Your favourite non-TF cel-animated shows?

[Gomess]

In my question hextuple-handedly revive the British animation industry, I ask a lot of questions. The most common are, "What's your favourite cartoon?", "Do you remember when the UK made cartoons?", and "What are you doing in my garden?"

You guyses have some verrry eclectic tastes, and are my only real close internet community jobbie, so. Tell me, tell me your favourites! Rant and rave as much as you like about each one, but keep the actual number of shows you mention low as possible. And remember:

Cel-animated only (not CG or claymation; traditional cartoon style, rotoscoped or computer aided)!

Anime is just the Japanese word for cartoons (so yes, please put anime if you love them)!

And, uh... maybe most controversially...

No Simpsons, Futurama, South Park, Family Guy, American Dad, Dr Katz, or god help you, The Critic, et al. They're juuust the wrong side of the drama/comedy balance I'm looking for in the answers. I don't say, "What's your favourite animated drama?" because that sounds toss. But there's a heck of a lot more of a difference between Family Guy and Ghost in the Shell, than there is between Ghost in the Shell and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nothing to do with the animation, but the content. Animation is a *medium*, not a genre. You get me, bruv?

Oh yeah, no TF shows either. Too easy! =p

THANK YOU LUVVIES =D

[Onslaught Six]

*thinks*

The various 90s superhero shows were generally of some good quality. Batman TAS and its ilk were 'great,' and the Marvel fodder was usually just as entertaining--or at least as entertaining as you can compare DC and Marvel. Spider-Man TAS in particular was also Really Good.

Of course, I'm a sucker, so I like a fair bit of anime too. Rurouni Kenshin reigns as my all-time favourite simply because it's an awesome period piece. Ghost In The Shell is also kickass, and there's Trigun too, and a bunch of others I'm randomly forgetting because THERE IS A GIRL ON MY SHOULDER OMG OMG.

The He-Man revival from 2002 was great stuff, too, and it's really sad that it got paired up against Armada, of all things.

[andersonh1]

Yeah, Batman TAS was very good, and so was the first few years of Justice League. I was also very fond of Courage the Cowardly Dog for awhile when I had Cartoon Network.

[onslaught86]

Muhh. Avatar's snazzy, there's BTAS, '02 MOTU, Aladdin and Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs.. I liked Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, and a few of the Gundam and Macross series, though I'm generally not such a fan of anime.

Also, Franklin. Absolutely. Franklin is fantastic, and beats the pants off of the one with spectacles.

Of course, I watch absolutely no TV whatsoever, so I dunno what the kids be into these days yarr.

[138 Scourge]

Yep, Batman TAS, some of the Superman Animated series was pretty nifty, especially the New Gods-related stuff. I liked the first episodes of the JLA show, but didn't have cable or regular internet access at the time, so it was hard to keep up.

Metalocaylpse, for being so over-the-top bloody and ridiculous, Courage the Cowardly Dog is nifty (there's some pretty disturbing episodes there, actually).

To reach back real old-school...Road Runner cartoons amuse me to no end. A prime example of how to take a simple formula, and make it work each time. Especially in things like...when Wile E. builds the catapult, and wherever he goes the giant rock he hopes to lob at the Roadrunner keeps landing on him. Simple, but it works so well, and gets a laugh every time.

Those old Charlie Brown cartoons, too. The Peanuts strip, of course, is awesome, and the cartoons had a good kinda melancholy quality. The voices and overall sound of those are great.

And the Powerpuff Girls. I loved the hell outta this show back in the day. Extremely simplified and stylized version of the superhero style of doing things, and it worked so damn well.

Finally, the ol' Williams Street/Ghost Planet stuff: Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Home Movies, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021...they all basically take this kinda surreal absurdist shtick, but it entertains me well enough.

I dunno, I'm sure I'll come up with more, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head. I loves me some cartoons.

EDIT: How could I forget the Fantastic Four cartoon from way back in the day (60's or 70's, I dunno. The ones that actually had the Human Torch). These things ruled. The animation wasn't spectacular, but they were still an extremely faithful adaptation of some of the best superhero comics ever. Besides, the Thing's voice on there was hilarious.

[Gomess]

That's great Batman TAS gets some recognition, I was reminiscing over that at a friend's the other day; it was dark without being dull, had excellent animation AND voice acting (very rare combo), and was faithful to the source material while still being a work in its own right. Get a bit of influence from it.

