Exosquad

Plot synopsis:
The series is set in the years 2119–2121 AD, several decades after humanity ("Terrans") has expanded its presence beyond Earth, terraforming and colonizing Venus and Mars. These three planets are "the Homeworlds", the core first of the Terran interplanetary state and later of Neosapien Commonwealth. Not all Terrans are affiliated with the Homeworlds, however: the Pirate Clans, descendants of Terran criminals exiled to the Outer Planets who live off looted Homeworlds' space freighters, are a major independent faction in the show. The first episode opens with the Earth Congress dispatching the entire Exofleet, humanity's space-based military, to counter the Pirate threat.
With war with the Pirate Clans looming, an uprising begins among the Neosapiens, an artificial humanoid race coexisting with Terrans. In the back-story, the Neosapiens were used primarily as slaves during the colonization of Mars and Venus and therefore have been engineered to be physically stronger and better adapted to hostile environments than humans. Their mistreatment by Terrans led to the First Neosapien Revolt fifty years before the series' begin, which was mercilessly crushed but had brought some positive changes into their lives. Still not content with his fate, the Neosapien Governor of Mars, Phaeton, sets a new insurrection, codenamed "Operation [Neosapien] Destiny", in motion as soon as the Exofleet leaves to chase after the Pirate Clans. The absence of the Exofleet is also a part of Phaeton's plan as it enables the Neosapiens' capture of the Homeworlds without much effort.
The two seasons that the series was on the air follow the progress of the Neosapien War, as seen through the eyes of Able Squad, an elite E-frame unit, composed of J.T. Marsh, Nara Burns, Maggie Weston, Kaz Takagi, Alec DeLeon, Rita Torres, Wolf Bronsky, and Marsala. Their exploits unfold against the backdrop of the ongoing war, as the squad participates in events often crucial to turning its tide. The show features a realistic outlook on war: many characters die in combat, military operations are carefully planned and reconnoitered in advance, and psychological effects of warfare are explored. For example, separate episodes detail Exofleet's reconnaissance of Venus prior to its recapture, the actual liberation, and the repulse of the first Neosapien reconquest attempt. Moreover, even after Venus is retaken by Terrans, several episodes deal with the remaining Venusian resistance and Neosapien forces who hid across Venus, refusing to surrender and awaiting reinforcements.
The second season draws to a close with the defeat of the Neosapiens and the liberation of Earth, but it ends with a cliffhanger suggesting that a third season would describe a war against a new alien race, and that the Terrans and the Neosapiens would be forced to ally with each other. However, the series was cancelled soon after the end of the second season so a third season was never made.

Tags: sci-fi

Review:
The Battletech cartoon did not last long, but this one lasted at least 2 years or so, and even though it was similar to Battletech in that the "pilots" flew a man-shaped "robot" armed with weapons, the story was considerably different than Battletech...
This is not about Clans fighting under strict rules of engagement as in Battletech, this is about all out war, and touches on many ideas that have been floating around: Man creating a race of Servants, and the servants decide to be the masters- Slavery, the NeoSapiens had revolted against Slavery "50 years ago" in the cartoon- And now Phaeton, the Neosapien governor of Mars decides to attack Earth while the entire Exo-Fleet is in heated battle with Pirates in the outer solar system.
I watched every single episode as it was originally shown as much as I was able.
I do not understand how cartoons are syndicated, but I remember the original series, seeing episodes that were later re-run and edited somewhat, with new music and a new intro at the beginning.
I always wondered if the episodes I saw in 1994 were first run or re-run, but after watching "The Fall of The NeoSapien Empire" and the couple of episodes that came after that, ending with "Beyond Chaos"- They never showed the series on KCOP/13 or KTLA/5 again and later that year channel 13 in LA became UPN's mother station- And UPN had their own cartoons to show, if in fact KCOP was allowed to be shown in San Diego- The damned Syndex Law caused whole channels to be blocked out...
