I'll be going on break over Christmas, I apologize that I couldn't get more done but between work and preparing for the Holiday Season I've had no time to write anything.
I wish everyone a happy Christmas and I'll see you after Christmas.
As a request for Kyra-Chan my next entry shall cover Code Lyoko and I've certainly found some interesting facts beyond watching the show so lets see what we can uncover.
A computer maniac named Jeremy joins the Boarding School of Kadic Academy when one day he finds a super computer in an abandoned factory. This super computer contains Lyoko, a Virtual World in dire need of saving due to a malevolent AI named X.A.N.A who after activating also causes destruction in the real world, also in this virtual world is Aelita, a pink haired girl who is stuck in Lyoko. Joined by Ulrich, Odd & Yumi, the gang attempt to stop X.A.N.A and save both worlds while retrieving Aelita in this hybrid CGI Anime like series.
Code Lyoko's roots go much deeper than just your standard cartoon; you see the French like to first release their cartoons as short films before applying for a contract for serialization and Code Lyoko was no exception.
It started as a short film called "Les enfants font leur cinéma" ("The children make their movies") then after gaining enough interest it became a pilot short called Garage Kids in 2001, this would later evolve into Code Lyoko two years later but minus it's creator Thomas Romain who would leave the project to help with Oban Star Racers, I'll come back to him later, how about the characters and cartoon itself.
The characters follow a standard cookie cutter group; the geek, the delinquent, the crazy one, the mature female and the soft spoken damsel. Despite the fact Jeremy never fights himself he still manages to stand out as a main character being the one who directs the combat members of the team who when entering the Virtual World turn into Japanese Warrior types such as the Samurai, the Fan Blade User and the Cat creature. (Well you call someone Odd he needs an odd form)
The animation is top quality as is typical of modern French cartoons and I like the hybrid of CGI & traditional. As for the quality of the show, it's okay, it follows an easy formula, there's a problem in the real world, they enter the virtual world, fix problem, everything is reset, rinse and repeat until plot happens, in fact Gormiti uses practically the same plot so Code Lyoko is also a huge influence on other Euro shows.
As of this year Code Lyoko returned to French screens but this time in a live-action/CGI hybrid, I don't know yet if this is any good, we'll wait to see if it gets exported.
One thing I take from this show which I've always been proud of is that I can sing the full theme song in perfect French despite never learning French.
And before I finish this Cartoon Vault review lets return to creator Thomas Romain. It's unusual to see western talent go to Japan to work on big anime projects but Thomas Romain would later lend his art talents to Aria the Natural and the recent anime powerhouse Senki Zessho Symphogear.
So why is a good show axed when bad shows still get season after season?
Well these examples may put a few things to rest.
1. Invader Zim
Everyone's favorite psychotic alien in one of Nicktoons darkest & funniest shows of all time.
Why Cancel?: Nickelodeon claimed it was low ratings, the real reason was that Invader Zim frequently broke its budget and became too expensive for the Network to make.
Aftermath: It's staff would later be hired for Avatar the Last Airbender.
2. Class of 3000
A performance arts college led by Andre 3000 of OutKast. Decent animation and decent music.
Why Cancel?: Cartoon Network claimed it was too expensive to make, the real reason came when Andre 3000 was sued for plagiarism which ultimately sealed it's fate.
Aftermath: It was the last cartoon to be made under the old Cartoon Network banner which led up to the events of the 2007 Boston Bomb Scare which cost former head Jim Samples his job, what followed was a few years of crap Cartoon Network.
3. Warner Bros 90s Cartoons
Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain, Hysteria, all of Warner's finest from that era.
Why Cancel?: Some guy named Jamie Kellner decided to scrap the range claiming it wasn't right for the channel's image to have cartoons appealing to grown ups. Ironically this also happened to the Avengers cartoon.
Aftermath: Warner Bros have not been the same since.
4. Cancelled without reason
Danny Phantom, El Tigre, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, Juniper Lee, American Dragon, Young Justice, Megas XLR, Swat Kats & Samurai Jack.
Why Cancel?: In some cases poor time slots, in others it simply dropped off the channel for no reason. For Swat Kats, Ted Turner claimed it was too violent. Samurai Jack's chances look slim for a comeback following Mako's death and because Samurai Jack needs his voice but not other voices it poses quite a problem.
5. Gargoyles
Core of Disney's epic run of tv cartoons in the 90s.
Why Cancel?: Fell out of Disney's favor and ended up being drawn by a different animation house.
Aftermath: Disney seem to do this a lot with these kinds of shows, the same fate befell many of the shows I've mentioned along with the likes of WITCH & PB & J Otter.
6. Adult Swim Cartoons
Anything not Venture Bros or Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Why Cancel?: Adult Swim is too poorly run to sustain cartoons properly, some never made it pass episode one. In the case of Titan Maximum which had better ratings than many of it's staple shows, creator Seth Green felt that Robot Chicken was more important.
7. Classic British Cartoons
It's worthy of note that many of our classic cartoons, mostly stop motion shows like Postman Pat, Bagpuss & Camberwick Green are notoriously short.
