I agree with some of that Leige, but not with the part of Transformers sucking! That all depended on which episode you were watching, because 50% of them are still awesome today!

 

There was still some great Japanese cartoons brought over at the time, that had nothing to do with pocket monsters or card collecting...Tranzor Z, Robotech, and Voltron were three I enjoyed, and all imported over (and heavily edited!!!) from Japan.

 

Other shows Transformers fans may have enjoyed were Herculoids, Thundaar, Robotix, Inhumanoids, M.A.S.K., Dino Riders, Mighty Orbots...and hell, even Jem was fun as long as your friends didn't find out, LOL!

 

The 80's knew how to entertain. These shows may seem cheesy to some now, but that's only because they're being viewed by people outside of their intended viewing ages.

 

I'd take it even further and say that nearly every episode of G1 I've rewatched on DVD (almost the first 2 seasons) can easily go toe to toe with the crap they're making today. If you've seen the Shout! factory DVDs then you know they've done a beautiful job restoring the original material. It may be even better then when it originally aired!

 

I agree whole-heartedly how great Saturday morning used to be. I personally enjoyed Thundercats, He-Man, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Centurions, and even the occasional Rainbow Brite episode as well as about half of the shows you mentioned above. Oh, and props for Tranzor Z. Nobody I talk to offline even remembers that show but it was the best.

 

Anybody remember Spectre Man by any chance? That was another enjoyable Japanese import.

Yeah, cartoons were much better when it wasn't either anime or whatever Cartoon network decides to push. As cheesy as they are as an adult, they were awesome then.

 

Of course people will just say somebody messed with the episodes before they put them on, because they don't remember them being that way. :P

I agree with some of that Leige, but not with the part of Transformers sucking! That all depended on which episode you were watching, because 50% of them are still awesome today!

 

 

I loved the series and episodes like The God Gambit and Golden Lagoon were great, but then there was also Carnage in C-Minor, and BOT.

 

Still even the worse episodes had merit.

 

One of the reasons why I didn't mention any of the Japanesse 80's series is that back then, alot of the domestic animation studios where striving for style and in so many cases where owning Japan.

 

Robotech was a stand out show, but most were like Voltron (which I loved), minimal movements that where mostly stock and zoom in and outs with mouth movements. The domestic shows had a more even flow to their animation and while they used stock as well, they weren't soley reling on it. Hell there's an episode of Evangelion where the dam near the whole thing is a picture of a cup and an ash tray!?!

 

Stuff like this was all over the place in dam near every Japanesse series

 

And don't get me wrong, I watched it. But hell, during the countdown they only used 3 different angle drawings.

 

What makes the new shows nearly unwatchable for me today is that they still do the same thing, but got rid of all that bad ass detailing for an annoyingly silly look. Even in the more serious series everything just seems cheap and over exadurated.

Just a bunch of goofy bastards with triangles all over their heads

 

It isn't all bad, I enjoyed shows like s-Cry-ed, and of course Cowboy Bebop and Samuri Champloo, but just so much of it is unwatchable, and I hate that because I still love cartoons.

It kills me that everything looks so cheap, it kills me that instead of competing with foriegn product and producing various styles, that everything is just imported or worse yet mimicked. It kills me that cartoon movies are all just the same crap CGI.

 

It's not because I'm old and can't understand these new fangled things. It's more because I miss the effort they use to put into shows, and the variety that would bring. There use to be options in what type of show you wanted to watch. Now it seems the closest you get is what pointy head kid card game show do I wanna watch...

 

This type of thing stems back to the begining of animation. Take the MGM Tom & Jerry and compair it to the Hanna Barbara Tom & Jerry. Unwatchable :P

what so they would show like G1 and BW, BM

Don't forget also that back in the day cartoons were all hand drawn and not the computer animated 6 year old art we see today....

@Liege---you really brought back some memories there. I had forgotten that version of the Hulk.

 

I do remember the car boy thing, vaguely, but it took me most of the intro to remember that Rubik's cube abomination!

 

I have a recollection of most of the NBC shows being more childish than the other channels---and unfortunately, a lot of that is seen as the exemplars of the era. But I think CBS and ABC often did it better. I don't ever remember Transformers on Saturday morning, but the afternoons and mornings were great.

 

I'm amazed that the networks gave up the opportunity to show cartoons on Saturday. I honestly thought Saturday morning cartoons would go on forever back when we were watching them. I never imagined a time when Saturday morning tv would be a wasteland the way Sunday afternoon used to be! I guess my father never imagined a time when Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy wouldn't be on on the weekends either. . .

 

Still though, how is that we went from 80's tv to Spongebob, Chowder and Flapjack?!?!?

 

By the way, there were a couple of really good shows in the 90's too. I really liked Mighty Max and the new Johnny Quest show at the time, and I tried to like the James Bond Junior thing. And of course you can't forget the Warner Brothers stuff at the time---Animaniacs, Tiny Toons and especially Freakazoid!

And that right there is the real kicker!

With the advancements in animation technology every show should be phenominal when compaired to what they drew by hand. Instead, it all just looks generic.

 

I am gonna agree that there are still some good shows out there X-Men:Evolution is a great example. The movement was fluid, and detailed. Even though they kept the character designs relatively simple, they did things like layer hair and clothing all of which followed in motions.

 

I did like that show, but you knew they weren't going to let it last. Wolverine and The X-Men is a nice follow up, but it's sadly simplified.

 

It is proof that if they wanted too, they still could make great cartoons instead of just importing crap.

 

Also, I wish they never cancelled the new He-Man series. That was probably one of the most well drawn shows ever. Still, why bother when Pikachu can do another hour?

@Liege---you really brought back some memories there. I had forgotten that version of the Hulk.

 

I do remember the car boy thing, vaguely, but it took me most of the intro to remember that Rubik's cube abomination!

 

I have a recollection of most of the NBC shows being more childish than the other channels---and unfortunately, a lot of that is seen as the exemplars of the era. But I think CBS and ABC often did it better. I don't ever remember Transformers on Saturday morning, but the afternoons and mornings were great.

 

I'm amazed that the networks gave up the opportunity to show cartoons on Saturday. I honestly thought Saturday morning cartoons would go on forever back when we were watching them. I never imagined a time when Saturday morning tv would be a wasteland the way Sunday afternoon used to be! I guess my father never imagined a time when Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy wouldn't be on on the weekends either. . .

 

Still though, how is that we went from 80's tv to Spongebob, Chowder and Flapjack?!?!?

 

By the way, there were a couple of really good shows in the 90's too. I really liked Mighty Max and the new Johnny Quest show at the time, and I tried to like the James Bond Junior thing. And of course you can't forget the Warner Brothers stuff at the time---Animaniacs, Tiny Toons and especially Freakazoid!

 

Freakazoid was great! How about Pinky and the Brain? It worked on a lot of levels. It was funny when I was younger and clever when I got older. You don't see that these days. Take Ben 10 for instance. I think the concept is sound but the writing is pedestrian at best and the whole thing has gone on much longer than necessary. They could have gotten more mileage out of Captain N the Game Master back in the day.

They changed War Planets to Shadowraiders cause they thought the toys would sell better without the word WAR in the name :wtf

 

Then put the whole series out on DVD :yay one of my favorite sets EVER :love

since hasbro bought up all the rights to headmasters/masterforce/victory, it makes me wonder if they'll be airing it subtitled on hub, stream them online, or release them on dvd. since hub is basically their own network, would make sense to have something new and exclusive like the japanese tf toons (regardless of the writing quality) airing alongside g1 or possibly even after it since that's when it takes place.