Code Lyoko Episode 2 Review

[AeonFrodo]

Code Lyoko Season 1 Episode 2: Seeing is Believing

In today’s episode, the warriors create a rock band that tries to simulate something out of Rock Band 3, while on their Lyoko mission; they actually alert the authorities about what’s causing the mysterious outage. Good luck making them believe that an ambitious A.I. is out to rule all humanity, Yumi.

To start with a positive about the episode, Jeremie appears very determined to bring Aelita to Earth. The boldness asking the visiting scientist who presented them with the building of a nuclear power plant tells the viewer that Jeremie especially wants Aelita on Earth, and gives the audience a reason that what these kids are doing is for a good cause. Other than stopping XANA of course.

But that’s the only really great positive from this episode. The rest just goes downhill from here. There is a ‘suspicious’ power outage in class that doesn’t cause any harm apart from ending the lecture. Jeremie thinking its XANA right away is very far fetched, even though he is eventually proved correct. How is a person, especially one of Jeremie’s intelligence, to believe that something so threatening would shut off a classroom overhead projector over possibly electrocuting somebody? Perhaps it wasn’t made clear that Jeremie knows XANA’s ways of initiating his attack is performing something non-suspicious to it, then getting his opponents unaware. Teddygozilla certainly didn’t explain it that way, as the clues were pretty obvious that something weird was going on. A power outage is not ‘out there’ in terms of strange occurrences that could result in a XANA attack upon such a little thing. At least Jeremie does have the common sense not to jump to any conclusions until he became absolutely certain that XANA was behind the power outages.

The rest of the group, who wasn’t as worried about it as Jeremie was, are making their own band. The Foxtrot Fana- The Pop-Rock Progressives. That’s a really smart name for a band, having at least four genres of music in the title of the band, being Pop, Rock, Pop-Rock and Progressive. But they lack a drummer, which is vital for a band to function as they provide the beat. However, they soon contradict the title of their band, because they reject a student who uses a heavy metal drumming style. Odd, Yumi and Ulrich clearly haven’t listened to bands like Dream Theater where heavy metal drum beats are really handy for any progressive genre songs.

At least the auditions show one of Odd’s main personality traits that viewers would see throughout the series. He loves girls. And is willing to accept Naomi even though she has no sense of beat and fails at being a drummer. It also shows that he doesn’t like his enemies, despite their good intentions to contribute. Nicholas just wants to play drums in their band, and while Ulrich and Yumi want him in, Odd doesn’t want anything to do with him. It takes a return to the past for Odd to realise that Nicholas is a good drummer and deserves to be in their band, despite being one of Sissi’s cronies.

Jim also tries to join the band too, as the slide trombone player. It’s a nice humorous touch to the episode, and it shows a bit of Jim’s soft side during the first season which is rarely seen. Also, Harmonix, make it happen in Rock Band 4.

Before heading to Lyoko, the kids discuss what XANA is trying to do. With the amount of voltage that can be released from an electrical pylon, it can run up the wires and hit the nuclear plant, causing a nuclear explosion. Nothing that the Lyoko Warriors can’t hand- Wait Yumi, you’re saying this is way beyond the group’s capabilities? This is a unique situation in the series, where they had a vote to discuss what to do. Between either don’t tell the authorities or tell the authorities just in case they fail. What’s really stupid about this discussion is that they are wasting time to stop the XANA attack, as the pylon was still increasing in percentage in the background.

Anyway, after a majority vote to go to the authorities, the Lyoko Warriors decide to send Yumi to alert the authorities, while the rest of the group take care of the problem on Lyoko. With less time thanks to Yumi. Anyone could only assume that happens when they suggest this is beyond the group’s capabilities to stop. And of course, no sane person would believe Yumi’s story, making her input pretty much useless.

The Lyoko side of the mission was very interesting. First, we have Ulrich’s outfit, based off a samurai, wielding a sword as his primary weapon. He also has the powers of triplicate, which is splitting into three Ulrichs, one of which is real and super sprint, where he runs really fast. The really unique thing about Ulrich is that he can use both his powers at the same time, making his triplicate/super sprint combination extremely deadly. But in this episode, he only uses triplicate. Second, there’s a body of water in the desert sector, like an oasis. Usually, as viewers would find out later in the series, that a body of water is dangerous to the Lyoko Warriors, especially the Digital Sea. However, in this case, it was a desert oasis hiding the path to the activated tower, which Odd finds just by throwing a rock in the water, and stating it was a surface layer. Wait, how does Odd know these terms? Either way, the Lyoko Warriors find an activated tower, and some new enemies, Krabes.