Why Cancel?: They were never cancelled, the shows were really that short.
Wallace & Gromit our best cartoon has only had four episodes, one movie and numerous shorts in 24 years and it frequently wins awards no problem.
Explain: We British don't do filler, also helps that British shows tend to have all episodes filmed in a series before broadcast.
8. And an Anime Example
The original Gundam Series
Why Cancel?: Surprisingly poor ratings cut the show to 39 episodes forcing creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to improvise an ending.
Aftermath: Rerun figures were better and with new editing and cuts was redone into a film trilogy before Zeta Gundam's release.
Not long ago I showed a Cartoon from Argentina and mentioned briefly about the cartoon superpowers along with some lesser nations, but what about South Korea? Japan's closest neighbor and a country that can at least compete on Manga but what about cartoons? Well there's a good reason, today is about Cubix.
Connor likes robots and manages to encourage his father to move to the Robot City of the World, Bubble Town. This is where RobixCorp is, an organization who have perfected an Emotional Processing Unit to give robots human like emotions. (I've seen that enough times to know where this is going)
Connor joins a Robot fixing club called the Botties looked after by Professor Nemo's daughter Hela. Nemo is the head of RobixCorp but has been missing after a horrible accident with a potent substance called Solex.
Connor and his crew, which include token female Abby, annoying smart kid Chip & token fat guy Mong (Say what you like about Pokemon X & Y's tag-a-long crew but they have more personality than this lot) they find a robot called Cubix which is deemed unfix-able. He kind of resembles a mash up of thrown away Rubix Cubes, but before they get any further, Dr Wily, I mean Dr K the evil villain turns up and steals everyone's robots but this incident triggers the awakening of Cubix who defeats Dr K and his army of bad robots and the series repeats this formula for 25 more episodes.
If you've seen this show, yes it's a 4Kids property, and yes it's an early CGI, not a terrible CGI, certainly better than Gormiti's CGI attempt. Cubix is pretty harmless, it doesn't exactly evolve beyond it's set formula and the title robot Cubix is endearing enough to not be annoying with it's lack of speech, although credit to the Koreans for ending the show when Cubix got his full voice in the last episode, they saved us from pain. It ran for two years from 2001 and probably has a DVD release, I'd only watch it out of curiosity and a look at the Pokemon voice cast in full outside of anime.
I'm curious to see if South Korea can give me anything else to look at, while this isn't terrible, it's still a surprise from what I thought Korean animation would be like and I'm curious to learn more.
The Sengoku Period has always been an easy to go to era for inspiration, the actions of it's characters shapes much of Japanese Culture in terms of history and it's samurai and these ten take their inspirations from these characters either directly or indirectly. Rules this time is one per franchise otherwise this will just be a top ten of Sengoku Basara Characters. So lets begin.
10. Matsukaze from Majikoi
Maeda Keiji's horse Re-imagined as a phone charm in possession of Mayucchi Yukie, believed to have a mind of it's own but could also be Mayu's true feelings.
9. Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin
Kenshin Himura was given his name by his master based on Uesugi Kenshin something later confirmed by the Manga's creator.
8. Ieyasu Tokugawa from Saber Marionette J
Named after the leader who united Japan, this Ieyasu became the leader of the Japanese like colony of Japoness and it's inhabitants are clones of the same leader.
7. Ryo Sanada from Ronin Warriors
I so wanted to use Sengoku Basara's Sanada Yukimura but I got to follow the rules. Ryo Sanada is the fiery leader of the Ronin Warriors borrowing namesake color scheme and armor from the famous hero.
6. Sasuke from 2x2 Shinobuden
Sorry that's to troll the Sasuke Uchiha fans.
In reality I still have more fun watching the Sasuke Army.
5. Oda Nobunaga from Sengoku Otome
The gender flipped Nobunaga actually cares about her people instead of almost every other depiction of the tyrannical leader being overwhelmingly negative; she still looks the part though in an outfit inspired by Red Sonja.
4. Hanzo Hattori from Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls
Another Gender flip, this time for ninja Hanzo Hattori. This version is a happy slave to Sen but this version is a Maid Ninja with a ninja scroll for a hair tie, a pair of glasses functioning as a scouter and a skirt that contains hidden blades, is that awesome or what.
3. Jubei-Chan from Jubei-Chan
Not long ago I reviewed this, the title character uses Yagyu's eyepatch to become the legendary samurai, others were considered but the action from this show is so fast paced and incredibly well choreographed that it's a match for everyone else on this list.
2. Ishikawa Goemon from Lupin III
This version is a descendant of the legendary Japanese thief and a worthy ally to the equally famous Lupin III. He doesn't say much but, he doesn't need to and considering all his other depictions this is Goemon's finest homage.
1. Masamune Date from Sengoku Basara
Of course it's going to be Masamune Date, he's my favorite Male character of all time, my favorite historical figure, he's a total badass, his horse is a motorbike and just looks awesome!
