Code Lyoko

Director
Jerome Mouscadet
Country of origin
France
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2003

Code Lyoko

By Aki
9th Jan 05

All right, technically, Code Lyoko is not anime. It's actually a French cartoon that's based on anime. But at any rate, it's a fun little show that's easy to get hooked on. If you can get used to the style of animation and forgive some of the dubbing, it has some very interesting plot ideas and includes really nice computer animation.

Being a French cartoon, the setting is, of course, France, where our main characters reside at a boarding school. Jeremie is a computer genius, who I suppose could be thought of as the leader of the group. Odd is an easygoing kid who is always cracking jokes and forgetting to do his homework. Ulrich comes from Germany and possesses a quieter personality. Yumi is a Japanese girl who is a year older than the three boys and doesn't share the same classes. Although she attends the school, she lives at home with her parents rather than on the school campus.

These four students have discovered a large abandoned factory that houses a supercomputer. Through this computer they have access to a virtual world known as Lyoko.

Only two beings reside in Lyoko, one of whom is called Xana, an artificially intelligent program that has exceeded his programming and never appears in human form. The other is a humanoid girl named Aelita.

For reasons unknown, Xana despises humans is bent on the destruction of the real world. Through large towers inside Lyoko, Xana gains access to the real world and can manifest himself as a dark cloud to seize complete control of any type of machinery. He wreaks havoc by sending bulldozers to destroy buildings, setting trains on collision courses, or triggering explosions inside power plants.

Aelita is the only person with the ability to stop Xana's attacks. To do so, she must enter a tower that Xana is using and shut it down. When she shuts down a tower, the real world actually goes back in time (usually about twelve hours), completely reversing any damage Xana may have done! The only exception to this is that if someone dies, going back in time will not bring them back to life. (This is one of a few darker themes that the series has, but these hints of morbidness are never really expanded upon and don't come up much in the show.)

Aelita's task of shutting down the activated towers is not as easy as it sounds. Xana can also create and control virtual 'monsters' inside Lyoko, which then guard the towers to prevent Aelita from halting Xana's plans. There are five different kinds of monsters-Roachsters, Wasps, Crabes, Blocks, and Megatanks. All are machine-like creatures that fire lasers as their main weapons.

Since discovering Lyoko and befriending Aelita, our group of heroes resolved to help Aelita protect her own world and ours by joining in the fight against Xana. By entering large scanners, Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich can be transported through the computer and virtualized inside Lyoko. Once inside the computer, they each assume a virtual form with special abilities that enable them to fight Xana's monsters and protect Aelita until she can enter the tower.

Here is where more reference to Japanese anime becomes evident: Ulrich becomes a samurai and wields a katana. He also possesses super speed and can make copies of himself to confuse the enemy. Yumi has a geisha appearance and a paper fan that looks harmless enough, but has a razor-sharp edge and can be thrown like a boomerang to slice through anything. Her other ability includes telekinesis. Odd becomes a nekko-like creature, with large cat paws and a tail. His weapons are arrows that can be fired from the wrist, along with agility and some clairvoyance.

Once inside Lyoko, they have a limited number of life points that deplete as they sustain damage during battle with Xana's monsters. When they've lost all life points, they are automatically de-virtualized and sent back to the real world.

Since Aelita exists only inside Lyoko, her situation is a little different. She does have powers of her own, such as gaiakinesis (ability to control the earth), which means she can bend and shape the landscape of Lyoko to her will, creating fissures or land bridges. But this ability is not without limitation. Each time she uses it, she loses half of her life points. The only way to replenish her life points is to reach the tower and activate her code, reversing time and making the damage she sustained nonexistent.

While the others enter Lyoko to fight, Jeremie remains in the real world, working at the computer where he can view what's going in. He keeps in contact with Aelita and the others, pinpointing the location of towers, keeping an eye on their life points, and alerting them to how many monsters are present.

When they're not fighting inside a computer to save the world from Xana, the four main characters are trying to keep up with their studies and protect their secret from rivals, snobs, and suspicious gym teachers. All the while they're working towards a permanent solution that will enable them to shut Xana down for good.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the series has two different types of animation. Everything that goes on in the real world is drawn in typical cartoon fashion, but the entire world of Lyoko is done in 3-D computer animation, which is really quite impressive and delivers some pretty cool fight scenes.

Right now the show only has one season (twenty-six episodes), but it had a nice plot twist in the last episode that sets it up well for a second season. Overall, I guess Code Lyoko is a little different from your typical anime. It takes some getting used to, but it's fun and definitely worthwhile.

-- Aki 9th Jan 05

Code Lyoko Images