Hey everyone, I am a huge Aeon fan but I have not seen any episodes of Reign the Conqueror. As silly as it may seem, I am debating as to whether or not I should buy the DVD box set when it comes out in a couple of weeks. I am just wondering if the series is good, REALLY good, pretty bad, horrible, or what? How is the animation overall? I am also wondering if there are some psychadleic - style drawings/scenes in it, because I very much enjoy experimental animation, which Peter Chung seems to include in many of the projects that he has done. So yeah, I have read some reviews of the series online, but I am wondering how other Aeon Flux / Peter Chung fans feel about it? Thank you for the help and advice, if there will be any... ha.

-- Max W. (antiflarm@hotmail.com), October 29, 2003

Answers

I liked Reign... quite a bit, in fact. Your typical Rin Taro/Madhouse production: a little light on plot, but heavy on mystery and atmosphere. The story unfolds deliberately and methodically. If you liked, say, Twin Peaks, the Utena series, Carnivale... I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy Reign.

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), October 29, 2003.

Thanks for the response, I am also wondering how it is visually, is it visually stunning, ugly, or what? I know about the story from many reviews I have read, I am still curious about how the animation is though.

-- Max W. (antiflarm@hotmail.com), October 30, 2003.

Visually, it's a step above Aeon Flux -- sharper colors, smoother character animation (this is all subjective, of course). And it doesn't suffer from the anime curse of recycled footage. Some of the CG has a dated/cheap look to it, but I'd rather have nice cels and poor CG than the other way around. Overall, it's some of the nicest looking TV animation I've seen.

-- Inu (paul@nadisrec.com), October 30, 2003.

Excellent... Thank you for the information, I will definitely buy the box set now. It may seem a bit ridiculous, but hey, I just got a new DVD player, I have to celbrate somehow! Alright, thanks.

-- Max W. (antiflarm@hotmail.com), October 31, 2003.

animation is definately better in aeon flux...my opinion. in af monica and bregna had two distinct color schemes-bregna was pastels and monica was dark (purple, black). Reign is almost all pastel and takes place mostly in a flat desert environment. The movement and cleanliness seems better but the atmosphere is horrible.

-- yurmom (McFace@watmm.com), November 21, 2003.

yeah, I ended up purchasing the box set. I am totally satisfied, I mean, you can really tell that it is peter's character design. I agree, the animation is better in Aeon Flux, but I feel that Reign was more of a... made for TV anime, i guess you could say? So you can't really expect it to be astounding. I am really enjoying it so far, it's a very interesting perspective on the whole Alexander story. And the extra features have an interview with Peter Chung, I have never seen him talk before this, it was pretty awesome, you can tell he has a great amount of knowledge on the subject of animation. I bought this simply because I knew I was going to end up buying at least one disc, and I got all four for $45, so i figured it was a deal. Basically, if Peter was heavily involved in any project, I will most likely purchase it. alright then, yo yo.

-- Max W. (antiflarm@hotmail.com), November 22, 2003.

NO.

It is not Aeon Flux.

-- kevin (k_maty@hotmail.com), December 23, 2003.