History YMMV / AeonFlux

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Peter Chung believes so.
-->"For me, a degree of ambiguity, or mystery, is the key ingredient of any artistic statement."

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In "Ether Drift Theory", a new character with a very [[MultiArmedAndDangerous interesting]] [[DanceBattler design]] is introduced as Trevor's bodyguard and a possible WorthyOpponent to [=Æon=] Flux. [[WeHardlyKnewYe No sooner than two seconds later]], [[AntiClimaxBoss she is taken out by a swarm of bees,]] and never seen or referred to again.

%%* TheWoobie: Sybil from "Thanatophobia".

* InferredHolocaust: At the end of the film, [[spoiler: people who have lived 400 years within Bregna decide to leave the city for the untamed jungle. And even with fertility reoccurring, there is no guarantee that everyone of child-bearing age is fertile. (In fact, it was only about 20 women in the whole city who had become pregnant in Goodchild's sample group.)]]

* UncannyValley: It may be the art style, but [=Æon's=] character design looks less sexy and more ''dangerously'' anorexic these days. You will also see things like a character with fingers where her toes should be, another with a spine that is capable of twisting around gates and a GrossUpCloseUp of people [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking eating cabbages]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In ''"Ether Drift Theory"'', a new character with a very [[MultiArmedAndDangerous interesting]] [[DanceBattler design]] is introduced as Trevor's bodyguard and a possible WorthyOpponent to [=Æon=] Flux. [[WeHardlyKnewYe No sooner than two seconds later]], [[AntiClimaxBoss she is taken out by a swarm of bees,]] and never seen or referred to again.

* HardToAdaptWork: While the movie is not well-liked among fans of the show, the entire format of the show makes it hard to see what the filmmakers really could have done with it. The show has very little plot, not a lot more characterization, and doesn’t lend itself to a feature-length format. That’s not to say there was nothing the filmmakers could have done better, but there was a good reason this time for the continued low quality of live-action adaptations.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Animator Takeshi Koike, best known for his animation work on Afro Samurai's Pilot, and director of the likes of ''Anime/RedLine'' and the ''Anime/LupinTheThird'' [[Anime/GravestoneOfDaisukeJigen animated]] [[Anime/GoemonIshikawasSprayOfBlood movie]] [[Anime/FujikoMinesLie trilogy]], was a key animator in this series.

* SpiritualAdaptation: The talkie episodes strongly resemble an AnimatedAdaptation of ''Literature/TheCorneliusChronicles'', with [=Æon=] and Trevor as {{Gender Flip}}ped versions of Jerry Cornelius and Miss Brunner.

* TheWoobie: Sybil from "Thanatophobia".

* WhatAnIdiot:
** There are quite a few moments in the show, but a big one is [=Æon=] attempting to do acrobatics on a plane in flight... which causes her to fall to her death, something which she lampshades by giving herself a FacePalm.
*** Also when [=Æon=] keeps trying to look through her binoculars on two men trying to pull something from a cliff, not noticing the rope around her neck as she use the train tracks bridge to swing to safety. She's quickly strangled to death just as we were about to see what the two men were pulling.
** Trevor can come across as this as well, often leaving gaping holes in his security that [=Æon=] and others have taken advantage of over and over again, that could easily get him killed if [=Æon=] was more competent. With that said: Who makes [[AirVentEscape air vents in a prison that are big enough for a person to walk through]], with poor lighting along the patrol corridors that allows for easy concealment in the shadows?

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: In ''"Ether Drift Theory"'', a new character with a very [[MultiArmedAndDangerous interesting]] [[DanceBattler design]] is introduced as Trevor's bodyguard and a possible WorthyOpponent to [=Æon=] Flux. [[WeHardlyKnewYe No sooner than two seconds later]], [[AntiClimaxBoss she is taken out by a swarm of bees,]] and never seen or referred to again. [[MindScrew What the?!]] Though knowing this series, it's probably intentional.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some fans have theorized that the main characters might actually suffer from schizophrenia, hence their behaviour about wanting to achieve their missions and kill each other one moment, and fraternizing and bedding each other the next.

