Since I’ve just spent the last two weeks taking apart something I don’t like, today I’d like to talk about something I do like. Exosquad aired from mid-1993 to late 1994 or so, and as far as I’m concerned it’s one of the best shows nobody watched. Along with Batman: The Animated Series, it was part of the brief renaissance of American animation that incorporated complex ideas and stories into a genre–kids shows–not normally known for this. Honestly, even the term “kids show” is unfair; Exosquad dealt with war, politics, genetic engineering, and racism, and, remarkably, gave them a deadly serious treatment while sticking to a PG content level. It would be more accurate to describe it as a show about adult ideas that happened to be written for a young audience, a description that could be equally applied to the ur-example of the genre, Starship Troopers.
But what is it about? you might ask. Structurally, it’s a sort of retelling of World War II set a few hundred years in the future. Humanity has colonized most of the solar system and intra-system travel is commonplace. Colonies and starships are a lot of work to build, so humans create a genetically engineered offshoot of humanity called the Neosapiens. Although they are as intelligent as ordinary humans–now known as terrans to distinguish them from the Neosapiens, who are also technialy human–the Neosapiens were made for cheap labor. Unsurprisingly, the Neosapiens revolted, but the rebellion was put down by humans wearing newly-invented powered armor known as exoframes.
But all this is future history. By the time the series begins, the Neosapien rebellion has been over for decades, and pirates are the only threat humanity takes seriously. J.T. Marsh and his squad of exoframe pilots are part of a terran fleet dispatched to suppress a pirate incursion, and terrans on colonies across the solar system enjoy a high standard of living provided by Neosapien mines on Mars. Neosapiens live for centuries, however, and a group of surviving rebels from the first war orchestrate the conquest of terran settlements throughout the inner solar system. The terran fleet finds itself damaged and alone in the solar system, and it is no match for a force that holds
World War II is often regarded as the last truly black-and-white conflict of modern times, but to my mind one of the core strengths of Exosquad is the show’s outright refusal to reduce its characters to pure heroism or villainy. Terrans generally have the moral high ground over the Neosapiens, but both are quite human, and both make thoroughly human mistakes. The Neosapiens intern humans in camps and exploit them as slave labor, but Neosapiens live much longer than terrans, and it’s a good been that every Neosapien we see guarding a human camp has experienced at human hands every cruelty he visits upon them. Terrans fight back against the Neosapiens, but frequently their efforts are stunted by political infighting or contempt for the human fleet, which they think of as having abandoned Earth to the Neosapiens. Contempt for the other species is common in both species, and both terrans and Neosapiens often regard the other as subhuman. J.T. Marsh and his squad–a squad that includes one friendly Neosapien, himself a veteran of the previous rebellion–often complete their missions only to find that their efforts only made a small contribution or simply didn’t matter in the long run. In the Exosquad universe, military life is hard, dangerous, and often frustrating, and even heroes die.
In addition to its evenhanded treatment of both species, Exosquad takes care to show how the Neosapien conquest affects different terran cultures. In fact, it is is one of the few stories of interspecies warfare I can think of that goes out of its way to show more than just Americans or Europeans being affected. We see the fates of familar locations in Europe and Chicago, but we also see how the Brazillian city of Manaus and Australian Aborigines struggle to survive the Neosapien conquest.
If I’ve managed to pique your interest, you can watch the entire series on Hulu. Until recently it was only unvailable as crappy DVD transfers on eBay, but now you can buy a legitimate copy. I can’t wait until my discs arrive.
