Reign: The Conqueror is a Japanese anime first released in 1999 under the title
Alexander Senki. It was released in English by
Tokyopop in 2003, and aired on [
adult swim] and Showtime Beyond. The series was a re-imagination of the life of Alexander the Great based on the novel of the same name by Hiroshi Aramata. Character and setting design for the show was conceived by Peter Chung, the Korean-American animator who created
Ĉon Flux.
This series provides examples of:
- A God Am I: Alexander
- Awful Truth: For Aristotle, when he looks inside the Platohedron and discovers the most powerful force in the universe is not reason but passion. As a Greek philosopher, this is the total antithesis of everything he's ever believed and taught.
- The Beautiful Elite: Just about all of Alexander's group of friends, but he takes the cake.
- Cool Horse: Bucephalus, which also doubles as Hellish Horse.
- Cutting the Knot: The Ur Example — animated.
- Cyber Punk
- Doomed by Canon: Everyone.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: Alexander on one hand, Aristotle on the other. This is important.
- Mr. Fanservice: Most of the main guys.
- Face Death with Dignity: Phillipas and Philotas.
- Fanservice: Mostly for the girls.
- Fan Disservice: Any scene featuring Olympias and the oracle.
- Fetish Fuel: The outfits.
- Five-Man Band:
- Gadgeteer Genius: Aristotle and Dinocrates.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Olympias
- Historical Beauty Update: Well, if they actually made the characters look anything at all like they should in reality, then they probably would have to draw them in realistic outfits too. So where's the fun in that?
- Ho Yay: Alexander and Hephaestion
- MacGuffin: The Platohedron.
- McNinja: The shapeshifting assassins of the Pythagorean Cult who attempt to take Alexander's life throughout the series.
- Nightmare Fuel: The Caibeiros ceremony.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Olympias.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Olympias.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Diogenes
- Prophecy Twist: Throughout the entire series, Alexander struggles with the prophecy that he will be the one to destroy the world. Diogenes teaches him that it might count if he destroys it to rebuild it in a new image. In the end, he looks at a young child named Euclid writing geometric formulas in the sand, and declares that he's seeing "the world [he] destroyed being made anew."
- Recycled In Space: Clearly fits this in respect to the history involved.
- The Scape Goat: Philotas
- Self-Made Orphan: Alexander allows an assassin to take the life of his father — after very visibly stopping a much more obvious assassination attempt.
- Shout Out: Talks like Yoda, Diogenes does.
- Stripperific: One of the few male instances of a Chain Mail Bikini. Because apparently the only thing you need to protect in battle is your nipples and crotch.
- Worthy Opponent: Darius III and Alexander to each other.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Haphaestion
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