Most recently, I decided to take a trip down memory lane. To the days before school when morning cartoons were slightly more accessible for people such as myself. It was then I came across one of France's cheap yet most underappreciated works of Art; Code Lyoko. A series based around a world within a world. A digital plane of existence created by man, which is further home to an evil, corporeal and sentient computer program with a desire of world dominance. Sounds crazy, but it is wildly imaginative and does carry some interesting links with our reality. One of the many reason for why I got into the short-lasting series. That, and the fact that it is one of the very few that embraces two different styles of animation; hand-drawn and CGI. Despite the average quality and low budget, Code Lyoko both grew in popularity (especially in the European region) and made good profit to improve in animation and design. The characters were memorable and the score to me is nearly unforgettable. My brother has given me crap over liking this cartoon over the years, but I don't regret at all having enjoyed it the way I did. As a matter of fact, I went back to enjoy it again. Much to the point where I decided to record data of my own from it.
I actually have done this before, but not to the same extent. Plus, I found myself having lost and/or misplaced the old information. I can't even remember if I intentionally deleted all of it. So rather than get all worried, I waited for a little while and then revisited the French cartoon with a clear mind. With one complete sweep of the series, I had recorded so much information from character appearances to monsters. I went on to try and compare the Lyoko warriors and learn for myself which of the group was the strongest and/or most effective. I even went on to create my own points system to determine the quality of the warriors kills. I did all of this for each of the four seasons as well as the special two-part prequel, and even added them all up for an extra set of charts. It took quite a while (roughly around two or three weeks) and I did have a few small breaks from the work in-between, but I did it. Allow me to show you the final products, but first here are a few important notes to take in.
SOME IMPORTANT DETAILS TO TAKE IN BEFORE READING THE RESULTS
1. This data is collected from Code Lyoko seasons one through to four, and includes the two part prequel special 'X.A.N.A. Awakens'. These results do NOT involve anything from the live action follow-up Code Lyoko: Evolution. Personally, I don't consider it joint to the main series despite its connections. Plus I didn't really wish to keep track of what's going on by read English subtitles constantly (considering this sequel was only delivered in French).
2. Information may not be entirely accurate. I did place a lot of pressure onto myself, focusing on a lot of different things at once. Some results therefore might either have a mistake or two. I might have left something out, or added something extra. If you choose to find the time to go over it yourself and come back to correct me on any particular info, I will happily take it on board.
3. Some of this data collected is greatly influenced by my personal views. Meaning that certain information has been recorded based on how I saw it.
4. The following information is they key for each character grid chart:
6. Devirtualisations are a warrior's time cut short (before the mission is properly accomplished). This can be anything from defeat by monsters to being materialised early. Numbers in bright orange indicate the warrior was devirtualised by a friend in that particular episode. Numbers in red indicate the warrior was brought in early by Jeremy, X.A.N.A. or some other computer bug in that particular episode.
7. The sum of the monsters destroyed by the warriors and those that are left standing won't necessarily equal to the total number of monsters that are seen. This is because there are monsters that have destroyed themselves or each other. These ones aren't recorded in the data.
MY POINTS SYSTEM
Rather than simply count the number of monsters destroyed by each warrior in front of me. I thought I'd set up a little point system of my own to determine the total value of their kills. It was a good way to figure out which of the heroes coped better with the more challenging of monsters. The tougher the monster means the greater value of one's kill. I just didn't like the idea of having possibly two of the warriors equaling each other when one destroys an easy monster while the other takes on something much more difficult. For instance, one Kankrelat in my eyes doesn't equal to one Tarantula. So I took the liberty of going through each monster, determining their strengths and weaknesses and labeling them with a certain number of points. Decided to go with a system of numbers divisible by five to make it easy for me to calculate (plus they were of reasonable value), though I did later end up having to deal with decimal points which got a tad confusing. But I managed well with it. Here are the monsters and how I valued them.
