Loonatics Unleashed

This is what WB classes as "Anime".

Loonatics Unleashed (2005-2007) was a superhero cartoon based on the classic Looney Tunes gang set in a dark Cyberpunk universe.

In the year 2772, a meteor strikes the City Planet of Acmetropolis, causing all six future Loonatics (and a number of their future adversaries) to gain super powers. The Loonatics are gathered together by their mysterious benefactor, a woman named Zadavia who has powers of her own, to protect Acmetropolis from a variety of villains.

The first season of the show was initially a rather straightforward Monster of the Week show, if punctuated by the usual Looney Tunes slapstick, before it steadily got Darker and Edgier, culminating in a season finale that introduced a Myth Arc to the show.

Sadly though the initial reception to the show was, shall we say, polarizing. With executives at Warner Bros eager to cash in on the trends of animes, like Transformers Cybertron, and Animesque cartoons, like Ben 10, dominating Western cartoon blocks at the time, the initial marketing leaned too far into the Darker and Edgier aspects, failing to communicate that these characters were the descendants of the classic characters, rather than new designs. With both the Moral Guardians and those who refused to watch the show throwing up a tizzy, the show's second season was much Lighter and Softer, one that didn't appeal much to the viewers that WB was trying to net, ending the show on a Cliffhanger.

Compare Road Rovers and The Mighty Ducks, two earlier Animal Superhero shows with equally ridiculous premises.

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Tropes used in Loonatics Unleashed include:

• Action Girl: Lexi Bunny.
• Air Vent Passageway: Zadavia stages an escape this way on Deuce's ship during "In Search of Tweetums, Part II".
• Aloof Big Brother: Optimatus.
• Amazon Brigade: The Apocazons.
• Animal Superheroes: In this setting, the descendants of the characters all have super powers granted by a meteor.
• Animesque: Or so Warner Bros. claimed. It really doesn't look anymore anime than the actual Looney Tunes themselves.
• Asshole Victim: The Royal Tweetums. Much like ancestor Tweety in his very first 1940s incarnations, Tweetums is a self-centered Jerkass who runs around getting into danger, is very obnoxious, and causes all sorts of pain and suffering for his caretakers when he's not treating them like crap. When foe Sylth Vester comes along, his reasons for trying to take out the little bastard include having had his head shoved into a singularity. Sadly, the little bastard survives to appear in multiple episodes.
• Badass Crew: The Loonatics, of course.
• Bare Your Midriff: Optimatus' outfit exposes his midriff.
• Big Eater: Slam Tasmanian.
• Biological Mashup
• Catch Phrase
  • Ace: "Let's jet!"
  • Duck: "I liked you better when you were [The other person's previous state of being]."
  • Zadavia: "Zadavia, Out."
    • The last one is frequently lampshaded.

"Where does she go out to? Out to dinner?"

• The Chew Toy: Fate seems especially cruel to Danger Duck.
  • Also, in one episode, the team used an EMP, which shut off all power, thus making the machines of their opponent useless. As celebration, they used their virtual reality machine to take a vacation. What was powering the virtual reality machine? Rev on an exercise bike.
• City of Adventure: City-planet.
• Circus of Fear
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Every member of the team has a unique colour.
• Combo-Platter Powers
• Competitive Balance
  • Fragile Speedster: Rev.
  • Glass Cannon: Tech.
  • Mighty Glacier: Slam.
• Cool Sword: The Guardian Strike Sword.
• Cowardly Lion: Danger Duck is a craven coward when it comes to battles, yet his powers can be pretty damaging to his opponents, especially when he Took a Level In Badass in the second season.
• Cute Bruiser: Lexi
• Cyberpunk
• Darker and Edgier meets Recycled in Space: It's a Looney Tunes show that features the Intelligent Gerbils as superheroes in a Cyberpunk era that would do Blade Runner proud. Though the second season was noticeably Lighter and Softer.
• Darth Vader Clone: Slyth Vester.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tech E. Coyote.
• Ears as Hair: Lexi ties her ears up in a ribbon.
• Elemental Powers
  • Blow You Away: Slam's Tornado Maximizer.
  • Green Thumb: Lexi, but only for one episode.
  • Making a Splash: Danger Duck's Aqua Dense.
  • Shock and Awe: Slam's Thunder Mode.
• Evil Laugh: The Ringmaster, though it is more of a chuckle than anything.
  • He is voiced by Tim Curry after all...
• Executive Meddling
• Expository Theme Tune: During the second season.
• Expy: The Loonatics are the Identical Grandsons, personality wise, of the classic Looney Tunes cast. That said, they do have significant differences from their ancestors.
• Female Gaze: Optimatus has a nice chest and muscles, plus he exposes his midriff.
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Ace Bunny
  • The Lancer: Danger Duck
  • The Smart Guy: Tech E. Coyote
  • The Big Guy: Slam Tasmanian
  • Kid Appeal Character: Rev Runner
  • The Chick: Lexi Bunny
• Furry Confusion: While in shopping in Chinatown with Lexi, Duck makes sarcastic comments about eating duck. With duck sauce.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Tech E. Coyote.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: All the time. In the first episode, Danger Duck effectively calls Lexi a bitch...

