CL Anime comparison

[miaame]

You know how they say that there are really only like 7 realy story plots and everyone keeps on reinventing the same ones? When I first saw Code Lyoko, I was kind of reminded of Sailor Moon. Only CL is cooler.

Here's my argument: there's a group of middle school kids trying to fight evil. In both anime's they have to transform. The evil can carry over from the virtual (CL) or another realm(SM) into our world now. They do plenty of fighting in their world without transformation. I could go on and on.

Anyone have any other anime or cartoons to compare? (Despite my weak attempt to make a subject...)

[Eridan]

Some french members of the forum made the comparison with CL and Jumanji (I don't know if the title is the same in english and in french), beacause in Jumanji, two kids go in a parallel world thanks to a board game to help Allan to go out of this game. They figth many ennemies like a mad hunter.

(Despite my weak attempt to make a subject...)

It's an interresting attempt

Edit : thanks Olivier hum.... I would have check it myself, not so hard to do it.

[Olivier]

I don't know if the title is the same in english and in french

Yes it's the same:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113497/

[kagetsu]

hmm, technically yes. If you cut a story to it's basic framework, conflict, struggle, emotional epiphany, resolution, most are the same. That's the reasoning that (the maker of StarWars,,, what's his name?) used for StarWars. But magic must defeat magic and virtual warriors must defeat psycopathic computers so there is action differences and character difference. CL is wAy cooler

[Eridan]

It's only on the link and the necessity to travel between two worlds that we made a comparison.
It don't prevent CL to be an original anime with it's own originality

[miaame]

George Lucas created Star Wars.

I read Aelita by Tolstoy, and I think that perhaps the Aelita and Jeremie falling in love may be based on that story.

I think the characters in CL are developed much better than in several anime's or movie's. We wouldn't be so happy or frustrated when things happen to them otherwise.

[garooob]

Amongst the naysayers, Code Lyoko has been compared to .hack. Now, I seem to be one of the few who has seen both and I can say with 100% certainty that Code Lyoko isn't anything like .hack. From what I could figure out from the random episodes of .hack I've seen, it's sort of the secret life of MMORPG avatars. And I didn't like it. Code Lyoko rules.

[KageSama]

I've always been told, it's not the story, but how well you tell it.

Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi have strong personalities and well-defined backstories (even if we aren't privy to all the details). They don't do things in a vacuum and neither do their adversaries, whether we're talking about Sissy, Jim or Xana. (Although I'm still trying to figure out what jobs Jim hasn't had in his past . . . )

If they ever decided to do novels or anthologies based on Code Lyoko, I'd be one of the first people applying for a slot. The world is well-crafted, logical in its own way and yet, there are still a lot of areas to plumb (What ever happened to Sam? Does Odd really live with his grandmother, or was that just a ruse at the airport? Who are some of the other kids we see and how do they interact with our heroes? What do the teachers do when they're not in the classrooms?)

While there's a certain amount of formula involved in Lyoko (just like in Sailor Moon, Voltron, or any other "adventure" story where they have to defeat the villian before the end of the show), I see a flexability in the show that's not quite like the others mentioned. These characters seem to act more like real people (they fight with each other, they grow as people, they fall in and out of love . . . ).

I think the way the writers deal with the characters and make fighting Xana almost secondary to the story is Lyoko's real strength.

As always, your mileage may vary with these opinions.

[miaame]

I'm glad they went "develop the characters" way. of else I probably wouldn't be so interested. >_< The art's pretty awesome though. The contrast from digital to real world is awesome.