9. IGPX
Back in the first half of the first half of the 00s, the US was really high on anime, thanks in part to Cartoon Networks Toonami block, which gained notoriety by airing Dragonball Z and several installments of the Gundam franchise. One of the more interesting byproducts of that era was the creation of several Japanese/American co-productions: series animated in Japan, but funded and produced with involvement of Americans. While the level of funding and creative involvement varied by series, the practice died off when the booming anime market turned out to be a bubble, although the concept has been revived in recent years, resulting in things like Batman: Gotham Knight and Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. IGPX was an early co-productions between Cartoon Network and Japans Production IG studio (responsible for animating the Ghost in the Shell franchise, among others), first premiering as a micro-series of five 5 minute episodes in 2003, before graduating to a full series in 2005. The micro-series and series were both about a team of mech pilots in a competition known as the Immortal Grand Prix, featuring essentially the same characters, but with significant changes to the voice cast and premise. While the micro-series was essentially Death Race with giant robots, the series was toned down into NASCAR with giant robots in order to distinguish it from other combat heavy Japanese mech shows,
according to series producer Jason DeMarco. One of the more impressive aspects of IGPX was the caliber of voice actors the show brought in not just voice acting professionals like Lance Henrikson, Mark Hamill, and Steve Blum, but regular actors like Michelle Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment (yes, really). Unfortunately, IGPXs debut coincided with the decline of anime and the Toonami block, meaning the series never did well enough to justify a run beyond the two 13 episode seasons that were initially ordered. While IGPX did receive a DVD release after its initial run, the DVDs quickly went out of print due to limited numbers a few years before Cartoon Network gave up all rights to IGPX as a tax write-off (at which point the rights might have gone to Production IG). In the past few years, IGPX has received something of a reevaluation by animation fans who initially dismissed it, but the lack of physical copies in the wild definitely hurts any attempt to preserve this show for future generations.