Post by GRWelsh on Jul 11, 2020 10:08:02 GMT -5
I'm rewatching another one of my favorite animated series from the late 90's: MISSION HILL. It is not anime, but American animation from executive producers who worked on THE SIMPSONS. It has the same irreverent attitude of THE SIMPSONS but with more a focus on young people living in a pre-gentrified neighborhood in a city (like Wicker Park, Chicago*). It capitalized on and also made fun of what was popular in culture at the time (slackers, organic vegetables, hipsters, reality tv shows, video games, the internet, same sex couples, etc.) but for some reason didn't find an audience and was cancelled after only 13 episodes. I discovered it on Adult Swim in 2004 when I first watched COWBOY BEBOP. The animation isn't great, but the designs and color palatte grow on me more every time I watch it. The writing and voice actors are excellent. Brian Posehn voices one of the supporting characters. I remember when I was playing STARCRAFT 2: WINGS Of LIBERTY in 2011 I noticed a nerdy scientist character was voiced by Scott Menville who voices the nerdy little brother Kevin on this cartoon. It felt like an homage! Kevin had returned!
*The creators named Wicker Park as one of the inspirations in the DVD commentary but the name Mission Hill may come from two other hipster neighborhoods: the Mission District in San Francisco and Capitol Hill in Seattle, or be named after Mission Hill in Boston. The city it is set in, Cosmopolis, isn't given a specific location yet is "a thousand miles away" from where Andy and Kevin's parents moved to in Wyoming.
*The creators named Wicker Park as one of the inspirations in the DVD commentary but the name Mission Hill may come from two other hipster neighborhoods: the Mission District in San Francisco and Capitol Hill in Seattle, or be named after Mission Hill in Boston. The city it is set in, Cosmopolis, isn't given a specific location yet is "a thousand miles away" from where Andy and Kevin's parents moved to in Wyoming.