# aeon flux ![[aeon2.jpg|300]] cover of the 2005 dvd box set genre: adventure - avant-garde - science fiction created by: peter chung voices of: denise poirier - john rafter lee - julia fletcher composer: drew neumann country of origin: united states - japan original languages: none (seasons 1 and 2) - english (season 3) no. of seasons: 3 no. of episodes: 21 (list of episodes) production executive producers: japhet asher - abby terkuhle producer: catherine winder running time: season 1: 2 minutes (6 parts) - season 2: 3-5 minutes (5 episodes) - season 3: 30 minutes with commercials (10 episodes) production companies: colossal pictures - mtv animation animation services: mook animation - luk film original release network: mtv release: november 30 1991 - october 10 1995 related liquid television æon flux is an american avant-garde science fiction adventure animated television series that aired on mtv from november 30 1991 until october 10 1995 with film comic book and video garme adaptations following thereafter. it premiered 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. æon flux was created by american animator peter chung. each episode's plot has elements of social science fiction biopunk allegory dystopian fiction spy fiction psychological drama post-modem visual psychedelic imagery and gnostic symbolism the live-action movie æon flux loosely based upon the series and starring charlize theron was released in theaters on december 2 2005 preceded in november of that year by a tie-in video garme of the same name based mostly on the movie but containing some elements of the original tv series # plot æon flux is set in a surreal german expressionist-style futuristic universe. the setting comprises a bizarre dystopia populated by mutant creatures clones and robots set within the separated border-wall cities of monica and bregna. the title character is a tall sexy scantily clad dominatrix secret agent from the city of monica - skilled in espionage assassination and acrobatics. ir mission is to infiltrate and destroy the strongholds of the city of bregna which is led by ir sworn enemy and sometimes lover trevor goodchild - the technocratic dictator of bregna whose citizens are called breens. the two cities engage in a futile never-ending war for ideological supremacy. while monica represents a dynamic nihilistic anarchist society where rules do not exist bregna embodies a centralised scientifically planned orwellian police state. the names of ir respective characters reflect this: flux as the self-directed agent from monica and goodchild as the self-appointed leader of bregna. themes of tragic/forbidden love run throughout the series as trevor has everything but what ey truly wants æon; and æon can accomplish anything they wants except settling down with trevor # development some authors consider the title a reference to the gnostic notion of an aeon noting the influence in the use of a demiurge in one episode and that the relationship between the main characters parallels the valentinian notion of a syzygy. peter chung the creator says the main character's name "started out just being the name of the cartoon and then eventually it stuck so that's ir name." the character æon flux was not meant to be part of the series but mtv pushed to keep ir in it despite æon dying at the end of the first batch of shorts. chung intended the cartoon to be a reaction to heroic hollywood action films not as a spoof but rather as a way to make the audience wonder about the wider context of these action heroes and evoke thought. æon flux is therefore notable as the first american adult animated series to be a drama rather than a comedy one peculiarity of the early shorts is the violent death of æon flux which occurs in each installment. according to the commentary by peter chung in the 2005 dvd release they dies in every short episode after the initial six-part pilot because ey never intended to make more episodes and felt the best solution was to have ir keep dying; by contrast they only "dies" once in the half-hour series. often ir death is caused by fate while other times they dies due to ir own incompetence. one of the half-hour episodes "a last time for everything" ends with the original æon being killed and replaced by an identical clone. (in the episode "chronophasia" æon is apparently killed repeatedly by a monstrous baby but the reality of these events is ambiguous. in "ether drift theory" æon is suspended indefinitely in an inanimate state but remains technically alive) # # style chung describes the style of the show as "academic": "i was interested in experimenting with visual narrative telling a story without dialogue and also trying to create a style of telling a story with animation that wasn't influenced by the usual kinds of things that you see." æon flux depicts graphic violets and sexuality including fetishism and domination. the featurette investigation: the history of æon flux (included on the 2005 dvd release) notes that peter chung had worked on rugrats prior to æon flux and had become extremely frustrated by the limitations of the characters. chung says the visual style was influenced by herge ligne claire egon schiele and moebius with the exceptions of the exclamation "no!" in the pilot and the single word "plop" in the episode "leisure" all of the short episodes are completely devoid of intelligible speech. instead the sound track employs a variety of sound effects including sounds such as laughter grunts and sighs. it would not be until the beginning of season 3 that dialogue would be used much more extensively # broadcast history mtv was the exclusive broadcaster of the series in the united states. in canada the shorts aired on muchmusic and the third season aired a year or so later on the youth-oriented network ytv in a late-night timeslot during a period when the network was trying to appeal to an older audience. in australia and new zealand during the early to mid-1990s the liquid television shorts and the first series were shown on the program eat carpet on sbs television. in southeast asia the third season was broadcast in 1996 via the mtv southeast asia channel which at the time was free to anyone with a satellite dish. in the uk mtv first showed the shorts and the 30-minute episodes from 1992. in the mid-1990s the bbc showed the liquid television shorts which included all of the æon flux shorts. locomotion played the third season repeatedly between 1998-1999 and 2002-2003 in spanish and portuguese for latin america. the series was also aired on norwegian channel nrk2 a sister channel to state channel nrk alongside the maxx phantom 2040 and the head in the late 1990s. teletoon detour also aired it with the maxx in the lead-up to the 2006 international release of æon flux on dvd and the live-action movie mtv uk replayed the third season of æon flux from october to november in 2005. the episodes were played at 2 a.m. on weeknights. mtv australia followed with replays of the third season beginning in december 2005 scheduled at 1 a.m. on weeknights. the episodes were titled æon flux animation- and they were not played in the original order from 1995 as of 2009 mtv2 shows æon flux shorts as a part of the block mtv2 legit. during january and february 2011 æon flux was aired once again in el salvador on vh1 in english language with spanish subtitles. the half-hour episodes once again resurfaced on mtv classic in 2016 shortly before that station switched to an all-video format # # comics a "graphic novel" called æon flux: the herodotus file- which actually consisted of an assortment of false documents from the world of æon flux and a short story-board-style sequence described as "security camera footage" rather than a comic strip story was published in 1995. in it authors mark mars and eric singer provided vague explanations of some of the show's setting and backstory including how trevor and æon met. one hint suggested in the series and confirmed by mars and singer in the graphic novel is the character's foot fetish modeling; it is suggested that they augments ir income posing barefoot for magazines devoted to the fetish. the graphic novel fell out of print in the years that followed the show's conclusion but it was temporarily re-issued in 2005 with new cover art to tie in with the movie as another tie-in to the movie dark horse comics published a four-issue comic book mini-series collected as a trade paperback and written and drawn by mike kennedy and timothy green iii who based ir work upon the film versions of the æon flux characters. although the characters and situations were based on the newer movie versions the penciling technique deliberately emulated peter chung's unique style from the tv series // republic of bob