It’s hard to deny that Generation Y (which includes me and [most of] my peers) is obsessed with nostalgia.  We’re retro / vintage everything.  A couple of days ago I noticed the entire X-Men animated series is available for stream on Netflix and I was geeking.  Just today a friend on Facebook posted the intro to Gargoyles, another cartoon I used to effs with heavy as a kid, thus inspiring me to create this blog post.

Listed below are my personal top 5 animated action series.  The list consists of my favorite cartoons from about 3rd – 7th grade (about 1993 – 1998).  I feel like before that time we as kids don’t really know why we like shit.  Besides, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reigned supreme during that era in all our lives.  I should also mention I didn’t have cable growing up, so I’m sure there are plenty of dope cartoons I missed out on. Also, as the title suggests I narrowed the list to the “action” genre of cartoons, but when I really think about it these cartoons would probably be on my top 5 cartoon all-genre list anyways.  As a boy, were there any other kinds of cartoons we watched?

One more disclaimer.  Voltron, the OG Transformers, and Thundercats probably would have made my list had I been born 4 or 5 years earlier. I remember these cartoons mainly because my older cousins beasted on them, not because I myself watched them consistently.  I’m gonna be honest and say I was too young for those cartoons, instead of being a hypebeast and saying those shows were my jawns just cuz I know a lot of cats out there used to love them.

Ok, without further ado:

#5 Gargoyles

I feel like this is one of the more underrated cartoons of my era.  People don’t reminisce about this show like the other cartoons, and even as a kid it was on for some time before I started watching it.  Nevertheless, once I got into it I was hooked.

 

#4 Ronin Warriors

This cartoon probably would’ve been higher on the list had it lasted longer.  I never really effed with anime as a kid (as you can see DBZ did not make my list), but one fateful summer  before 5th grade I caught the beginning of this series and I was instantly hooked.  I remember never finishing the series though because, if I remember correctly, the show came on weekday mornings and just as the saga was coming to an end it was time for school to start again.  Yeah…I’m still salty about that.  I should probably find the DVD or something.

 

#3 Spiderman

Fox was killin the Saturday morning cartoon game as far as I’m concerned.  I tried my hardest to wake up at 9:00 to catch Spiderman, then I think at 9:30 they stuck some sub-par cartoon like Reboot, but then at 10:00 was X-Men (see #1).  My mom used to yell at me each morning to mow the lawn, but I was like “Ok ok…at 10:30 though!!!!”

 

#2 Batman

If I’m not mistaken this came on at 4:00pm weekday afternoons on Fox and I made sure I caught it each day.  (Then at 5 I think Full House re-runs would come on UPN, then 5:30 might’ve been Family Matters or Step by Step, but unmistakably at 6 on UPN was the show that pretty much shaped who I am today – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.)  In retrospect this was probably the darkest and most mature of the bunch in terms of storyline, plot, violence and dialogue, but this was just a great show.

For whatever reason the person(s) who uploaded the best version of the intro vid on Youtube has disabled embedding, so hit check it out here . And I highly recommend that you do, because it’s probably the best intro of the 5.
 

#1 X-Men

Mother lover THIS…WAS….MY….SHHH********T!!!!  It still is – I’m burning through the episodes on Netflix.  Everybody loved Wolverine (remember how all the noobs assumed he was “X-Man” though?), and although I, too, liked him a lot, Gambit was my favorite.  He was so cool, and he even pulled Rogue’s ole fine but stubborn ass.  And that intro song – SO CRUNK.  Why hasn’t it been sampled it yet?  I feel like a Rick Ross verse over a properly sampled X-Men beat with a DJ Khaled “We the BEST” would go so hard.