Geek Cast Radio Network's Top 100 Animated Series Countdown

R

Rigor Morty

New member
In my research I already have a ton of spreadsheets with this exact type of information if you need any of it just let me know. I seriously have an entire binder full of databases I have printed out from my research with that info and more.
 
Several podcast creators have come together to create a list of their top 100 animated series of all time headed up by the folks at the Geek Cast Radio Network. They were the least bit pleased with the IGN top 100 (as many people were) and felt they could do better as any opinionated geek probably would. They compiled the top cartoon lists of 20 people (mostly in the US but some in Canada and one in the UK).

Here are the podcasts revealing the final list over several weeks. Just to warn the sensitive listeners/readers there is some cursing.

Countdown Introduction (includes discussion of the shows that just barely missed making it onto the countdown)

Countdown 100-81

Countdown 80-61

Countdown 60-41

At request of the folks making the count-down I took down the list.
 
It's always fun finding weird facts about series in general.

My degrees are in social sciences and one of my passions is animation (in general). As such, I always have fun tugging at things like schedules and product placement and theorizing what would happen if things happened just a little different or how something really impacted the landscape of entertainment.

Here's another random fun fact I'll toss on the burner thats not well known at all. Do you realize a major character in the World of Warcraft storyline is DIRECTLY based on a character in Sailormoon ? I'll let that one rattle around your brain a little (assuming you've ever played or followed the Warcraft story at all) >.> It's those kind of connections I find really interesting =).




I start a thread here once a year or so focusing on one decade of animation. In truth, I can fill in a ton of the information myself with a little bit of help from wikipedia, but I like to think of it as something of a community project. That spreadsheet actually stems from a project some of us from rabroad community (I think Sketch aka Andrew) were involved in, but I don't recall if that's true for sure or not. Essentially, there was a period when a few of us were really active on Wikipedia and the politics over there just got too stupid to deal with, not to mention, some other residents of rabroad thought it would be fun to troll those working out things on wikipedia.

There's more then a few series on that spreadsheet it's fun finding people who actually know that the series existed, let alone watched it.
 
Oh I agree a few years back I was actually in constant contact with the people over at Nielson's trying to dig up rating information for toons etc. My degree is in history and poly sci so research is one of my passions obviously!
 
I honestly was hoping TFG1 would come in at 20 or 15 not at #3.

And don't forget it's not just us at Geek Cast Radio Network we have 15 ppl from other networks. 20 people all together made up the final list.
 
Wiki does have a lot of the season/episode counts wrong just so you are aware (which I am sure you already are) we have had to correct many of those when listing them at BTVA.

Anywho - If you need another person to help in some type of big project like this just know I am here :)
 
Lol, it seems you filled in the ends of social sciences that I didn't >.>

I was in Crim Law and Crim Psy, neither degree which I am currently directly using >.< A year after college, I went into the Gaming Industry then about 2 years ago went more into straight out product development.

Essentially, when I am not in meetings, I research, research, research then play in Excel, Visio, CAD and Photoshop all day >.
 
Sorry, I know you don't want to hear this complaints, but I need to say it: Transformers at number 3 above Looney Tunes kind of kills any right you have to claim your list is better than IGN's. Major fail there.

Two more comments:

Was IGN's list really biased towards anime? I count only 13 anime shows on the list, only 2 in the top 25, and only two series seem particularly out of place (Naruto's way too high if it deserves to be on the list at all and Afro Samurai certainly shouldn't be there, especially since Samurai Champloo isn't and did the same thing a dozen times better with actual character development). I do know my list would probably have more.

And Tiny Toons and Animaniacs coming out during a "dark time in animation"? To me, it seems like the late '80s/early '90s were actually something of a rebirth of animation. I mean, think of all the good stuff coming out around that time: in addition to those two shows, you have Batman: The Animated Series setting the bar for action animation, The Simpsons singlehandedly reviving the primetime cartoon, the Nicktoons going in all sorts of different directions (and the best of them, Rocko's Modern Life, somehow didn't even make the list!), Disney was doing both the Disney Afternoon and their great run of musical feature films, serious anime started coming over stateside after Akira. What was happening before that? A lot of toy commercial shows that honestly aren't very good. A few gems here and there as there always are but it wasn't a very good time for animation in general. If things seemed like they become worse, it would seem it's not because they actually were worse, they were probably better than any time since the golden age of Disney and Warner Brothers, but rather that that was the time you developed taste. Seeing as I'm 18 and either as old or younger than all the cartoons I was just talking about and wouldn't discover them until much later, I think I can judge these matters fairly.

