Animation is not a genre, but a language. And some shows speak it so fluently that they rewrite the dictionary entirely.
From Saturday morning couch sessions to 3 AM binge watches, animated shows have shaped how we see storytelling.
At Split Arts Technologies, we grew up on this stuff, while studying it thoroughly. From experiences creating animations we got lots of opinions. Strong ones. And this list is us sharing the shows that made us want to do what we do.
What Makes an Animated Show Truly Great?
Great animation is not about budget. It is about intention. A show can have rough frames and still hit harder than something polished to oblivion. What matters is whether the creators knew what they were trying to say and found the exact visual vocabulary to say it.
The best animated shows share DNA. Characters that feel like people you know. Animation that serves the story instead of showing off. Themes that sneak up on you. You start watching for laughs and end up thinking about mortality. That is the magic. The Trojan horse effect of animation. It gets past your defenses because it looks like kids stuff. Then it guts you.
Key Traits of Legendary Animated Shows
Memorable characters are non-negotiable. Not likable. Memorable. The ones who make you laugh, cringe, see yourself, hate yourself. Animation can exaggerate expression in ways live action cannot. A raised eyebrow can say everything. A held breath can last forever.
Innovative animation pushes the medium forward. Not for novelty. For necessity. Because the story demanded something that did not exist yet. Someone had to invent it.
Cultural impact is the lag indicator. You know a show mattered when people are still referencing it decades later. When new creators cite it as the reason they picked up a pen. When it becomes shorthand for an entire aesthetic.
Classic Animated Series That Started It All
The Flintstones was the first primetime animated series aimed at adults. That is wild to think about now. A cartoon about a suburban family in the Stone Age, airing between westerns and variety shows. It proved animation could do sitcoms. Could do social commentary. Could do grown up.
Looney Tunes invented comedic timing at the frame level. Bugs Bunny leaning on the fourth wall. Daffy Duck’s ego imploding in real time. These were not just funny drawings. They were character studies compressed into seven minute masterpieces.
Scooby Doo created a formula so durable it is still running. Four kids and a dog solving mysteries. The genius was in the ensemble. Everyone had a role. Everyone was necessary. That is the storytelling economy.
Tom and Jerry was pure slapstick ballet. No dialogue. Just physics and spite and occasional truce. It taught generations that violence could be hilarious if the timing was perfect.
The Jetsons looked forward while The Flintstones looked back. Same family sitcom bones. Different aesthetic skin. Together they proved animation could do period pieces. Even fake ones.
Felix the Cat was among the earliest. Silent film era. Black and white. And still somehow expressive enough to carry entire narratives without a single word.
Popeye was weird. Deliberately weird. A sailor with spinach fueled super strength and a girlfriend who got kidnapped constantly. It should not have worked. It worked for decades.
Best Animated Shows for Adults
The Simpsons changed television. Full stop. Thirty plus years of satire that predicted the future more often than it should have. Homer is not a good father. He is a recognizable one. That distinction matters.
South Park built an empire on crude animation and sharper politics. The construction paper aesthetic was not a limitation. It was a statement. We are not here to look pretty. We are here to punch up.
BoJack Horseman used anthropomorphic animals to explore the most human pain. Depression. Addiction. The hollow pursuit of relevance. The animation was simple. The writing was surgical.
Rick and Morty made nihilism fun. Interdimensional travel as family therapy. The sci fi concepts are dense but the emotional core is basic. A broken man trying to connect with his grandson. And failing. Repeatedly.
F Is for Family channeled seventies working class rage into something weirdly tender. Bill Burr’s voice grounds the chaos. The animation amplifies it.
Big Mouth made puberty grotesque and relatable simultaneously. The hormone monsters are not metaphors. They are characters. With agendas. It is a body horror coming of age story.
Archer proved spy fiction could be funny without being parody. The animation style shifted over seasons. The voice remained consistent. That is confidence.
Final Space balanced goofiness with genuine grief. Gary’s optimism is not naive. It is armor. And the animation knows when to let cracks show.
