Cartoons aren't just for kids. From the late 1990s and all through the early 21st century, TV saw a meteoric rise in animated shows aimed at adults. Channels like Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and later stre🐓aming services like Netflix and Hulu catered to a new audience who understand that animation isn't strictly for Saturday mornings.
Contrary to popular knowledge, animation was an adult-oriented medium at first. Before the Hays Code i🍨n 1922, the first cartoons were actually quite risque. With the advent of television however, shows like The Flintstones (yes, really) popularized using animation and outlandish settings – in The Flintstone's case, prehistoric times – to poke fun൩ at contemporary times.
In 1989, The Simpsons premiered and became a massive hit on network television. While The Simpsons wasn't necessarily made for kids, with its jokes and references tailored to adults, its presence on network television meant it could only be so vulgar an𝓡d graphic. It was only with cable television and streaming TV in the ensuing decades tha🌊t explicitly made-for-adults animation flourished.
From genre satires to deep interrogations of the human condition to hit anime f𒀰rom Japan, here are the 32 greatest animated TV shows t꧒hat just aren't for the kiddos.
32. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
MEATWAD! One of the most influential programs in Adult Swim history, Aqua Teen Hunger Force tells the absurd and surreal adventures of anthropomorphic fast food – pathological Master Shake, logical Frylock, and simple-minded Meatwad – who live as roommates, fight villains, and go on bizarre adventures. Today, the series is remembered for its towering influence over other adult-animated shows and even online YouTuberℱs like The Angry Video Game Nerd and Videogamedunkey. A viral marketing campaign for the show in 2007 drew controversy in Boston when LED signs of the Mooninites inspired investigations by local authorities who shut down roads and freeways on the belief it was a terrorist bomb scare.
31. Metalocalypse
The over-the-top excesse🃏s of heavy metal music and culture get roasted (with love) in Metalocalypse. In this hyperbolic black comedy, the heavy metal band Deathlok enjoys the perks of unmatched worldwide fame and fortune. But while the band is super famous with a devoted following, they're also dumb as rocks, which creates problems when the band gets up to no good. (Their concerts are also a riot, in a rather literal sense.)♋ Comically violent that satirizes the heavy metal scene and celebrity worship, Metalocalypse slays.
30. Rick and Morty
For a moment, audiences couldn't get enough of Rick and Morty. From the demented minds of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, Rick and Morty is a sci-fi sitcom that follows nervous teenager Morty (voiced by Roiland for the first few seasons) who is often against his will whisked away by his drunk grandpa Rick (also Roiland) on adventures that take them all across time and space. Essentially an R-rated Doctor Who, Rick and Morty drew critical acclaim in its first few seasons, though the behavior of its overly zealous fanbase soured its reputation. Controversy ไaround Roiland led to his exit from the show in its seventh season.
29. Ugly Americans
Welcome to New York City… in Hell. 🧜In this overlooked gem that ran for an all-too-brief two seasons on Comedy Ce▨ntral, Mark Lilly (Matt Oberg) works for the Department of Integration, a government agency that helps acclimate monsters, creatures, and other demonic species into human society in Manhattan. A workplace comedy with novel worldbuilding, Ugly Americans is a satire of political correctness and government bureaucracy all wrapped up in the malaise of salaried employees just trying to get through the day.
26. The Venture Bros.
Simultaneously the longest-running yet most compact animated show in Adult Swim history (we're talking seven seasons produced over 15 years), The Venture Bros. follows a family of scientist-adventurers who frequently find themselves in overܫ their heads against evildoers and other challenges around the world. While the show lovingly satirizes classic '60s adventures shows like Jonny Quest and mysteries like Hardy Boys, creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer imbued the show with a philosophy of failure, stemming from the unfulfilled promises and broken dreams of the Space Age. The Venture Bros. remains renowned today for its sharp writing, unforge𝄹ttable characters, and worldbuilding that synthesizes its influences into something totally fresh.
