Spy School
Created by Skyward Animation (the new name of Curious Pictures after its acquisition by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay), Spy School is a joint French-American animated series, created by Tom Warburton and Mo Willems, and written by Warburton, Willems, and Robert and Michelle Lamoreaux. The series is a sort of hybrid of the OTL cartoons Codename: Kids Next Door and Totally Spies. The animation is in a style that resembles Japanese anime, halfway between OTL Teen Titans and Totally Spies. The series revolves around a large school complex (think a high-tech Hogwarts) where teenagers are trained to be international superspies in order to battle evil villains of all shapes and sizes. Unlike in Totally Spies, where the spies are pulled out of their normal, everyday lives to serve as secret agents, the agents in Spy School live at the school, and in addition to their spy classes, they also learn normal subjects. Also, the spies' immediate family members know about their double lives, though if they have friends outside of the school, they are expected to keep it a secret from them (though over the course of the series, people outside the school DO learn about the spies' double lives, which sometimes leads to them becoming students at the school themselves). Like Codename: Kids Next Door and Totally Spies, much of the fun of the series comes from the huge variety of unique and special gadgets employed by both the heroes and villains over the course of the series. There's also plenty of slick combat moves and acrobatics, and the show takes numerous tropes from classic spy thrillers like James Bond and also from shows like Charlie's Angels.
There are many, many characters, both hero and villain, that appear over the course of the show. There are six "main" characters who form the central spy team and who get the most screen time and character development. These characters are:
Nigel: Like his OTL counterpart from Codename: Kids Next Door, Nigel is the leader of the team. He shares some traits with his OTL counterpart (he's a tough, determined leader and he has a British accent), but in other ways he's different (for example, he's not bald). Over the course of the series, Nigel develops from a stern, no-nonsense, overly bossy leader to a deeply sensitive leader who can perfectly manage a group of agents and inspires nearly all of them. Like his OTL counterpart, Nigel is voiced by Ben Diskin.
Jeremy: Jeremy is the team jock, a musclebound kid with red hair who is SORT of like Lee from the OTL Totally Spies spinoff The Amazing Spiez. He's a bit of a brickhead, but unlike many typical cartoon jocks who are stereotypical bullies, Jeremy is quite nice, even if he's a bit overconfident. Over the course of the series, Jeremy realizes that there's more to the world than sports and weightlifting, and discovers that he's actually quite intelligent. He's voiced by Greg Cipes.
Howie: Howie is somewhat of a tech nerd, whose OTL equivalent would be Hoagie from Codename: Kids Next Door. A bit of a klutz and a social outcast, Howie is sort of Jeremy's opposite in that he has a major self-confidence problem, and often chokes during important moments. Over the course of the series, he gains confidence in himself and becomes an invaluable member of the team, capable of not only technical wizardry, but some surprisingly impressive spy moves. He's voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
Chloe: Chloe is a blonde, bubbly valley girl, whose OTL equivalent is Clover from Totally Spies. Despite her boy-crazy, makeup-obsessed nature, she's a true friend and a quick learner. Despite occasional bouts of whining at a broken nail, Chloe is brave and fierce and will jump into the fray to protect her friends. Over the course of the series, Chloe goes from being a somewhat selfish stereotypical valley girl to a confident, capable spy and a true heroine. Chloe is voiced by Andrea Taylor.
Sara: A redheaded overachiever, Sara is sort of a hybrid of the OTL Sam and Alex from Totally Spies. She excels in both academics and athletics, and can be compared somewhat to OTL Kim Possible, without Kim's confidence. Though Sara is talented and blessed, she's also extremely insecure, and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Over the course of the series, Sara finds her true calling and how to utilize her gifts to help everyone. She's voiced by Jennifer Hale.
Cree: Cree is the character who undergoes the most development in the series. She's a hybrid of OTL Abigail and Cree Lincoln from Codename: Kids Next Door, a fierce, determined, brave girl who, over time, starts to be swayed away from the heroic spies toward the forces of evil, ultimately betraying the team at the end of season two, and for the rest of the series, sort of goes through a "Heel Face Revolving Door" phase before finally realizing that the spies at the school are her true friends and that she should renounce evil for good. She's voiced by Cree Summer.
