Return To The Past: A Code Lyoko Retrospective

Who's ready to cringe? Today's episode is one of those nameless treasures: the mid-2000s cartoon about a boy and a girl swapping bodies and somehow managing to (almost) never address the fact that they now have different bits. Can Ben, Mary, and David milk that premise for jokes? Will Ben and Mary literally collapse under the weight of their secondhand embarrassment? If you're asking that question, it's like you don't even know us. Prepare for dick jokes, sailor fuku discussion, and questions about whether various things are gay (spoiler alert: they are). This episode of Code Lyoko carries a content warning for a boy and a girl swapping bodies (and the requisite cisnormativity that comes with it).  ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "Un Monde Sans Danger" by Fr

WARNING: Mary was recording on the wrong mic for the first five minutes, and the end result is just about the worst and most grating audio this podcast has ever experienced. I have tried to fix it as best I can, but feel free to skip ahead to where I turn my real mic on and everything is fine. We are ALL over the place on this episode, folks. Is it because this episode is ridiculously buck wild? Is it because we're tired and it's the end of a long weekend? Is it because we are incorrigible, meme-loving h*cks? Trick question, it is in fact all three.  Let's focus on the buck wild, BECAUSE IT IS. Kadic faces the unthinkable circumstance of a principal apparently going rogue and kidnapping two students, Sissi once again passes a Lyoko Warrior audition that no one was interested in conducting, and XANA proves himself to be as complicated as he is predictable. Meanwhile, Mary, David and Ben discuss the winter Olympic sports that suit the Warriors best, record ASMR descriptions of the world's most incomprehensible

It's the episode you've been waiting for, maybe! Mary, Ben, and David finally answer their email and give a six-Pokémon team to every Lyoko Warrior. If a trio of bumbling dorks awkwardly mispronouncing Pokémon names is your idea of fun, give us a click and let the good times roll! If you still get flashbacks to that one commercial where Zack and Cody overemphasize the é in Pokémon (you know the one we mean), maybe steer clear of this one. When we're done upsetting the weebs in our audience, it's time to read some fanfic! Each one of your humble hosts read the first few chapters of a recommended Code Lyoko fanfic, and we're ready to present our book reports to the whole class. Doctor Who subbing for Mrs. Hertz? Deep and intricate monster societies? A transfer student OC that doesn't suck? You made it all up; now we're repackaging it and selling it right back to you. Hey, don't forget to give us money on Patreon! ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcas

Folklorists speculate that zombies are popular because they let us indulge in guilt-free fantasies about inflicting violence on the people around us. Code Lyoko decided that that's as good an excuse as any to finally show us cartoon children beating the snot out of each other. The Super Nuclear group concludes that that is actually kind of hilarious. But that's not all! In addition to the violence, there's ridiculously inappropriate nudity as well. Unless you're in France, I guess. Silly Europeans! When will you learn to be ashamed of your bodies? As usual, Mary, Ben, and David are here to gently spread a soothing ointment on your burning questions. How hard does the show try to make you forget it's set in France? (Very.) How many plot contrivances are there to explain why the children can't count on the adults to defend them from the zombie horde? (One, and it's fainting. Lots and lots of fainting.) Did the gaggle of bozos that pass for podcast hosts around here finally make up Pokémon teams for the Lyoko Wa

At the end of most episodes of Return to the Past, your humble hosts ask themselves this question: are we going to give this episode a perfect ten, or merely a nine point five? This time, however, there's a radical difference of opinion! Are you on #TeamDavidAndMary, or are you on #TeamBen? As is so often the case, your answer probably depends on your feelings toward Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Are Aelita's sick grinds pointless, or radical? Is Yumi's dad running around in full samurai regalia badass, or goofy? Is the return of the Ulrich/Yumi/William love triangle and embarrassing cliché, or the very reason we remember these characters so fondly? You be the judge! (And then listen for the correct answer from Mary and David. This episode rules.) But that's not all! This is another theory-heavy episode! Wanna hear our latest thoughts on the mystery of Jim Morales's past? ...no? Well, crap. That's okay, though. Some internet content isn't for everyone. ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com 

