OLD SCHOOL REVIEW: CODE LYOKO

“It’s a X.A.N.A attack! Get to the factory!” Now who could forget a show about a super-computer, a virtual world, and an A.I. virus bent on taking over the world?

Code Lyoko is a French animated series that ran on Cartoon Network’s Miguzi block between 2004 and 2007. The story focuses on a group of boarding school kids, known as the “Lyoko Warriors”— Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita— as they protect their school (and essentially the world) from the evil computer virus X.A.N.A. This series did an amazing job of blending 2-D animation and CGI. Plot wise, Code Lyoko has a very basic formula, but executes it perfectly: the Lyoko Warriors deal with school and typical teenage problems during the day until X.A.N.A launches an attack, which forces our heroes to protect their fellow classmates while also entering the world of Lyoko and stopping X.A.N.A.’s plot. Each episode follows this split narrative, and transitions between the dreadful attacks on the school and the Lyoko Warriors searching for a solution while fighting off X.A.N.A.’s hordes of robotic minions in exciting fashion.

During the first two seasons, after X.A.N.A was defeated, Jeremy would launch a program called “Return to the Past”, which would reset time to the beginning of the day (episode). Typically, our heroes would use their knowledge of the future to solve any personal problems they had the first time. However, the series is more focused on plot rather than on character development so the characters seem very two dimensional, rarely departing from their roles on the team. However, the best part of this series is the soundtrack music. There are a lot of techno beats and rock melodies which is characteristic of Europe, and it helps create a contrast to the seriousness of the story. Overall, I’d say this show is worth watching at least twice. You can watch the first two seasons of Code Lyoko on Hulu or the entire series (in varying qualities) on Youtube. If you find the show as amazing as I did, you can also check out the live action sequel series (in subtitles), Code Lyoko: Evolution on Youtube as well.

SCORE: 8.5/10

Go With the Flow

By: Eclipse Phantom