Ranked #3616

Reign: The Conqueror

Every once in a while, an anime tries to break the mold with their approach and art style. Sometimes, this works out swimmingly, and you get a great, fresh anime like Kaiba. Other times, an anime tries to break the mold but comes out worse for it. Reign is not only a complete dud but something that manages to fail on almost every single level of basic entertainment.

The first thing people can't help but notice is the show's art style. The art is not very Japanese at all, and somewhat reminiscent of Aeon Flux. I might've been able to tolerate it, had they used it better. Sure, all of the characters are painfully ugly, but did they have to be mostly naked on top of that? In no scene during the anime do Alexander or Darius wear pants. Everyone in Reign is allergic to pants, and so I have to stare and some dude's butt or codpiece in every scene.

The plot itself is really hard to get into, because it's just a series of pointless battles interwoven with pseudo-philosophical dialogue. There's ultimately little reason to cheer for Alexander's selfish conquest, and the sub-plot revolving around Aristotle's search for a mystical object called the Platohedron seems equally uninteresting.

The characters are extremely flat and almost impossible to relate to. Alexander seems to have no identifiable personality. He only issues orders to keep fighting and frequently boasts about his love for "speed." You shall be my "speed." We can't win because we don't have "speed." Always with the speed. His mother is generically crazy. His best friend is generically paranoid. Darius, the supposed antagonist of the series, doesn't do anything to show he's more evil than Alexander is. He's just a king minding his own business, and Alexander invades *his* land. The viewer might ask himself, "Why am I supposed to be pulling for Alexander to beat Darius?" I watched the whole thing, and I don't know the answer either.

Perhaps the worst aspect of Reign, however, might actually be the soundtrack. The OP consists of little more than background noise. The in-show music that pops up during dramatic scenes and battles sounds like awful techno that some sixth grader whipped up on his PC while learning how to use the music program. Every tune associated with Reign is completely nauseating.

If you're a glutton for terrible, awful anime, then Reign is the perfect show for you. For people who want to find something entertaining, stay far away. Reign belong somewhere on every "Worst anime of all time" list. read more