Best Fantasy/SF Cartoons?

[Ophiucha]

I've found myself watching Cartoon Network more often than SyFy and CW these days, so I thought I'd ask: is anybody else into fantasy and sf cartoons? There are quite a few good ones out right now, and a few that aren't too old that are still being shown in reruns and getting nice Blu-Ray box sets. Here are a few of the ones I've been watching recently:

• Steven Universe: A show about a young boy and his three alien moms who fight monsters and protect the Earth. The humour and music are in a similar style to Adventure Time, likely because the creator of this show came from that team, but the characters, storytelling, and worldbuilding are amazing for a 10-minute-an-episode show. There is a whole lore to the 'Crystal Gems' (the alien race) that is slowly being uncovered, and it is genuinely very interesting to learn and explore. Plus, the mobile game that just came out for it is probably the best mobile RPG I've ever played.
• Gravity Falls: A show about a pair of twins who live in a town full of monsters and mysteries that they help fight and solve with the help of a bestiary/grimoire-style book. A lot of the individual episodes have great monsters and stories, the townspeople have a Twin Peaksian quality to them, but the best part of the show so far is the overarching story involving the origins of the mysterious book.
• Legend of Korra: A sequel to the acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender, that deals with the next Avatar in a more technologically advanced world than the one of the previous series. She has to contend with a divide between benders and non-benders, the physical world's connection to the Spirit World, and... a love triangle. That last one made the first season a bit... hard to watch, honestly, but I decided to give it another try after the show ended a couple of months ago, and it turned out great. The last two seasons have some great villains and a lot of neat explorations of the established lore and magic system. Plus, the ending had me crying tears of joy, which is rare from any show, let alone one meant for kids.

 

[CupofJoe]

Æon Flux
From a wiki page...

... set in a bizarre, dystopian future world. The title character is a tall, leather-clad secret agent from the nation of Monica, skilled in assassination and acrobatics. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-lover Trevor Goodchild. Monica represents a dynamic anarchist society, while Bregna embodies a police state...

It was wonderfully surreal, highly stylised and apparently non-linear. The live action film that followed has its charms but isn't a patch on the cartoon.

 

[Ophiucha]

I haven't seen Aeon Flux, but I like another show that the creator of it worked on called Phantom 2040. It was based on the Phantom comics, and it had some amazing voice acting. Certainly much better than the film version of the comic, the one that had Billy Zane? That was... just terrible.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I never really appreciated Aeon Flux back when it was on MTV (sometime in the early 1990s). In the original work, the MC would always die. Then, in the next episode, she would continue her mission not making the mistake that got her killed last time.

I guess it was either her seeing the future or jumping back in time Groundhog Day style, allowing her to relive her life. Basically, she was like Samus Aran, going into a strange world, getting killed, restarting from a save point, eventually completing and surviving her mission.


Maybe I'd appreciate Aeon Flux more now.

I'm sure I'd hate Akira just as much as I did the first time. Tragic endings don't bother me, but predictable tragic endings with no ray of sunshine suck. I didn't care about the main characters, so the demon sparing them while brutally wasting everyone else in Neo Tokyo was no ray of sunshine.

There may be a message lost in translation. The demon boy may have been a personification of the atom bomb. But that may be me trying to justify an animation that took a lot of work, got a lot of recognition for it, but was just awful, pointless death after death.

 

[Reaver]

I've found myself watching Cartoon Network more often than SyFy

No opinion on cartoons because I don't watch them. I used to watch South Park until they started re-hashing old plots and ideas.

Does it bother anyone else that The Sci Fi Channel changed its name to SyFy? Is that action a sign of the lessening of human intelligence? Did they do it because a vast majority of people pronounced it skee fee or skee fye?

I'll conclude in textspeke for the younger generations who don't get my line of questioning: SMFH because WTF?

 

[Steerpike]

Fire and Ice?

 

[Mythopoet]

Does anime count? If so I can give you a whole list.

 

[Ophiucha]

Legendary Sidekick, I feel similarly about Akira. The animation and art style are nice enough, it's not a bad story, but I never cared enough about the characters to feel anything other than mild annoyance at how dark the ending was.

Reaver, 'a sign of the lessening of human intelligence' is perhaps extreme, but it certainly is a sign of their lessening dedication to science fiction, as evidenced by the increase in wrestling-based programming and Asylum-produced schlock. And I think more people mispronounce it as 'Siffy' now than they did before, haha.

Steerpike, I can't remember if I actually liked that movie, but I remember that I watched it because James Gurney did the background paintings. Since you brought up Bakshi, I have a certain nostalgia for his adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

 

[Ophiucha]

Does anime count? If so I can give you a whole list.

