The Legend of Vox Machina is filling a huge gap in the animation world 

Even though I’ve never watched an episode of Essential RoleI found myself deeply in love. Legend of Vox MachinaThe animated series was based upon the original play-web series. My favorite medium is animation. The fact that so much gameplay and legend were presented in an easy-to-jump into format was appealing to me. After the second season was over, however, I realized something. Legend of Vox Machina was filling a specific niche that I didn’t even realize I was looking for: It’s an animated and serialized fantasy show about adults, for adults.

The majority of American animated shows are still targeted at younger audiences. That is not to say they’re not good; I love The Owl House, She-Ra, the Princesses Of PowerThese and many other TV shows fit the bill. They’re amazing shows that tell compelling stories with interesting characters. But they are still primarily focused on young protagonists and coming-of-age arcs, which, while fulfilling, represent an age demographic I’ve grown out of.

Image: Disney

Even when you consider anime’s popularity in America, fantasy animated series often feature teenage characters with some older characters. The content tends to be more mature — there’s more blood and action and darker themes than in Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and other all-ages animated fare. Nevertheless, most of the characters in this series are teens. This animated series fills a niche that’s severely lacking in the United States. A bildungsroman is something I love as much as any other YA fantasy novel reader. However, I also enjoy watching shows where my age can explore the dungeons and fight dragons.

Unfortunately, animated shows about people my age — at least the ones historically popular in the United States — are typically raunchy half-hour comedies. Yes, they can be enjoyable entertaining in their own right, but it’s made the medium very limited in terms of genre and audience. The words “adult animation” evoke a very specific image of episodic comedies like Family Guy and South Park. Though we’ve yet to see a full tide of more serialized genre animation tailored toward adults, over the years more and more shows have stepped outside of the bubble.

Image: Prime Video

Legend of Vox MachinaThis isn’t the first show like this, but it was the one that helped me see the distance between them. Steven Universe Rick and Morty is. This seems like another episode of raunchy episodic comedy. It opens with a scene that introduces a heroic and more traditional group of adventurers. Then, they kill them to reveal the title group of mercenaries. It was a similar episode of episodic comedy, but set me low. To be wrong has never been more exciting.

You can find the characters here Legend of Vox MachinaYou can swear and drink as well as make crude sex jokes. However, they are also prone to insecurity and question big life decisions. They have to deal with difficult past events. They’re not coming of age and discovering the hardships of the world. They’re intimately acquainted with them, and yet they find a way forward despite it all. They find family and friendship with one another, in a way that resonates differently because they’ve found each other at a later stage in life.

Image: Prime Video

Also, there’s dragons and demons, dazzling displays of magic and fantastical locations, epic fights and mystical powers. Legend of Vox MachinaThe story follows an adult group of friends living in fantasy settings. This resonates with me a lot. My love for cartoons and fantasy never waned. I’ve enjoyed each of those things well into adulthood, but it’s been hard to find something that hits both those marks without having to sanitize itself for younger audiences. But even with more adult content — and the show can getThank you gory and also very raunchy — Legend of Vox MachinaThis animation is not filled with the kind of edgy, cynical humor so common in adult animation. It is rooted in a genuine sense of hope and earnestness that is too often lacking.

Fantasy can often be about escapism. Sometimes, as an adult tired of living alone, it is possible to find escapism in having close friends that are willing to go out for a drink at the local brewery or share stories around the campfire. Sometimes it’s as simple as a group of friends joining forces to defeat an evil conclave or going with you to the ancestral home to exact revenge against those who have murdered your family. I’m glad that Legend of Vox MachinaGive me everything I need.

Legend of Vox MachinaPrime Video allows you to stream it.