Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of good animated sci-fi comedy, but I recently watched Scavengers Reign and I’m looking for other more adult sci-fi animated shows.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    10·
    4 days ago

    Another vote for Patheon. The first season is a bit predictable, but things get genuinely interesting in the second and final season. The series got a really wonky release, and I’m not even sure season 2 is streaming anywhere (aside from random youtube uploads and other places).

    Jérémie Périn, the director of Mars Express, has made some other works that are definately worth checking out:

    • Crisis Jung - a series of 10 hyper-surreal short films (all posted to YouTube in their entirety) depicting a man’s existential crisis through the lens of ultra-maximalist interpretations of Jungian philosophy. It’s not funny, but it’s completely ridiculous and a wild ride. If you’re into the philosophical musings of The Good Place and the extremist imagery of Heavy Metal, this one is for you.
    • Lastman - this is a 26 episode series about a boxer who gets caught up in a web of intrigue around crime, politics, people on the run and some really out-there sci-fi/fantasy stuff. The whole series is a prequel to a French graphic novel of the same name. Again, the show really sticks the landing in its second and final season.

    Kaiba (2008) - This is one of the early works of Masaaki Yuasa (Inu-Oh, Keep Your Hands of Eizouken!, The Night is Short Walk on Girl, etc) and probably one of his weirdest. It’s a super chibi depiction of a cyberpunk dystopia where bodies and minds are completely disconnected, following a mysterious central character with amnesia and a giant hole in their chest. Not all of it makes complete sense; it’s one of those stories that starts mid-way through and you get filled in on the before and after as you go. It’s ultimately worth it for some tremendous dramatic turns and an art style that is utterly unforgettable (not exaggerating).

    Aeon Flux - Depending on your age, this may be new to you. This is a series of MTV-produced short films and a short run series of relatively disconnected anthology stories in a futuristic dystopian world as a barely-dressed spy does lots of freaky, violent sci-fi spy things. If you’re looking for animated sci-fi stories and haven’t seen this yet, put it on the top of your list (purely as a seminal work for fans of the genre).

    I’ll assume you’ve seen Arcane.

    Carol and the End of the World (2023) - This is more along the lines of a personal dramatic story that happens to sit within a sci-fi setting. I really enjoyed sitting with this (aside from the penultimate episode, which seemed to have nothing to do with anything and almost certainly completely went over my head). There’s humor here, but it’s pretty thin and dark. I would not call this a comedy.

    Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow series of shorts - Three short films from the minimalist animator whose work I’m delighted to see maturing and becoming so much more complex and interesting as the years go by.