I remember an episode of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! in 2002 where a gun had to be made transparent in a guy's hand, though his hand was in the position of holding a gun!
Think back to the old Popeye cartoons - I'm talking about the old black-and-white shows from the 20's and 30's. It is singularly the most inappropriate and most violent show, cartoon or otherwise, to ever hit the airwaves. Here's a synopsis that applies to nearly every episode:
Metaphorically,
Popeye and Olive Oyl are doing whatever they happen to be doing that day - building a bridge (I'm serious), sailing a ship, whatever.
Wimpy enters. Hijinks ensue.
Bluto enters. Gets the hots for Olive Oyl. Gets Popeye out of the picture, usually by beating the s**t out of him. Makes his moves on Olive Oyl, who is repulsed by him (almost a metaphore for rape).
Popeye 'roids up (spinach) and beats the s**t out of Bluto. Popeye and Olive Oyl live happily ever after.
The fight scenes were often brutal - these guys would hit each other with tree trunks, throw knives and swords at each other, etc.
Maybe I misunderstood you, but I completely disagree if you think cartoons these days are "watered down". I am always flipping through channels just to see cartoon teenage girls with thongs showing in kids shows!
I've never seen a cartoon featuring teenage girls' thongs - thankfully I have a boy, and he's too young to be interested in such nonsense. Hopefully by the time he is interested, he'd rather see it on a non-cartoon girl
Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, and The Replacements, just to name a few.
+1 for P&F. I love that show!!
BTW, there seem to be a lot of youngsters on here reminiscing about shows like Johnny Bravo and Thundercats when they were kids. I didn't think I was all that old, but when I was a kid I was watching Scooby Doo (way, way before Scrappy came along and the show jumped the shark), Fat Albert, Speed Racer, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Popeye, stuff like that. There's still some good stuff on today, though - Phineas and Ferb is a great show, I've gotten into that one quite a bit. Spongebob is not my thing, and the new age of anime doesn't really do it for me, either.