General Discussion

Hi all! Looking for a new sci-fi/fantasy show to watch since I'm almost done with my current one. I like to watch things with lunch break at work and schooling but running out of good ideas of what to go with. :')

Criteria as follows:
- Cannot be dark with no hope of a happy ending for characters. I like a little dark, and sometimes sliding into very dark, but I like a bright outcome. Lord of the Rings as an example. Hope in the face of adversity is something I like as well.
- Any age group is fine! I like kids shows as well as shows for adults so anything goes!
- Particularly enjoy shows that have themes of peace over war/war bad when there's one going on in the world it takes place in, been LOVING how many kids shows have been doing this lately!
- LGBT themes and/or characters GREATLY appreciated but not required! Bonus points if there's MLM couples.
- Animation or live-action is fine but I'm unlikely to watch live action remakes of animation no matter how good they are.
- Preference towards 30 minute episodes but can manage longer!
- EDIT: Forgot a requirement for shows. NEEDS to have reliable subtitles. I have ADHD and I require those to be able to focus on a show and to pick up words and such I miss because of issues in auditory processing.

SOME of the shows I have watched (Just to give a feel for tone and themes since these are in the vein of what I'm looking for):
Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Star Wars (ALL of it! Big fan! :'D)
Babylon Five
Tangled: The Series
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
Avatar The Last Airbender
She-ra (Netflix)
The Dragon Prince
Gravity Falls
Steven Universe
Demon Slayer
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hilda

EDIT: Not making direct responses to posts because I have a VERY busy work and class schedule (is why I hang around but dragons are unfed) but am gonna start keeping a running list of reccs here! If I watch it and it fits The Vibe (tm) I'll move it to the top list! Otherwise I'll just cross it off here. :)
Centaurworld
His Dark Materials
Doctor Who
The World Ends With You (Might play game first since I've been wanting to!)
Lost in Space (Netflix)
Earth Guy (Youtube)
Arcane (Actually almost done was watching with friends a while back, need to watch the last two episodes)
Fallout
Blue Eye Samurai
Inside Job
My Daemon
Invincible
Akira
Paprika
Genn Tartakovsky Primal
Three Body
Voltron
Owl House
Infinity Train
Bee and Puppy Cat
Dead End: Paranormal Park
La Brea
Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous
Farscape
Scavenger's Reign

His dark materials is pretty awesome fantasy show
if you know the old movie the golden compass its basically new adaptation that covers the whole story unlike movie and follows book story more faithfully! :D

prob could recommend more but my head is kinda empty rn

oh wait u like cartoons have you seen centaurworld? at first glance it looks and acts like stilly dumb show but it gets really deep with characters and plot, it was pretty awesome!

seconding the Centaurworld recc! it's a really fun show, the tone feels kind of similar to Gravity Falls but it handles itself very differently. does have a war as a major plot point, but it is handled very well - I can't say more without spoilering, just know that the war is an evil the characters must overcome.

if you're okay with watching subtitled things, watch The World Ends With You: The Animation (it might be called Subarashiki Kono Sekai on some sites). it's an anime of the story of the DS game 'The World Ends With You', very deep and heartwarming. the story is about a boy who dies and ends up in the Reapers' Game fighting for a second chance at life and learning how to make friends along the way, cue Plot(TM) because nothing can ever be easy. if you know the game, you're gonna love the anime, and if you aren't familiar with the game, don't worry, you don't need to know the game to understand the anime, there's a few references that you might miss but you won't miss any major story beats.

If you like stuff that's a lot more sci-fi, I'd highly recommend Lost In Space (Netflix adaptation). It's live action and has 3 seasons, episodes tend to be 40m long if you find the want to stick them out. About 8-12 episodes per season.

Compared to the ones you've watched, this show does focus more on a realism-grounded approach compared to a fantasy one. However, this has very little impact on the overall enjoyment with some of the things that happen later on during the story.

While the show doesn't really center around anything much war related, it tackles themes of family really, really well. Every, single character feels beautifully fleshed out and have arcs of their own that follow alongside all the others. It's so heartwarming to watch the family come together against all odds.
The series is a clear and gorgeously crafted love letter to the original one. Packed utterly full of emotion.

Plus it's got awesome close calls, robots, amazing sci-fi visuals and some of the most accurate and grounded problem solving I've ever seen in a live action space series.
An entire mystery element is present throughout each episode, each season as well.

I barely watch live action at all, incredibly rarely. To me it fails to capture what a lot of animated things can with ease. This show however? Is my absolute favourite live action media I've ever watched. Which feels like saying a lot when I've seen almost all of Doctor Who.

