High quality animated sci-fi shows?

[Myasishchev]

If you just watch episodes 5, 14, 15, 25, and 26,* you've got the core story.

On the other hand, 25 and 26 probably lose some of their emotional impact if you've only spent one and a half hours with these guys, rather than eight.

*Or something like that.

 

[zakkrusz]

Birdy the Mighty Decode
Crest of the Stars and it's Sequels
Cowboy Bebop
Darker Than Black and Darker Than Black 2: Gemini of the Meteor
Denno Coil
Ergo Proxy
The Galaxy Railways
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Gunslinger Girl and Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino
Heroic Age
Infinite Ryvius
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Kiddy Grade
Kurau: Phantom Memory
Moonlight Mile
Noein
Outlaw Star
Planetes
Real Drive
Sol Bianca: The Legacy
Starship Operators
Stratos 4
Xehosaga: The Animation
Yukikaze

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Megas XLR has some good robot smashing.

It's essentially composed of 98 percent robot-smashing.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Just reinforcing the recommendations for Beast Wars and Beast Machines. There's some really good work in there. But for BW, you really do need to slog through some entertaining, but otherwise unremarkable standalone episodes in Season 1 before the serialized format and strong character development kick in. BM is serialized from start to finish.

 

[Pilot Ace]

So what is it about Cowboy Bebop that makes it worthwhile, that you couldn't tell by the first episode?

Simple answer: The fifth episode, Ballad of Fallen Angels.

The stained glass window scene is among the very best ever.

 

[Myasishchev]

I liked the fight in 26 better, but they're both really great.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

this is what i'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_6XZmPgps

things get going at 1:45 until the end.

bump

 

[zakkrusz]

Apparently, if you live in the US you can't watch....whatever that is, disallowed by Liongate, who are apparently exercising their right to be copyright jerkoffs.

 

[bullethead]

Surprised no one has mentioned Men in Black: The Series.

 

[Christopher]

Surprised no one has mentioned Men in Black: The Series.

That was only high-quality in its first season. After that, the good writers got moved over to Godzilla: The Series, and the show got increasingly dumbed down, with the smart, character-driven storytelling of the first season replaced by shallower, action- and gimmick-driven storytelling, and the main characters were often reduced to straight men for the one-note comic-relief aliens.

By the way, the new Hub network is rerunning MiB:TS on weekdays at 6:30 AM Eastern and sometimes at 4:30 PM. They're showing the 2-part series finale today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, and the first season is being rerun starting Monday the 27th.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

Apparently, if you live in the US you can't watch....whatever that is, disallowed by Liongate, who are apparently exercising their right to be copyright jerkoffs.

oh, ok.

 

[Roshi]

I can suggest you watch:

Halo: Legends (based on the video game series)
The Animatrix (far superior than Reloaded and Revolutions)
Ghost In The Shell: SAC
And since you like The X-Men show from the nineties maybe you will enjoy Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes, even though the last three episodes are kind of a let-down.

 

[Lynn Minmay]

Legend of Galactic Heroes
Gundam 8th MS Team
Battle Angel Alita
Macross Plus
Macross: Do You Remember Love
Votoms
Space Battleship Yamato
Gunbuster
Bubblegum Crisis/Crash
Gundam Unicorn
Super Dimension Fortress: Macross
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

 

[Lynn Minmay]

OMG. I don't think has been mentioned.

Exo-Squad.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

okay, this avengers show looks great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7kO7J3ua9c

i'm looking for something exactly like that. the robots show up at the end.

that link should not be banned in the USA.

 

[Christopher]

OMG. I don't think has been mentioned.

Exo-Squad.

High-quality writing, utterly atrocious animation. Not to mention a gross failure of astronomical research on the part of the design team, portraying Enceladus as a rectangular slab of rock hovering in space and Olympus Mons on Mars as an absurdly slender needle of a mountain. It's one of several animated shows from that era that I wish could be entirely re-animated over the same soundtrack. (Well, maybe with a different sound-effects mix. I got so deathly sick of hearing the exact same "hydraulic whirr" sound effect every single bloody time one of those exo-suits made any movement whatsoever.)

 

[RAMA]

Well in terms of new shows not many...if you are interested there is a new Gundam show out called Gundam Unicorn, but I'm not going to tell you how to find it.

The last Gundam show was the best of the bunch by far: Gundam 00.

I also managed to catch a 7 part series called "Freedom", which is also worth a search.

One of my all-time favorites is very much like a good SF novel on a large scale: Heroic Age. I believe its about 24 episodes.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/releases.php?id=15696

 

[cylkoth]

Well in terms of new shows not many...if you are interested there is a new Gundam show out called Gundam Unicorn, but I'm not going to tell you how to find it.

The last Gundam show was the best of the bunch by far: Gundam 00.

I've been out of the Gundam loop since 00 ended. Wasn't a movie being planned to continue the storyline introduced in the final episodes?
Unicorn? Giant mechas that transform..into unicorns? Fighting against Zeon Gazelle mechs?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Nope. But there is a "Unicorn Gundam" that transforms from a robot into... Another robot. :P Excellent anime BTW with a great update on the UC portion of the franchise. Worth catching if you're familiar with Gundam 0079, Zeta and Char's Counterattack, as it continues (or epilogues) that story arc without being a derivative and largely unleated continuation as F-91 and Victory Gundam were.

And there was a Gundam 00 Movie that tied everything off, which hits DVD in Japan on Christmas Day 2010. It wasn't terribly well-recieved in the theatres, but should be worth a watch if you liked the series.

Mark

 

[RAMA]

Well in terms of new shows not many...if you are interested there is a new Gundam show out called Gundam Unicorn, but I'm not going to tell you how to find it.

The last Gundam show was the best of the bunch by far: Gundam 00.

I've been out of the Gundam loop since 00 ended. Wasn't a movie being planned to continue the storyline introduced in the final episodes?
Unicorn? Giant mechas that transform..into unicorns? Fighting against Zeon Gazelle mechs?

There was a Gundam 00 movie released.

Gundam Unicorn is still being released, there is some footage here:
http://www.gundam-unicorn.net/en/index.html