25. Inside Job
What if global conspiracies were, in fact, all controlled by a shadowy organization? And what if that shadowy organization was a dead-end job? That's the hilarious conceit behind Netflix's Inside Job, a critically-acclaimed workplace comedy. Behind the doღors at Cognito Inc. are its misfit employees, namely Reagan Ridley (voiced by Lizzy Caplan), an ambitious and brilliant yet socially inept robotics engineer who is reluctantly paired with a new coworker, a yes-man from Washington D.C. (Clark Duke). A c💙olorful farce, Inside Job uses the familiar sitcom format to comically skewer our willingness to believe in anything but the truth.
24. Primal
From animation auteur Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack, Primal tells the ancient exploits of a Neanderthal named Spear and his uneasy partnership with a tyrannosaurus named Fang after they both suffer unimaginable loss. In Tartakovsky's imaginative fantasy, Spear and Fang survive a🐷nd traverse an anachronistic world𒅌 where dinosaurs, monsters, and more advanced civilizations roam the Earth. While there is a voice cast, most of the show is completely nonverbal. Living up to the legacy of Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack, Primal saw similar praise for its rich depth, artistry, and unique blend of science fiction, fantasy, history, and horror.
23. South Park
One of the most successful adult animated shows ever made, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park tells the surreal adventures of four Colorado school boys whose titular mountain town somehow winds up the center of the world's biggest events. Characterized by its abundant profꦐanity, dark humor – do you know just how many times they've killed poor Kenny?! – and crude cutout animation style (which has only naturally gotten more sophisticated with the advent of computer animation), South Park has found evergreen appeal in its eagerness to cynically roast popular cultur🅘e and politics. With over 320 episodes and counting, there's almost no stopping South Park, not even ManBearPig.
22. Blue Eye Samurai
In this critically acclaimed historical action series, a half-white, half-Japanese onna-musha (female warrior) seeks to kill four white men, including her father, in isolationist Edo Japan. Maya Erskine stars as the blue-eyed Mizu, a bitterly cold warrior who disguises herself as a man on her bloody path to revenge. Hailed♛ in its first season for its dazzling art style and deep characterization, Blue Eye Samurai is easily a cut above the rest. In 2024, the show won Outstanding Animated Program at the ♛Primetime Emmys.
21. The Boondocks
A bold American satire with an aesthetic resemblance to Japanese anime, The Boondocks follows the adventures of 10-year-old Huey (voiced by Regina King) after his Black family moves into an affluent white suburb. (The exact geographic location, whether it's Illinois or Mar🃏yland, is actually up for debate.) Originating from creator Aaron McGruder and his online comic strips, The Boondocks explores – and not without controversy – the often funny side of modern Black culture and political incorrectness.
20. Love, Death & Robots
Following in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, Heavy Metal, and Black Mirror, Netflix's Love, Death & Robots is an anthology animation series that explores different artistic styles and storytelling genres – ranging from comedy to horror – while predominantly themed by mankind's contentious relationship to progress, technology, and the unknown. Spearheaded by Deadpool director Tim Miller and visual effects outfit Blur Studios (though every episode is handled by a number of different studios from around the world), Love, Death & Robots has stood out from the pack over its experimental filmmaking and fractured vision of humanity. A personal favorite: From Volume III, Episode 2, "Bad Trav♛eling" directed by David Fincher. You'll never want seafood again.
19. Archer
What if James Bond was an overgrown mama's boy? He'd be Sterling Archer. Created by Adam Reed and a huge hit for FX throughout the 2010s, Archer tells the misadventures of secret agent Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin), whose employer at the spy agency ISIS (later CIA, on the basis of unfortunate real-world associations) also happens to be his wrathful, alcoholic mother Malory (Jessica Walter). Along with misfit coworkers, Archer takes on dangerous missions to defend America while making sure not to also blow up America. Originally an anachronistic spoof of Cold War spy f🃏iction with modern pop culture references and humor, Archer later retooled into an anthology-esque series in the interest of changing things up.
