Synopsis

Sometime in the 22nd century, humans have fully terraformed and colonized Venus and Mars. The Neosapiens, an artificially engineered race created to be slaves for the Terrans, have turned against their masters and formed the Neosapien Order/Empire/Commonwealth. Under the rule of the calculating Governor General Phaeton, the Neosapiens have launched an invasion of Earth and Venus. The ExoFleet, the… Homeworlds' space navy (in particular, Able Squad, a group of Exo-Frame pilots led by Lieutenant J.T. Marsh), fight against the invasion in an interplanetary war to protect the Terrans.

Another character, Alec DeLeon, was supposed to perish in the destruction of Mars but the Universal executives strongly opposed it, so he was killed several episodes later, on the Moon, only to be promptly resurrected in a Neo Mega body.

It was modified in 1993 and the title was changed to Exosquad (as a result of a trademark conflict) when Playmates Toys made a deal for the master toy license.

Exosquad was among the first animated series by Universal Animation Studios (then known as Universal Cartoon Studios) and was created under influence of anime imported from Japan.

Although the first season ran for only thirteen episodes in 1993, the rising popularity of the show allowed Universal to make the second one three times as long.

In its second season, Exosquad was put together with another action series from Universal, Monster Force.

As the second season progressed, some characters, according to Michael Edens, "took on a life of [their] own": for example, Nara Burns killing Phaeton and the Neosapien Thrax becoming a major recurring character after his initial appearance were not pre-planned.