Lexi: I'm picking up something... Danger Duck: Perhaps a high-pitched dog whistle?

• Healing Factor: Also Tech E. Coyote, for the sole purpose of preserving his former schtick. Good thing he can heal.
• Heel Face Turn: Optimatus near the season 2 finale.
• Humans Are Bastards: Before receiving their powers, most of the cast were employed in various jobs where their superiors were mostly huge jerks... oh and human as well.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: "Apocalypso".
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Dozens in every episode.
• Instrument of Murder: The Cosmic Guitar
• Knight of Cerebus: Optimatus was this for the first season.
• Lady of War: Zadavia.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Optimatus looks alot like Sephiroth (similar bangs and same colour, only Optimatus' hair has purple streaks.)
• Magic Meteor: A meteor strikes Acmetropolis, but instead of destroying the city, gives several characters strange superpowers, similar to the heroes' origin in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew.
  • Also a small subversion as the villains and the many problems in Acmetropolis were also caused by the meteor. Such as: Most of the villains were just normal people who lost it and went insane. The meteor also caused the many problems associated with a planet being knocked out of orbit, such as the Always Night trope.
• Male Gaze: There are a couple of episodes in which the first thing the viewer sees on returning from commercial break is Lexi's cotton tail and anthropomorphic female hindquarters.
• Man-Eating Plant: "Apocalypso"
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: The meteor strike.
• Mecha-Mooks: Deuce's robot army.
• Monster Clown: Otto the Odd.
• Motor Mouth: Rev Runner; overlaps with Super Speed, of course.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Alien planets are named Blanc (after Looney Tunes voice actor Mel Blanc) and Freleng (after Looney Tunes director Friz Freleng).
  • Also, half of the main characters have powers based upon their ancestors.
  • "You realize, this means war" is said a lot.
• Odd Couple: Tech and Rev.
• Opening Narration: During the first season.
• Planetville: The city of Acmetropolis has grown to cover all of Earth.
• Recycled WITH LOONEY TUNES CHARACTERS!: It's basically Teen Titans.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Duck and Ace, as well as Rev and Tech.
• Rogues Gallery
• Scary Black Man: Massive
• Small Name, Big Ego: Danger Duck
• The Smurfette Principle: Lexi is the only female Loonatic.
  • Subverted by the fact they have a female boss, Zadavia.
• Spiritual Successor: To Road Rovers.
• The Starscream: Danger Duck shows signs of this from time to time.
• Super Senses: Lexi has super hearing.
• Super Speed: Rev Runner, which extends to his speech pattern.
• Talking Animal: The Loonatics and some of the guest stars. Oddly, most of the other characters are human.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Teleportation is one of Danger Duck's super powers.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
  • Lexi's ear-bow.
  • Also, Lexi and Rev's mom seem to be the only animal characters with hairstyles.
• Time for Plan B: They always have one. Lexi even becomes Genre Savvy in one case, where, after Ace spouts off the famous trope, she follows up with "Next time, let's start with Plan B"
• Totally Radical:
  • Sypher abuses words like, "yo," and, "dude," usually in that order. Considering who his voice actor has done in the past, it's not surprising.
  • Toby, the delivery boy from "The Family Business" uses the phrase, "Whoa, dude! That's some gnarly trash! Far Out!" It should be taken into consideration that the show takes place in the year 2772.