KANKRELATS - Small and fairly slow. Shown on the odd occasion to be clumsy and cowardly. Not great fire power nor great range or cyclic rate. (5 points)
BLOKS - Slightly quicker than Kankrelats. Better range and awareness. Relatively greater cyclic rate. Multiple weapons (including laser, ice blast and fire rings), but multiple weak spots. (10 points)
KRABS - Fairly big. Shape an advantage. Great fire power and great range. Can attack anything both around and underneath. But weak legs and large weak spot. (15 points)HORNETS - Small aerial monsters. Quick and often attack in swarms. Reasonable fire power and cyclic rate. Hard to destroy. (20 points)
MEGATANKS - Huge, fast and powerful wide-range shot. Only monster with a safeguard. But easy to manipulate and extremely low cyclic rate. (25 points)
GUARDIAN - A living bubble that protects and imprisons its host. Unaffected by physical attacks, though extremely easy to destroy through manipulation. Only appears twice in season one. (5 points)
TARANTULAS - Large in size. Reasonable speed. Two firearms with extremely high cyclic rate. Incredible range and hard to take out. But weak legs and slow awareness. (30 points)
CREEPERS - Medium size. Great speed and ability to climb. Medium fire power and fire rate. But easy to take down. (20 points)
MANTAS - Large Aerial monsters with two weapons (laser and floating egg mines). Medium impact, but slow with poor awareness and easy to destroy. (15 points)
SCYPHOZOA - Shape an advantage and shown to have no visible weak spot. No proper weapon for physical damage and slow, but heavily impact the mind through sending and receiving data. (40 points)
KONGRES - Medium speed swimmers with wide-range dual lasers of medium impact. Great level of evasiveness but low level of awareness. (50 points)
SHARKS - Faster than Kongres and fire damaging torpedoes at a fairly low rate. Difficult to destroy based on their speed. (75 points)
KALAMAR - Very large and quick with a penetrable drill. Very high close-range impact. Only one of these creatures were seen in season four. (100 points)
KOLOSSUS - Huge and extremely powerful. No lasers but built-in close-range weapons with absolutely damaging impact. A couple of weak spots that require a lot of damage. (1000 points)NOTES
- Warriors were given a bonus 500 points whenever they successfully defeated X.A.N.A.-possessed William on Lyoko.
- In regards to the Scyphozoa, it was never really destroyed (only once by Aelita, indirectly in season four). So I instead went with giving 40 points to whichever warrior stops the particular monster from completing its task. I too went with counting it by appearances rather than how many of them there were.
- Monsters sent to Earth and destroyed are also counted in my data. This is the case with three episodes ('False Start', 'A Bad Turn', and 'Hard Luck').
- Points shared between two warriors means they share a kill. A kill is shared when both warriors simultaneously attack and destroy the monster with success. This has happened a few times throughout the series.
SEASON ONE
VIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 23
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22 (×2), 23, 24, 25, 26}
ULRICH STERN - 18
{Episodes 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22 (×2), 23, 24, 25, 26}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 20
{Episodes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 (×2), 23, 24, 25, 26}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 1
{Episode 26}
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 11
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 11
{Episodes 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 20, 23, 25, 26}
ULRICH STERN - 6
{Episodes 5, 11, 13, 18, 23, 25}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 11
{Episodes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 17, 23, 25}
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THESE SEASON 1 RESULTS
- Odd Della Robbia was the favourite Lyoko warrior. He made the trip to the virtual world in each of the first twelve episodes and there were only four episodes of the entire season that didn't see him do so. He also led in both the quality and quantity graphs of monsters destroyed. By episode he won 13 times, 4 times more than the next best (this includes episodes where he shared victory).
- Bloks were clearly the monster of choice in season one, with 30 more than second in the count. This includes episode 24 ('Ghost Channel'), with 46 appearing (without any destroyed) in the final scene.
- Despite Bloks being Odd's favourite monsters (according to the episode 'The Girl Of The Dreams'), Odd destroyed more Kankrelats on-screen (12 to 10).
- The Desert was the go-to region, appearing 15 times for 7 attacks. It was even mentioned once in episode 17 ('Amnesia').
- Ulrich Stern was only devirtualised 6 times. 5 less than both Odd and Yumi.
- Jim Morales is the only character in the entire series to be heard without seen in an episode.