Okay, so remember how I said all that stuff about Common Interest and how it took the show's subject matter to a new level but ultimately didn't follow through in the way it should have? Imagine another Common Interest, but with a plot that DOES follow through from start to finish. Mostly. Meet Temptation, the most thought-provoking episode of Code Lyoko yet. At least for Mary, aka me, for whom the entire reason she still loves Code Lyoko clicks in this episode. Join us as we dissect childhood perspectives, face our adult fears, and also do a lot of the usual nonsense like inventing a Sonic podcast (Return to the Fast) and answering an age - old question: would you rather fight a hundred duck-size horses or one horse-size duck? Click here for the full list of changes between scripts and finished episodes: http://en.codelyoko.fr/scriptsvsepisodes/saison1_part1.cl  ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https

  More than any other episode, Common Interest really hammers home how BOLD Code Lyoko was willing to be. Even after 13 years we're still stunned that we saw Aelita almost succumb to heart failure three times in one day, or Jeremie handling raw uranium as he struggled to keep the supercomputer alive, or XANA facing off against a military transport armed with very present and realistic guns. Still not sure how that one got on Cartoon Network in the days when cops shot laser beams and heroes never said die.   Which makes it all the more disappointing when we go back to it after 13 years and discover all the weird pacing in the Lyoko bits, plus the glaring plot holes that we never noticed as kids. But darn it all if it isn't still good! It's also been a long week for Mary, David, and Ben, which means that they're SUPER excited but also super distracted. But that means you'll get to hear Ben explain the history of Juggalos, David highlight the world's stealthiest Back to the Future reference, and Mary rant and ra

For the first time in possibly ever, the Super Nuclear group disagrees about the content of an episode! Is it the greatest thing ever, or just pretty darn great? Do the surprisingly off-model designs undercut the shipping possibilities? Come listen to your favorite trio of childish dingbats argue about cartoons for an hour and a half! The Homestuck references have never come at you faster. Plus, an important public service announcement in the first few minutes of the episode! NOTE: David's computer crashed at about the half-hour mark of this episode. We /think/ we were able to recover all the audio, but if any of Mary and Ben's conversations around that point don't make sense it's because David's bit may be missing.  === Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "Un Monde Sa

Hey-yo! It's the Super Nuclear group, making up for our absence last week with an extra-long episode aimed directly at your eager faces. And what an episode it is! We're finally at the 'Going back in time to win the lottery' storyline, which gives us a surprising amount of insight into several characters' personalities, including Ulrich, Yumi, and your personal favorite,* Yumi's dad. We also dive into an interpretation of Yumi's family dynamic that may or may not freak Mary's bean. And also one about how Aelita is secretly Jesus. (Thanks for that last one, anonymous emailer!) * Probably not your personal favorite. --- Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "Un Monde Sans Danger" by Franck Keller and Ygal Amar Outro: "S'Envoler" by Herman Martin, Serge Tavitan, and The Sub

Well, they can't all be winners. Missing Link does have its peaks: there's a fascinating moment of complexity and defiance for Jeremie and Aelita, a mysteriously magnanimous Sissi, and drama in the house of Ishiyama. But the premise is ridiculous, the stakes are medium rare, and the entire plot hinges on whether or not a (presumably) white girl can be made to look like a Japanese girl for a class photo.  Note that episode of Code Lyoko carries a content warning for racist and transmisogynistic themes. ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "A World Without Danger" by Franck Keller and Ygal Amar Outro: "S'Envoler" by Herman Martin, Serge Tavitan, and The Subdigitals  