The same thing happened when I was trying to follow Babylon-5: The channel was blocked out because of Syndex and channel 6 in San Diego, stopped carrying the show, so about half of a season was missed, some people did not get to see it at all until it was re-run on Sci Fi channel some years back.This show was well animated, well acted by the voice talent, well written, the first 3 episodes by Mark Edens, who adapted several famous X-Men stories to Cartoon Script.
There were virtually no "filler" episodes, the story was told until the show was canceled after the episode "Beyond Chaos." Another thing that was important, is that this was no kids cartoon, it was a about a war, and they showed people getting blown up and shot and killed in various fashions- Even in GI-Joe cartoons, they would show the enemy pilots parachuting safely away.
"The old man and The Kid" I loved the idea of these people having little "exo-frames" that were not identical, each one was designed for the person who flew them, my favourite was the E-Frame that Marsala and Nara flew, I still have one of those Playmates models of Marsala's Eframe...
I would be very happy if this were to be released on DVD- Or maybe shown in it's entirety on The Cartoon channel.
It was just one of those things: From 1990 to 1995 these kinds of cartoons were shown on Fox and other channels, but not on Saturday AM.
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.
The depth of the series surpasses anything else American animators have produced, and easily rivals the best of Japanese anime.
If you get the opportunity to watch, or even relive Exosquad, I highly recommend it.
This saga is absolutely brilliant with its parrallels to the reality of war, racism, prejudice, ethnic cleansing, and the brutalities of totalitarianism.In Exosquad, a race of artificialy created humanoids -bred for slavery - revolt against natural humans in order to exterminate them and take their own place as the rightful rulers of the Sol system.In the outer reaches of the solar system, are the Space Pirates who were prisoners forced to mine the outer planet's moons for raw materials for building spacecraft.
A group of violent, angry people bent on revenge against the people of earth.In the middle are humans, who make up the populous of Earth, Venus and the space Navy, The Exosquad.
Besides commanding a large force of battleships, they are trained for heavy weapons - including E-Frames - powered armor battle suits that increase the destructive power of individual soldiers.While the plot sounds like the run of the mill anime, the show is given a distinctive American feeling by a cast of western actors, as well as a distinctive sense of realism and authenticity by graphic violence and actual death of characters as well as other brutalities of war such as forced labor, starvation, summary executions and stories of resistance, betrayal and honor.This show goes well beyond the average cartoon and despite its watercolor animations, the high quality artwork and voice acting ranks Exosquad right up there with other space sagas such as Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica.This show was highly enjoyable and I rate it a perfect 10.My only disappointment is that the show was unfinished.
The episode "Beyond Chaos" begins an incomplete story arc that would have been better left concluded in the episode "Fall of the Neosapien empire".
In many ways, this left me disappointed - like the final episode of Space: Above & Beyond but, if you can overlook "Beyond Chaos", the rest of the series is unfortgettable and brilliant..
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.
We did our take of episodic series(many more for sure to follow in the US)but reason it's no.1.
Even the opportunity to meet the few voice actor's I've met at con's has been great and Richard Newman was the top's in presentation of his panel of his many work's including Exo Squad.
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.
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.
Each mature American cartoon produced seems to get abruptly cancelled(there were quite a few, some cancelled at less than 10 episodes).
One of few good American animated series.
One of few good American animated series.
Being a fan of anime, I always have low expectations for American cartoon series.
Most American cartoon lacks good story, character development, and animation, since they were mostly made for kids.
I had the same low expectation when I first watch this series, but after a few viewings, I realized there was a really good story in the series.
The animation could be a lot better but I was too absorbed into the story to notice.Some other American cartoon series that I liked are Gargoyles, Spiderman, Transformers, etc..
YOU CAN WATCH THE ENTIRE SERIES ONLINE AT: "http://www.myspace.com/exo_squad"That said, Exo Squad is truly the single greatest animated series to ever come out of the west.