I was leaning towards Western animation for this thread, since it's less discussed, but I do love a good SFF anime series. Although I daresay my 'to-watch' queue on myanimelist hardly needs to get any bigger, I must have 100 series on there already...

 

[Steerpike]

@Ophiucha - I have a certain nostalgia for that as well.

When it comes to Anime, I am not an expert by any means, and my knowledge is limited. I liked Akira pretty well. I liked the first Ghost in the Shell movie. Some of may favorites are Miyazaki's movies, and among those my favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service, followed by Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I like each of his works that I've seen. I also thought Hosoda's (?) Wolf Children was pretty good, as well as Summer Wars.

EDIT: Ah, I see you want western works. I'll have to think on it a bit more...

 

[X Equestris]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars was pretty good, and had some fairly deep and mature themes for a Cartoon Network program. Too bad Disney cut the last couple seasons when they acquired the franchise. I can't comment on Star Wars Rebels, as I haven't seen it.

 

[MineOwnKing]

Space Pirate Captain Harlock.
I watched this for the first time a couple days ago. I really enjoyed it.
I like Sci Fi movies and I think the animation for Captain Harlock was well done.

 

[Ophiucha]

@X Equestris, My husband wants to watch Clone Wars and Rebels at some point this year, since they are part of Disney's new canon for Star Wars. I'm not a big fan of the franchise, but I've heard a lot of good things about the cartoons, so I'm interested to see them.

 

[Feo Takahari]

It's a bit hard to find now, but I have a soft spot for Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths, and Legends. It was easily the best family show I've seen, not intended solely for kids or adults, but with plots and characters both could appreciate. I liked how the main characters were a bright spot in what would otherwise have been a villain group, subverting their superiors and trying to make allies instead of enemies.

 

[Penpilot]

The remake of Space Battleship Yamato is pretty good. Heck the original series, known as Star Blazers in America, is still awesome. It's about a ship and it's crew's epic journey to another galaxy to retrieve a device that will save the Earth from radiation poisoning. They have to fight through the aliens who planet-bombed the Earth into a radioactive waste, but in the process, they discover that they aren't faceless monsters, but in many way are a lot like humans. The series is known for it great pathos, which lies in it's music. They made an awful live action movie too. Ugg.

Here's the opening for the original '80s series. It gives a good feel to what the series is about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMcrep48Wz0

Here's the opening to the recent remake. It's more up to date in terms of animation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sNIhTnxTg

Here's cgi footage from a video game, just because IMHO it's cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYd8dC_WDVw

There's also Robotech. Like Star Blazers, it's an older series, but still good and available on DVD. It's actually re-editing of three Japanese series into one epic tale. When a mysterious ship crash-lands on Earth, carrying the secrets to a substance called protoculture, it triggers a three generation war between Earth and the aliens who come in search of the secrets of protoculture. It's known for it's cool music too.

Here's the opening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3jIdLOVPM

I think you can find episodes on youtube, but their quality is dubious.


A couple of series I'll mention for '80s schlock factor are Thundarr the Barbarian and Galtar and the Golden Lance. I think you can find Thundarr episodes on youtube too.

Thundarr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk

Galtar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xruT7wUdsHI

 

[SeverinR]

top of the list HTTYD

 

[Devor]

The only one I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet is Wakfu, which is a French cartoon that ran two seasons and is up on Netflix. It's full of cliches but it's fun.

top of the list HTTYD

I haven't seen the tv series, but I'm looking forward to the new seasons coming to Netflix. The How to Train Your Dragon movies should be on everyone's cartoon fantasy list.

Airbender has to be the top of any list for tv though.

 

[Mindfire]

The Thundercats reboot that Cartoon Network had was REALLY good. Its only real competitor on CN at the time was Young Justice (another awesome show!). Sadly, both were canceled because Cartoon Network is dumb. Thudercats even got stuck with a crappy cliffhanger ending. Nick's new Ninja Turtles is also good, but the 2003 version is still the best.

 

[Manalodia]

Berserk. Mostly because nothing else medieval fantasy-based has come out of Japan for awhile. As for scifi...hmm. Cowboy Bebop? Is that scifi enough or inbetween?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Cowboy Bebop

I can't think of a better anime series than Cowboy Bebop. Because there isn't one.

(Best way to deal with this situation is to have flashbacks.)

I got into that after finishing Outlaw Star. That series had cool concepts like grappler ships and a silly cat girl who kicked butt.

(Gene Starwind in drag, Aisha as "Firecat")