Hametsu no Oukoku

First two episodes were like a strong 7/10, maybe even an 8. The hook is really there and you wanna see how this epic revenge story pans out. But unfortunately the overall quality and writing just falls off one cliff after another. Every. Passing. Episode. The animation gets awful the last half of the season and they essentially just keep throwing dark themed plot twists and blood fiestas in your face for the sake of it, hoping it will be enough keep the viewers interested. Sadly it doesn't, at least not for me because if you keep trying to plot twist your way out ofevery given scene, the fact that a twist is coming will even that eventually become predictable. It's such a shame because the premise is actually good, the world seems well thought out and interesting and I somewhere genuinely like this kind of character dynamic between two main characters. One drowning in hatred and cynism, the other kind hearted and hopeful to the point of being very naive. (Almost Naruto and Sasuke'esq) With proper development I was looking forward to them eventually meeting somewhere in the middle or just one proving the other wrong. But not now when it's apparent the writing just isn't there, at ALL. If you're not picky about well paced story or character development, writing that makes sense or animation quality, you might actually still find it enjoyable though.

While not without its flaws, Hametsu no Oukoku was one of my favourite shows of Fall 2023 and the year as a whole. A really good dark fantasy story with an interesting world. But, it’s not for everyone. Many of you will have seen clips of the first episode of Hametsu on YouTube, IG or another social media platform and for good reason, it’s insane. It is one of the most infuriating and emotionally gripping premieres I’ve seen in a long time. The tragic ending sets up what promised to be one of the more entertaining revenge quests in recent anime. Does it live up tothat first episode? Well, yes and no. Hametsu does indeed follow through on giving us an MC who just goes absolutely insane and tries to kill everyone in his path which I loved. We have so many cardboard cutout MCs that you could pickup and drop into another series and not notice a thing. So it’s nice to get an MC who doesn’t subscribe to the traditional moral high ground stuff. Adonis says, you know what, you take my girl, I take your world. Sadly, that only went so far in the anime. Adonis being the disciple of a witch as a human and not a witch himself makes for an interesting situation. While he has access to many spells that only the witches would normally, he’s still a human and has to work within those confines. He’s got some very powerful magic, but he’s limited with the extent he can use it. It’s a cool way to make him strong, but not overly powerful to the point where the story isn’t fun anymore. The main complaint you’ll hear about the story is that what starts off as an interesting revenge story turns into a more slower “boring” fantasy story. Now, in truth, that’s not entirely wrong. After about the halfway point in the series, Adonis gets a travel companion and things slow down quite a bit. While he’s still an edge lord, there isn’t as much plot development. There’s a few episodes dedicated entirely to character relationship building, world building and dialogue. This is not a bad thing to me for a couple of reasons. 1: in a long running story, there’s always going to be lulls in the story where characters have to actually develop. Otherwise this would just be God of War where Adonis goes full Kratos killing everyone without speaking or actually thinking. Which, for some people might be appealing, but I like my stories with a little more substance at this point in life. 2:I really like Doroka and her relationship with Adonis. While her being a damsel in distress can be a little annoying but at times, she’s cute as hell and helps Adonis to see there’s more to life than just his quest for revenge. If their relationship were not in the story, it would be substantially worse off in my opinion. But if constant action is your thing and you just want pure unadulterated rage, this one isn’t for you. Now while I do unabashedly love this show, it’s not without its flaws. My biggest issues here are the production values being pretty subpar to bad depending on the scene, and frequent use of sexual assault or sexual assault bait to create villains. I’ll clarify what I mean by that in a second. First, I’ll clarify the production value situation. There’s quite a few action scenes in this that look really bad. Like amateurish. Particularly the big fight in episodes 10-11 which is meant to be one of the more hype moments of the series, yet it’s marred by animation errors, stiff animation and more. I mean at one point, the studio doesn’t even draw Doroka consistently. She’s wearing stockings in one scene and the next she’s bare legged. Not to mention how bad Adonis looked floating through the air against the antagonist’s flying hand attacks. It’s kind of odd because the art and designs look amazing, but that was lacking. Following up on the near sexual assault point, there’s several times in the show where villains rip the clothes off female characters for seemingly no other reason other than humiliating them. I mean we as the audience don’t even get to see any semblance of an anime tiddy during these scenes, so it just begs the question what was even the point? It’s always been one of my pet peeves when SA or stuff similar to that is used to make viewers dislike a villain. I think it’s cheap and overdone. From what I’ve heard this is somewhat of a recurring theme in the manga too, which I own but have not yet read, so keep that in mind. It’s not a massive deal, but it did irk me a little. My overall experience with Hametsu was positive. It’s not a show for everyone, it does at times feel like an edgy teenager is writing it, but I like edgy. It’s enjoyable to me and opens up some cool possibilities with storytelling. While we only briefly touched the surface of it in the anime, I believe this world and its characters have a lot of potential. It’s really only a matter of how far the author’s mind lets him go. I look forward to finding out. Hametsu gets 8, out of 10.