In terms of plot depth, character complexity, weight of issues and so many more factrors it is wholly without peer in American animation.
Wuite easily, Exo Squad, is indeed one of the greatest stories ever told.
So often in our culture, we believe animation to be a format restricted only to telling simple children's stories, yet Exo Squad delves deeply and articulately into extremely complex sociopolitical issues that challenge even adult viewers.
The characters are so multifaceted and multidimensional that one often forgets that they are but two dimensional representations of people and not actual human beings.
Until then, you can watch the entire series online at "http://www.myspace.com/exo_squad".
Until then, you can watch the entire series online at "http://www.myspace.com/exo_squad".
This show was the best cartoon/show ever created by anyone.
It was the best war/drama cartoon; because people died.
You could sympathize with the plight of Human as they fought for the freedom from the Neo (for the people who watched the show religiously) tyranny.
I can truthfully say that I know of no better American science fiction animated series, outside of Transformers, than Exosquad.
A united Earth has terra formed Mars and Venus using a genetically engineered slave race of humanoids called Neo sapiens.
Years after their rebellion was brutally crushed, the Neo sapiens were freed and granted a measure of autonomy on Mars still suffering under the prejudice of humans and harboring a bitter hatred for their former masters.
The only thing that stands between humanity and extinction is the Exo Fleet and its legions of E-frames, powerful robotic chassis that can fight on land and space and carry an awesome array of firepower.
The first five episodes, Fall of the Human Empire, introduces us to Able squad, an elite troop of E-frame pilots led by J.
Exosquad is not plum with the visual spectacle of Japanese anime, but the story threads achieve an incredible depth of maturity and intelligence considering this show would air on Sunday mornings.
The characters have unique, complex personalities, and it's a pleasure to watch them evolve over 2 seasons of top notch science fiction storytelling.
Wars in space may not be an original plot in SF, but the stories and characters make this series stand tall above the rest.
I recently rented a few episodes of Robotech and noticed the lack luster stories, characters and animation (it seemed so cool when I was a kid).
In the future mankind has terraformed Venus and Mars with the help of genetically engineered beings called Neo-Sapians.
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..
It was truly head of it's time it was dark, it had real depth to it, story arcs and development, it really took unfun turns, to me the show really helped pave the way for other really dark animated shows with this range like "Batman: The Animated Series", "Gargoyles", "Young Justice" and many more out there.This show had in my opinion great animation that still hold today, just the amount of detail you can tell they worked their butt of to give us something great.
Don't get me wrong I love those as much as any anime fan but you can't ignore the fact that sometimes it looks like their having trouble balancing at times, why the armor is so flimsy, let alone why they have to be so big and look human.
The character animation is also great from the humans whom are top notch to the neo sapians whom are an interesting looking race which makes them both similar and different at the same time in both feelings and physical features.
The action is great well choreographed, really violent and people actually get hurt and die.I even like the music score which I think is great and criminally underrated it has an epic and sometimes dramatic tone to it, the theme song to me is one of my personal favorite themes.The strength of the show was in story and character.
Dick like tale, his stories were always in the future background, really dark and always showed that no matter how far we have advanced in technology and culture, we've never evolved past our human trespasses and mistakes.
But also philosophical territory as it asked the questions on what it means to be human and the future of humanity itself.The characters are all great because of how realistic they feel you can easily forget their animated characters and think that their real people, also their voiced by a superb voice cast.
Usually in animated action cartoons would look and act super heroic, it's all about their life style but not their lives or them as a person.
But in this show all of them feeling like human beings.
And two side notes his E Frame is my second favorite because it really does fit him, both the arms of it being gatling guns, with missiles and a grabling hook just capable of doing ton of damage, and second he does get a girl at the end Eve whom is hot physically and in persona, so more points for him.It's too bad it didn't have a third season or even a forth and a movie (ok I know I'm pushing it on that but still wouldn't that of been great to see) I just felt it could of gone even further.EXO SQUAD is a show that despite it's life span has not just became a cult classic but one of the greatest sci-fi sagas ever.Rating: 4 stars.
