Most of us here were in some form of consciousness for the mid 80's rise of the Saturday Morning Cartoon: Masters of the Universe, GI Joe RAH, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, etc etc. Followed by the early 90's Comic Book/Nickelodeon/MTV craze with everything from Batman to Ren and Stimpy. Then came the late 90's and things went down-fucking-hill. Suddenly Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern life gave birth to these incestual abominations of ADD style cartoons designed for kids with attentions spans of a commercial break. I remember being disgusted with the incredibly shitty animation styles and lack of direction and plot of many a forgetable animated show that aired on commercial tv on saturday mornings and whatever and whenever on cable.

Things got a bit better once we reached the millennium, I could stomach the Spongebob, it was palatable but not something I'd seek out. Pokemon/Digimon/Yugioh etc had hit its stride and were chewing up TVs, vhs/dvd players, and Gameboys color cartridges. CGI started taking prominence, thanks to Dreamworks and Pixar's outings at the cinemas. oh and Anime... oh anime, while they created memorable acid-trip like stories in the 80's with Voltron and Starblazers... now they were simply edited to hell to please the "Will Somebody Please Think of the Childrens" wolf-criers.

This brings us up to now...

What is on out there that you enjoy? I'm talking about commercial tv shows and whatever is on cable and satellite. What modern "cartoons" do you enjoy?

I personally dig the Marvel shows, while I catch the occasional Wolverine and the X-Men episode, I wholeheartedly dig Iron Man Armored Adventures and The Spectacular Spider-Man. They're really really good times to be had. Batman The Brave and the Bold almost feels like I'm reading an old school comic as it balances seriousness and moral tales with stylized character designs and humor.

I've fallen for the nickelodeon original series Avatar The Last Bender. Its something I had dismissed until its Series Finale. I caught bits of it and was blown away by just how well the whole damn thing was put together. League of Super-Evil is a quirky series that tries to amalgamate the early 90's Nickelodeon cartoons with the media-darling Superhero genre. And naturally I just really dig The Clone Wars, which being pure CGI, is better exectuted than Episode 3 and gives the star wars fans a both a literal and metaphorical 3 dimensional take on the future Darth Vader.

Chowder and Flapjack are easily two of the best mainstream American cartoons we've had in years.

I really have a hard time watching some of the marvel toons especially when they involve Wolverine. Why, you ask? Because of who he is and what the toons are. You're trying to make a kids show starring someone who, although he is a good guy, eviscerates people for a living? Seriously?

I think once the FCC is destroyed the quality of animation will vastly improve, especially when it comes to Anime shown in the states.

Chowder is terrible but Flapjack does rule.

Batman The braaa...... ugh that's too long to type, does rock. Probabaly my favorite cartoon out right now. The Bat-Mite episode was amazing. Zany humor done right. Not like that crap-tastic Green Lantern episode from the first season with the damn dog Lantern. And I hate Bat-Mite more than I hate the dog guy.

I dig Wolverine and the X-Men and Spectacular Spider-Man for sure. Now that Transformers Animated is over, the only cartoon I'm actively looking forward to is the Venture Bros, which has quickly become a benchmark in quality for me.

Wolverine and the X-Men
Batman TBATB
Flapjack
Alot of the stuff on adult swim.

And let's not forget South Park.

I really like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. I think Cheese is a little overplayed though; I enjoyed it when he would just pop up in an episode here and there and just be completely ADD. Now there's just too much focus on "hahah, he said Chocolate milk, that's funny!" And I hate how Cartoon Network is not showing STRICTLY CARTOONS. I remember watching commercials that commented on that, and were against "real people" shows. Stupid Othersiders and Survive This...Oh, and Fusion Fall is freakin genius. Thank you, CN for that, thank you.

Camp Lazlo is pretty good, it was made by the same guy who did Rocko's Modern Life. It's tame in comparison, but still pretty good.

Chowder grew on me. When I first saw the commercials for it I thought it looked really stupid. Then one day I actually watched an episode and loved it. Mung complaining about his wife is hilarious. And I kinda like the concept of it all being food related and maybe getting kids into cooking for themselves so they won't be fat, and gym class won't be required in the state of Illinois. Chowder pee explosion!!!!! XD

I hate Flapjack. The style annoys me, and I don't find it funny.

