This thread currently has my favourite title on RetroGameTalk. My choices:
Transformers Animated was an excellent late-2000s action series developed by the same team behind the equally-excellent Ben 10. The series had gorgeous (but controversial) character designs, some truly phenomenal writing, and a very in-depth story arc that spanned across each of its three seasons.
Unfortunately, the success of the 2007 Transformers movie and Hasbro execs wanting more control over the brand got the show cancelled before the last season could be produced, leading to several open plot remaining by the final episode. There's actually a ton of pre-production material for the fourth season available, and the show's cast have even done live readings of un-produced scripts, but the Transformers brand has moved far past this series, and the time has gone.
Cybersix is one of the finest pieces of late-90s superhero animation available, and a massive cult classic for anyone who grew up in Canada during the turn of the century (i.e. me). A Japanese-Canadian co-production with animation by TMS, this unique series starred a robotic heroine who fought sci-fi monsters with her jaguar sidekick at night, but by day worked as a flipped-gender high school teacher in a quaint seaside town. The series had elements of adventure, mystery, and romance, with an extremely strong supporting cast and gorgeous animation. (The opening cinematic is supremely nostalgic.)
The show got great ratings and had the funding for a second season ready to go, but extreme hostility between TMS and the production team in Canada ended the series at 13 episodes. (Reports of what exactly happened are vague and biased, but apparently TMS was very poor at keeping up with the Canadian team's schedule, leading to huge delays and overshot budgets.) It's seen some interest in recent years thanks to a Blu-Ray release by Discotek, but the rights to continue it have long expired, as have the lives of the original IP creators.
Spicy City was the very first American-animated series aimed at adults, created by the ever-controversial Ralph Bakshi (
Fritz the Cat, Cool World, Coonskin, etc.) for HBO. This show is a personal favourite of mine – an anthology series of neo-noir detective stories set in futuristic worlds, strung together by a Jessica Rabbit-like host. Episodes are heavy on the sex (this is HBO, remember!), but also have some very engaging mystery plots centred around technology and the internet. Characters don't re-appear outside of the episode they're introduced in, so each story is like a half-hour movie, and they're all executed with a variety of experimental art styles.
As is common with Bakshi's work, the HBO executives
hated the production team he spearheaded, which, among various homeless and destitute people pulled from the streets of Brookyln, also included his son as head writer. (Whoops!) Again, ratings were high and a second season had been green-lit, but Bakshi's refusal to change his team (and, by the same token, the show's entire creative engine) got the series canned at only
six episodes. This show is really tough to find, but if you can, I recommend it heartily. I'm still holding out for a Blu-Ray.
I'll doubtlessly remember more of these shows over the next few days, so if you're wanting more walls of text from Gorse on old cartoons nobody remembers, stay tuned!
