The Pirates of Dark Water holds up better as an adult than as a kid, because as an adult you can appreciate what it did.
Most high fantasy settings are just recycled Tolkien and medieval folklore or greco roman/norse mythology. But The Pirates of Dark Water went and made their own completely original setting from scratch. No dwarves and elves, they made their own human subraces and ethnicities. No european countryside with castles and magical forests filled with trolls. This place was an ocean planet dotted with islands getting slowly eaten by an eldritch horror living in the planet's core. Everyone the main character meets is a sketchy character with something to hide or is a straight up criminal, including his own crew (The ship they use throughout the show was stolen), a rare concept compared to other children shows at the time where characters were usually obviously good or bad. The character designs, animation, and backgrounds were complex and detailed, making the show so expensive that they couldn't afford to keep making it. The five part miniseries the show opened with had higher quality animation than anything else on TV at the time.
