Avatar: The Last Airbender. The original Teen Titans cartoon. Code Lyoko. From the year 2000 through to the end of the decade, we received plenty of amazing anime-esques, and while I had the privilege of watching Teen Titans and Avatar as a kid, I had never heard of Code Lyoko until February of 2019. I'd seen its picture on Amazon Instant Video, but I didn't think much of it. However, an extended version of the theme was recommended to me on Youtube, and I enjoyed it. I spent the next week or two binge-watching the full series, all 95 episodes, though I must admit I skipped through the flashback montages of "Echoes," as well as the occasional cringe-fest of a scene.

So, I decided I would talk about the series as a whole, giving general thoughts about this show that I have since gone so far as to write an entire spec script of. First things first, the animation.

You can't talk about an animated series without talking about the animation. With the cartoon being made by a French animation studio, the quality of the 2D animation is on par with most others of the era, such as Totally Spies (which I refuse to sit through an episode of). Nothing about the animation was much of an eyesore, even in the first season, save the occasional reuse of entire scenes with new dialogue dubbed over them, which is unfortunately quite noticeable. However, they get better about this over time, as all shows do. The redesigns in the fourth season, minus perhaps Aelita's, are all refreshing as well, and improved the look of almost all the characters.

Having spoken of the 2D animation, I can't neglect to mention the 3D animation. Code Lyoko is unique in that it alternates between 2D and 3D animation, and not in the way that many others do, with CGI taking up the frame, but rather using it to distinguish location, which is done quite nicely. When you see 3D animation, you know you're in Lyoko. That's just how it works, and the series doesn't break away from this rule for one second, which is nice. It's also worth noting that Code Lyoko doesn't use 3D animation how it was used in, say, Dragon Prince, where it was 3D for the sake of being able to advertise that it was 3D animation, neglecting to abuse the strengths and forgetting to compensate for the weaknesses of the medium. It makes full usage of 3D animation, and you can tell by watching that the creators knew what worked better in 2D and 3D. It's why almost every romantic scene, save only one or two in my memory, took place in the real world, as facial expressions are much more easily done in 2D. They use camera perspective to their advantage in both, and it works wonders.

The show had many characters to juggle, and with two exceptions, I was able to care about all of them. The two exceptions are Odd and William, the former due to being obnoxious and the latter to due to being a borderline sex offender and general jerk. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of your average "rule breaker" character, with Bart Simpson and Barry Goldberg really being the only two to earn my approval (I say this as I write a story where one of the four main characters is a rule breaker, and I perpetually struggle with writing her in a positive light). I like Yumi, who definitely shines as the most mature of the group, I like Jeremy and empathize with his poor diplomacy skills, I liked watching Aelita's story unfold, and I saw a lot of myself in Ulrich in all honesty. Odd did MUCH better than William, but he still didn't quite hook me, and I'll admit I almost laughed at William being possessed. The biggest missed opportunity was making William a Lyoko Warrior rather than Jim, as his being possessed would have created a much more threatening antagonist while simultaneously more of the audience at large care about Jeremy and Aelita's efforts to bring back the possessed. That's just me, though.

The soundtrack is amazing. I'm actually listening to "Beautiful World" on infinite loop as I write this out. I'm in the RWBY community, and everyone there seems to think that series' soundtrack is great. Having heard both, here's a message to both fandoms: RWBY's soundtrack does not hold a candle to Code Lyoko's in the slightest. It's up there with Doctor Who (Murray Gold's soundtrack, not whoever it is composing it now) and Halo- yes, Bungie's landmark trilogy- as one of the best soundtracks I've heard. All the songs are played at the right moments, and minus one or two vocal tracks by the Subdigitals within one particular episode, there are virtually no themes I dislike. The opening titles and end credits music are great, bookending each episode with some good tunes.

It's a shame I didn't get to enjoy this as a child, but having watched it in 2019, I can still proudly say it's one of the best I've ever seen. Everything came together just right, and like Ghostbusters, there was no way a sequel could match it. I'm glad to have witnessed this, and having written a full screenplay for an episode idea I had while watching it, I appreciate it that much more.

Happy 15th, Code Lyoko. What a ride it was.