Anime Profile: Thunderbirds 2086

Thunderbirds 2086 is an anime show that was based on the old 1960's U.K. show Thunderbirds that used puppets. No mention of the original Thunderbirds' creators appeared in the credits though, nor did any of the characters carry over to the new series except for Jeff Tracy. (Hey, kinda sounds like what Disney did to Kimba the White Lion when it released The Lion King.)

The drawings are AWESOME. For an early 80's show, the drawings in this were incredibly detailed. What I loved best, and probably the main draw of the show, were the numerous vehicles the Thunderbirds used to use. They didn't use to transform or anything, but the main three did used to combine into this big, bad-ass ship. The animation was also quite good, though it was no match for full-length anime features...

This show did have one major flaw: It was dull. Even though the later episodes in the series did provide the Thunderbird team with an enemy to fight, there weren't many dog-fights or any kind of confrontations in this show. This was evidenced by the fact that the Thunderbirds' vehicles had almost no weapons. That's what you have to expect with a team whose main purpose is rescue operations.. Ah well... It also had a very stereotypical black character, Little John, but I suppose that's better than no black character, which is most common...

This show was pretty cool, but at the same time it was pretty dull. Its drawings and vehicles were it's best features. It's lack of action or real story were it's main flaws...