I was so excited to hear Exo-Squad was finally on DVD.
I am 30 years old, still young at heart, and I still enjoy the show now as I did at the age of 14.A live action MOVIE Series must be in the works.
Universal Studios doesn't understand that they are sitting on the next best thing since Star Wars.
I have started a draft of the story and battle scenes from the first season (being in the Military has its advantages), so true fans can enjoy the movie.
Then from there later on, do a prequel when Marsala lead the Neo-Sapions 50 years from the series.The Technology today and the story line is there to make the movie.
I too watched this entire series several times straight thru my freshman year of high school, and I just picked up the newly released official Season 1 DVD!
It had the long story arcs of Babylon 5 and the NeoSapien revolt is similar to the Cylon revolt (except they're genetically engineered slaves instead of robotic slaves).
Complex social themes, dynamic characters, and the 2 season story arc made the show addictive and definitely targeted at teenagers/young adults.
All I gotta say is that its one of the best animation shows to ever come out in the U.S. It's a shame that is television treatment got it cancelled before the 3 season and the spin-off were able to be created Oh well its great and I wish someone would release a DVD of it.
Overall the continuing storyline and the actual humanity of these characters is what made the show really great.
Its to bad it was never fully finished but they did at least finish the main story arc which is the story of the war between the humans and the Neo Sapiens.
The third arc was gonna force the two to band together against a new alien threat but there was only 1 episode shot so the series does end on a slight cliffhanger but its worth watching so if you can get it I highly recommend it..
Years ago, I stumbled upon a series called Exo Squad in one of my usual cartoon searching jaunts.
Secondly, it was the first cartoon that didn't directly need the viewer to laugh once during the entire episode to make ratings.
Arguably the characterization of Wolf Bronski was sillied up a bit in order to try and lighten the mood of the series, but most of the episodes were serious, suspense-filled, nail-biting views into a war that existed in a future time.
These, in combination with a powerful fleet of carrier-warships now as the Exofleet, created a definite force of arms in the solar system for humanity.The series picks up first at the declaration of war on groups of pirate clans who operate on the fringes of humanity.
Phaeton, driven by a sort of Neosapien "Manifest Destiny" (narrated during the initial episodes), quickly replaces humanity as the subservient race.
In the course of the series, characters representing all these realms take center stage to play out everything from resistance attacks, fleet battles, atrocities, and bloody struggles to finally rest control of the solar system for one side or the other.
JT Marsh, commander of Able Team (The aforementioned "Exo Squad"), and his team end up being at the forefront of this, fighting, dying, and struggling through a war gone mad.
In the end, the series models eerily the last days of Berlin during WW2 with Phaeton ultimate defeat and humanity being freed.A few important things to note, though, is this series dealt with everything from slavery to hypocrisy, atrocities to the depression of loss.
The characters in this series (unlike some modern day anime and American anime series) are far from god-like and suffer shortcomings in almost every episode.
Another thing is the technology in the series comes off as almost being standard issue, though exotic at the same time.
Though the series suffers from some obviously dumbed down plot moments (for kids), scaling issues (size of ships and e-frames), and poor writing/consistency at times (rare, but apparent), the whole of it comes off very well.
Unfortunately, the series, during its time, suffered some critical faults.
Not including XMen (arguably the only good series of the lot), series like Spiderman, the doomed attempt at the Hulk, and the poorly driven Fantastic 4 and Iron Man cartoons distracted most of Exo Squad's audience.
Also, poor time slots, ailing toy-sales, and poor advertisement ended this series mid-story arc at 52 episodes in all.Unfortunately for most, besides some fan-made DVD sales and an faithful fan-following, Exo Squad may disappear completely and Americans may miss one of the truly ambitious, well-planned, and arguably finest pieces of American Animation.
If only Exo Squad got the same attention the Batman:Animated Series did, American cartoons may be different.