** The talkie shorts have several very different portrayals on the morality and competence of its two main characters. The [=Æon=] on "Isthmus Crypticus" and "Thanatophobia" is moral up to a point, for while she very much indeed partakes in her anarchistic terrorism she goes to great lengths to help others she perceives as being manipulated or trapped. Meanwhile the [=Æon=] on "Utopia or Deutoronopia?" is intensely amoral and has no real objectives besides screwing with Trevor. Trevor, too, can go from a justifiable Tyrant ("Utopia or Deuteranotopia?") to an egotistical idiot obsessed with control ("Isthmus Crypticus"). Whether or not either is driven by sincere belief on order or chaos and see their counterparts as mere playthings or whether everything they do is part of their BDSM-ish game is, as well, changing constantly between episodes.

*** Somebody whose conflict with the "hero" is basically just an elaborate BDSM roleplay.

** The talkie shorts have several very different portrayals on the morality and competence of its two main characters. The Aeon on "Isthmus Crypticus" and "Thanatophobia" is moral up to a point, for while she very much indeed partays in her anarchistic terrorism she goes to lenght to help others she perceives as being manipulated or trapped. Meanwhile the Aeon on "Utopia or Deutoronopia?" is intensely amoral and has no real objectives besides screwing with Trevor. Trevor, too, can go from a justifiable Tyrant ("Utopia or Deuteranotopia?") to an egotystical idiot obsessed with control ("Isthmus Crypticus"). Whether or not either is driven by sincere belief on order or chaos and see their counterparts as mere playthings or whether everything they do is part of their BDSM-ish game is, as well, changing constantly between episodes.

** There are quite a few moments in the show, but a big one is [=Æon=] attempting to do acrobatics on a plane in flight ''(which causes her to fall to her death, something which she lampshades by giving herself a FacePalm)''.

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilChancellor Vice Chairman Oren Goodchild]] is the traitorous younger brother of Chairman Trevor Goodchild and the BigBad. Oren and Trevor rule a society that was rendered sterile by a vaccine Trevor used to save humanity from a virus 400 years in the past, cloning people and faking pregnancies to hide the sterility from the public. While Trevor intends to find a cure for the infertility, Oren wants to remain an immortal dictator, even as each new generation of clones suffer from increasingly worse nightmares. Ruthless about keeping power, Oren feeds information to a resistance group in the hopes they will assassinate his brother, staging a coup to become Chairman when the attempt fails; and kills every woman who becomes naturally pregnant.

** There are quite a few moments in the show, but two that stand out are: [=Æon=] attempting to do acrobatics on a plane in flight ''(which causes her to fall to her death, something which she lampshades by giving herself a FacePalm)'', and Sybil attempting to escape Bregna through a passage that Trevor was already aware of ''(and even says so a few scenes before)'', which results in her losing both of her legs when the latter places traps there.

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilChancellor Vice Chairman Oren Goodchild]] is the [[DragonInChief traitorous younger brother]] of Chairman Trevor Goodchild. Oren and Trevor rule a society that was rendered sterile by a vaccine Trevor used to save humanity from a virus 400 years in the past, cloning people and faking pregnancies to hide the sterility from the public. While Trevor intends to find a cure for the infertility, Oren wants to remain an immortal dictator, even as each new generation of clones suffer from increasingly worse nightmares. Ruthless about keeping power, Oren feeds information to a resistance group in the hopes they will assassinate his brother, staging a coup to become Chairman when the attempt fails; and kills every woman who becomes naturally pregnant.

* LoveItOrHateIt: The show will grasp you in one of two ways: It's either an artistic and philosophical foray in animation with an interesting ambiguity of morals, or an ugly, pretentious mess that makes no sense. In the case of the latter, it really doesn't help that not even the creators know what actually happened in "Chronophasia".

* SpiritualAdaptation: In the talkie episodes, [=Æon=] and Trevor are pretty much {{Gender Flip}}ped versions of Jerry Cornelius and Miss Brunner from ''Literature/TheCorneliusChronicles''.