And apparently these Krabes are supposed to be tough enemies because Odd got to do nothing but get hit by a laser, then jump in front of Aelita to block a laser, instantly devirtualizing him. Yeah, well, Krabes are not that tough… But it’s to assume that this episode was going to show off Ulrich’s abilities. Which he does, by using triplicate, confusing the three Krabes. And then, when there’s only one Krabe left, Ulrich returns his remaining illusion to himself, and goes gung-ho into battle with the Krabe. Well, he could’ve used the illusion to take the hit for him and he would’ve defeated the Krabe. But no, he gets hit on the shoulder, and then kills the Krabe. Either way, Aelita takes her sweet time deactivating the tower, just putting in the code just in time before the electricity reaches the nuclear factory.

It was nice to close off the episode with the Pop Rock Progressives, made up of Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Nicolas and Jim, playing Mystery Girl, which is about Aelita. And that’s the last we hear of the Pop Rock Progressives for Code Lyoko, unless they bring them back in Evolution.

The episode as a whole wasn’t that great though. It was run of the mill, and no one was in any direct danger of the XANA attack. Plus there are a lot of things in this episode that made no sense or the characters not using their common sense. The only major positive is that there is a little bit of overall plot development at the start of the episode.

Score: 3/10

Loose bits: Odd drawing the Kiwi symbol on his Lyoko outfit during the lecture in class is a nice easter egg that may or may not be noticed.

Just before Jeremie asks his question during the class, the scene shows Sissi, sitting by the window, reading a magazine. However, while Jeremie is asking his question, in the background Sissi is sitting next to Ulrich, nowhere near a window. Ulrich is the one next to the window instead. And then when the class is laughing at Jeremie, she is shown sitting next to Herve. Where is Sissi sitting?

Just before Jeremie enters the room, Odd is making some sort of beat with hitting his legs with drumsticks; perhaps he knows how to play the drums too?

Jeremie declares he’s heading to the Factory in front of Sissi and her cronies. If they were smart enough, they would’ve followed Jeremie to the Factory and found out their secret.

If anybody listens to when Yumi receives a phone call from Jeremie, there’s muffling on the other end, and it sounds like he’s saying ‘Hello, what up, fool?’ Just wow.

The percentage of the pylon’s energy displayed on the Supercomputer shows different percentages from one scene to another, and the speed at which the energy is rising also varies.

About two times in the episode, it shows Jeremie’s face to the left of the Supercomputer, while it shows the screen of the Supercomputer on the right. They’re trying to make it look like they’re running out of time and Jeremie’s worried about it, but it doesn’t look like a good view. Not to mention Jeremie does not look worried.

Odd points out the tower when it’s less than one hundred metres from them. It’s not like Ulrich and Aelita are blind.

When the Krabe’s first laser hits Odd on the thigh, on the Supercomputer it shows it hit him on the leg.

The electricity coming out of the pylon just before Ulrich is talking to the authorities looks like hail or even sperm. Seriously? I thought Yumi in the bathtub and Sissi in her bra and underwear were enough.

Ulrich returning one of his clones, even though the strategy of using it as a shield worked perfectly for the two clones, which one sacrificed its life for. And Ulrich could’ve used that idea to prevent himself from getting hurt.

Aelita takes her time to deactivate the tower, while the pylon is 100% full, and the electricity running down the powerlines is heading to the nuclear plant. This is going to become a rather annoying occurrence because there are situations where it could take lives if she were any slower.

There are so many problems with the band scene in the end. The big one is that there is a bass riff in the background, and yet there is no bassist in the band. Honestly, any band knows that they need a bassist, even though the part is boring to most musicians, it keeps the melody in tact and makes the rest of the band sound awesome. Why didn’t Odd, Yumi and Ulrich ask for a bassist as well? I’m also very insulted because I play bass guitar myself.

Most of the animations of the characters playing the instruments don’t match up with what’s playing in the background. The only ones that match are Yumi and Odd’s.

Odd’s guitar has no head, and even though it's unusual, it is most likely a Steinberger model guitar. Nice subtle reference for musicians.

When Odd is talking to Yumi, and Yumi responds, she’s speaking right into the microphone. Anybody would’ve heard Yumi and wondered if that was part of the song.

Quotes: “I’ve thought it over. You can form your group, the um… The Foxtrot Fanatics.” – Mr. Delmas

“Yeah! Let’s hear it for the God of Rock n’ Roll!” – Odd

“To the Cafeteria. They’ve got brussel sprouts today. You know what they are?” – Jeremie

Odd: Hey, you pressed soup!
Ulrich: C’mon, you know it’s not that awful.

