Exosquad

Exosquad
Title screen of the first season
Genre	Space opera Military science fiction Future history
Created by	Jeff Segal
Written by	Mark Edward Edens Michael Edens
Directed by	Graham Morris
Voices of	Lisa Ann Beley Robby Benson Michael Benyaer Garry Chalk Michael Donovan Janyse Jaud David Kaye Richard Newman John Payne Teryl Rothery
Composer(s)	Michael Tavera
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Will Meugniot Jeff Segal
Producer(s)	Dennis Woodyward
Running time	21 min (per episode)
Production company(s)	Universal Cartoon Studios
Distributor	MCA TV
Release
Original network	syndication
Original release	September 11, 1993 – November 3, 1994

Exosquad is an American animated television series created by Universal Cartoon Studios as a response to Japanese anime. The show is set in the beginning of the 22nd century and covers the interplanetary war between humanity and Neosapiens, a fictional race artificially created as workers/slaves for the Terrans. The narrative generally follows Able Squad, an elite Terran unit of mecha pilots, on their missions all over the Solar System, although other storylines are also abundant. The series ran for two complete seasons in syndication from 1993 to 1994, and was cancelled after one third-season episode had been produced. Reruns later aired on USA Network. The music from the show was used in the third season of the paranormal series Sightings as additional background score.

The series is set in the years 2119–2121 AD, several decades after humanity ("Terrans") has expanded its presence beyond Earth, terraforming and colonizing Venus and Mars. These three planets are "the Homeworlds", the core first of the Terran interplanetary state and later of Neosapien Commonwealth. Not all Terrans are affiliated with the Homeworlds, however: the Pirate Clans, descendants of Terran criminals exiled to the Outer Planets who live off looted Homeworlds' space freighters, are a major independent faction in the show. The first episode opens with the Earth Congress dispatching the entire Exofleet, humanity's space-based military, to counter the Pirate threat.

With war with the Pirate Clans looming, an uprising begins among the Neosapiens, an artificial humanoid race coexisting with Terrans. In the back-story, the Neosapiens were used primarily as slaves during the colonization of Mars and Venus and therefore have been engineered to be physically stronger and better adapted to hostile environments than humans. Their mistreatment by Terrans led to the First Neosapien Revolt fifty years before the series' begin, which was mercilessly crushed but had brought some positive changes into their lives. Still not content with his fate, the Neosapien Governor of Mars, Phaeton, sets a new insurrection, codenamed "Operation [Neosapien] Destiny", in motion as soon as the Exofleet leaves to chase after the Pirate Clans. The absence of the Exofleet is also a part of Phaeton's plan as it enables the Neosapiens' capture of the Homeworlds without much effort.