, it would have been much better.

With the inconsistency of this series, they could not have ended the season on a stronger pair of episodes. At least the second one, which delivered something modern and unique and ended on a humorous note. There is comfort in knowing that there is more of this show to come. But, having season one conclude with one of the most quality episodes, will have us anticipating that release even more.