Exosquad

In the future mankind has terraformed Venus and Mars with the help of genetically engineered beings called Neo-Sapians. The Neos, who are treated as slaves, revolt. First they take the still inhospitable Mars and make it their home. Unsatisfied, they move to take Earth and the fully terraformed Venus. The armies of Earth and Venus fight back. This is a very well put together scifi war drama. The first couple of seasons held some amazing stories of the day to day struggles of war torn lives as well as some weighty insights into humanity.

When this show was on the air, my father and I watched it repeatedly. We rewatched every episode untl it was pulled off. He and I stil miss it. The animated shw had a strong storyline, lovable (likable is to weak a word for these characters) heroes, villains that had reasons for their hatred of humanity, and strong dramatic moments. Characters die, planets are treatened, and the heroes of ExoFleet continue till they finally win the war. But, on the very last episode, the stage was seat for a third season, which was never made. There are rumors of a movie being made. I hope to god there is. This is the best of it's kind folks. I hope you can find it. Amazon has videos, but they are from th first season only. There are 52 episodes total; season one consisted of 13.

I'll admit that in general, I'm fond of cartoons, but I despise one trick ponies. ExoSquad is far from being a one trick show. The storylines were diverse and interesting, yet connected nicely for an ongoing plot. The characters developed better than most television shows.

Essentially, the premise boiled down to the genetically altered NeoSapiens revolting from their slave positions and taking over Earth, Mars and Venus. The ExoSquad must attempt to liberate their home planets, but at the same time, by both necessity and inclination, realize that the NeoSapiens are not as evil as one might think, and neither are the pirates that have always been their enemies.

The beautiful thing about the show was that it was intelligent. Attitudes changed as characters grew. The viewer was not treated to random violence every time they turned on the show. This show deserved better than to be unceremoniously cancelled at episode 52.

Exosquad came out when I was about 9, and I was immediately obsessed with it. I remember coming home from school every day and plopping myself in front of the TV all excited, just to catch a rerun. It was seriously that good. The story, when it is boiled down, is basically a futuristic World War II. The insane, brutal tyrant leading his people in a fight for global (or in this case, multi-global) domination, and the extermination of an "inferior" race. (Note the Neosapien officer's uniforms and the constant striving to create the superior breed of Neo and tell me that's not Nazism). But the show was so much more than that. The characters were all given a chance to develop, and the writers always managed to reveal the reasons behind the actions. The audience could understand the motives of the Neos, and could even justify the carnage they wrought. The depth of the series surpasses anything else American animators have produced, and easily rivals the best of Japanese anime. The only negatives I can find are the animation (but it was a decade ago, so I can forgive that) and the abrupt ending. There was so much more they could have done with the series if only given a chance. But, if it was appealing to the marketers' key demographic, it wouldn't be nearly so good, so I guess we should be grateful for what we got. If you get the opportunity to watch, or even relive Exosquad, I highly recommend it. I recently acquired the majority of the series, and I can say that my childhood memories hardly do it justice. Now I'm able to appreciate it so much more, and I hope you can too.

ExoSquad is the second best American animated series I've seen. The first being Robotech(though American produced, had heavy japanese anime origins). ExoSquad had great character and plot depth. Each laser shot during the battles counts(meaning people could get hit and could possibly die). I use the battle casualty factor as a way of measuring as to whether an animated series is mature or for children. ExoSquad's plot was inconsistent at times which gave me the impression that they didn't write the entire saga before producing the episodes. An example of this inconsistency were the seemingly invincible mutant creatures that were impervious to laser fire in one episode and in later episodes could be killed easily with one laser shot. Unfortunately America doesn't seem ready for mature cartoons. Each mature American cartoon produced seems to get abruptly cancelled(there were quite a few, some cancelled at less than 10 episodes). Just for the record the Marvel superhero cartoons shouldn't be considered mature as they pale in comparison to their comic book counterparts maturity wise(nobody dies). If you can find a channel with reruns of ExoSquad, check it out.