Best Animated Shows for Kids That Adults Love Too
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the standard. Not just for kids animation. For television. Period. It built a world with rules. Then broke your heart within them. Zuko’s redemption arc alone justifies the medium.
SpongeBob SquarePants should not have worked. A sponge. In pants. Under the sea. Yet the humor operates on multiple levels simultaneously. Kids laugh at the slapstick. Adults catch the existential dread.
Adventure Time started silly and ended profoundly. The Land of Ooo is post-apocalyptic. That revelation recontextualizes everything. Rewatching becomes a different show entirely.
Gravity Falls did mystery with heart. Every clue mattered. Every character grew. The finale paid off years of setup. That is serialization done right.
The Owl House gave fantasy representation it rarely gets. Luz’s journey is not about being chosen. It is about choosing yourself. The animation style evolves with her confidence.
Pokemon is not high art. It is cultural glue. A shared language across generations. That matters differently. Sometimes longevity is its own achievement.
The Magic School Bus made education adventurous. Ms. Frizzle’s mantra of taking chances and making mistakes is basically a creative philosophy. We still think about it in production meetings.
Groundbreaking Animation Techniques
Batman: The Animated Series looked like film noir. Bruce Timm’s designs were stripped down. Every shadow was deliberate. Every frame could hang in a gallery. It proved superhero stories could be moody. Could be an adult. Could be art.
Samurai Jack let silence breathe. Genndy Tartakovsky trusted the audience to read emotion without dialogue. The result was hypnotic. Action as meditation.
Arcane changed what people thought animation could look like. Hand painted textures. Three distinct art styles for three distinct regions. The budget was enormous. Every dollar shows. But the emotional intimacy is what stays with you.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse invented new visual grammar. Comic panels as animation frames. Frame rate as character choice. Miles moves differently than Peter. You feel it before you notice it.
Primal returned to hand drawn brutality. No words. Just survival and connection. The red dinosaur and the caveman communicate more honestly than most live action couples.
International Animated Classics
Cowboy Bebop blended jazz and space western until the lines disappeared. Spike’s past haunts every frame. The ending is inevitable. That is tragedy done with style.
Dragon Ball Z created the shonen template. Power escalation. Transformation sequences. Screaming until your hair changes color. It is mocked because it is influential. Parody requires familiarity.
One Punch Man satirized the thing it perfected. Saitama’s boredom is the punchline. The animation goes hard when it needs to. Then pulls back. That rhythm is the joke.
Attack on Titan built dread architecturally. The walls. The titans. The political machinery. Horror works best when the world itself is the trap.
Neon Genesis Evangelion weaponized psychological damage. Mecha as metaphor for broken children. The ending is controversial because it is honest. Some pain does not resolve. It just becomes part of you.
Best Animated Shows Across Decades
1990s
Animaniacs was a miracle of density. Jokes for kids. Jokes for adults. Jokes for adults who were kids. Yakko’s nations of the world song is still educational. Still impressive. Still stuck in our heads.
Batman: The Animated Series already got its flowers but the nineties were its decade. It opened doors for everything that followed. Without it, no Arcane. No Spider-Verse. No serious animated drama on television.
2000s
Family Guy proved cutaway gags could sustain a show. Whether that is good or bad depends on your tolerance. But the influence is undeniable.
Futurama was The Simpsons in space with more heart. Fry’s thousand year displacement is never played for easy laughs. The show believes in his loneliness. Then earns his belonging.
2021 Years
Arcane already got mentioned but 2021 was its year. The League of Legends adaptation nobody asked for and everybody needed. It made parents ask their kids what they were watching. Then kept watching after the kids went to bed.
Invincible used familiar superhero visuals to hide unfamiliar superhero brutality. The twist in episode one recontextualizes the genre. The animation stays bright. The content gets dark. That dissonance is the point.
New & Recent Animated Shows (2024–2026)
Recently Released & Popular New Shows
X-Men ’97 revived a classic with modern urgency. The animation honors the original. The themes speak to now. Nostalgia as a vehicle, not a destination.
