Revealing Secrets/Reaching Goals

[Justy]

Some recent toons have used the vehicles of either revealing some kind of secret and/or reaching some long sought goal to great effect (so far). Here's a few:

W.I.T.C.H. - Used both: 1) Both Elyon and Matt (Will's boyfriend) discover their friends are the Guardians; 2) Elyon is freed from Phobos' clutches and takes her place as the Princess of Meridian.
Code Lyoko - Used both (sort of): 1) Aelita is successfully brought to the real world, albeit infected with a virus; 2) Most of the main support cast (i.e. Jim, Sissy, Principal Delmas, parents) have found out about the factory, but have all had their memories wiped by the Return to the Past (RTTP).
The most effective of these were Aelita's successful materialization and Matt's discovery of Will's secrect powers. Whether these vehicles will be used to great effect in the future or will ultimately hurt theses shows remains to be seen.

A few older examples of this are:

Gummi Bears - Princess Calla discovers the existence of the bears from Gummi Glen. This move hurt the show (in my opinion), as Poor Cavin's screen time plummeted and killed the interaction between he and the Princess.

Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato) - After 26 thrilling episodes, the Starforce returns to Earth with the Cosmo DNA that will cleanse it from the radiation caused by Gamilon's planet bombs. 'Nuff said...YOWZA!


If I think of any others I will edit this post.

Anybody got some other examples of this and how the move(s) affected the shows in question?

Later!

[Rover_Wow]

I don't know where you're going, but "goal-based" animation has been around for a while. It's just that most such animation gets cancelled without reaching its goal (Samurai Jack is the biggest recent example of this).
However, setting a goal for each season... new to me. Another example of a season goal is in Winx Club, and the whole deal with Bloom finding her place in the magical realm in S1.

[Ultra Mike]

Avatar is a show that properly knows how to introduce a good goal Aang only has till the end of the summer to master all four of the elements before the comet passes by earth and gives Fire Lord Ozi enough power to end the war. It is assumed that this goal will be reach sometime over the next few seasons, espically with Aang learning waterbending from his new "master" Katara.

Avatar also it's selection of secrets as well. Most recetnly, revealing that Prince Zuko has has a sister named Zula who is potentially going to be the main villian for Season 2.

[Hordesman]

I think the popularity of anime is why shows have begun to have more distinctive seasons than they did when I was growing up.

[Justy]

I don't know where you're going, but "goal-based" animation has been around for a while. It's just that most such animation gets cancelled without reaching its goal (Samurai Jack is the biggest recent example of this).My point exactly. We're seeing more instances of goals either being reached or nearly being reached in quite a few series lately. Either the shows are lasting long enough to fitfully reach some kind of goal or the makers of the show(s) are specifically incorporating the reaching of the goal into the series.

I think the popularity of anime is why shows have begun to have more distinctive seasons than they did when I was growing up.A very good bet. Since anime usually has strong stories (and usually complete ones, too), its increased popularity over the last few years has probably influenced series creators to pay more attention to the story and characters and less on gags and macho dialogue (for action shows).

However, setting a goal for each season... new to me. Another example of a season goal is in Winx Club, and the whole deal with Bloom finding her place in the magical realm in S1.I think the situation with Bloom and her true origin will probably be revealed a bit at a time over the rest of the series. The main goal in S1 was the recovery of Bloom's Dragonfire. This season, it appears it's about the Witches' (and their new master's) efforts to capture the Pixies. (If there's more, please elaborate.) Code Lyoko is a good example of what you are talking about: The overall goal is to defeat XANA. Last season, the primary goal was to materialize Aelita. This season, it is to find an antivirus for Aelita so she can be free of XANA, making it possible for XANA to be turned off without any danger to her.