Good news, everyone - once again Principal Delmas has deigned to let these kids have fun! This episode is a triumph in a lot of ways - it gives Aelita a great connection to the human world, it gives William a chance to not be attached to Yumi's hip all the time, and it serves up That Good Drama as Jeremie fails to comprehend that Aelita can have interests and a social life not connected to him. The Lyoko action does kinda create a dip in the back half, but we do forgive things like that.  Tune in for only the finest goofs about Jim undergoing mitosis, naked confusion about publicly announced exam results, and, naturally, farts. ===== NOTE: Patreon has walked back its plans to increase donor fees, so we will be sticking with the service for now! The Saint Valentine's Day commentary will remain in the main feed. Thank you for your patience! ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/supern

Hello, my friends! As we said in the last episode description, Patreon has recently announced its plans to increase its donor fees by 2.9 percent +35 cents per pledge. We don't want our donors to pay this ridiculous extra cost, and I (Mary, typing this) am pretty peeved that it will especially burden lower-income creators and donors and driving them away from a service they once depended on for their livelihoods. In light of this news, and until Patreon responds to the MASSIVE negative feedback it's received, our continued use of Patreon is uncertain. There is a variety of other services we can move to, but we haven't had the chance to conference on this yet. In the meantime, though, we're going to slip y'all a bonus and release this week's bonus content on the main feed!  Note that this episode was recorded before the announcement, AND that it is explicit-rated! Swears on swears on swears! === We watched Saint Valentine's Day before we recorded our episode about it, and recorded our live commentary!    Th

It's been a long couple of weeks, but the band is finally back together! (Us, we mean. Mary, Ben, and David, not the Foxtrot Fanatics. We apologize for the immense disappointment you are currently experiencing.) In this episode, it's Valentine's Day (the day all lovers celebrate), and because we love you all so much, we're celebrating with ninety minutes of relentless Odd/Aelita shipping AND a haphazard attempt to shoehorn Code Lyoko into the Marvel universe! And also, for the first time ever, we're introducing a brand-new lovable holiday mascot*! There's an actual episode of Code Lyoko in here, too - and it's lousy with Dat Boi. Remember him? Here he come again. *Actual loveability levels may vary. ===== NOTE: This episode was recorded before Patreon's recent announcement about its decision to increase donor fees by 2.9%+35 cents per donation (ie, a lot). Our continued use of Patreon is currently uncertain. We will have a solution in place before the fees are slated to go into effect.  In the meantime, in li

Thank you so much for your patience during our break! We are BACK and ready to get this Season 2 train a movin'! (And you know the season 2 train MAKES NO STOPS.) Unfortunately, it is David who could not be with us this week, as he was very ill and had lost his voice. But he's with us in spirit (and episode ratings) and Mary and Ben are here to bring you the biggest plot bombshells of 2005. No seriously - this blew our minds then and it blew our minds and it's great and we hope you all love it as much as we do! Come for the mysterious visions and XANA-fied possessions and words of Jim wisdom, and stay to hear Mike scratching on things he shouldn't be scratching on! (That's right. I am SHAMING you, cat, live on the Internet.) ===== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content at our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "

Sorry this one's up so late, folks! We recorded it a bit late in the week, and as you will see, it was a bit more edit-intensive than the usual garden-variety Code Lyoko Retrospective!  This week, we've hopped back into the Recreation Pod to gush about Code Lyoko ephemera! Unfortunately Ben was not able to join us, BUT Mary and David are gonna give you the scoop (a super scoop) on the real, actual Subdigitals CD, which in French is one of the series' lost gems and in English is... it's an album of music, that's for sure.  Mary also takes a quick dip into L'Interface Fictionelle du Supercalculateur de Code Lyoko, aka IFSCL, to see what's up with the fan-made Code Lyoko supercomputer simulator! Verdict: It's the Code Lyoko video game we all deserve and everyone should play it. Expect more updates as time goes on (or perhaps some streams...?) We also read a hilarious Code Lyoko fanfic about Burger King, and share some exciting news about Season 4's scripts! (If that wasn't enough, you also get to learn about Mar

