One-a-day : Peter Chung - Æon Flux (1992-1995)

Since I am writing an essay about Peter Chung I just couldn’t share one of my favorite his works. It is called Æon Flux and it is an avant-garde science fiction animated television series from the USA that aired on MTV. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show as a six-part serial of short films, followed in 1992 by five individual short episodes. In 1995, a season of ten half-hour episodes aired as a stand-alone series, rated TV-MA. Æon Flux is set in a bizarre, dystopian future world. The title character is a tall, leather-clad secret agent from the nation of Monica, skilled in assassination and acrobatics. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-lover Trevor Goodchild. Monica apparently represents a dynamic anarchist society, while Bregna embodies a centralized, scientifically planned state—referred to on one occasion as a republic by Goodchild. The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic leader of Bregna. The visual style of Æon Flux was deeply influenced by the figurative paintings and drawings of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele. Other key influences on Æon Flux can be found in Japanese anime (especially grittier fare like Akira), and European comic works such as the work of Moebius (particularly in lineforms, color palettes, and figure characterizations). Æon Flux is often erroneously classified as an anime series. Graphic violence and sexuality, including fetishism and domination, are frequently depicted. In the featurette Investigation: The History of Æon Flux (included on the 2005 DVD release), Peter Chung says the visual style also was influenced by the limitations of the animated series Rugrats, which he worked on prior to Æon Flux and found highly frustrating in the limitations of what the characters could do. This is the prehistory of what we have now in MTV and Nickelodeon and that perfectness of bizarre 90’s oldschool style is intelligently injected into this animation. What made Aeon Flux so remarkable was the creativity Chung brought to the writing to show how there are no good guys in war. He broke all the rules of the traditional protagonist narrative, replacing it with a kind of "baton pass" narrative where a hero from each faction takes over as the protagonist after he/she kills their predecessor. Nobody had ever thought of doing anything like this before or since.