Serious Western Cartoon Shows
November 19, 2015 at 7:33 am
(This post was last modified: November 19, 2015 at 7:49 am by Mechaghostman2.)
Hello everyone, today I'll be talking to you guys about some serious western animated shows, filled with either drama, action, or both. There are so very few of these that I've been digging rather deep to find them. Most cartoons in the west, aimed at adults or children, tend to be comedy. Not that it's a bad thing, but sometimes I want something more serious. Japan has been doing this with anime for decades, and I'd like to see the west get on board with it as well.
So, without further delay, here are 11 serious western cartoons. So in no particular order,
Number 11: Riddick Dark Fury. This is a 40 minute long movie that takes place right after the events of the first Riddick movie, Pitch Black. Its basic plot line is they board a bounty hunter ship, get captured, see some strange shit, and then escape. It's nothing spectacular compared to the films, everything is all monotone and slightly underwhelming. With that said, the action scenes may still interest you if you like watching a lot of blood and stuff.
Number 10: Heavy Metal, the original. This film is basically a combination of many mini stories all loosely connected by a ball of evil. My favorite stories in this film are the 3 following, one in future New York, where this cab driver deals with a woman escaping a crime family, one in a B-52 bomber where the crew has been turned into zombies, and one where a woman riding a bird creature fights off a planet of mutants. There's also a lot of fan-fiction styled pervyness and cheesyness in some of the other stories.
Number 9: Star Wars the Clone Wars. This series started off a bit rough, but once the 3rd season kicked in it all went up hill from there. The action scenes, the story arks, the depth of the characters, this cartoon will give you everything you wished that the prequel films did. No boring dialogue, no whiny Anikan, and some very upbeat pacing.
Number 8: Star Wars Rebels. Slightly less epic and grand compared to The Clone Wars, this show still manages to deliver a few very brilliant episodes, even if it's been slightly Disneyfied. It's an ok addition to the Star Wars expanded universe, but I'd watch The Clone Wars before jumping to this show.
Number 7: Gargoyles. This show was Disney's answer to Batman, which I guess I'll put as an honorable mention here since it does have its fans and everything. Gargoyles delivered a level of epicness and depth to the characters and plot of the show. It was dark, heavy in mythology, and delivered just the right balance of fantasy, sci-fi, action, and drama to the show. Though aimed at kids for sure, it has its elements that I think everybody watching can enjoy. In short, the plot is basically Gargoyles that woke up after 1,000 years become super heroes in Manhattan while fighting off prejudices.
Number 6: Delta State. This French-Canadian production was done entirely in rotoscoping. It's based on the idea of using astral projection to fight off extra dimensional parasites in an ethereal world, which is an interesting idea. Though it's carried out in an almost soap opera like fashion with the dialogue and acting, and gives almost no character development other than some uncovered back story and a personality quark in one guy. It started off with very formulated plots but after a while they diversify them. Overall it's not a bad series, I'd say give a few episodes a watch to see if you're interested.
Number 5: Invasion America. Like the Riddick cartoon, this one too suffers from being a bit underwhelming through a lot of it. Its main plot is an alien kid raised by humans is royalty and he has this glove that gives him the power of the force, and he has to save America from an alien invasion while trying to fight off alien enemies. It's that simple. It has its share of action, but it's kinda slow and they take shortcuts, plus they use early CGI which looks really dated.
Number 4: Aeon Flux. This is based around a government agent woman person that does government agent stuff. That's it. I've only watched a few episodes of this, the pilot, the few in season 2, which were mostly just little short animations that were more like skits than anything, and a few in season 3 where there is a full 22 minute plot and dialogue and everything. All of them really weird and almost trippy or something. It was a bit too weird for my taste so I gave up on it, but it has plenty of action and that fun stuff if it's your thing.
Number 3: Avatar the Last Airbender. The greatest family cartoon that I've ever seen in my adult life. It's based around a monk that can magically command wind, water, earth, and fire, who is to keep balance in the world, a force for good, and that fights a conquering dictatorship. This cartoon has the perfect blend of drama, action, and comedy. It has brilliant animation, very colorful character development on both the hero and villain side, and very good story telling. It's influenced by anime and east Asian philosophy and mythology. There's nothing I can say about this show other than it's great.
Number 2: Avatar the Legend Of Korra. Everything about the Last Airbender also makes this show great, except there's not much color in the villain's character, there are 4 villains that take up a season a piece instead of one villain and many side villains to take up 3 seasons, which is basically KKK man, occultist man, anarchist man, and Hitler Stalin lady. The comedy is also less clever. Yeah there's some funny stuff, but a lot of it is pee and fart jokes. It starts off really strong exploring relationship themes in the first season or two, but they drop it afterwards and make the show descend into being more kid relateable. Though the final 20 seconds of the show's series finale implies that the main character is bi. Quite a big step forward for the Spongebob channel, and a step in the right direction. To hell with the fundie freaks. So I'd say do the thing and watch this show if you haven't already.
Number 1: Spawn, HBO series. This show kicks ass. It didn't last long and didn't give a conclusion at the end sadly, but it is the only series on this list with this level of action, gore, and so on. It's gritty, it's dark, and it's not for kids. It deals with themes like drug gangs, political corruption with some heavy details, and various other topics. For those who aren't familiar with Spawn, it's basically a story about a marine that gets double crossed, dies, goes to hell, makes a deal with the devil and comes back as a creature known as a Hell Spawn, where he's supposed to follow the orders of the devil but he fights it to try and regain his humanity and thus his life. The pacing is very slow, on the level of Escape From New York or Escape From LA, or even Blade Runner, so if you hate slow stuff this might not be for you. I for one think it's very fitting for this story, and love the dark atmosphere this series give off.