Clone Wars is amazing, usually I hate 3D animation, but.....*drool*

I love the Venture Bros, but I don't really care for Jonas Jr, he just irritates me. I remember when they had promo posters for it all over downtown Chicago. Wish I would've tried to get one. -_-

The Boondocks is awesome. Superjail has some sequences where it's a total mindfuck though, animation wise. I'm just sitting there thinking "how the hell can somebody come up with that?" The Warden is cool though, and his purple top hat makes me happy.

Boondocks! good call ska. That show changes my life

I like Flapjack, Chowder, Venture Bros., Fenius and Ferb (one of my personal favs), Kid vs Kat, Clone Wars, Spectacular Spider-man, Batman:B&B, Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (loved this show), Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, Secret Saturdays, the League of Super Evil (it's ok, didn't like it at first but it's grown on me), Johnny Test, and a few others I can't think of at the moment I'm sure.

Agreed. Love me some Boondocks. Make with the new season already!

American Faves:

Family Guy
South Park
Phineas & Ferb (I love the whole concept of Agent P)
Clone Wars

Japanese Faves:

Hellsing
VHD: Bloodlust
GITS: SAC
Cowboy Bebop
BlackJack
& I still like old-school anime like Esbat mentioned, esp. Gatchaman & Space Battleship Yamato. My nine-year-old stepson was jumping around to the "Starblazers" theme song just like I used to!

I think the best animation style I've seen recently in anime is Gankutsuou. I remember the first time I saw a preview for it, I was foaming at the mouth; it's just so visually stunning. I didn't care what the story was about at that point, I just wanted to see it just for the style. The colors are done with like a layered texture effect, I'm not really sure how to describe it. Like if it's the shirt that they're "coloring in", it basically looks like an outline of a shirt moving over a piece of fabric in the background. And like their hair, it's not just flat color, it's the outline of their hair with a picture of actual hair behind it and when they move it looks like their hair is moving. It's based off the Count of Monte Cristo, but not exactly. XD

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

Hrm. Kind of stopped watchin' new toons for the longest time. Like many have listed: South Park, Venture Bros., Metalocalypse...and I still watch The Simpsons, even though it is more obviously getting weaker by the episode.

I've seen episodes of Batman: B&B and Star Wars: Clone Wars (or is it just Clone Wars?), and they were pretty good, I just never caught on. Maybe I'll catch up with those.

It seemed that every since the DCAU went away, my interest went with it for most comic-based cartoons.

Ska wrote:I think the best animation style I've seen recently in anime is Gankutsuou. I remember the first time I saw a preview for it, I was foaming at the mouth; it's just so visually stunning. I didn't care what the story was about at that point, I just wanted to see it just for the style. The colors are done with like a layered texture effect, I'm not really sure how to describe it. Like if it's the shirt that they're "coloring in", it basically looks like an outline of a shirt moving over a piece of fabric in the background. And like their hair, it's not just flat color, it's the outline of their hair with a picture of actual hair behind it and when they move it looks like their hair is moving. It's based off the Count of Monte Cristo, but not exactly. XD

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

Wow, Ska, that's pretty intense. I can see what you mean about the sliding-cel animation; it might be interesting to see what cels from this particular anime go for on eBay, esp. if they come with their [dissected] backgrounds.

Thanks for the intro! I love CoMC - one of the best books I've ever read - and will definitely check this anime out!

^ That was a pretty intense vid. I think I almost had a seizure. COOL! I will say, she's right. The graphics/animation are/is hypnotic and very well done. Not sure about the story. I'm always up for a good concept. Need more, though.

My personal faves right now:

Batman The Brave and the Bold
The Spectacular Spider Man
Venture Brothers
Boondocks

Is Harvey Birdman still on the air? If so, I'll definitely put that up there. I miss the old Adult Swim shows like Home Movies, Sealab 2021, etc.

harvey is gone now alas

sealab kind of died after Harry Goz died

shining knight wrote:

sealab kind of died after Harry Goz died

QFT

The Spectacular Spider-Man (hands down my favorite "current" cartoon)
Wolverine and the X-Men
Iron Man Armored Adventures
Family Guy
Spongebob
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
I know I'll like the new Ben 10 show as well.


Ended within the last year or so:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Transformers Animated
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Back to the Sewer)
The Batman
Ben 10
Ben 10: Alien Force