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How did I miss this series when I was a kid?

I love being proven wrong. I thought I knew about every single American cartoon series that came out during the 1980s, from Transformers to Jemm to Tiger Sharks. But then I’ll find sets like this that shatter my misconceptions about what I thought I knew. Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was a 65-episode action cartoon that began in 1986 and ran until 1989…and until now, I’d never heard of it.

Years before Whedon tried it with Firefly, this show was merging the western and sci-fi genres, quite well at that. The overall plot of the series goes that in the future, humans have been given the ability to travel the stars by benevolent aliens. They set up colonies all over the place, and as with any civilization, there’s crime to be dealt with. To oppose it in these nearly lawless “lands” a group of Rangers are hired to police the near-Old West style colonies.

There’s a good bit of anime-inspiration in the design and animation of the show, but it’s well-done. While the animation isn’t as fluid as it could be, the designs more than make up for it. The action and stories are fairly mature for a show from this time period, and as their wasn’t a toy line to promote, they didn’t have to dumb it down.

This four-disc set contains the first half (32 episodes) of the show’s run. Released by Koch Vision, there are plenty of extras to be found to help induct newbies like myself into the mythology of the show. A booklet included features a guide to the various characters (including a robot named Buzzwang!). A promo reel/pilot plays like an extended version of the opening credits, with a ton more backstory fleshed out. Creator Robert Mandell is on hand to discuss the show, both in a featurette as well as in selected show commentaries. A music video for the show’s opening theme “No Guts No Glory” is included, as is a “jukebox” in which you can play it and several other songs from the show’s run.

Galaxy Rangers is a really kicking show for its time, with an excellent blend of anime and American-action styles, and I for one am very glad to have finally discovered it after twenty-plus years. It only makes me wonder what else from that time period I may have missed out on.

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