Spy School starts out very slapstick and comedic, with season one consisting of nearly entirely "villain of the day" episodes with little in the way of an overarching plotline. It's not until season two, which introduces the villainous Syndicate of Evil, that the series begins to morph into a blend of comedy, action, romance, and drama that ultimately make it one of the most beloved cartoons of the decade. The Syndicate of Evil, which remains a villainous presence throughout seasons 2-5, starts out as a sort of stereotypical villainous organization with a leader cloaked in shadow, a sort of riff on SPECTRE from James Bond. However, the Syndicate is much, much more: it perpetuates itself by recruiting especially talented heroes and persuading them to become villains. Ultimately, it's two characters: Cree and Elliot, who are the most consequential Syndicate members. Elliot and Cree both start out as recruits at the school, and Elliot's betrayal early in season two deeply affects Cree. When she joins the Syndicate, it's because of Elliot, but ultimately, Elliot's goals go much deeper than Cree's, and by season five, Elliot has become the main villain of the series, while Cree has permanently rejoined the team. Elliot has twisted the Syndicate's mission from a typical international criminal organization to an entity that seeks to find and brainwash all competent teen spies in order to use them to rule over the world and eventually conquer the entire universe. The final confrontation, which brings together heroes and villains from the entire series in one climactic final battle (whose final four episodes air as a Cartoon Network TV movie special in 2007) is as epic as they come, and a fitting end for the series that sees all the team members graduate from college and begin their adult lives.
Spy School starts out as a moderately successful show after its debut on April 26, 2002. It would air five seasons of 26 half-hour episodes each, airing the finale movie during the summer of 2007. During that time it would become one of Cartoon Network's most successful shows (at a couple points during its run it's the highest rated show on the network) and a massive international hit, with a fandom all over the world and especially online. It essentially supplants Teen Titans (which doesn't exist, at least in cartoon form, ITTL) as Cartoon Network's big "fandom show" of the mid-2000s, with tens of thousands of fics on fanfiction.net, hundreds of thousands of pieces of fanart, huge fan communities, and enormous shipping wars. Though the "canon" ships end up being Nigel/Rachel (Rachel is an analogue of OTL's Rachel/Numbuh 362 from Codename: Kids Next Door and is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane), Howie/Sara, Jeremy/Chloe, and Cree/Victor (Victor is a character brought in during season 4 who is a sort of "bounty hunter" who at first has a deep distrust of Cree but ultimately helps to bring her back from her final heel turn), there's plenty of material for every major pairing in the show, with all 21 possible "main six" pairings having some sort of fan community based around them (especially Nigel/Cree, which was an actual pairing at certain points in the show, is one of the show's three most popular pairings, and when the ship was finally sunk in season five, a massive fan backlash erupted). Its impact is still being felt as of TTL 2016, and it remains one of the most popular cartoons of the new millennium.
-
*A scene of space is shown, zooming in on a lush, Earth-like planet.*
Narrator (Peter Cullen): On an ancient world, three great kingdoms have been engaged in a decades-long war.
*Scenes of warfare are shown.*
Narrator: And a new discovery threatens to upset that delicate balance...
*Takudo leans over a small flame, which engulfs him to the horror of onlooking villagers.*
Narrator: Out of the fires of the past and into the winds of the present come great fighting machines known only to the ancients as the legendary Gundams...
*The Flaming Gundam stands tall with its fire sword weapon.*
Serai: *gasps as she comes up from being held underwater* Help me!!!
*Takudo pilots the Flame Gundam and attacks a bunch of soldiers.*
Narrator: A thousand years ago, their power ravaged the world. Now, only their power can save it.
*Scenes of the Oceanic Gundam, the Stoneheart Gundam, the Metalwork Gundam, and the Yggdrasil Gundam are shown.*
Serai: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah! *screams as she pilots the Oceanic Gundam toward a large monster*
Soldier: What are they? Are they gods?