18. Aeon Flux
Predating the explosion of Japanese anime in the west, MTV unleashed the avant garde, thematically dense sci-fi series Aeon Flux in 1995. Set in a dystopian future on a barren world, Aeon Flux follows its mysterious titular assassin (voiced by Denise Poirier) who operates between two ⛦city-states separated by a border🔴 wall and frequently faces off with her rival and lover Trevor (John Rafter Lee). Created by Peter Chung, Aeon Flux took heavy artistic inspiration from anime and German Expressionism to give '90s TV junkies something they hadn't ever seen before, and frankly have never seen again. A live-action movie starring Charlize Theron hit theaters in 2005, to disappointing reviews.
17. Smiling Friends
Spreading happiness can be a slog. That's the day-to-day routine of S🍃miling Friends, a charity whose well-intentioned but exhausted employees Charlie (voiced by Zach Hadel) and Pim (Michael Cusack) try to bring happiness to clients. With original and frequently off-putting character designs and bizarre humor that is perfectly in line with Adult Swim's established vibe, Smiling Friends – from creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack – is a modern classic that is keeping late-night cable television interesting.
16. Blood of Zeus
Japanese-inspired anime and Greek mythology clash like the titans in this gory epic created by the Parlapinedes Brothers for Netflix. Blood of Zeus traces 🦋the coming-of-age adventurers of Heron (Derek Phillips), a young demigod and offspring of Zeus who must save the world from the evil Titans after they've returned to exact vengeance on their successors, the Olympians. Billed as a story "lost to history," Blood of Zeus is a liberal reinterpretation of classic Greek tales that sets out to tell its ow꧙n story of good and evil, of revolution and annihilation. Majestic and visceral, Blood of Zeus is a standout in the small but notable canon of Western-made anime.
15. Futurama
A critically acclaimed giant with nearly as big a profile as The Simpsons and Family Guy, Matt Groening's Futurama is one of the greatest science-fiction sitcoms that also happens to be an adult-oriented cartoon. The show follows pizza delivery guy Philip Fry, who is cryogenically frozen on January 1, 2000 and wakes up almost a thousand years later. Now employed at the delivery company Planet Express, Fry and his coworkers – including beautiful mutant Leela (Katey Sagal) and misanthrophic android Bender (John DiMaggio) – get caught up in all kinds of wacky adven🃏tures the future has for them. Canceled twice on network TV before finding a new home on Hulu, Futurama has grown into a beloved modern classic with hilarious and heartbreaking iconic moments.
14. Undone
Reality feels elastic in Undone, the first adult animated 🏅series by Amazon's Prime Video and the first-ever TV show to predominantly use the classic technique of rotoscoping. Created by Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Undone follows 28-year-old Alma (Rosa Salazar) who survives a car crash and suddenly develops time-manipulating superpowers. Alma uses her new gifts to figure out the circumstances behind the death of her father Jacob (Bob Odenkirk), whose spirit comes to Alm♊a and serves as her guide. Beyond its highly original animation style, which often evokes the feeling of watercolor paintings, Undone is an existential and cosmic odyssey that probes the deepest depths of the human spirit.
13. Daria
Smack dab during MTV's cultural dominance, the channel aired some of the greatest animated TV shows ever made. Among them is Daria, one of the most realistic portrayals of adolescence and high school in a cartoon. Spinning off from Beavis & Butt-Head, Daria follows its title character Daria Morgendorffer (voiced by Tracy Gra꧂ndstaff)ꦏ, a cynical and sardonic teenager who meets her painfully suburban surroundings with jaded apathy. The show's simplified animation and stylistic influences from '90s indie cinema – not to mention a lack of original score in favor of pop music – gave Daria the vibe of something far more real than even The Real World. A time capsule of the late '90s and early 2000s, Daria's authenticity to the trials and tribulations of teenage life make it timeless even years later.
