The planet is alive. And it is not kind.
Why it is hard sci-fi
An animated series about the survivors of a colony-ship crash on the planet Vesta. The shows working subject is the planets ecology. Every plant and animal is a real engineered system with a working life cycle, and the show commits to a strict rule. Vestas biology is alien but consistent, and the survivors learn the rules by paying for each lesson. The show is one of the most rigorous portrayals of an alien ecosystem in animation.
Science inside it
A working alien ecology with consistent species behaviours, a survival procedural in which the protagonists progressively map the local biology, a working set of plant-symbiont relationships that produce real medical interventions, and a recurring engagement with the shape of an ecosystem in which humans are not the apex. The show takes its biology seriously and the consequence is on screen.