“A drummer, huh? What does he play, his Mum’s pots and pans?” – Odd

“Looks like you found yourselves a drummer.” – Sissi

“Better than Naomi, that’s for sure.” – Ulrich

“If Sissi’s idea was to cause trouble, she’s done a great job.” – Ulrich

“Would you guys need a slide trombone by any chance?” – Jim

“Um… the fact is… We’re a rock band, not a military brass band.” – Odd

“Nuclear sabotage, that’s a little over our heads, isn’t it?” – Yumi

“Are you crazy? There will be anarchy, and we’ll be questioned. We’ll have to tell them everything. And if they discover XANA, they’ll pull all the plugs out.” – Jeremie

“I don’t want thousands of people to die just to save me.” – Aelita

“C’mon, you only get one shot!” – Ulrich

“Great you guys! Your energy is super nuclear! You’re going to make this town explode!” – Jeremie

[Snickie]

I have some replies to some parts of your review, but it's going to be hard to type them because it's so loooongggg. Now I have an idea of how people feel when they read my text walls.

The major thing I wanted to speculate on was that even though the Season 1 episodes aren't really meant to be viewed in any order except for Code: Earth & False Start, and Image Problem & the Girl of the Dreams, Teddygozilla WAS aired before Seeing is Believing. The episodes had to have been chosen to air in that order for some reason. Thus, I think it's possible that Jeremie's paranoia AFTER he figured out the teddy bear had been XANAfied could have carried over into that episode. I mean, who would have thought XANA would use a giant teddy bear to wreak havoc all over the school? But if he would use that, then maybe even tiny power outages weren't beneath him either.

If you notice, the instrument-playing in any animated cartoon almost never matches the song. By the way, when did Ulrich learn to play the keyboard? And as for the bass rift, I'd say it might be Ulrich playing it, but he's very clearly playing some sort of rhythmic organ-type thing. It's very strange to me.

I always did think that Yumi arguing the point of telling the authorities something they'd never believe, thus causing the Lyoko warriors to all come to a vote, was stupid. They should've just kept quiet about it anyway, gone to Lyoko sooner, and they wouldn't have even been close to having a mess. But they're 13 and 14 years old at best, so maybe they didn't have this kind of thought process. And besides. The whole point of that and Aelita's slowness is to add suspense and put the viewer on edge (although the argument part just annoyed the heck out of me).

As for the inconsistencies in the rate and values of the charging pylon, I've got to say that it's much more consistent in this episode than other things like, say, the sector 5 countdown, draining Aelita's memories, maps of sector 5, etc. are later in the season. It's lazy editing is what it is.

[AeonFrodo]

The major thing I wanted to speculate on was that even though the Season 1 episodes aren't really meant to be viewed in any order except for Code: Earth & False Start, and Image Problem & the Girl of the Dreams, Teddygozilla WAS aired before Seeing is Believing. The episodes had to have been chosen to air in that order for some reason. Thus, I think it's possible that Jeremie's paranoia AFTER he figured out the teddy bear had been XANAfied could have carried over into that episode. I mean, who would have thought XANA would use a giant teddy bear to wreak havoc all over the school? But if he would use that, then maybe even tiny power outages weren't beneath him either.

I'm aware of that there is apparently supposed to be no continuity in Season 1. However, I am watching these episodes in chronological order, because as I found in a later episode of this season that is not Code: Earth/False Start, there is some continuity in Season 1.

If you notice, the instrument-playing in any animated cartoon almost never matches the song. By the way, when did Ulrich learn to play the keyboard? And as for the bass rift, I'd say it might be Ulrich playing it, but he's very clearly playing some sort of rhythmic organ-type thing. It's very strange to me.

It's still a thing to point out in a review. Either way, Ulrich playing bass would be awesome, but I don't think playing it on a keyboard would produce a high quality low sound, even though heaps of techno songs do it. It isn't exactly the same.

I always did think that Yumi arguing the point of telling the authorities something they'd never believe, thus causing the Lyoko warriors to all come to a vote, was stupid. They should've just kept quiet about it anyway, gone to Lyoko sooner, and they wouldn't have even been close to having a mess. But they're 13 and 14 years old at best, so maybe they didn't have this kind of thought process. And besides. The whole point of that and Aelita's slowness is to add suspense and put the viewer on edge (although the argument part just annoyed the heck out of me).

Jeremie's supposed to be a genius here, so he would've had that thought process. It's something I wouldn't let slide so easily, because these kids are pretty intelligent compared to a lot of others.

As for the inconsistencies in the rate and values of the charging pylon, I've got to say that it's much more consistent in this episode than other things like, say, the sector 5 countdown, draining Aelita's memories, maps of sector 5, etc. are later in the season. It's lazy editing is what it is.

Yeah, when the time comes, I'll talk about that. But this is Episode 2 of Season 1, so that won't happen for some time.

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