Four of my favourite 2D animated shows from the past few years
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I can personally attest to Pantheon and Scavneger’s Reign (although I haven’t watched the newest season of SR yet).
Pantheon is very much a show of morals versus “progress”. The end is a WILD ride.
Scavneger’s Reign is about people on a foreign planet and using the planet’s resources to survive and possibly escape. The alien fauna is downright incredible to imagine. Another stellar show.
I’m sorry, “newest season” of Scavenger’s Reign? It was very famously not picked up for a second season despite winning awards and audience petitions.
If you know of more that’s out there other than Season 1, please share with the class, because all I’ve seen so far is a short 2 minute teaser that the creator animated when trying to get season 2 approved.
Unless they mean season 2 of Pantheon.
Well fuck me then. I could’ve sworn I saw a season 2, but you’re right. Only the one season.
Dude. Pantheon blew my mind. I have several scenes burned into my mind forever (Chanda being scanned).
I love all four that you posted, but I can’t remember the last time a show stayed with me as well as Pantheon did 🤯
The body horror combined with existential dread of the chanda scanning scene hits harder than anything else I’ve seen, it’s definitely burned into my mind as well. Having experience with seeing the effects of a traumatic brain injury on a loved one made it so much more emotionally impactful as well, and anyone who has experience with neurological disorders/diseases would be affected by it as well because of the visceral realism. Whoever directed that scene has definitely seen someone with progressive aphasia before.
Pantheon is one of my favorite shows ever. It’s so so good. I both want more people to watch it and for it to remain a low-key show that you have to watch the first episode to know what it’s about (please just watch the first episode before even looking up the synopsis I promise you will know if it’s your kind of show or not from the first episode and it’s worth going in blind to experience it that way).
Mighty Nein just began. I recommend watching The Legend of Vox Machina first so you don’t have to wait so long.
I’m also looking forward to the coming Captain Laserhawk season (人 •͈ᴗ•͈)
We found Mighty Nein first and are now working backwards through Vox Machina. Looking up Captain Laserhawk now!
so many for this list!
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
- Twilight of the Gods
- Voltron: Legendary Defender
- The Owl House
- Invincible
- Hazbin Hotel
- The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy
- Harley Quinn
- She Ra
- Bojack
- Tuca & Bertie
- Hilda
- Daria
- X-men 97
- Creature Commandos
Have you seen ‘Knights of Guinevere’? Same creator as owl house. Incredibly well done. Just 1 episode out currently but it was recently greenlit for a full season. Free to watch on youtube
yes. an interesting one! lot of odd and unique choices.
A lot of these were very close to being in my personal top 4 of the past few years.
that’s quite some variety
I’d also like to throw in
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - anime version of the movie with all the same voice cast, with a major major twist at the first episode (hint - it’s very different from the movie and much more mature while still keeping the same vibes)
Adventure Time - Fionna and Cake - an excellent follow up to Adventure Time. Idk how comprehensible it is to non-adventure time watchers, but it is it’s own story that does some cool stuff.
Blue Eyed Samurai - just a great revenge story with gorgeous animation.
Blue Eyed Samurai just kept hitting in different ways. Awesome story, animation, and characters. Much more than I expected.
Fuck.
I loved Scavenger’s Reign, and now you’re telling me I gotta watch these ones too?
Well if I must, I shall.
On top of what OP said, Pantheon is incredible. It’s one of the best TV shows ever, and you are required to watch it.
I think there’s a lot of similarity between Scavenger’s Reign and Common Side Effects. Many of the same people worked on it. Pantheon is also a great slow burn scifi.
Mighty Nein is quite different. It’s fantasy, and leans into overt comedy a lot more than the other 3. But still very good.
I thoroughly enjoyed common side effects, and I really liked scavengers reign. Based on this thread I just binged the first season of pantheon and holy fucking shit, everyone needs to watch this.
I think another one that’s worth adding is Infinity Train. It’s targeted at a slightly younger audience, but is a great sci-fi animated show.
Each season follows its own characters with a little bit of overlap.
Scavengers Reign and Common Side Effects share the same creators, and are both very good! It’s interesting that they both have themes related to harmony with nature and the various relationships that humans form with it, good and bad.
Pantheon is also fantastic, super heady sci-fi with a lot to say about the modern tech industry, and loads of references to sci-fi classics. It’s clear the writers are huge sci-fi geeks and their enthusiasm comes through in the show.
I haven’t seen The Mighty Nein but if it’s being grouped with the other shows here it must be worth a watch. It does seem like the odd one out of the bunch though since it’s fantasy rather than sci-fi like the other 3.
Same here. I loved all three, though Scavenger’s Reign feels like the most polished.
OP first off Thank you for turning me on to pantheon because I did not get the memo this shit is phenomenal. Idk if it belongs on this list quite since it’s a movie and not a series, but a lot of folks have not seen “Mars Express” and it was also a really good animated scifi. Has that detective noir expanse/ghost in the shell vibe.
Yeah. I feel a lot of the other recommendations around are for a lot younger audiences, but I’ll agree Mars Express is a lot more in that vibe, and an amazingly French Ghost in the Shell.
Mars Express is great. Definitely a good recommendation.
In hindsight Scavengers Reign reminds me a lot of La Planète Sauvage.
Common Side Effects was such a stressful watch for me.
They put that turtle in mortal peril every damn episode.
I know this is a place for animation, but if you enjoyed Pantheon, I highly suggest checking out Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu. The tv show is based off of loosely connected stories from that anthology and the stories are great. Another short story was turned into the episode Good Hunting on Love, Death, and Robots.
Edit: corrected Love, Sex, and Robots to Love, Death, and Robots
Love, Sex, and Robots
is that the porn parody of Love, Death, and Robots? ;-P
Hah! Probably.
You do have the correct title though :D
Frieren really got me. It can be a bit too much in a couple of episodes, it’s anime, but it’s great. If you haven’t watched, Avatar the last airbender is really a must. Incredible show. Someone mentioned Bojack Horseman, which I concur, but maybe a show for young adults. I was obsessed with Serial Experiments Lain as a teenager, but maybe it’s too dated now.
i haven’t watched lain in over a decade, but i listened to the theme song a month ago and it’s still great.
Mighty Nein and Scavenger’s Reign are defo two shows I go above and beyond to pirate, and could even justify a direct donation to the creators. Mighty Nein is set in the same universe as Vox Machina and uses the same cast of voice actors, to boot.
Another ones I really like the 2D animation style are X-Men '97, which basically uses a cleaned-up version of the style of the '90s Spider-Man animated series before they went to 3D backgrounds; and Wakfu tho this one does more notorious mixing with other animation styles. There’s also timeless classics of 2D animation, such as Samurai Jack.
anyone can recommend something with the vibe of scavengers reign … sci fi, no traditional story arc…
Infinity train. I can’t remember if it’s still available to steam or you have to sail for it, but it’s worth it either way.
It has to be sailed for. It got so bad with the distributors, that the creator actually officially supported the idea of pirating it.
Ah yea, I remember that now. If there was ever an ethical justification for piracy, Infinity Train is it. Also made me hate a man who I’d never heard of before, one David Zaslav
Gandahar is an old animated movie but it is what Svenger’s Reign reminded me of.
