by Tenebris

Created on: April 16, 2008

The great sci-fi animated television series include both traditional animated television series and Japanese anime.

We begin, classically, with 'The Jetsons' (1962-3), a futuristic animated twist on 'The Flintstones' (which itself was an animated version of the previous decade's 'The Honeymooners'). This light-hearted family comedy places a typical 1950s family into a world where ultra-futuristic technology has become so commonplace as to be invisible to those who make use of it everyday, ironically to carry out societal roles which really have not changed at all.

Who remembers 'Star Trek: The Animated Series' (1973-4)? Although it had the misfortune of being produced during a time when animation was still assumed to be solely for children, it was graced with truly superlative writing by some of the great SF/F authors of the time, including Larry Niven and Larry Brody; in part thanks to a writer's strike that didn't apply to animation.

The original 'Transformers' series (1984-7) is elegant in its sheer simplicity: one set of vehicles which transform into super-robots (Autobots) protect the earth from another set of vehicles which transform into super-robots (Decepticons). The image also makes a powerful metaphor for Japanese self-image during a time of almost too rapid industrialisation. The series stands right at the cusp of the coming split between American animation and Japanese anime.

'Full Metal Alchemist' (2003-4) might on the surface of it seem to be an unusual addition to this list, but in the world of Edward and Alphonse Elric, alchemy is the exact scientific parallel to technological innovation, with one primary law of Equivalent Exchange: "To gain, something of equal value must be lost." The exact meaning of that equivalent value is constantly being questioned. The world itself parallels our own, during those few decades in the early 1900s when familiar truths were challenged and the world was changing into something unrecognisable. The result is a very sophisticated, very human examination of what ethical compromises we are willing to make in exchange for power, as well as how far we dare go and still retain our humanity.

No list of the greats of sci-fi animation could be complete without mentioning the Gundam series of anime (1979-present). What all these series have in common is the mecha, a massive fighting machine piloted by a single person in a manner similar to modern-day fighter pilots. Individual Gundam series explore detailed metaphors for specific moments in history or active politics. The Gundam Seed Cosmic Era alternate universe additionally examines the issues involved in genetic and social manipulation of human beings.

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