Alexander Senki

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.

Reign the Conqueror was one of the few shows on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block I never had a chance of seeing in its entirety over a decade ago. Being a loose take on portraying the life of famous Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, Reign adds in supernatural elements, steampunk and influential philosophers of the time period to explore the struggles of Alexander coming to grips with his destiny to conquer the known world. The anime features Alexander gathering allies, conquering various parts of Europe and Asia and trying to make sense of the supposed destiny he has had since birth where he would lead ... the world to its destruction with his attempts to conquer all known lands.

The major elements that make this series stick out for quality are its excellent integration of metaphysical themes and ancient philosophical figures that were renowned around Alexander's time that influence his conquests throughout the course of the series. Alexander is blessed with a high degree of luck and charisma in his conquests that gets explained as being influenced by the fate bestowed upon him by an ancient artifact capable of algorithmic manipulation of reality that he seeks out in later episodes of the series to find meaning to his supposed destiny. This makes his existence threatening to several cults influenced by differing philosophical schools of thought who attempt to assassinate Alexander throughout the course of the series and influential Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Diogenes serve to either guide or hinder Alexander's quest to conquer countries and come to terms with the supposed destiny he has. The assumptions of Alexander's destiny made by many throughout the course of the series are not what one would assume on the surface, which is hinted to at points earlier in the series and the title's finale. On top of the show's creators shown to have done well in their research of Greek philosophy and supernatural lore for their spin on Alexander's life, they also make their own unique takes to major feats that Alexander accomplishes such as his taming of the wild horse Bucephalus, his encounter with Diogenes and his cutting of the Gordian Knot. These nice touches make the exploits of Alexander's character for this adaptation of the series all the more pleasing to see unfold.

When it comes to other characters in this series though, the series is a mixed bag in their focus on them. Some characters get enough focus to have defined personalities and developments that show what beliefs or loyalties they have that lead them to either be loyal or opposed to Alexander's pursuits. Others that have major roles in the series are either quite underdeveloped or shallow in their characters that make them difficult to connect with. The series also appears to have been left open-ended as Alexander is still alive and well following his journey in the title's finale, yet is still intent on pressing forward with his quest to conquer the known world. However, I think this might have been intentional by the show's creators since the series was more about Alexander trying to come to terms with himself instead of an actual focus of his entire life.

The presentation for this series certainly sticks out from standard anime fare. The character and setting designs for Reign the Conqueror were done by Korean-American animator Peter Chung, whom some folks may recognize as the animated talent behind the American animated cult hit Aeon Flux. On the plus side, many character designs are drawn to be quite lifelike with realistic details for muscle tone and facial features, settings that are faithful to their intended historical settings with occasional elements of steampunk tossed in for technologies employed, subdued color tones that make for a nice touch to the dark mood this series gives off and decent use of CG animation for some of the complex animations seen in the series such as a glimpse of the universe seen when Alexander enters the barrel hut of Diogenes, armies marching and the elaborate "world of destruction" seen in the finale of the series.

On the bad end, many of the major characters in this series (mostly the men) sport very revealing attire like tight thongs, shirts that expose midriff and formal attire that look like women's bathing suits that give the series somewhat of a homo-erotic feel and are obviously not faithful to Alexander's time period. Plus outside of the CG animation, the hand-drawn animation to this is mostly subpar with animation shortcuts and tricks employed to give off a sense of fluid animation that doesn't look convincing in many instances.

The soundtrack to the series sports tense and dark insert tracks that do their part to compliment the serious mood of this series, though don't particularly stick out. The original opening song for Reign ("Anata no Kiss wo Oshiemasho ~You Were Mine~") sports an upbeat, optimistic mood and lyrics that go against the intended mood this series wishes to give off. Yet in a occasional case where changes done by an American distributor are done for the better with a series, Tokyopop created a new opening song for their English dub of the series ("Worthy of your Soul") that sports a melancholic mood and lyrics that both better accompany the feel of Reign.

