The Kingdoms of Ruin

 A new series that launched in this fall season, Kingdoms of Ruin is a fantasy series so that picked my intrest from the get-go.

Even including it in my MAL Fall anime league, where it did rather well compared to lot of my other choices...

Hunamity has flourished with magic for ages, gifted by the witches to help mankind.  But with changing times, the scientific Gear Expansion has made both obsolete.  The mighty Redia Empire has began liberating humanity from what they see the blight that magic is, by eradicating all the witches they find.

Adonis was still a kid when the witchhunt began, and apprentice to one he loved dearly.  But when she perishes at the hand of the Empire, he vows revenge (be aware, this scene is BRUTAL).  He is held in captivity with many other young people, until one day a jailbreak occurs and he escapes from the iron maiden he was kept in.  He takes along the girl that set him free, Doroka, after he runs into her again as he attacks the city.  But she is shot by Eekhout, a special agent out to hunt Adonis.  

The witch is killed by Eekhout, bringing Adonis into a serious rage.  He uses total overkill to slay Eekhout, and many soldiers are killed by his spells.   The Bureau of Security wants to employ a device that dampens magical powers, but the Bureau of Science tries to stop vice-director Yuki for doing so, as it has serious aftereffects on regular humans.  But Yuki never the less activates it, suppressing Adonis magic briefly, and allowing the soldiers to decapitate him.  While a sick president gives his winning speech, a school girl has grown enamoured by the late Adonis, but Oz, an investigator, receives a call from Charmy his assistant that Adonis's body is a fake.

Adonis has been saved by the witches, with a witch called Anna, who was the actual soldier that "killed" him using a duplication spell.  He is brought to Lunamilia, a moonbase where the Nation of Witches now resides in a plan to ressurect Chloe.  But as he learns more abouth both the witches and Chloe, he confides in Anna that he knows they want Chloe back as she is the only one that can make quills like his, and use her to build an army of human apprentices like himself.

Out of love for her, he changes the ressurection ritual, bringing back the young witch that saved his life instead, Doroka.  Human forces led by Bureau of Security's director Yamato invade the dome, as the ressurection tree is burning preventing any future witches to be born.  Adonis engages Yamato, as the witches, including their leader madam Ophelia, are being decimated by human troops.  Doroka saves him through a love spell, but Adonis slaughters Yamato and the soldiers.  On Earth, the queen is revealed to be miss Dorothea, a dimensional witch that had the emperor under her control, and having him played out his part makes him commit suicide.

Returning to Earth using Yamato's teleport device, they change the coordinates to prevent capture and end up in the desert.  Gravely wounded, Adonis tells Doroka his reasons for his drive for revenge.  Saved by the bikers of a certain mr Punch, who in the days long gone had been saved by Chloe and Adonis, they are recovering and concede to each other's viewpoints, starting off on their journey together.  Dorothea is crowned the new ruler of Redia in that time, succeeding her late husband.

Arriving in the fallen pleasure city of Mamuta, they are chased by two assassins from the Suzune empire.  But director Shirougasi confronts those first, swiftly beheading them, before engaging Doroka and Adonis.  By working together, they seemed to have had a chance, but are quickly overpowered by the cyborg director, and he gouges out Doroka's eyes.  This pushes Adonis into a rage, and he asks Doroka to cast her love spell, Knight Fall, on him, unlocking his full potential.  Using the mightiest spell he learned from Chloe, a blizzard of immense size that reaches the absolute zero and freezes Shirougasi to a crisp... but not after Adonis vows he will take the Queen's sight as well in payment for what he did to Doroka.

Well, if you thought Erin Yaeger or Lelouch Lamprouge where anti-heroes, wait until you run into Adonis.  The down side of this series was the sudden more comical relief episodes in the second half, and Doroka changing from an idealist to a love-struck puppy in them.  Another thing was that some villains and characters had been staged up, only to have them killed off within half an episode.  These things for me make it dwindle from the grandeur of the first episodes to an above average series in the middle, though it ends strong again.

Now to hope a second season will be made...