We all know the American cartoons, but what about cartoons from other countries? What are some good foreign animated shows?
Including Japanese animation? Is the target audience kids or adults?
Danger Mouse!
Either one.
I only know two anime shows I have really enjoyed:
Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist - I have only watched the original, not Brotherhood.
Wallace and Gromit is nice.
Adult:
Hellsing
the Fate series (Zero, Stay/Night, Apocrypha, Grand Order)
Blood+
All ages:
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Sword Art Online
Trying to think of series that I know that aren’t Japanese and would recommend. All I’m coming up with is Ulysses 31, which is only part Japanese (the other part is French.) Although it has been so many years since I watched it I may not have a good grasp on if it was good or not. You can see for yourself, though, since all of them are on YouTube.
If I was picking a single Japanese anime to mention (and I am) that aren’t an especially acquired taste, I’d go with Haibane Renmei, which is also available on Youtube, both subbed and dubbed.
How about “Nu, pogodi”? A Soviet classic.
One Piece is one of my favorite TV series, unfortunately its one of the few that still uses the “super deformed” style so your mileage may vary.
Magikano, Best Student Council, Hare+Guu, and Azumanga Daioh are some of the funniest cartoons I’ve ever seen.
Panique au village (AKA A Town Called Panic) from Belgium is good if you like manic, intense silliness. It’s all stop-motion animation with plastic figurines. The three main characters are a cowboy named Cowboy, an Indian named Indian, and a horse named Horse. It started on TV, and in 2009 they came out with a full-length movie. Here’s the trailer, and here’s a scene from the movie.
One-Punch Man. I find it hilarious.
Most Canadian cartoons would probably be seen in the U.S. anyways. Of the exceptions, I can’t really think of too many that I’d recommend.
The Raccoons wasn’t that bad. Max, the 2000 Year-old Mouse had its charms. Older still is Rocket Robin Hood, which has a somewhat confusing cross-border history, mingled with the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon.
If I had to recommend a single Canadian animated series, I’d probably go with ReBoot.
Aside from Spider-Man (or at least its iconic theme song), I’m not sure how many of these are widely known in the U.S. I assume ReBoot is moderately well-known in nerdier circles.
Semi-related, when I visited Europe a few years back to meet the girlfriend’s family, I found a common cultural touchstone through their familiarity with Fraggle Rock, admittedly a puppet show and not an animated one.
Ulysses 31 was a bizarre, almost surreal show. It was good in the sense that it was better than/different from most other shows that were airing on US TV at the time. It was also a relatively short series with a resolving final episode, but it was yanked off the air in my market before it finished.
I’ll name another French-Japanese production from the 80s: The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It was so popular in Europe that there was a French/Belgian sequel produce twenty-five years after the original.
Discussing Japanese anime is a non-starter, as we could go through literally a hundred shows.
The best non-American, non-Japanese show on right now is probably Miraculous Ladybug, a French/Korean/Japanese production that is a superhero/magical-girl show set in Paris with some eye popping animation.
I enjoyed watching Pocoyo with my son. Not sure if it counts, since it’s American, British, and Spanish.
Let’s not forget Eastern Europe’s favourite cat and mouse team; Worker and Parasite.
Endut! Hoch hech!
“What the hell was that?”