Tonight I was catching up on
TiVo, watching Sunday's Family Guy when an ad caught my eye. I decided to slow down to normal speed and watch this ad, which turned out to be for an upcoming
Aeon Flux movie.
Wow, I never expected this...
I used to watch Aeon Flux on MTV's Liquid Television - a late night block of anime-style shorts. Sometimes good, sometimes just okay, but always very different. Aeon Flux spun off of Liquid TV into it's own show for a very brief amount of time, and don't loose anything in doing so.
That is tough to do, spin off, but more so with Aeon Flux. Flux never really had a plot, and you never really got the background story. All you knew is Aeon would be tracking someone - you were never really sure if she was for the good guys or bad guys... or even if there was a difference - find them, confront them, and die. Yes, she would die in every episode long before a little kid in an orange coat pulled the same gag. It was also a depressing death too; but I loved it.
So often we as Americans get the ending we want in movies, books, and TV shows. That sells well, and it seems to be what the masses want. Those of us who have crossed over into the anime world are often drawn in by the fact we can never assume the good guy wins, or even if he does win it is really a happy ending. Major characters can be killed off at any point, and no character is safe even if their name appears in the title. Some of my favorite anime series, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, kill off major, well loved characters. I encourage my readers (reader?) to check out one or both of these because the impact of the story telling is far deeper than anything mainstream.
The Aeon Flux movie will suck, I have no doubt. Hollywood will attempt to insert a plot, and Flux will probably live at the end so there is room for a sequel (even though if they were true to the show she would, very violently, die and come back without any explanation). There is hope, a new
DVD set of all Aeon Flux (both Liquid TV shorts and Series) is going to be released soon, and it's not over priced (in anime terms anyway). It looks like there will be some worthwhile extras including some back story into how Aeon Flux came to be and select Liquid TV shorts. This one goes on my XMas List!
Posted By Mike On Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Filed under review anime |
Comments (3)
Daryl
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Wednesday, November 16, 2005
2:15:00 PM
The lack of tidiness is precisely why I enjoy the sorts of books I do (Gaddis, Pynchon, David Foster Wallace). There's not necessarily a cohesive or entirely discernible plot arc, and the books don't necessarily follow convention. One book by DFW ends mid-sentence.
I had seen ads for this movie but had forgotten the cartoon it was based on. Now that I see the image you've posted, I definitely remember the cartoon. I wasn't really allowed to watch MTV as a kid, so I didn't see it that often.
Femi-mommy
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Saturday, November 19, 2005
12:01:00 AM
ya know that psychological quiz where they say "if you were a cartoon character who would you be?" i have always wanted to be aeon fluz
Mike
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Saturday, November 19, 2005
12:34:00 AM
fm... you might wanna have that checked out...
=p
Mike
