(1993-1994)
Whew! I have just gone on a marathon viewing of the series. I had forgotten that Hulu was about to have the streaming series expire. I remember watching the show when it was on TV, but that was during a time when I did not regularly watch TV. I missed out on most of the episodes, only catching on every now and again. I remember liking it a lot, so I was thrilled when I saw that Hulu had it on streaming. I am amazed that it still holds up so well.
It tells the story of how the remaining humans fight back against an uprising of Neosapians. The humans created the Neo's to be genetically superior workers, but as always happens, they revolt. As far as the story goes, it feels very similar to the recent Battlestar Galactica series as well as Space: Above and Beyond that was airing at the same time as Exosquad. Exosquad set itself apart from the majority of the cartoons at that time because of the way it presented itself. It was sci-fi and quite serial with its plotlines. The show was also rather dramatic. People had conflicts, beat each other up, were imprisoned in concentration camps, and even got killed. I watched a great deal of GI JOE back in the day, but people always ejected before they got killed. Exosquad may not show blood, but people end up dead.
Many people describe it as America's first Anime, and that might be true. It was well animated and voice-acted. Burning my way through the series still keeps me engaged even today. Seeing oppression and the ugly side of war seemed very extraordinary to me at the time, and it is still unusual to see in a "kids" cartoon. Sadly, the series will expire on Hulu soon. That would not be so bad if they had ever released the series out on DVD. Perhaps it will come out either on DVD, Blu-ray, or even digital download sometime. I think people would really get into the show if it got better support and advertising. Yet another short-lived show that was better than people ever expected it to be.
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