Æon Flux

I'll spare you the standard review and assume that you've already accepted that Aeon Flux is bloody awesome. What follows is a guide to getting the full bloody awesomeness out of this experience.

If at all possible, take it in chronological order since the first 6 shorts are what set the stage. Essentially all rules are bent, broken, defecated upon and then handed back to us with a hint of Snuggle fabric softener. This is no mere cartoon; this is a revolution in storytelling.

The best way to describe the shorts is to say they are visual puzzles for us to solve. It ain't easy, either. I highly recommend watching the short, feeling like an idiot, and then watching it again with Peter's commentary. He doesn't always spell out the solution, but he gives some good hints that allow you to appreciate it on its intended philosophical level.

I'll give you just one example without really ruining anything. In the episode "War", we see a bunch of people killing people, getting killed, and more of the same. But there's much more to it than that. What Chung does is play on our fickle sympathies to make us change loyalties over & over. Without noticing, we start out rooting for the black team, then the white team, back to black, white, black, etc. You can surmise what sort of statement he's making about the act of war & society's attitudes. I can't help but wonder if Peter Chung was a fan of the 19th century French writer Maupassant ("Tell the people to vote for the Emperor and they'll vote for the Emperor. Tell the people to vote for the Republic and they'll vote for the Republic.")

Bloody awesome.

Other episodes are more abstract but just as deliberate & defined. In "Tide" we're presented with some seemingly arbitrary, repeating scenes. But actually it's a very carefully orchestrated show. The scenes, each exactly 2 sec long, repeat in a scripted sequence that can only be described as mathematical (or as Peter says in the commentary, "musical").

Bloody bloody awesome.

OK, I'm probably losing some of you, and that's to be expected. After all, what's interesting about political, mathematical & metaphysical themes? The answer: a hot assassin chick in a vinyl bikini with boobs that defy Newton's Laws of Physics, that's what.

What's the word I'm looking for? Oh right: bloody freaking whacktastic awesome.

After the initial 6 shorts comes the Pilot which is also without dialogue and highly expressionistic as well as philosophically jam packed. However when the actual series followed, MTV took more of an active role making changes that weren't always for the best. The biggest change is that the characters speak. Another big change is that Aeon develops more of a consistent personality and morality (unlike in the shorts where she was an Existentialist to the max). Some of the episodes are still very good--the ones written by Peter Chung--but others were given to different writers who didn't have a clear grasp on the artistic concept. The result was more plot driven, linear, humorous at times & random at times. At the same time, some of it became more poetic in a literal sense. In all, a very different flavour but still very enjoyable, even if the episodes aren't the brain-teasers we had seen at first.

That's about all I have to say, so I'll close by saying we need more women dressing up as Aeon Flux at halloween parties. Ladies, if you do that you win hands down. Well except for maybe the green star trek chick.

If you're looking for the series that breaks Japanimation's stranglehold on quality mature cartoons, this is it. Aeon Flux is Peter Chung's twisted brainchild, a fantastic future world where everyone and no one are everything they seem, and more, and less. This is not the series you want if you're looking for easily acceptable doses of comprehensible violence and sex. Aeon Flux attacks your brainpan directly through your optic nerve, inducing afterthought in the brain. If you are ready to go beyond, to enjoy boundary-cracking animation that switches in and out of characterization, plot, action, and even dialogue, then go find this tape. Buy it. You'll thank me later.

First of all I have read the other reviews...these were done by tired no brain idiots who fail to appreciate the HOST of creative subtleties that made this show entirely unique. There is no material-biting , or boring skeletal sketches; everything in the series is done for a reason: these characters are drawn to make you think on a symbolic level, they act to make to you think on a symbolic level, their complicated idiosyncrasies are complicated, and repellent and sensuous at once...you HAVE to watch them more than once, that's why I LOVE them..Peter Chung worked extremely hard to fit so much meaning into so short a time frame. I have never seen anything like this series and likely never will again. One of the best things ever shown on MTV!

Having first seen Aeon Flux as MTV shorts I was instantly captivated, breaking free from the constraints of the "standard" method of story telling, so much is left in the mysterious and unknown, with very imaginative and surreal atmosphere, in some cases one feels like they have just been dropped in the middle of a story with no real explanation of what is going on, its not needed it adds to effect. An interesting format that the heroine is killed off only to be reincarnated in the next short, almost like a video game in some contexts.

This format was eventually abandoned and a more story like series followed, which might lead one to believe that the initial shorts might of been proof of concept or tests? These episodes are very similar in the same surreal atmosphere but with a little more story line and plot driven in to make them more durable.

A highly imaginative animation series that is worth inclusion in anyones collection especially those seeking something a little off the beaten path.

If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows ever made, I would put Aeon Flux at #1. If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows and movies combined, it would end up at #2 (if you read my other comments, you'll notice that I often exalt films that I've seen in a similar top ten list format and that I have said that many films are this high on the list, but that was usually right after seeing it without any retrospect; I have seen every episode of Aeon Flux at least 10 times, so I have the proper retrospect here). It only falls behind Stanley Kubrick's 2001.

Like 2001, Aeon Flux is a mind-bending series that pushed the limits of narrative. As Trevor Goodchild says in the final episode of this series (so far; they've said that they might come back), "End Sinister": "A person from a thousand years ago could never comprehend the world today." Well, Aeon Flux is about 800 years in the future, because one has to see all the episodes several times before they begin to make sense. I like this, because the first few times you can appreciate the art. After you have seen each episode multiple times, you notice how amazingly and originally the narrative is constructed. So don't get angry at the series if you don't understand it initially.

Begin with the more conventional (though that word can hardly describe this television series) episodes. Rent or buy (it is certainly good enough to buy without having seen it before; look at my other comments to see if you agree with my tastes, then go for it if you do) the red cassette (which is also on DVD), and watch the first two episodes, "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything." Then on the Blue Tape, watch "Reraizure," the first episode. Next, go to intermediate episodes, "Isthmus Crypticus," "Ether Drift Theory," "The Demiurge," "Utopia or Deuteronopia," and "End Sinister" (though you may want to save that for the end). Then, for the advanced class, go to the silent episodes on the red and yellow tapes, then see the hardest-to-get episodes "The Purge" and, by far the most mindbending and 2001-like, "Chronophasia." Personally, I like the simple beauty of "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything" best, but "The Purge" and "Chronophasia" will warp your mind for sure. And like I said, don't dismiss them if you don't understand them. Think about each episode as an individual structure and then as a part of the whole. And if you're truly impressed, good luck finding the Aeon Flux book they published, _The Herodotus File_. It will help in your understanding if you have the good luck to find it. Also, another miraculously-produced MTV animated series marvel that you might like if you like this is The Maxx. It can usually be found on the shelf with Anime films, but if not, it can be purchased just as Aeon Flux can. It, if I were to list it along with the greatest television series and films, would be #3.

So please, go get your mind warped today by Aeon Flux and The Maxx!