Your favourite non-TF cel-animated shows?

[138 Scourge]

Hmmm...which brings up the first anime I ever saw and remembered...Voltron!

Not too bad a show, really. Kinda goofy, tons of stock animation...hey, maybe growing up on Voltron explains why I love Cybertron so, yeah?

While, like everyone else, I liked the "lion" Voltron the most, there was something to be said for the vehicle variety. The show always seemed more complex and...I don't want to say "mature", exactly, but less goofy. Of course, that may have been from having fifteen characters to follow instead of five.

[Gomess]

So Scourge, do you actually prefer Cybertron to Galaxy Force? Be honest!

I've never known anyone who still prefers Voltron to GoLion after watching the original, but I HAVE met people who still prefer Power Rangers to Sentai, and am interested in why, beyond familiarity.

I'm coverin' all them bases! =D

[138 Scourge]

Honestly? I haven't even seen any of Galaxy Force, so I dunno.

But, Cybertron had DJ Soundwave, Lugnutz G. Krebs, the way that not even the characters could take the stock footage seriously after long enough "All that for a punch...?" and the like. That kinda stuff put a lot of the fun into the show for me, so I'm guessing that I'd still take it over Galaxy Force.

However, to be scientific about this, I'll try to find some of the GF online somewhere for comparison purposes.

[BWprowl]

"Come together...Right now...Over me!!"

That should sum up everything that was good about Cybertron.

My first interaction with anime was when I was still really young (had to be five or six, tops) and I got REALLY into the reruns of 'G-Force' that were showing on Cartoon Network at the time. For those who don't know, 'G-Force' was a redub of 'Battle for the Planets' which itself was a reversioned 'Gatchaman'. And 'G-Force' is easily the worst version, saddling the main characters with awesomely awesome names like 'Ace Goodheart' and 'Dirk Daring'. I kid you not. The main villain got named 'Galactor'. But I loved the show's animation (I remember at first thinking "Why's their hair all messy?"), I loved the bird aesthetic, and the vehicles. I still have a nagging appreciation for transforming heroes that persists to this day that I'm pretty sure I can trace back to this show. Really, I'm gonna have to take 'Gatchaman' for a spin one of these days. I hear it's quite good...

[138 Scourge]

"Come together...Right now...Over me!!"

That should sum up everything that was good about Cybertron.

Y'know, I meant to put that into my previous post, too, but then somehow managed not to. That rocked.

[Gomess]

Most people's reactions to Gatchaman, if they've already seen one of its western versions, is,

"SCIENCE NINJAS?"

The second reaction is usually being concerned at the amount of violence. I don't think I've ever seen fight scenes cut like they were in Gatchaman. But then, I never saw any dubs of Hokuto no Ken...

You'd think media violence would be more normalised in the west, what with us always starting wars and such. Huff!

As for Galaxy Force, it isn't half as *funny* as Cybertron, but... it's almost genuinely good to watch. Unfortunately, I can't see past the shameful CG. But it's got a story, and that!

[Onslaught Six]

My first interaction with anime was when I was still really young (had to be five or six, tops) and I got REALLY into the reruns of 'G-Force' that were showing on Cartoon Network at the time. For those who don't know, 'G-Force' was a redub of 'Battle for the Planets' which itself was a reversioned 'Gatchaman'. And 'G-Force' is easily the worst version, saddling the main characters with awesomely awesome names like 'Ace Goodheart' and 'Dirk Daring'. I kid you not. The main villain got named 'Galactor'. But I loved the show's animation (I remember at first thinking "Why's their hair all messy?"), I loved the bird aesthetic, and the vehicles. I still have a nagging appreciation for transforming heroes that persists to this day that I'm pretty sure I can trace back to this show. Really, I'm gonna have to take 'Gatchaman' for a spin one of these days. I hear it's quite good...

I remembered G-Force for years but never actually tracked it down until about a year or two ago. I definitely remember the theme, and at least one ep where the girl wearing pink was trying to pull a switch or something in her kickass mecha to make it transform or something. Seeing that kind of stuff happen definitely shunted it up above Voltron for me.

I've never known anyone who still prefers Voltron to GoLion after watching the original, but I HAVE met people who still prefer Power Rangers to Sentai, and am interested in why, beyond familiarity.

I've seen several eps of Zyuranger, both subbed and raw, and I must say I do like it. It's sentai, of course, so there's bits of childish ridiculousness, but there's some 'really' cool bits in there that you just don't see in the early seasons of MMPR. Daizyujin is treated as a God and the individuals do 'far more' than they ever do in MMPR, and a lot of the villains make a hell of a lot more sense. The entire Burai thing is done way better than Tommy was handled post-evil, but I still prefer the actual Evil Green Ranger arc...which brings me to the next bit.

MMPR entertains because it's so shamelessly corny and 90s and horrible. It's not quite that self-referential level that Dom hates--"Ha ha, we're in 'Power Rangers,' this is horrible, so it's funny," but they're trying legit to do a decent job and, for the most part, they succeed. The fight scenes are still kickass after all these years, and some of the ways they reused footage was really clever. The later end of the first season is pretty crappy, though, with the Zyu2 footage--mostly because we start seeing things like the later Goldar costume, which 'sucks' because it's so not as cool.

Also, MMPR brought us Lord Zedd, and Lord Zedd is the coolest bad guy ever.

[Gomess]

Lord Zedd was one of the best things to come out of PR. Great costume, great VA. Shame they couldn't have spent the same money on their version of the Dragon Armour (gold bit around the Green Ranger's shoulders), or, as you say, Goldar. Poor, poor Grifforzer.

Also major props to the editing job they did on the "Ninja Ultrazord", basically dubbing an image of Kakure Daishogun (Ninja Megazord) over one of King Brachion (Titanus..?). Considering these two mecha NEVER appeared in the same Sentai, and eeeeeveryone fell for it, it was well done.

Couldn't do it with the toys, though. =[

Any more recent, specifically original (or at least, based on a similarly new manga) anime you guys can come up with, and specific reasons you love em, would be appreciated!

I should probably make a site for my cartoon, but that seems to be the kinda thing that'll take up time I could be spending pitching it to real life people, and buying a studio.

[CrossRook]

Western Animation: ATHF, The Venture Brothers, Metalocalypse, The Justice League (Before it got all Unlimited), Spider-Man TAS, Jackie Chan Adventures, and pretty much every original Cartoon Network Show they've ever made.

Eastern Animation (Anime): Dragonball, Z and, surprisingly, GT, Gundam 08th MS Team, TTGL, Digimon (until about halfway through season 3), Ruroni Kenshin, and pretty much every other anime that was on Toonami from about 2001 to 2005.

[onslaught86]

On Galaxy Force, I found it Really Really Mind-Numbingly Boring. It did not exhibit anywhere near the amount of charm and quirk that make Japanese TF shows so fun, and it didn't have Cybertron's keen dub to poke fun at how Mind-Numbingly Boring it was. So yeah.