The Kingdoms of Ruin - Extreme hatred built on nonsense logic that perverses the idea of justice, but it being "so bad it's good" to play the bad guy and get some mind-numbing satisfaction due to it being over-the-top edgy? I highly question the "novel" concept. When was the last time we had an extremely over-the-top gory and violent series filled with extreme hatred to the point of nepotism? For many, the classic series of Lynn Okamoto's Elfen Lied would come to mind, being the Summer 2004 anime that would, for one, grow to be infamous for its violent mess of gore, cruelty, and nudity. Evenafter 20 years, its effect on AniManga can still be felt for millennia as a cult favourite, inspiring many others like Ryukishi07's Higurashi franchise and Sakae Esuno's Mirai Nikki a.k.a Future Diary to name a few. Well, for one prolific author who goes by the name of yoruhashi, he/she thought otherwise to create something that would capture the attention of those reading the one and only work that would get people riled up in a frenzy: Hametsu no Oukoku a.k.a The Kingdoms of Ruin. The work that is unapologetic to its vulgar themes of gore and violence will definitely make one feel VERY uncomfortable and disgusted from its premise alone, from the typical war between entities to pure genocide. Side note: This is actually the sequel to the unknown prequel series "The Kingdom of Caliburn", in which some of the characters in this series had more prominent roles there, which spans 175 chapters. How does both series link to each other? Read on to find out. In a dystopian world where God created humans and witches, the latter were more advanced thanks to their magic, which is used to help people and maintain prosperity between the two entities. However, with the rapid advance in technology akin to the Industrial Revolution, the human Redia Empire took control and immediately declared that the witches were rendered obsolete, ordering the assassination of all witches with no plea for mercy. And for one such witch by the name of Chloe, she raised a human apprentice by the name of Adonis, who is still taught the old world's tradition that humans and witches live together in harmony. But the reality could not be farther from the truth, for soon Adonis learned about the Empire's ruthless killings of witches, Chloe included, as she is stripped and humiliated before the humans before meeting her cruel death. That sent Adonis into a rage, and with the magic that he learned from Chloe, the capture by the Redia Empire unleashed his rage, though it would not take until sometime in the future that someone would coincidentally get him to escape from the Empire to enter a revenge party against humanity. You can already tell that everything about this show is not meant to be likeable. From the outset, the characters are all either a bunch of pure-hearted and naïve, or set for disaster with their heart-filled egos, trying to fulfil what's best for the people and for themselves. Let's start with Adonis, the pure-hearted human who still wishes for reconciliation between humans and witches; that objective was long gone with the public execution of his teacher Chloe. With his magic pen, which was the last gift given from her, that is the human apprentice's only tool to invoke magic against anyone who is in direct conflict with his interests. The revenge-filled heart has no remorse or any hope because reality is shoved in your face, and that's Adonis's reason for living — to ensure that he only gets the last laugh. Needless to say, there will be at least a comrade alongside him who wants to make her own live count as well, and that is the witch Doroka. Like young Adonis before his world thinking was tarnished, Doroka is nothing more than just the typical witch, sold for the Redia Empire's slavery and got saved due to perchance, only to unconsciously release Adonis from his stranglehold. But her character development is definitely one of the most bizarre I have seen in anime this far, going from the kind-nurtured girl to one who has no conception of reality, even in the face of cruelty, and Adonis acting as the antithesis of the world. It's certainly frustrating to see Doroka act the way she does, always being the damsel-in-distress for Adonis to save her, apart