[.ca] Reign: Conqueror: Box Set

No history lesson from me!:
If you want a history lesson on Alexander the Great, Masedonia, the Greek empire, etc. don't watch this anime. Read a book. However, if you want to watch an interesting anime about a real life person, with a new take on the people, places and events in his life, then Reign is for you! I really like this anime, even though I already had some knowledge about Alexander the Great and knew that a lot of what was going on in the series was incorrect. It didn't bother me that things were changed. (That's simply the case in anime. And people deal with it. I mean, Cowboy Bebop's authors didn't have the theories involved in hyperspace completely accurate, but you don't see anyone saying not to watch the series because the physics are wrong!) I really recommend this as an anime for any anime fan. Like I said though, don't go looking for a history lesson here. Just sit back and enjoy it!

Bloated and boring, Greek style.:
Goodness, what is up in Peter Chung's head? He tends to make his animated works as confusing as possible. Sure, I was too young to have seen his earlier work, 'Aeon Flux', but I have seen 'Matriculated' from the 'Animatrix' DVD, and let me tell you: it was a psychadelic, woozy, "get-high" experience that left me clueless when pondering about the whole point of the story. With "Reign the Conqueror", having Chung collaborated with some Japanese animation powerhouse to make one huge animated project, I don't understand about this one, either. Here's something I do understand about "Reign." A King and a lustful, snake-fetished woman had a child born by the name of Alexander III, or Alexander the Great, and the woman predicted that her son will be king and rule all of the world. Fast forward to 20 years, and the older Alexander the Great is wiser and understands thoroughly on the art of strategy in warfare. After current events that lead him King of some country, he and his allies set forth to other countries to conquer and be recognize for Alexander's ambition, and to find his true destiny sameforth. At first, I though he was some fictonal being like Hercules, but after minor reference checking, Alexander the Great was actually a real person from the Before Christ era, and that his doing actually influence all greeks of today to see him as an inspiration to their country. If so, then why, in perspective on true events, are there big snakes, huge flying contraptions, visual predictions of a future, blade runner-related world, and such unbelieveable stuff that happened in Alexander's world? I don't get it. Maybe the company that made "Reign" wanted a more "retro"-spective version on Alexander's glorious life, but even so, I find the whole idea improbable. The art on "Reign"...well, it really comes down to whether people likes this kind of style or not. For me, I like Chung's art style, and its there in this series. The way he makes the world like an average 80s comic book is cool, and the characters are interesting in a awkward kind of way, while at the same, having a "keen" fashion sense. If I WERE against the style, I would say the characters are very, very "Klasky Csupo" ugly, and even the most prettiest woman of the series, I doubt many boys would go ga-ga over her, even if she's in full frontial nudity. The audio (voice acting, music, sound effects) is good, too, but curiously, why did Tokyopop suddenly decided to replace the entire cast with different people on the second half of the series? As said, this anime is improbable, and worse, it's slow. I thought watching 'Crest of the Stars' was slow, but this anime is Slow with a capital 'S'. There are some standing action scenes in this title, but there's a lot of discussions that can get on my nerves. I don't mind verbal discussions that deal with planning, development, or ideals on the characters, current battles, or approaching future events, as long as it is balanced to any entertainment like action, but here, there's too much verbal discussions going on, and it becomes a total drag afterwards. Another drag is the amount of name-forgetful characters introduced too soon in this series; I had a hard time keeping up with at least three sub-characters in this series. Going through this nail-biting, lingering pacing of "Reign", I expect some compensation through this patience ordeal, and sadly, it didn't deliver. An anime that's based on a famous conqueror and adding that with the surreal and supernatural, while contributing philosophies may sound cool by first thought, but looking at this, there's too much stuff going on in this series, and in the end, I find it irrelevant and just plain disposable. Sorry, Alex, I rather stay out of this long session of Greek History 101!

Art does not have be rational...:
Yes, Reign has many, many inaccuracies. But isn't that to be expected, in a work of FICTION? Doesn't the box warn you that this is a 20th century Sci-Fi spin on the true story of Alexander the Great? And after all the research I've done since seeing this series, I can tell you most of the inaccuracies were interentional, and probably could not have been executed without knowing what actually did happen, and in great detail. I'm rather convinced that it is not intended to be an alltogether accurate interpretation of the story of Alexander. I was originally drawn to this series because I love Peter Chung's art style, having been addicted to Aeon Flux during its run on MTV. I'm actually rather fond of the naked leg look. I'd like to point out that the characters are wearing cod pieces, not thongs. Also, keep in mind that in ancient Greece armor did show a lot of skin. And Alexander's (battle) armor looks plenty Greek to me, by the way. In fact, if this were an accurate adaption we'd be seeing a lot more man skin than we already are. As I was doing research, I was amazed at how much of what was real and really happened was changed and apadted. Ever chracter in the series was based a real person, though their roles might have been changed. Even Cassandra, who wasn't a real person, was at least based on a real figure (one of Alexander's generals, Cassander, though he was not any relation to Aristotle). I quite frankly think that Alexander's personality could not be more accurately expressed. They did an encredible job portraying who he was, and what drove him. I also liked how they used his mother's very real claim that he was indeed of divine blood, that Zeus was his father, taking it one step further and turning it into a prophecy of destruction. And I think that was far cooler way from Philip to loose his eye than in some battle. I'd like to mention, as well, that there was, indeed a Pythagorian cult. No, they weren't freaky supernatural assassins bent on destroying Alexander, but they did exist. Frankly, I love this series, and am a bit disappointed to see no sign of an American release of the theatrical movie. I recommend this title, though not to the squeemish or immature. Latent (and historically accurate) homoerotic themes, violence (though not exceedingly gory), some "curtousy" breasts (I'm not explaining that term- those familiar with anime should know what it means), and a plot that adults can barely understand are just some of the "no kiddies" signs. :)

An artsy thirteen episode original:
Reign the Conqueror is one of my all-time favorites. It's art style, story and music make it a good by for anime fans looking for something a little less repetitive and of a better quality than the avrage anime series. With original and interesting characters this short but content packed series is a great idea for people looking for something different, even withing anime. I recommend that you try this one out.

Absolutely spectacular!:
I am a great admireror of Alexander the Great. I know much about his life- both history and lore. I, though, was not absolutely depressed about this anime. You could tell that Peter Chung did not try to make an anime about Alexander the Great, but an artistic expression based on Alexander the Great. ONe thing that often ticks me is when someone trys to make something exactly based on a historical figure, and they end up ignoring history anyways. But Reign was awesome! It took Alexander and put him in a different time and place. The art and creativity of the feature is spectacular. In a way, this anime continues a tradition with Alexander stories. Throughout history, Alexander was written about, but things were changed- facts, settings, times, events, appearances, and even race. This continues that.