Oban, Lyoko & Galactik

Oban Star-Racers

Ok, the first time I saw the commercial of Oban Star-Racers on Kids Central's Flux!, I wasn't blown away. In fact, I disliked the graphics - the characters had no noses, for crying out loud! But I decided to give the show a chance anyway.

The story was a little boring, and I'm not exactly into sci-fi and fantasy genres, but it got better as the races began and characters like Jordan & Aika (is that how his name is spelt?) were introduced.

The ending was somewhat disappointing. I would have expected a tougher battle with the ultimate villain than such a simple way to end it. Jordan's sacrifice was the saddest part. The finale would have been cooler had Eva/Molly or Aika become the Avatar. I mean, Jordan isn't exactly Avatar material, and I actually wanted him to end up with Eva/Molly.

Anyway, at least the show's over. :/

Code Lyoko

Finally, a cartoon that's very original. This is one of the few cartoons I've seen that mixes 2D and 3D graphics so well, though Galactik Football's 2D & 3D graphics beats it hands down.

Ulrich, Yumi & Odd totally rock the show. As for Jeremy & Aelita, nah. Aelita's helplessness really gets on my nerves. The most shocking thing I found out was that Jeremy's the only character among the main 5 to be voiced by a male voice actor. The rest of the main 5 are voiced by female voice actors. Seriously though, Ulrich sounds more guy-ish than Jeremie, which makes me wonder how they selected their voice cast.

I actually like the fact that Xana's a computer virus, which is different from villains from other shows. However, I'm somewhat disappointed by how lousy most of Xana's evil plots are. I mean, technology is used in so many ways and connected to so many modern machines. I'm sure that there are smarter ways to take over the world. Xana could easily cause more destruction than mere disruption of minor factory machines. Xana could just cause worldwide chaos by spreading viruses that causes disruption to major monopolies like Microsoft.


Galactik Football

This is probably one of the coolest sports cartoon I've ever seen (though it's far behind sports animes like The Prince of Tennis). There are several likeable and some irritating characters in the show, but the character interactions and conflicts are great to watch.

Tia, Micro-Ice, Thran & Ahito totally rock. They have great personality and are the real stars of the show. Initially, I had a good impression of D'Jok but he finally became too full of himself. Rocket's ok, but nothing too fantastic. Mei's just too proud.

Spoiler: Her ending up with D'Jok isn't much of a surprise. Micro-Ice deserves better, anyway. *cough*Tia*cough* Frankly, I just can't picture Rocket & Tia together.

Despite the anti-climatic finale, Galactik Football is decent enough to keep you wanting more.