Season two keeps the party going by addressing many an internet snarkster's biggest question about the show: why can't these giant-headed freaks instantly resolve every plot point by abusing their magical time machine? Another question answered: how would Odd and Ulrich sound spouting family-friendly mid-2000s misogyny? Anyway, this is the show's Groundhog Day episode, and to celebrate, we'll be recycling all our old jokes. Hah! Just kidding! We do that in every episode. Not recycled: spider evaluations, bodybuilder Aelita, and sucking your brains out through a bendy straw. ==== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content at our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "A World Without Danger" by Franck Keller and Ygal Amar Outro: "S'Envoler" by Herman Martin, Serge Tavitan, and The Subdigitals

It's The Trap all over again as Mary, Ben, and David find themselves blown away by an episode all three of them remembered as ho-hum. Marvel at the spontaneous appearance of Yumi's little brother, Hiroki (that's right - there is another Boi that Here Come)! Chuckle knowingly at the first instance of Jim's beloved* catchphrase!  And delight as our conversation inevitably turns to Jospeh Pujol (if you don't know who that is, don't look him up; it'll spoil the surprise) and ever more mid-2000s memes you thought you'd never see again. * The catchphrase is, in fact, not beloved at all. ==== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content at our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "Un Monde Sans Danger" by Franck Keller and Ygal Amar Outro: "S'envoler" by Herman Martin, Serge Tavitan, and The Subdigitals

HEY YOU GUYS! We're missing Ben this week, as he had some circumstances beyond his control come up. So it's just Mary and David in this one, here to keep you on the up and up and make out a WHOLE bunch!  This week, with their sexy new money, the Code Lyoko crew has gone and built us a brand-new sector. I hope you like blue rectangles! We also get schooled on the Tunic - pardon me, PUNIC Wars, finally hear Franz Hopper's name spoken aloud, forget things about the episode we REALLY should have remembered, and do our level best to protect Aelita from all the bullies ever. ==== Questions? Comments? Email us at rttppodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @rttppodcast. Or find our bonus content at our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/supernucleargroup Cover art by the very skilled Ingram! Find their work at @ingramcomix or www.ingramcomix.com. Opener: "Un Monde Sans Danger" by Franck Keller and Ygal Amar Outro: "S'envoler" by Herman Martin, Serge Tavitan, and The Subdigitals

AT LAST, SEASON 2 IS UPON US!  We're so excited to bring this to you AND so excited to talk about all the new stuff that this episode introduces. New intros and outros! Vehicles on Lyoko! Aelita (Stones) as a full-time student! New monsters! Scary wolf visions! A bearded man with opaque glasses playing childrens' tunes on a hallucination-piano! Sweet flips on Lyoko!  And of course DAT BOI, William Dunbar! Although you could view this entire episode as the Abstract Concept of Dat Boi, given how much here come. (Anyway, William's a creep and we dissect this thoroughly.) We're also excited because this is another episode where two of us are in the same room! Mary and Ben, to be exact! Featuring special guest hosts Mike, who sat in a chair nearby sleeping the entire time, and Ike, who was under the bed, terrified of us. (They are both cats.) ==== We're calling on all our listeners to provide as much assistance as they can to disaster-affected areas! Click here to find CharityNavigator's recommendations for relief

Have you ever found yourself thinking, 'Gee, Return to the Past sure is a swell podcast, but there's entirely too much of that pesky Code Lyoko?' You're in luck! For our season one afterparty, we're talking about everything but! Well, that's not entirely true. We are going over our episode rankings and pass a final verdict on season one. Did your favorite Lyoko adventure make the top five? Tune in to find out! Also featured: extended musings on a couple of our other fandoms. Expect a deluge of nerdy terminology you thought you'd never hear again (the word 'classpect' is prominently featured. You are advised against taking a shot when you hear it.). We're also launching our Patreon today! For a one-dollar monthly subscription, you'll have access to a host of new goodies and features too shiny for the proletariat masses. Click here for the full scoop. We'd like to argue about cartoons full time someday, so your patronage is definitely appreciated. ==== We're calling on all our listeners to provide as much assi