Season 1 starts much slower and it's a bit less action heavy, though that's because it's preparing everything for the upcoming seasons. Season 2 is by far the best of the 3, but the 3rd is just as wonderful as the rest.
If you manage to stick it out to season 2 then I think you wouldn't regret it :]

Hmm... Not exactly what you had in mind, but I recommend the Earth Guy, made by Aninamated on youtube. It's a scifi comedy about a human boy called Neil who mistakenly gets abducted from earth to enroll into an alien school, and has to learn and adapt to the antics of his alien abductors.

There is at least currently one character who uses They/Them pronouns called Ed. And Neil has a bit of a crush on another student at his new school called Aquello, who happens to present as masculine. I'm not sure if Aquello or Neil get together though, hard to tell.

There's only two episodes out right now, but the 3rd is going to be released within the next few months. Here's the first episode, if you're interested!

I'm not sure if this'll be an 100% match for you but I think I'll recommend Arcane. Although I don't like League of Legends and knew nothing about it going in its probably one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy shows out there. It deals with 2 cities, one where the elite live and one where the poor live getting into a political conflict centering around the obvious classicism and each city's development of magical weapons. Along with really cool worldbuilding though, it has lgbt characters and well written character development! The reason I only half recommend this though is because it definitely dips into some darker themes and is emotionally devastating at times (but I wouldn't call it Game of Thrones dark, it doesn't go that far if you know what I mean). And I can't say if the series will end happily or not because its incomplete at the moment and ended on a cliffhanger. I personally do think there is hope for characters but be warned it'll try to make you cry.

Another rec I have with might align with what you're looking for better though is Doctor Who. Its a very fun episodic adventure series following a time traveler and his ever changing human friends going on adventures (but I have a feeling everyone knows this at this point). It's not really the most scientifically accurate and is full of plot holes, but I think the show is just an all around fun time full of neat ideas everyone should watch a bit of at least once. The show has the vibe that everyone involved in making it had a fun time. The show does have emotional moments, but probably around the same level as some of the other shows you listed. I haven't watched it in ages but have really fond memories of it, and most people agree the best seasons are the first few of the reboot in the 2000s so I'd recommend you start there!

For a very different flavour of sci-fi, I can recommend the Fallout show. As a fan of the games, it's much better than expected. Really good stuff. Also accessible to people who haven't played the games.
Now, there are more seasons coming, so I cannot fully gurantee an outright happy ending, but Fallout has always been about humanity - all aspects of humanity, the good and the bad - perservering in a harsh and brutal world. You will certainly find a lot of 'war bad' in here.

Writing all these down on my list!

idk how much of a fit this is but blue eye samurai is very good
just be aware it is extremely family UNfriendly

theres also inside job which is pretty funny (i havent finished watching)

also my daemon which is like extreme pokemon

evangelion is good too (body horror warning)

also akira (extreme body horror warning) its very innovative for its time and even today (i dont remember if it is too dark or not i was too much ooh shiny)

invincible (gore warning)

fullmetal alchemist is must watch for anyone who likes anime

paprika (free on youtube with ads unless premium)

genn tartakovsky primal (gore warning) dinosaur cartoon for grownups

akira, evangelion, and paprika have all inspired major franchises/blockbuster films fun fact wont share the specific media for akira bc that is a major spoiler
kinda spoiler for the other two but they inspired
evangelion inspired pacific rim
paprika inspired inception


if you really want to know akira inspired (if you think you might feel uncomfortable watching the film) this media basically was inspired by a major plot point in akira
this media is so big you probably have heard of it already so knowing what the media is will give a big spoiler for akira
the media akira inspired is stranger things

Hm… I don’t know if it fits the more lighthearted kind of shows you like, but the best Sci Fi show I’ve ever watched is Three Body. It’s based on a book series that I absolutely adore. It’s 30 episodes long, and each episode is about 40 minutes long.

I don’t know the ending of the book series yet as I’m still reading it, but it’s got a fascinating amount of worldbuilding. Some of the most engaging stuff I’ve ever read. It’s got some political stuff and a lot of big brain science stuff that I thought was super neat, because the author made actual scientific explanations for the wild stuff.

It revolves around humanity trying to make contact with aliens and unfortunately, succeeding. What I like about it is that we never see the aliens- we see the people on earth and how they react to discovering their world is in danger. It’s got a super neat way of showing what the aliens are like without ever actually showing them.

It’s rather slow and definitely takes watching the entire season for it to make sense, but I’d say it’s extremely worth it. The CGI is also very very impressive and absolutely blew me away.

Again, I don’t know if it’s the kind of thing you’d like, but I recommend trying it :)




Also if you want a cartoon sci fi show go watch Voltron it’s on netflix and prime video and it’s a very fun watch. Silly characters. Neat plot. Very good. :D