SEASON TWO
SEASON TWO
VIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 30
{Episodes 1 (×2), 2, 3, 4 (×3), 5, 6, 7, 8 (×2), 9, 10, 11 (×2), 12 (×2), 15, 16 (×2), 18 (×2), 19 (×2), 20, 22, 23, 24, 26}
ULRICH STERN - 25
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 (×2), 5 (×2), 6, 7, 8 (×2), 9, 10, 11, 12 (×2), 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 30
{Episodes 1, 2, 3 (×2), 4 (×3), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (×2), 14, 15, 16 (×2), 17, 18 (×2), 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 35
{Episodes 1 (×2), 2, 3 (×2), 4 (×2), 5, 6, 7, 8 (×2), 9, 10, 11, 12 (×3), 13, 14, 15, 16 (×2), 17, 18 (×2), 19 (×2), 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26}
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 15
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 15
{Episodes 1, 3, 7, 8 (×2), 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26}
ULRICH STERN - 9
{Episodes 1, 3, 8, 12, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 17
{Episodes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (×2), 22, 25, 26}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 1
{Episode 8}
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THESE SEASON 2 RESULTS
- It was the season of Ulrich Stern. He continued his high survival rate, while also destroying most monsters and scoring most points.
- Yumi Ishiyama proves once again to not be favoured, with a second survival rating underneath 50%.
- Hornets were the monsters of the season, with 67 generated and 56 of them destroyed. Yumi Ishiyama destroyed most of the 56 (18).
- Odd Della Robbia destroyed 9 less monsters than Yumi, but scored more points. That's due to the monsters he destroyed having greater value.
- Odd Della Robbia defeated the Scyphozoa the most times (5.5, sharing a win with Ulrich).
- Suzanne Hertz is the only character to appear as nothing but an alternate form in a single episode (a polymorphic spectre in 'XANA's Kiss').
- The Ice region is X.A.N.A.'s go-to area for launching an attack, having done so 11 times out of the 14 times the region is seen.
SEASON THREE
SEASON THREE
VIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 20
{Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 (×2), 8 (×2), 9 (×2), 10 (×2), 11 (×5), 12, 13}
ULRICH STERN - 14
{Episodes 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 (×2), 8 (×2), 9 (×2), 10*, 11 (×2), 13}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 14
{Episodes 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 (×2), 9, 10 (×2), 11 (×2), 12, 13}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 19
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (×2), 8 (×2), 9 (×2), 10 (×2), 11 (×3), 12, 13}
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 10
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 10
{Episodes 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (x2), 12, 13}
ULRICH STERN - 9
{Episodes 1, 4, 7, 8, 9 (x2), 10*, 11, 13}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 9
{Episodes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 17, 23, 25}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 7
{Episodes 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13}
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THESE SEASON 3 RESULTS
- Aelita Schaeffer with a new weapon (energy fields), edged out the others in the monster count.
- Creepers were the monsters of the third season. Strangely enough, it was William Dunbar to destroy most of them (9 in the last episode).
- Despite having an equal survival percentage, Yumi Ishiyama was well behind third-best Ulrich in the monster count (by at least a dozen). Yumi continued to be made both weak and inferior compared to her friends.
- Odd Della Robbia once again won on value in his destroying of monsters without having to destroy the most.
NOTES
- 5 Kankrelats and 3 Hornets were shown unharmed in flashbacks of episode 5 ('Aelita').
NOTES
- 5 Kankrelats and 3 Hornets were shown unharmed in flashbacks of episode 5 ('Aelita').
- *Episode 10 ('Nobody In Particular') saw Ulrich Stern's mind and body separated during an attempted virtualisation. I classified both mind and body as two halves and considered each half having been both virtualised and devirtualised twice. As a result, I counted the occurrence as one virtualisation and one devirtualisation.
- Between the Lyoko warriors, Yumi led both the count and points for monsters in the last episode ('Final Round'). However, the actual winner of the episode here was William.
- Odd's virtualisations in 'Triple Trouble' includes his copies from the attempted use of his bugged teleportation power.
- Odd's virtualisations in 'Triple Trouble' includes his copies from the attempted use of his bugged teleportation power.