The Amazing Digital Circus went viral for a reason. Surrealism meets character study. The digital prison is literal. The emotional stakes are real.
Dino Pops is for younger viewers but the craft is serious. Color theory. Character design. Pacing. Kids deserve good animation too.
Everybody Still Hates Chris translates live action to animation without losing the voice. Chris Rock’s narration grounds the visual chaos.
Exploding Kittens adapted a card game into something stranger than expected. The Flash animation style is deliberate. The chaos is controlled.
New Shows Debuting in 2025
The Bad Guys: Breaking extends the film franchise with TV pacing. Heist structure suits episodic format. The animation maintains cinematic quality.
Bearbrick is exactly what it sounds like. Toy inspired adventures with genuine visual style. The commercial origin does not negate the artistic result.
Eyes of Wakanda expands Black Panther mythology. African mythology as superhero foundation. The animation can go places live action budgets cannot.
Goldie is new. We have not seen it yet. But the premise combines comedy and adventure for family audiences. Sometimes potential is worth noting.
Dog Days Out is heartwarming by design. Canine protagonists. Big adventures. Small emotional beats. The formula works when executed with sincerity.
Belfort & Lupin brings French animation to global audiences. Cultural specificity as selling point. Not despite being different. Because of it.
Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight updates Gaulish warriors for Netflix generation. The humor is ancient. The delivery is current.
Bonus: Recently Buzzed About Upcoming Series
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake proved the universe still has stories. Spin offs often feel unnecessary. This one felt inevitable.
Hazbin Hotel musicalized damnation. The concept was viral. The execution is professional. The gap between those two is where interesting things happen.
Twisted-Wonderland game adaptation with built in audience. The challenge is translating interactive narrative to passive viewing. The opportunity is the existing visual library.
Why Adding These Recent Shows Matters
Freshness signals relevance. To search engines. To readers. To anyone deciding whether your content is worth their time. Animation evolves constantly. A list that stops at 2010 is a history lesson. A list that includes 2025 is a conversation.
Broadening appeal means multiple entry points. The parent is looking for family content. The adult seeking mature themes. The student researching technique. The fan chasing buzz. Everyone finds something.
Current relevance matters because streaming changed everything. Shows live and die by algorithm now. Yesterday’s sleeper becomes today’s phenomenon. Keeping up is not optional. It is the job.
What Animation Teaches Us
These shows prove animation is not a limitation. It is a liberation. When you are not bound by physics or actors or locations, you can focus purely on story. On emotion. On the exact image that communicates exactly what you mean.
At Split Arts Technologies, we reference these shows constantly. Not to copy. To understand. To ask what problem the creators were solving and whether their solution applies to our current project. The techniques pioneered here become tools in our kit. The storytelling lessons become instincts.
FAQ
What is the most influential animated show of all time?
The Simpsons remains the cultural landmark. Thirty plus years of commentary. An entire comedic language built on its foundation. Influence is not always about quality. Sometimes it is about ubiquity. The Simpsons has both.
Which animated show has the best animation quality?
Arcane set new standards. But quality is subjective. Some prefer the intentional roughness of Primal. The stylized cleanliness of Spider-Verse. The painterly density of Arcane. Ask what the animation is trying to do. Then judge whether it succeeds.
Can animated shows be for adults?
Obviously. But the question persists because of stigma. Animation carries cultural baggage. The shows on this list are slowly unpacking it. BoJack and Rick and Morty made it normal for adults to admit they watch cartoons. That normalization is political. It expands what art can be.
What animated show is the best for kids and adults alike?
Avatar. The Last Airbender. It respects children enough to challenge them. It respects adults enough to trust they will stick around. The rewatch value is unmatched because you are literally a different person each time. The show does not change. You do.
The Evolution Continues..
Streaming money changed animation economics. More studios. More voices. More experiments. Technology lowered barriers without lowering standards. A small team with vision can produce work that competes with legacy studios. That democratization means more stories. More perspectives. More reasons to pay attention.
