My kids and I did manage to catch the sneak peek of Code Lyoko’s 4th season, a week or two ago, but the official launch is coming up next week. My son is near delirium with excitement, or at least that’s what I attribute his recent behavior to. What other explanation can there possibly be for his constant insistence that he’s “stuck in the 4th sector” or that he’ll be right there, after he’s “dematerialized again?”

Dare I let him in on the exciting news that Ty’s Toy Box has just launched their Code Lyoko store? I’m torn. On the one hand, the dangling carrot of the brand new Code Lyoko Nintendo DS game could buy me a whole lot of angelic behavior, I’m pretty sure. His room would be tidy; my bathrooms would sparkle; homework would be a non-issue. On the other hand, do I really want to listen to him begging me to buy it for him for the next… well… however long it might be until I relent?

It’s a dilemma, I tell you.

(And do keep checking back to the store, because more products are coming. You know, just in case drooling over the DS game isn’t enough to keep your kids occupied.)

Need a few more ways to get your Code Lyoko fix inbetween shopping and watching Season 4 on Cartoon Network? Well, you can check out the TV.com forums dedicated to the show, or maybe you’d rather do a little drawing to pass the time? You have until June 13th to submit your artwork to the Code Lyoko Wii Contest. (Go read all about it, because the prizes are awesome. First place wins a Wii console and the upcoming game, but all top twenty submissions receive the game and have their drawings integrated into the final product, as well.)

Of course, then you run the risk of your kid begging for the DS game and demanding you buy a Wii. Hmmm. I may have to rethink my game plan on this one, darn it….

I’ve made no secret of either my son’s love for Code Lyoko or my confusion about the show. I seem to be missing some key ingredient necessary to truly understand this show’s plot. (Yes, yes; I suspect it has something to do with the twenty or thirty years I have over most of the show’s fans. Zip it.) Nevertheless, the fact remains that I have yet to encounter a Lyoko fan who isn’t completely, utterly enamored of the show. And right now, most of those fans are all asking, “When is Season 4 going to air?”

Despite my relative confusion over what everything in Lyoko means, believe it or not, I’m actually pretty good at figuring things out here in the real world. I searched far and wide to find any information about the Code Lyoko Season 4 air date, and I came up empty. I was nearly stumped.

But what’s the first thing your mother ever taught you about getting what you want? That’s right. She taught you to say please.

So I said please. I went to my contact at Cartoon Network and I asked nicely (just the way I try to teach my children to do), and when I didn’t get an answer right away I asked again, and eventually I think they realized that if they gave me an answer, I would go away and leave them alone. And then everyone wins! (Just in case you’re wondering, I also said thank you once I got my answer.)

Are you ready, Code Lyoko fans? You heard it here first: Season 4 of Code Lyoko will premiere on Cartoon Network at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 6th. New episodes will continue to air throughout the summer on Wednesday nights.

Spread the news and mark your calendars, because I’m probably going to need you all to explain it to me once it starts back up again.

I think I’ve written once before about my son’s rabid love for all things Code Lyoko. Me, I’m willing to accept that perhaps something has been lost in translation (this is a production from France, you see) and/or that I’m simply too old to appreciate it. It’s not that I dislike it, it’s just that I don’t really understand why there’s this alternate reality and what happens there.

But my son has loved this show truly, madly, deeply ever since we first caught it about a year ago. He acts out episodes and invents his own and I nod and smile and tell myself this will likely pass before he leaves for college. (It will, right? Right?)

Something interrupted his slavish Lyoko devotion this past Summer, though. Cartoon Network cancelled the series. At least, I thought Cartoon Network cancelled it. They stopped showing it. News about it ceased to appear, save for various fansites decrying this awful decision.

My son was crushed. It was a matter of great sorrow, for a while, and then life went on. I completely forgot about it.

Well, I’m all kinds of confused, now. Last week we happened to turn on Cartoon Network at about 4:30 and there was Code Lyoko again! At first I thought it was reruns, but no, apparently Season 3 started up in October and I missed it entirely. Please don’t tell my son. Now we’re back to the daily begging to turn on the television to see if Code Lyoko is on. Thanks, Cartoon Network.

According to this very long thread on the Toon Zone Forum, Season 4 is in the works. There’s plenty of up-to-date and breaking news to be found at CodeLyoko.net, as the official web site has surprisingly little to say on the matter.

And I just discovered that the Toonami Digital Arsenal’s Miguzi Downloads includes the unaired Lyoko pilot episode. Maybe if I watch that, I’ll finally know what’s going on? Doubtful, but hope does spring eternal.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for more Code Lyoko developments, but in the meantime, if you—like me—didn’t realize it was back, tune in to Cartoon Network weekdays at 4:30. (And if you figure out what’s going on, please tell me. I’d like to be able to converse with my kid again.)