SEASON FOUR
VIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 29
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 (×2), 13, 14, 15 (×2), 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 (×2), 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29}
ULRICH STERN - 27
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 (×2), 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 27
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 32
{Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (×2), 13, 14, 15 (×2), 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 (×2), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29}
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 12
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 12
{Episodes 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 29}
ULRICH STERN - 15
{Episodes 1, 2, 5, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29}
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 17
{Episodes 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29}
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 8
{Episodes 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 27, 28}
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THESE SEASON 4 RESULTS
- Despite Odd Della Robbia destroying a reasonable number of monsters, his total in points was the lowest for two reasons. The first being that he only defeated William three times. Same number as Ulrich, though he defeated the Kolossus to score 1000 points to well and truly beat the others in the category. Yumi and Aelita both defeated William four times each. The second reason was that his kills didn't have much value given which monsters he was destroying. Odd enjoyed the Bloks (10 points), Hornets (20 points) and Mantas (15 points). Ulrich and Aelita though, took advantage of the Megatanks (25 points) and Tarantulas (30 points) more often (the former also destroying the most Sharks, which were 75 points each), while Yumi enjoyed the Kongres (50 points) along with taking down the Kalamar (100 points).
- Some of the Mantas Odd destroyed were the particular ones X.A.N.A.-possessed William was riding. He was shown killing them a few times. This was one of his two common strategies in dealing with the monster (the other being digging his claws into the backs to direct where they fly).
- The Mountain region was the only region to never receive a replika.
- Unlike the other seasons, the warriors did not leave many monsters standing. Their kills combined to make the highest total of 88%. This would've likely been due to the smaller number of monsters sent, as greater focus was placed on William.
- This was the second time Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama shared the same number of virtualisations (the first being season three) and the third piece of data they shared (also sharing the same number of devirtualisations in season three to end up with the same survival percentage).
- Some of the Mantas Odd destroyed were the particular ones X.A.N.A.-possessed William was riding. He was shown killing them a few times. This was one of his two common strategies in dealing with the monster (the other being digging his claws into the backs to direct where they fly).
- The Mountain region was the only region to never receive a replika.
- Unlike the other seasons, the warriors did not leave many monsters standing. Their kills combined to make the highest total of 88%. This would've likely been due to the smaller number of monsters sent, as greater focus was placed on William.
- This was the second time Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama shared the same number of virtualisations (the first being season three) and the third piece of data they shared (also sharing the same number of devirtualisations in season three to end up with the same survival percentage).
X.A.N.A. AWAKENS SPECIAL
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THE SPECIAL
- The only thing that surprises me about the prequel, was how Odd Della Robbia did not destroy a single monster. Strange given he has fairly strong number in this area throughout the seasons, which further includes his victory in the first season against his friends.
SEASONS (+ SPECIAL) COMBINED
VIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 104
ULRICH STERN - 86
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 92
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 87
MATERIALISATIONS / DEVIRTUALISATIONS
ODD DELLA ROBBIA - 50
ULRICH STERN - 41
YUMI ISHIYAMA - 55
AELITA SCHAEFFER - 16
WHAT I GATHERED FROM THE SERIES AS A WHOLE
- Ulrich Stern was indeed the best fighter of the group, having destroyed the most monsters, scored the most points and obtaining a greater survival rate across the whole series compared to both Odd and Yumi. It would be even hard to argue otherwise since he was the one who defeated the Kolossus.
- There is no doubt that the script writers or somebody else within the crew had a problem with Yumi Ishiyama. Even though she was a year older than her fellow warriors, she was made to look the weakest of them all. She could never achieve a survival rate greater than 45% (which may I add is less than a half). She's had some of the shortest times on Lyoko (including one trip that only lasted for a few seconds). She destroyed 20 monsters less than both of the boys. Not to mention she is X.A.N.A's favourite victim for an attack.
- According to my gathered data from what's been shown to viewers, Aelita Scaeffer has made more trips to Lyoko than Ulrich. This is even with Ulrich having 27-episode head start (includes the two-part special) when Aelita was stuck in the virtual world. It's obvious Aelita's importance to Lyoko sees her needing to make every trip, as only her codes are recognized by the towers and virtual databases. But this is still something I have a hard time wrapping my head around.
- In the episode 'Hard Luck', Ulrich mentioned how the Megatanks were his least favourite monster. Well according to what I've collected, he has destroyed more of these monsters than any of his friends. He should at least be satisfied with that.