Overall, I'm actually fairly surprised with this series. I was expecting a dud thanks to much of the negative reception that this series received from anime fans. But I think this reception was exaggerated thanks to Reign's attempts to be different from the norm. Granted, the homo-erotic attire of the characters will turn away some fans and there are a number of characters I felt could have been better developed. But the series does do well at integrating supernatural lore and unique spins on major elements of Alexander's conquests of the known world. It's not perfect, but I think the reputation of this series as a supposed dud is greatly exaggerated.

Overview:

Today, I am reviewing the worst anime ever to make it stateside on to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim! Yes, it is worse than Super Milk Chan. Don't even ask. Someone...Someone out there actually thought that this steaming pile of goat shit would be a success. Adult Swim passed on airing shows like Spice and Wolf, Mushishi, Baccano, and Higurashi. What did we get? Fucking Alexander Senki! Although it was realeased in the US under the laughably cheesy title: Reign the Conquerer.

Plot and characters:

This show takes the epic battles of ancient Greece and tries to recreate them into a gritty action comic with very little focus ... on realism or actual history. The main character is Alexander the Great of Macedon, who is far more effiminate here than in the Oliver Stone film. This Alexander makes Colin Farrel's Alexander look like the toughest, baddest motherfucker to ever live. In addition, none of the characters have any real personality or anything that makes them stick out, besides their spectacularly metrosexual wardrobes. Alexander Senki desperately wanted to emulate Frank Miller's comic 300, but fails so god damn hard it isn't even worth laughing at. Instead it just pisses me off that Adult Swim skipped over so many infinitely better titles to bring us this garbage! Alexander Senki also tries to throw in philosophy and existentialist themes, but not since Mars of Destruction has an anime's writing looked so pretentious or so plainly awful! I poked a bit of fun at Evangelion for being a tad pretentious at times, but Evangelion's writing is literally GOD compared to Alexander Senki!


Art and Music:

I don't think I can even comment on the soundtrack because the art is so bad I can't focus on anything else. Everyone has different tastes when it comes to art and everyone will encounter a certain style that puts them off for whatever reason. Personally, I was never able to get into One Piece back when it came stateside because I couldn't stand the art. Alexander's art is so unspeakably bad that it makes One Piece look like it was drawn and animated by Rembrandt, da Vinci, and El Greco.

Overall: 1/10

I hope that no one outside of the US had the unfortune of having to ever set eyes on this abomination and blatant affront to basic fucking decency.

If you're like me and stumbled across some weird Alexander the Great anime from the late 90's with a bizarre art style and no reviews above a 7, you'd feel an instantaneous need to watch it for yourself, if only so that you could mystify your friends with your ability to find weird shows with ridiculous premises. As someone who has gone through this and come out the other side with a smile on my face, I feel a need to rectify this and give this show the recognition it deserves.

If you're looking for something historically accurate, you've come to the wrong place. Alexander Senki ... roughly follows Alexander the Great's ascension to the throne and his conquests throughout the ancient world whilst being hunted by various wizard cult members. The strange dichotomy between obvious fiction and romanticised reality gives the whole experience a sense of surreality, emphasised by the unconventional art style. The art gives the world a unique sense of identity, in that it combines strange, technology-drenched architecture in hypercolour with angular, almost jagged faces. Whilst I can understand that it may throw some people off, I feel it is key to the quality of the show and is thus almost unparalleled (if only because no-one is game enough to have such a potentially controversial artstyle).

The music choice is reflective of the art design, in that it combines upbeat, heroic tunes with offbeat synthesised ones. Watching the sub, the choice of voice actors seemed suitable. I did however dive into the dub for one episode, where the voice acting ranged from uninspired to downright infuriating (looking at you, Zoroastrians). So if you're tossing up the two, I would recommend the sub. Speaking of criticisms, there are some bits of repeated animation, but these are usually some of the better animated sections and it isn't too egregious.

I really enjoyed this show. Whilst it isn't for everyone, it certainly doesn't deserve the 5.78 average it had at the time of writing. Take a chance and give it a go - it might surprise you.

Alexander Senki is a deceptively complex narrative that draws its ideas from sources of the ancient world. Serving as an obliquely futuristic take on the legend of Alexander the Great, the main idea is that the conflict between passion and reason leads humanity to question the nature of what we call 'civilization'.