12. Todd McFarlane's Spawn
In the early 1990s, a number of rock star comic book professionals – including Todd McFarlane – left Marvel to form their o🥃wn imprint, Image Comics. One of its biggest successes was McFarlane's original comic Spawn, which launched a media franchise that included an acclaimed animated series on HBO from 1997 to 1999. Adapting the comics, Spawn tells of decorated U.S. Marine, Al Simmons (Keith David) who is betrayed by his own government and whose soul is damned to Hell. He is resurrected by the demon Malebolgia as a member of his new "Hellspawn" army, but Spawn fights for himself and to return to his beloved wife Wanda. A unique blend of occult and urban horror with adult themes and graphic content, Todd McFarlane's Spawn ♏boasts enough dark energy to make Batman and the X-Men shake in their boots.
11. The Legend of Vox Machina
Talk about a critical hit. After a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019, the tabletop gaming personalities of Critical Role saw their Dungeons & Dragons adventure, first streamed on Twitch, evolve into a hit streaming series on Prime Video. The Legend of Vox Machina retells (and remixes) Critical Role's first D&ꦿ;D campaign with the show's original cast reprising their misfit heroes Vox Machina, who are tasked with saving the land of Tal'Dorei from predatory vampires and destructive dragons. Overflowing with gory violence and adult-oriented humor, but at no expense to quality, The Legend of Vox Machina rolls with advantage.
10. Castlevania
Sink your teeth into Netflix's Castlevania. From iconoclast producer Adi Shankar and based on the Konami video game series, Castlevania takes audiences to 15th century Romania where Draculaꦅ (Graham McTavish) reigns supreme over his army of monsters. The last living member of the Belmont Clan, Trevor (Richard Armitage) teams up with sorceress magician Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) and Dracula's vengeful son Alucard (James Callis) to put a stake through Dracula's heart and take back the night. Acclaimed for its overall production quality, including its exciting animatio🦄n, compelling characters, and gothic atmosphere, Castlevania is one hell of a good time.
9. Harley Quinn
When the DC Universe streaming platform launched in 2019, The Joker's main squeeze seized the spotlight in her self-titled animated series Harley Quinn. The unexpected darling of the DC franchise follows Gotham City's clown princess of crime Harley Quinn (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) as she reclaims her womanhood after break♑ing free from her abusive ex, The Joker (Alan Tudyk). While an official series by DC, Harley Quinn – created by Patrick Schumacher and Justin Halpern – was boldly unafraid to take pot shots at not only DC's vast universe but also modern superhero pop culture. When it wasn't being self-referential, Harley Quinn wisely stayed true to its anti-heroine, in her story about growth and overcoming trauma while strengthening personal bonds.
8. Attack on Titan
There are lots of Japanese anime that make a splash with Western audiences. In the early 2010s, no anime was bigger – one might even say, colossal – than Attack on Titan. In t🅺his acclaimed dark fantasy horror hit based on Hajime Isayama's manga, Attack on Titan takes place in an apocalyptic world where humanity lives in walled-off cities to protect themselves from people-eating giants. When the threat of the giants return, vengeful soldier Eren Yeager seeks to find the truth behind the titans including his own strange ability to become one of them. Hailed as one of the greatest anime ever made, Attack on Titan stands heads and shoulders above the restꦏ.
7. Arcane
From the world of League of Legends comes Arcane. In this steampunk fantasy from 2021, sisters Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (Ella Purnell) survive amid the conflict between the affluent residents of Piltover and the oppressed underclass in Zaun. A mesm♍erizing mix of hand-drawn animation and 3D complement Arcane's compelling (and most of all, accessible) story about class warfare, love, and tragedy. Even non-fans of League of Legends have vibed to Arcane, allowing the show to enjoy prestigiꦍous recognition including numerous Annie and Emmy awards.
6. Scavengers Reign
An imaginative science fiction epic originally made for the then-named HBO Max platform, Scavengers Reign succ𒉰eeds on the merits of its sheer originality, deep introspection, and eye-pleasing animation. Created by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner, the show follows the survivors of a damaged interstellar cargo ship who survive the elements on a strange, undiscovered planet. As the surviving crew work to continue their voyage, they are drawn into the planet and its mysteries, which at times traps them in their own distant memories. Sitting somewhere between a BBC nature documentary and Lost, Scavengers Reign is simply one of the most gorgeous adult-oriented animated shows ever crafted.