Not surprised foreign stuff didn't get much of a "hurrah" so far, but we are mostly grownups with actual lives, and thus probably don't get AS drawn into internetty stuff as much as others. My excuse is I was raised on anime and super sentai raws.

I do wonder about the perception of Avatar, particularly, because it IS the *only* original animated children's drama on American television, to my knowledge. Not based on an existing property, aimed at an 8-14 age group, deals with 'issues', utilises complex cel animation techniques. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's nothing even close to it being made in the west, let alone the States (I also check out a lot of European stuff, and it's mostly CG and feature films).

Think you folks could start summing up why you think you like those shows so much... concisely? Like, just a word or two that describes what attracted you to 'em. What you look for in that kinda show. Keep naming new shows, natch, I like to have wide points of reference!

[donosaur]

So I don't have to tell Gomess (judging from his avatar), but The Venture Bros is just about the smartest cartoon adult swim and probably all of cartoon network is putting out at the moment. It runs with dumb fart jokes to cheap pop culture reference (Family Guy's well worn territory) but also works with character driven humor that builds over the season. Characters aren't one dimensional gags (well, some are from the outset and that's okay), they grow and become deeper over time. It walks the line of parody and sincerity very skillfully, so even while the action is absurd it's still exciting, and while the characters are pathetic they're still sympathetic. Jackson and Doc have a good balance of cynicism and wonder, something I'd really like to use in my storytelling.

Wow, I have been reading too many online reviews, I have the tone and format down pat.

[Gomess]

The moment where Sergeant Hatred suddenly shoots Rusty at the end of an otherwise bumbling and innocent statement was the first thing on TV to make me actually laugh out loud in mooooonthsssss. I thought it was a genuinely surprising and brilliant bit of writing and directing. "Oh, and by the way..." BAM!

I still came up with the character "White Noise" first, though.

[BWprowl]

I'll go ahead and say Venture Bros. myself, because I mainly love it for the world-building it accomplishes. Seriously, I *love* being able to have random conversations with my friends about, say, the hilarious Guild/Arching system that, to someone who doesn't watch the show, must sound like complete gibberish! The strong sense of continuity helps a lot too. I loved the way they 'retconned' Gentleman back to life in the latest episode.

As you all know, I am a rather big fan of anime, and tend to follow just about whatever's coming out at the time. Hm... recent favorites include Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome, for pretty much the same reasons: They know how to prioritize their budget, IE: Putting a lot of visible effort into the facial expressings, which helps carry a lot of the show's emotional weight. Great pacing and character arc juggling too, though that's a bit off in Mai-Otome at the beginning (the payoff is slightly better than Mai-HiME though, IMO).

I'm also crazy about a lot of Gainax's stuff. Gunbuster and Die Buster, as well as FLCL and Gurren Lagann (Imaishi Hiroyuki FTW!). These shows have a reverence for the stuff they homage, and the latter three capture a manic energy unlike any other anime I've ever seen. Sweet mecha designs too.

The only Shonen Action shows I like are Bleach and One Piece, though if I'm not careful, Soul Eater's going to suck me right in, and Nabari no Ou's not going to help with that. These things succeed because of their addictive nature.

Also been watching Code Geass, which is frickin' terrific. It's like if Death Note had mechs! The narrative is gripping on the same level as Fullmetal Alchemist, the animation pays facial expressions almost the same amount of mind. This one also has some cool mech designs, though I have to wonder what's up with Japan and red mecha named Gurren.

Aaaaaand I'm also watching Simoun and Strawberry Panic. Lusbins!!

[Gomess]

I almost got into Die Buster because, as a general rule, I prefer adorable boxes-with-limbs mecha to EVA or Gundam "kewl" humanoid ones. Because they look more hideously remorseless in action, AND they're cute.

Glad to see there's not a tidal wave (tidal wave (tidal waaaave)) of Bleach fans; got seeeriously bored of that series surprisingly quickly. It set up a universe, and then... well, lots of fights happened. If you replace the fights with gags, it's basically the same setup as later Simpsons episodes. Strong universe, that happens to be full of a bunch of interchangeable visual tropes.

But it's still something to be prouder of in front of laymen than Naruto.

The only shounen action type anime that's stuck with me is Saint Seiya, but then it was one of the first cartoons I ever saw and remembered. I think that always counts for a lot... Can't wait for the finale this month.