The series contains stylistic depictions of numerous famous names from the time of classical Greece. It also depicts the archetypal feud between Plato and Socrates, a battle of essence versus existence. Alexander is fated to bring the death of the world, but Socrates says 'Is there not death without rebirth?'

Historical purists may be ... turned away from the cyberpunk aesthetics, but it serves a purpose of making an unfamiliar setting more palpable to a late night anime audience. Personally, I was rather giddy at the portrayal of Diogenes the mad hermit as a Yoda-like figure (English Dub). Which is to say honestly one of the few high points of the English dub.

Alexander Senki enjoys a kind of artistic freedom that no longer exists in the anime industry - where lolis and cliché tropes of tsun-yan-whatever-dere and pastiche art style and comedy attempts are actively shoved in every production. It brings forth the magnificent art of Peter Chung, using slender and sculptural bodies that mix the German expressionist style of Egon Schiele with the sensual style of fashion designers of the 60’s like Antonio Lopez and Gregory Weir-Quiton. The costumes, always giving emphasis to erogenous areas, combined with thick eyelashes, voluptuous lips and exposed, always hard, nipples, are a mark of his character design that you may ... know from his previous animation work Æon Flux. The use of extravagant make up and androgynous figurines also looks very inspired by 60’s and 70’s avant-garde dance and theater troupes like The Living Theater, John Vaccaro’s Play House of the Ridiculous and The Cockettes, that were direct inspiration for the Glam Rock visuals of David Bowie and others. As for colors, background and vehicle design, those you could easily see on the pages of Metal Hurlant, as Chung himself proclaims his influence by Moebius, Enki Bilal and French comics artists. Had Chung also directed the anime, I’m sure Alexander’s relation with characters like his mother Olympias, Hephastion, Cassandra and Darius III would have been way more interesting. He’d probably have used the character of Bagoas as well, and made Cassandra’s gender-bending (the real historical character is Cassander, a man) part of the story.

For the historical part it adds a lot of fantastical and mystical elements, not just god’s prophecies but secret cults and sects plotting in the background. Still, it’s very delightful seeing all those important real names of History like Aristotle, Diogenes, Ptolemy, Plato and Pythagoras and their relations. Alexander Senki doesn’t pretend to be a documentary; it’s a fantastical dramatization, but on its way it tells the real epic of Alexander and his conquest.

This is not an anime for the average anime fan, though, but for fans of art and history.

My first review on this site and it's purely out of protest to the extremely negative reviews of this series. It's a one-of-a-kind series that will shake the foundation of your understanding of anime.

21 years ago, on the 15th September if 1999, a supergroup of Japanese anime creators gave birth to Alexander Senki. Instinctively you would say that this is not a 90's show, but something that was created in the 80's. The colours, (character) designs and score are a terrific blend of old school awesomeness and originality. I watched a lot of anime and there are only a few that really stuck out. ... This show has the same ingredients. The storyline writes itself like an ancient Greek odyssey and it never got to that point that it felt dull, repetitive or in danger of losing its originality.

Yes, it's not a 'historical' anime (it's a sci-fi/fantasy with strong space opera elements) and the men are either half-naked or mostly naked (so are the women in this show). Is this something that can be perceived as extremely negative that deserves an overall score of 3 or less? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, it supports the overall originality in this show and it doesn't shy away from taboo subjects.

For those who have reviewed this show extremely negatively; please give it a second run. You might be surprised. For those who are thinking about watching this show, but whose expectations are extremely low because of the reviews; don't stop at the first episode.

Just came across _Reign: The Conqueror_ in a list of bad anime - didn't recognize it until suddenly the awful memories flooded in. The fundamental problem with _Reign_ was that it was bad enough to be bad, but the makers didn't push it up the 2 or 3 notches that would have made it interesting enough to compensate (think something like _Gurren Lagann_: if it wimped out partway through, it'd be awful, but because it pushed through to the extremes, it winds up being great). That leaves _Reign_ as just mind-breakingly awful.