For the record, my top twenty would probably look something like this:
20. The Flintstones (certainly deserves a spot for its positive influence but never really liked the show much myself; also, how is this what legitimized animation when it was followed by about twenty years without any sort of successful successor in terms of adult animation? it seemed the theatrical era animation was more consistently adult-friendly than the stuff that came after The Flintstones)
19. Rocky and Bullwinkle
18. The Powerpuff Girls
17. Popeye
16. Fullmetal Alchemist
15. Rocko's Modern Life
14. Samurai Jack
13. FLCL (if Looney Tunes counts despite being theatrical shorts aired on TV, then this video series aired on TV counts as well)
12. Animaniacs
11. Neon Genesis Evangelion
10. Pinky and the Brain (gets ahead of Animaniacs due to lack of crap segments like the Hip Hippos and Chicken Boo (who apparently was thought up by the same madman who invented the Geico gecko...))
9. Justice League/Unlimited
8. Invader ZIM (how did this miss the list?)
7. Avatar: The Last Airbender
6. Paranoia Agent (not an influential show by any means, but a brilliant one that deserves to be listed for quality alone)
5. Batman: The Animated Series (I actually haven't watched that much of this one, and I'm more of a Justice League fan myself, but I can see why this needs to be in the top 10)
4. Futurama
3. The Simpsons
2. Looney Tunes
1. Cowboy Bebop (for its consistency, mainly; of course The Simpsons and Looney Tunes were bigger and at times better, but they had a lot of moments they weren't so great, and Bebop is about as close to the perfect cartoon as you can get in my opinion)
 
Well, for stuff as potentially psychologically scarring as Evangelion and Death Note, that's kind of a good thing you didn't grow up with it.::anime:

I don't expect you to be that into anime, but it's probably a good idea to check out some of the more important series out there. I mean, I'm not that interested in westerns generally, but I have seen and enjoyed classics of the genre such as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and The Wild Bunch.
 
I was shocked by that one as well. I mean it's not a terrible cartoon but it's not by any means one of top 100 cartoons of all time. The commentators were a bit surprised if made the final list as well but apparently a lot of the people included it in their list (very low on the list but the addition votes helped).

Powerpuff Girls seems rather low IMO, glad it made the list but I think it's top 50 worthy.

SWAT Kats was a pleasant surprise.

Both Arthur and The Magic School Bus made the list. Educational entertainment represent! Arthur quite a few spots higher, as it should be.

Didn't expect to see Gundam Wing much less beating Evangelion. It's probably in my top 100 mecha maybe in my top 100 cartoons from Japan but if any Gundam is in my top 100 cartoons from any country it's MSG and maybe 00 but as much as I love Wing, it's not top 100 for me. I'm not complaining about it being there though. I was also quite amused that they used the Toonami intro. "It's a GUNDAM!!!"

Evangelion probably should make the top 100 but having it that low on the list to me is justice finally served. There are far better cartoons. None the less I would have been surprised if it didn't at least make the list. How Captain Planet beat anything on the list astonishes me but this is probably the only time anyone will rank Captain Planet higher than Evangelion so at least I can enjoy this moment. It is truly hilarious.
 
IGN's biases are both anime and adult swim. And we even said that TFG1 shouldn't be where it is. We are not defending that placement. If anything G1 should be 55-56 somewhere in there.

One of the things we have over IGN is that we ranked shows that never showed up on their list. We actually put thought into it and got more then 5 people together to come up with our list. IGN just slapped a list together from what I can see after reading through their list.
 
Maybe I'll compile a short list of the "essentials" of what made this list and what didn't to hound them unitl they watch some. You know... strictly for educational purposes. :anime:
 
Yes, yes they do. There's always that problem with Wikis in general. Its always a good reference and should never be taken as absolute truth unless its a closed wiki intended to be updated only by staffers who know the facts.

Thats kind of why I prefer my spreadsheet of doom. I can grant access to it, but its a resource that cant be changed easily.

Wikipedia made me laugh a lot when they said MASK was a non-syndicated series on Cartoon Express >.>

Some of their animation references have been really good in the past. The only prevailing problem is a lot of those articles for shows Pre-2000 fail to take into account that different markets did different things which had some serious impacts. For instance, Centaurians aired in almost no PST and MST markets and as such facts about that series are all over the place. It's even hard getting some back story on series conception or even nailing down some of TPTB regarding that series or even who solidly has the rights to the series (Yea, we know Turner owns the broadcast rights, but apparently not the series rights).




LOL

Truly epic Sketch. I predict this being a column for you!
 
I'm just saying I don't really see much of an anime bias on their part. If there is any, it's certainly a lot less so than your list's '80s bias.

And they ranked shows that never showed up on your list. Including some really good ones, like Invader ZIM and Fullmetal Alchemist and Teen Titans (surprised that one didn't make your list since it's a superhero show, and a really fun one at that). To be totally honest, the lists seem about equal in quality to me.
 
Agreed. I'd put it higher than Captain Planet and Recess, that's for sure. Still glad it made the list, though.

Heard about this through the Pop Culture Network (where DiRT is from) and was very interested to see the choices. So far the list has presented some very unique choices and I'm interested to see where it's going to go from here. I would hope for Sgt. Frog to make the list, but I know not everyone thinks it's better than seventeen gallons of liquid gold like I do so I'm not going to get my hopes up. :p

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the choices. Hopefully some of my favorites like Spongebob, TMNT 2k3, Beast Wars, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Rocko's Modern Life can place on the list.
 
This is one of the better lists that I've seen, but I have seen better.

For one thing, I can't take a list entirely seriously unless KOTH is in at least the top 20, but there's some amount of focus in here missing in others.
 
Again if everyone had listened from Ep 20 the introduction to Ep 25 the top 20...... we specifically admit to a 80's and superhero bias we never said that we weren't bias in that way.

What I meant about shows we ranked that they completely missed was some of the classic shows like Yogi Bear.

I sincerely hope that everyone listens to the wrap up show next week. I also hope people will listen to the episodes in order so they can get the full scope of our countdown.

Teen Titans on it's own is ok but it is most definitely not Top list worthy.
 
Back
Top