Hello dear reader,
It has been a while since I wrote anything about Code Lyoko. In case you are unaware, Code Lyoko is a French anime that depicts a handful of children entering a digital world named Lyoko to defeat the evil virus XANA, all the while juggling school responsibilities and what not. I have reviewed three games that had Code Lyoko for its source material: The first game, Quest for Infinity, and Fall of XANA. They range from just bad to plain mediocre. But the subject for this post is not about video games.
There has been a bit of hoopla surrounding Code Lyoko: Evolution (CLE), a continuation series of where the original Code Lyoko cartoon left off. It currently has 19 episodes, all of which is French, before going on an indefinite hiatus. I've watched all 19 episodes, including 1 English dub, because I used to review Code Lyoko games and watched the original series. In this post I just want to outline the general plot of the series so far, and talk about the show's quality in another post; if I put both parts in one blog we'll be here all day.
Introduction
Code Lyoko concluded when the threat of XANA was gone forever and the kids [Jeremy, Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd] went back into their normal lives. But a couple of months later XANA appears again, albeit in a more limited form through minor electrical vandalisms around the school. The kids are now thrust back into being "Lyoko Warriors" as they need to stop the virus once again. However there are some new status quos worth mentioning.
The Grab For Codes
With XANA back for some reason, the kids have to keep entering Lyoko to deactivate towers, the structures that allow XANA to interact with the real world and cause havoc. Originally Aelita is the only one to do this [making her especially important], but now even Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd can perform the same function [Jeremy is monitoring his friends in the lab, so he does not go to Lyoko]. This is because it is discovered that XANA injected a piece of himself into the Lyoko Warriors to stay alive before it seemingly disappeared. Now XANA wants those codes back.
To do this, XANA creates spectres, human lookalikes whose main directive is to suck up all the codes from the kids. Usually a spectre grabs codes by physically interacting with the kids; hugging is the most effective tool [I KNOW RIGHT]. Should XANA gets all the codes it becomes all-powerful and the kids cannot stop it from doing what it wants. So instead of just creating minor inconveniences, XANA is about retrieving the codes that the kids have. Recently the group has figured a way out to take back codes from XANA, albeit in very small amounts.
The standardization of William Dunbar
Throughout the original series William Dunbar was a secondary character. He was a potential romantic interest to Yumi, hence he became a rival to Ulrich in that regard. He helped the gang at times and was even a Lyoko Warrior after some period of routinely bumping into the group and helping. However right when he became a full-fledged member, XANA took control of him. The last season of the show had him constantly fighting against the group he was accepted to.
It is a similar situation in CLE; the group is reluctant to re-integrate William for his past misdeeds. But a couple of heroic moments later on Lyoko, William is finally one of the guys. Personally I like how William gets seamlessly transitioned into the core, but on the flipside that makes him a bit more normal than I wanted. William always was someone who did his own thing before Lyoko, and even though he is still a bit of a spunky dude he still feels now a bit generic. The fact that he doesn't really have any hobby or personal subplots makes him even less compelling. In short, he's just... there.
The addition of Laura Gauthier
Now this is an addition that I think makes sense and is handled better. Laura is a completely new character, exclusive to CLE. Her nickname is "Ms Einstein", putting her intelligence on par [if not more] with the Aelita's and Jeremy's. The group approaches her when they have a technical problem that they cannot solve in one episode, and while she provides the know-how it's hard to call her a part of the group. The first time Laura came to help resulted in Aelita wiping out her memories as the latter distrusts the former bitterly. But when the group comes to Laura for help again, Laura bugged the computer so that her memories will not wipe out, forcing the gang to accept her into the fold begrudgingly. Tensions are also present because Aelita fears that Laura will supplant her as Jeremy's love interest and/or main source of technical expertise. Sending Laura to Lyoko further diminishes Aelita's importance in the group and is the last straw. Gauthier is not really close to anyone in the group to begin with, although Jeremy and William do stand up for her.
Perhaps this is one of CLE's strengths, that the drama comes from the group having both XANA and internal pressures to deal with [and other villains, as we see later] brought on by this upstart/hotshot. Laura is an interesting character because she doesn't understand the weight of fighting via Lyoko and saving the world, and thus can do things considered selfish or agenda-chasing. She can turn her colleagues off and come off as very pushy and arrogant. She can make comments that imply that she is not serious about the job at hand. In her defence, she has been used the first time around; she lost her memory [twice, which she remembered the second time] with virtually no say on the verdict. What exactly was she supposed to think , that her memory loss was supposed to be for some greater good? You can't convince me that she would be able to comprehend that.
Furthermore, she is constantly thrust into one difficult situation after another. For instance when her father told her that she needs to move to another school, she showed her dad the supercomputer to explain to him why she needs to stay [only for the group to wipe the father's memories]. To the group Laura was close to being a traitor because she let the Lyoko secret out. There was another episode when an agent was interrogating Laura about Lyoko; if she cooperates she can get a fast track to work in super-high-tech laboratories, playing to her desires of working with the finest scientific gadgets. Just watching Laura having a personal tug-of-war within herself about her relations to Jeremy and company shows a bit of improvement on the writers' part; they now understand that group dynamics are not supposed to be fluid, not hunky dory, in a good cartoon.
The Cortex
Lyoko used to be the key battleground between Jeremy et. al and XANA. It still is to a certain extent, when Ulrich or someone else has to shut down towers. But the new place of interest is the Cortex, a fortress-esque structure that contains the all-important database that helps the gang to discover the origins and backstory behind the supercomputer they used to keep entering Lyoko. The group also comes to the realization that it is the home of a new adversary.
You see, the Cortex is managed by a man named Professor Tyron, a former colleague of Aelita's dad [who invented the supercomputer] who wants to use the advanced tech for his own benefit. It is possible that he is behind XANA's revival; it is not claimed yet albeit implied. Tyron can also virtualize his henchmen called ninjas into the Cortex to deal with the kids. These ninjas are most likely the group's biggest obstacle, because they are just as capable as the group in a combat perspective; they are ten times more intelligent than the monster XANA keeps throwing at the children. Only one time did the ninjas get defeated in the hands of the Lyoko Warriors. Things get complicated when it is seen that Aelita's mother [who was thought to be dead] is working with Tyron. Now the group is in a race against time to both stop Tyron but also get the bottom of why Aelita's mother is with Tyron in the first place.
I will write another piece on this show, this time being a bit more analytical and giving my 2 cents concerning the watchability of this show. I hope you stay tuned.
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