Soldier #2: Their power is incredible!
Lasht: I don't believe it...
Kakui: Taste the fist of the Stonehearted King! *pilots the Stoneheart Gundam into a giant siege tower*
*The Flaming Gundam and the Metalwork Gundam clash as the ground shakes around them.*
Narrator: But old habits die hard, and the temptation of power is hard to resist.
Arcturus: With these new weapons, we could be unstoppable.
Lasht: But at what cost?
Algan: *as he walks through a flaming city* I will never forgive you for this.
Ashura: *smiling as an eclipse falls across the sky*
Narrator: A new generation of heroes takes flight.
Takudo: Everyone, join me! We'll do this together!
Virei: Yeah, let's go! *flies into the air on the Windswept Gundam*
Serai: Takudo, I'm here. *holds his hand*
*More scenes of battle and a variety of other Gundams are shown, both in battle and emerging from the bodies of various characters.*
Narrator: The 20th anniversary Gundam celebration comes to Western shores in the greatest clash of giant robots ever witnessed.
*More battle scenes are shown, concluding with Takudo and his Flaming Gundam leaping into battle.*
Takudo: I'll never let you kill those people! My burning fire protects the innocent and scorches evil!
*The Flaming Gundam is seen clashing with the Savage Gundam, a massive Gundam with military green armor, a huge cannon on its chest, and huge blades for arms.*
Narrator: Gundam Soul. Premieres Monday, June 3rd. It's heart...
*Takudo is shown holding hands with and facing Serai.*
Narrator: And soul.
*The five main heroes are shown summoning their Gundams.*
Narrator: Only Toonami.
-from the Gundam Soul Toonami promo ad, which began airing in May 2002
-
Gundam Soul
Written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, Gundam Soul was created as part of the 20th Anniversary Celebration for the Gundam series. It was created alongside Gundam Unity, a 16-episode OAV series which was designed to unify the stories of all the previous Gundam series into the same continuity. Taken together, the two works effectively replace OTL's Turn A Gundam, with Gundam Unity released in 1999 and Gundam Soul in 2000. Ultimately, Gundam Soul, which takes place in a new continuity without any link to previous Gundam series, would become far more popular in both Japan and in the West. Gundam Soul is the most fantasy-based Gundam to date. Its Gundams utilize biotechnology and spiritual energy, and the series has less of a sci-fi aesthetic to it than previous series. There are five main heroes: Takudo, Serai, Kakui, Algan, and Lasht. Their Gundams correspond to the five elements of the Wu Xing: Fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. There are other Gundams throughout the series, some with elemental properties and others that don't correspond to a specific element at all. The final villain of the series, for instance, wields the Millennium Gundam.
Gundam Soul takes place on the planet Reshita, in a distant arm of a distant galaxy. The planet's technological level falls somewhere between medieval and early industrial. On Reshita there are three great kingdoms (Ishida, Mokudei, and Hagane) who hold sway over their own domains but who occasionally clash for land or resources. On the outskirts of one of one of these kingdoms lives Takudo and his friend, a young woman named Serai. Takudo and Serai's village is only rarely touched by war, though many farmers in the village make a decent living selling food to the nearby towns in Ishida and Hagane territory. One day, the village is set upon by a large winged beast, and Takudo discovers a mysterious flame as he takes a group of villagers out of the area. He is drawn to the flame, and when he touches it, it consumes him. The horrified villagers, thinking Takudo has been killed, flee the area, but Takudo isn't dead, instead, he's accepted the core of the Flaming Gundam into his body, and now has the ability to summon it at will. Takudo uses the power of the Flaming Gundam to fend off the bird, but the fire nearly destroys Takudo's village in the process. Takudo vows never to use the Flaming Gundam again, and keeps its power a secret...though Serai, who was watching, knows of the Gundam. One day, members of the Ishidan Army raid the village because they believe Hagane fugitives are in hiding there. They take Serai hostage and threaten to kill her by drowning. Takudo reluctantly uses the Flaming Gundam to fight back, revealing