from being a burden just by her presence alone. That said, apart from the other human profiles ranging from the Redia Empire's nobility to the side profiles of the witches, the most prominent from the Empire's leader of Emperor Goethe to the Queen's helper of Shirousagi (whose relationship is the most "show, don't tell" subtlest of all), the link between both Caliburn and Ruins is quite the fascination and interest that while this is just side cheddar as opposed to Ruins, nonetheless, here it is, and take this information as you will about Doroka: In every universe, there will always be a Witch of Love, and a Witch Disciple (like Chloe/Doroka and Adonis). And in the Kingdom of Caliburn, Dorothea and Alfred have to defeat the Queen (which is another Witch of Love from a different timeline). Unfortunately, they were defeated, and she cut Alfred's head to revive her Witch Disciple (her lover in that timeline). That is also the reason for Dorothea to come to the timeline of The Kingdom of Ruin; the purpose is to revive Alfred in her timeline by killing Adonis, but I guess there are requirements that are not mentioned anywhere because she could have killed him long ago. Basically, it is a cycle. The Witch of Love from this timeline will lose her lover and eventually go to another timeline to save him. Former Date A Live director Keitarou Motonaga may not have the best track record when it comes to directing shows (see studio A-CAT shows of Winter 2021's Soukou Musume Senki a.k.a LBX Girls, and Winter 2022's Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja a.k.a She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man), but for par of the course, he has done the adaptation justice with the minimum of his resources, the most glaring aspect being the rather subpar production by Yokohama Animation Lab. Despite all of the issues, from censorship to iffy animation, partially faulted by the manga's depiction of its violent nature, it looks decent to a palpable degree...provided that you can bear through the anime's repulsive nature. The music itself is easily the best part of the anime, given its depressive nature akin to a genocide state that sees deaths as common influxes of daily life. Most particularly, Hana Hope's OP has the mystical feeling of hope at the beginning until it hits the chorus, where everything just drops the ball to full-on melancholic misery. And Who-Ya Extended's ED song "Prayer", I just could not think of a better song to express all of the regret and rage that Adonis felt while losing Chloe, then pursuing revenge as his full-time job to eradicate humanity, or anyone that does not lean to his philosophy. I for sure did not think that the ED song would become one of my favourite songs of this season, because depressive songs, ironically enough, make for banger songs (listen to Enen no Shouboutai's Season 1, 1st Cour's ED song of Keina Suda's veil as a great example). Latom. At the end of the day, you and I both know that Hametsu no Oukoku a.k.a The Kingdoms of Ruin is a trash/garbage-tier shit anime/series, let's not kid ourselves. But I'd like to think that for as much as Elfen Lied had done the same to break my heart and soul watching something as gut-wrenching, this show has surprisingly done the same for me. You can treat my review like a bludgeoning troll, but to me, experiencing this show has been a sorrowful, but engrossing, yet "entertaining" ride like a Highway to Hell...or appropriately, a Crimson Skies of the High Road to Revenge's memory burn that I will never, EVER, forget.

Im still confused as to why they did 12 episodes instead of doing a movie. I wasted my time on this anime. First episode was like damn! From the second to the tenth episode it just went donwhill, and when the climax arrives in the final two episodes I just wanted it to end. We get animes like this because Chat GPT is out. The story did not make sense. A bunch of scenes put out together and call it an anime. I have to comment about the art to make this review, but it makes me more angry that I have to writeabout this poor anime. Review Checklist Art: Ok Characters: Cringey Story: Chat GPT wrote it If you watch good anime please do yourself a favor and skip this.

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