What Serious cartoon would you consider the best show?

[ilostmyplace]

Dude! If anime qualifies, then anything Gundam should be at the top of the list (IMHO):

It's funny because shows like Robotech or Macross and Gundam, Exosquad all owe their existence to a book made here in the US called Starship Troopers.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah, I think Tomino intended when working on Gundam to make something a little closer to "Troopers" (although probably without space aliens-aliens have shown up in only one Gundam film and in one of the "Build" series where they're initially mistaken for video game VR characters, although both SEED and TURN A do imply they exist I think) but kind of had to generally give it a bit of a super robot 'look' in order to sell it. In the compilation movies, Tomino removes a lot of the super-robotness such as the G-armor (Replacing it with the core booster) and most of the goofier mobile armors.

Z Gundam of course is largely darker and most of the cast is killed off, missing, or mentally broken by the end of the show. ZZ of course is much lighter but has it's share of tragedy. V of course has very colorful mecha designs and super-cheery opening songs, but, as I've read, is even more depressing than Zeta at points.


Seems that after Tomino the show of course has it's mix of serious and super robot. Gundam 0080 and 0083 largely stick to Tomino-style melodrama, but G Gundam goes in pretty much the opposite direction for the most part. Gundam Wing sort of balances things out although it still has over-the-top Gundam designs, especially in Endless Waltz. SEED tries to kind of have a similar balance too. Ditto with the other AUs which kind of gravitate towards either gritty war drama or colorful giant robots.

[ilostmyplace]

Yeah, I think Tomino intended when working on Gundam to make something a little closer to "Troopers" (although probably without space aliens-aliens have shown up in only one Gundam film and in one of the "Build" series where they're initially mistaken for video game VR characters, although both SEED and TURN A do imply they exist I think) but kind of had to generally give it a bit of a super robot 'look' in order to sell it. In the compilation movies, Tomino removes a lot of the super-robotness such as the G-armor (Replacing it with the core booster) and most of the goofier mobile armors.

Z Gundam of course is largely darker and most of the cast is killed off, missing, or mentally broken by the end of the show. ZZ of course is much lighter but has it's share of tragedy. V of course has very colorful mecha designs and super-cheery opening songs, but, as I've read, is even more depressing than Zeta at points.


Seems that after Tomino the show of course has it's mix of serious and super robot. Gundam 0080 and 0083 largely stick to Tomino-style melodrama, but G Gundam goes in pretty much the opposite direction for the most part. Gundam Wing sort of balances things out although it still has over-the-top Gundam designs, especially in Endless Waltz. SEED tries to kind of have a similar balance too. Ditto with the other AUs which kind of gravitate towards either gritty war drama or colorful giant robots.

It's funny because half the stuff happened in Exosquad. The aliens in Exosquad don't show up until the end. And one guy that screwed over humanity to the Neosapiens was the Human Captain of the Exo-fleet Matthew Marcus. By the time the show ended half the cast is now dead with only 2 revived as clones. Nara Burns was most likely going to make it past season 3 if the show wasn't canceled after season 2, with both her parents now living in the ground and she was forced to watch as her little brother got crushed to death by a e-Frame. Some hated this show because they said it was too much like G.I.Joe. You know a show where if you get hit by a gun in the head or chest you just shack it off and get back to work, as for Exosquad if you get shot in the chest or head, well you're just dead. And not forgetting the Neosapiens were made by humans as slaves and were born with no genitalia. And let's not forget what the humans did to a large group of prisoners who would become the space pirates. Just leave them on some moon with no supplies or food and maybe two broken spaceships that can't fly. Yeah, Exosquad is just a kid's show much like G.I.Joe was.

[ChrisIII]

I haven't seen Exosquad but it seems that the Neosapiens are a bit like Newtypes/coordinators/Spacenoids in a few ways, although Newtypes are identical to humans. The conflict also has similarities to Gundam as well, which largely focuses on a war with space colonies in Earth's system.

Although in Gundam the planetary colonies (with the exception of the Moon where most of the Mobile suits are made and a major part of Turn A Gundam) are often treated vaguely with some exceptions (Iron Blooded Orphans). The big bad in Zeta comes from Jupiter but we don't see much of the planet itself in the anime series (Some mangas deal with it). Even Witch From Mercury doesn't have much happening with Mercury except for a tie-in novel!

[ilostmyplace]

I haven't seen Exosquad but it seems that the Neosapiens are a bit like Newtypes/coordinators/Spacenoids in a few ways, although Newtypes are identical to humans. The conflict also has similarities to Gundam as well, which largely focuses on a war with space colonies in Earth's system.

Although in Gundam the planetary colonies (with the exception of the Moon where most of the Mobile suits are made and a major part of Turn A Gundam) are often treated vaguely with some exceptions (Iron Blooded Orphans). The big bad in Zeta comes from Jupiter but we don't see much of the planet itself in the anime series (Some mangas deal with it). Even Witch From Mercury doesn't have much happening with Mercury except for a tie-in novel!

You're mostly right. Exosquad was made in 1993 and sadly can only be seen on Peacock. Last I checked Video Game Awards couldn't even save Peacock. Even Exosquad is now under Dreamworks mostly because when Universal bought DreamWorks Animation they slowly merged it with Universal Animation Studios killing UAS and putting it under DreamWorks Animation. And DreamWorks Animation did a pretty good mech show with the rebooted Voltron series on Netflix. But DreamWorks Animation and Universal denying this. Of course, they've been doing the same with Invasion America another property DreamWorks Animation and Universal they don't want you to know they own.

But Jeff Segal and Michael Edens used elements from Starship Troopers and Gundam to help them make the show. Even using other films and TV shows to help them like James Cameron's Aliens film. Exosquad had other elements that would be used in other shows years later like in The Expanse with the Belters almost having the same story as the pirates.