its existence. However, Takudo doesn't want to fight close to the village, which the soldiers use to their advantage and are able to get him to dissipate the Gundam so they can capture him as a human. As they are about to kill him, another Gundam appears: the Oceanic Gundam. The Oceanic Gundam chases off the soldiers. It is then revealed that Serai, while she was being held under the water, made contact with the core of the Gundam and accepted it into her body. Takudo and Serai decide to go to the nearby Ishidan kingdom on a peacekeeping mission to try and keep the Ishidan soldiers out of the town. There, they meet the Ishidan king, Kakui. Kakui is young and strong, boisterous and brave, and despite Takudo and Serai's fears, Kakui is a good man. His soldiers, however, can be overzealous and at times cruel, because they don't respect the young king whose only desire is to make peace and protect his people. Most of the Ishidan people admire Kakui, and Takudo and Serai inspire him to join them on their peacekeeping journey. In an early episode, Kakui accepts the core of the Stoneheart Gundam, gaining its power. It takes somewhat more time to recruit Algan and Lasht. Algan and his Yggdrasil (wood) Gundam are in fact the last to join Takudo, and at first, Algan is the main villain of the series, after Takudo's Gundam accidentally burns the Mokudei capital (a massive loss of life is only prevented by Serai and her Gundam's interference at the last minute). Lasht and his Metalwork Gundam come on somewhat reluctantly, but Lasht, like Kakui, joins Takudo and Serai because he also desires the war between the kingdoms to end. It's from Lasht's kingdom that the series' true main villain emerges: Arcturus, the lead engineer of Hagane. A brilliant inventor, it's Arcturus who tries to encourage Lasht's kingdom to reverse engineer the Metalwork Gundam once it emerges, and who discovers that Reshita was once home to an extremely advanced civilization that destroyed itself a thousand years before in an apocalyptic clash of Gundams. Arcturus' main lieutenant is Ashura, a beautiful woman who was once Lasht's betrothed. She pilots the Eclipse Gundam and leads a coup against Lasht's family after Lasht leaves his kingdom. Eventually, it's Arcturus and Ashura's acceleration of the war that causes Algan to abandon his vendetta against Takudo and join up with him. There are other Gundam-piloting characters, some friend, some foe, including Virei, pilot of the Windswept Gundam. Virei starts out as a somewhat excitable, energetic girl, but becomes sort of the Woobie of the series (in the same way that Allenby did in G Gundam to some extent). Virei eventually finds her happy ending (and romance with Kakui), but goes through a lot in order to get there. Eventually, Arcturus discovers much of the ancient technology, and uses it to turn Hagane into a technological fortress from which he hopes to conquer all. He eventually discovers the Millennium Gundam, which was the Gundam that caused much of the destruction of the world 1000 years before. In the next to last episode, Ashura turns on Arcturus and sacrifices herself after declaring her love for Lasht, putting up a fierce fight with her Eclipse Gundam but ultimately falling to the Millennium Gundam's power. It takes the five main heroes and their allies working together in one enormous, epic battle to defeat Arcturus and his Millennium Gundam and save the world. After Arcturus' defeat, the heroes all agree to renounce their Gundams and extract their cores to prevent another war like the one that once ravaged their world.
Gundam Soul debuts on Toonami in late spring of 2002. Its 52 episodes air daily from June to August of that year, and the show ultimately surpasses Gundam Wing as the most popular Gundam show in the west. Gundam Soul, along with Spy School, become Cartoon Network's two most successful new show debuts of 2002. Gundam Soul's somewhat more lighthearted tone (it's still plenty dark at times, and less comedic than say, G Gundam, but it's definitely not as dark as Gundam Wing) endears it to a wider array of fans, and it, like Spy School, is embraced by the growing fan community crowd. Though it only lasts for 52 episodes (it also gets three movies that will air on Toonami in 2003/2004), it's continually aired in reruns on Toonami well into 2005, and would make reappearances on Cartoon Network numerous times in the future.