Well there's the 11 serious western cartoons that I have watched, and again I really hope to see more of this in the future. Why should Japan get all the good stuff?
So, without further delay, here are 11 serious western cartoons. So in no particular order,
Number 11: Riddick Dark Fury. This is a 40 minute long movie that takes place right after the events of the first Riddick movie, Pitch Black. Its basic plot line is they board a bounty hunter ship, get captured, see some strange shit, and then escape. It's nothing spectacular compared to the films, everything is all monotone and slightly underwhelming. With that said, the action scenes may still interest you if you like watching a lot of blood and stuff.
Number 10: Heavy Metal, the original. This film is basically a combination of many mini stories all loosely connected by a ball of evil. My favorite stories in this film are the 3 following, one in future New York, where this cab driver deals with a woman escaping a crime family, one in a B-52 bomber where the crew has been turned into zombies, and one where a woman riding a bird creature fights off a planet of mutants. There's also a lot of fan-fiction styled pervyness and cheesyness in some of the other stories.
Number 9: Star Wars the Clone Wars. This series started off a bit rough, but once the 3rd season kicked in it all went up hill from there. The action scenes, the story arks, the depth of the characters, this cartoon will give you everything you wished that the prequel films did. No boring dialogue, no whiny Anikan, and some very upbeat pacing.
Number 8: Star Wars Rebels. Slightly less epic and grand compared to The Clone Wars, this show still manages to deliver a few very brilliant episodes, even if it's been slightly Disneyfied. It's an ok addition to the Star Wars expanded universe, but I'd watch The Clone Wars before jumping to this show.
Number 7: Gargoyles. This show was Disney's answer to Batman, which I guess I'll put as an honorable mention here since it does have its fans and everything. Gargoyles delivered a level of epicness and depth to the characters and plot of the show. It was dark, heavy in mythology, and delivered just the right balance of fantasy, sci-fi, action, and drama to the show. Though aimed at kids for sure, it has its elements that I think everybody watching can enjoy. In short, the plot is basically Gargoyles that woke up after 1,000 years become super heroes in Manhattan while fighting off prejudices.
Number 6: Delta State. This French-Canadian production was done entirely in rotoscoping. It's based on the idea of using astral projection to fight off extra dimensional parasites in an ethereal world, which is an interesting idea. Though it's carried out in an almost soap opera like fashion with the dialogue and acting, and gives almost no character development other than some uncovered back story and a personality quark in one guy. It started off with very formulated plots but after a while they diversify them. Overall it's not a bad series, I'd say give a few episodes a watch to see if you're interested.
Number 5: Invasion America. Like the Riddick cartoon, this one too suffers from being a bit underwhelming through a lot of it. Its main plot is an alien kid raised by humans is royalty and he has this glove that gives him the power of the force, and he has to save America from an alien invasion while trying to fight off alien enemies. It's that simple. It has its share of action, but it's kinda slow and they take shortcuts, plus they use early CGI which looks really dated.
Number 4: Aeon Flux. This is based around a government agent woman person that does government agent stuff. That's it. I've only watched a few episodes of this, the pilot, the few in season 2, which were mostly just little short animations that were more like skits than anything, and a few in season 3 where there is a full 22 minute plot and dialogue and everything. All of them really weird and almost trippy or something. It was a bit too weird for my taste so I gave up on it, but it has plenty of action and that fun stuff if it's your thing.
Number 3: Avatar the Last Airbender. The greatest family cartoon that I've ever seen in my adult life. It's based around a monk that can magically command wind, water, earth, and fire, who is to keep balance in the world, a force for good, and that fights a conquering dictatorship. This cartoon has the perfect blend of drama, action, and comedy. It has brilliant animation, very colorful character development on both the hero and villain side, and very good story telling. It's influenced by anime and east Asian philosophy and mythology. There's nothing I can say about this show other than it's great.
Number 2: Avatar the Legend Of Korra. Everything about the Last Airbender also makes this show great, except there's not much color in the villain's character, there are 4 villains that take up a season a piece instead of one villain and many side villains to take up 3 seasons, which is basically KKK man, occultist man, anarchist man, and Hitler Stalin lady. The comedy is also less clever. Yeah there's some funny stuff, but a lot of it is pee and fart jokes. It starts off really strong exploring relationship themes in the first season or two, but they drop it afterwards and make the show descend into being more kid relateable. Though the final 20 seconds of the show's series finale implies that the main character is bi. Quite a big step forward for the Spongebob channel, and a step in the right direction. To hell with the fundie freaks. So I'd say do the thing and watch this show if you haven't already.
Number 1: Spawn, HBO series. This show kicks ass. It didn't last long and didn't give a conclusion at the end sadly, but it is the only series on this list with this level of action, gore, and so on. It's gritty, it's dark, and it's not for kids. It deals with themes like drug gangs, political corruption with some heavy details, and various other topics. For those who aren't familiar with Spawn, it's basically a story about a marine that gets double crossed, dies, goes to hell, makes a deal with the devil and comes back as a creature known as a Hell Spawn, where he's supposed to follow the orders of the devil but he fights it to try and regain his humanity and thus his life. The pacing is very slow, on the level of Escape From New York or Escape From LA, or even Blade Runner, so if you hate slow stuff this might not be for you. I for one think it's very fitting for this story, and love the dark atmosphere this series give off.
Well there's the 11 serious western cartoons that I have watched, and again I really hope to see more of this in the future. Why should Japan get all the good stuff?
![[Image: rySLj1k.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i.imgur.com%2FrySLj1k.png)