- Ulrich also confirmed Hornets being his favourite monsters. This is strange, considering they are aerial monsters and he is the only warrior of the four to wield a close-range weapon. I guess he just likes the challenge. They are his equal-third most destroyed monster alongside Creepers.
- I find it hilarious how the most destroyed monster of each warrior matches the colour I represented both with (excluding Aelita). This was a pure coincidence:
Odd Della Robbia had the Creeper as his most destroyed monster, with both allocated purple. Ulrich's number one monster was the Kankrelat and both were allocated red. Yumi's was the Hornet and both were given green.
- Yumi was the only one of the three main warriors to miss out on destroying all types of reproducing attack monsters, having never destroyed a Shark. However, she got to defeat the Kalamar. I gave her this one as she fired the final shot that killed the monster (despite the help from Ulrich and Odd).
NOTES
- Realistically, Aelita Schaeffer should have one extra virtualisation to make it a total of 88. This being the trip taken with her father Waldo (known better by the alias Franz Hopper) prior to the many events that take place in the series. I chose to exclude this one however, as I was more interested in comparing her with the warriors.
- As for how many times Jim Morales used his signature line 'I'd rather not talk about it', I did a little counting whilst gathering the data. He first uses it in the third episode of season two ('Exploration'). Without any twisting of the words or it being mentioned by anybody else, I finished up with him using the line approximately 11 times. This isn't as much as people would tend to think.
- Ulrich Stern was indeed the best fighter of the group, having destroyed the most monsters, scored the most points and obtaining a greater survival rate across the whole series compared to both Odd and Yumi. It would be even hard to argue otherwise since he was the one who defeated the Kolossus.
- There is no doubt that the script writers or somebody else within the crew had a problem with Yumi Ishiyama. Even though she was a year older than her fellow warriors, she was made to look the weakest of them all. She could never achieve a survival rate greater than 45% (which may I add is less than a half). She's had some of the shortest times on Lyoko (including one trip that only lasted for a few seconds). She destroyed 20 monsters less than both of the boys. Not to mention she is X.A.N.A's favourite victim for an attack.
- According to my gathered data from what's been shown to viewers, Aelita Scaeffer has made more trips to Lyoko than Ulrich. This is even with Ulrich having 27-episode head start (includes the two-part special) when Aelita was stuck in the virtual world. It's obvious Aelita's importance to Lyoko sees her needing to make every trip, as only her codes are recognized by the towers and virtual databases. But this is still something I have a hard time wrapping my head around.
- In the episode 'Hard Luck', Ulrich mentioned how the Megatanks were his least favourite monster. Well according to what I've collected, he has destroyed more of these monsters than any of his friends. He should at least be satisfied with that.
- Ulrich also confirmed Hornets being his favourite monsters. This is strange, considering they are aerial monsters and he is the only warrior of the four to wield a close-range weapon. I guess he just likes the challenge. They are his equal-third most destroyed monster alongside Creepers.
- I find it hilarious how the most destroyed monster of each warrior matches the colour I represented both with (excluding Aelita). This was a pure coincidence:
Odd Della Robbia had the Creeper as his most destroyed monster, with both allocated purple. Ulrich's number one monster was the Kankrelat and both were allocated red. Yumi's was the Hornet and both were given green.
- Yumi was the only one of the three main warriors to miss out on destroying all types of reproducing attack monsters, having never destroyed a Shark. However, she got to defeat the Kalamar. I gave her this one as she fired the final shot that killed the monster (despite the help from Ulrich and Odd).
NOTES
- Realistically, Aelita Schaeffer should have one extra virtualisation to make it a total of 88. This being the trip taken with her father Waldo (known better by the alias Franz Hopper) prior to the many events that take place in the series. I chose to exclude this one however, as I was more interested in comparing her with the warriors.
- As for how many times Jim Morales used his signature line 'I'd rather not talk about it', I did a little counting whilst gathering the data. He first uses it in the third episode of season two ('Exploration'). Without any twisting of the words or it being mentioned by anybody else, I finished up with him using the line approximately 11 times. This isn't as much as people would tend to think.
Travis "TJ" James
