The Kingdoms of Ruin has ended each episode with a rousing cliffhanger, and the last episode ended with the witch’s apprentice Adonis (Kaito Ishikawa), our lead character, dead. Based on the manga created and illustrated by yoruhashi, director Keitaro Motonaga and the Yokohama Animation Lab have paced the series exquisitely. There is no calm, even when there is empathy, and from start to finish, you’re locked in to see what happens next. Now, in The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4, “The Nation of Witches,” Adonis is alive, and so are the witches that the Redia Empire claims to have exterminated.
A human revived by magic, Adonis finds himself surrounded by witches in an idyllic world. In pain, yes, but alive with memories of the Ice Witch Chloe playing in his mind. Duplication Magic: Death Cancel. Adonis’s savior is Anna, a witch who infiltrated the concentration camp with Doroka, and she confirms resurrecting Chloe Morgan is a part of their plan.
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It would be really easy for The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 to fall into fanservice. A lone human male surrounded by women witches—the harem tropes write themselves. But while the series doesn’t shy away from illustrating women in the expected anime way, Adonis is a comrade, a fighter, and a supporter of the nation of witches that he has entered. Greeted by and celebrated by the Witch of Revelation Ophelia Clementine, Adonis has more questions than they have answers.
These women know Chloe, and while she was his mentor, it’s clear that she was also revered among them, She left only because of her love for Adonis, choosing to teach him magic and go against their kind’s rules. But when Ophelia speaks about Chloe, it’s with regret for not allowing her to stay. Sequestered on Lunamilia, separated from Earth and the Redia Empire, the nation of witches is safe, but cut off from the world below that they
were created to protect. As Adonis moves throughout the base, Ophelia describes the way that humans were corrupted by science, constantly reaching for more, which ultimately led to hating the witches. The opposite of love, she says, is absolutely hate, and the witches are the target. But instead of feeling moved, Adonis is a void of apathy for everyone but Chloe.
Adonis is truly unlikable. His callousness and selfish view of the world make it hard to root for him. His writing makes him focused on one issue and removes any sort of thankfulness toward the witches and Anna who saved his life. He is selfish in the highest order, but right when I start to turn on him as a protagonist, we see his past through flashbacks of his time with Chloe. There, you see him youthful and loving, and then you remember that when Doroka gave her life to free him, he was a prisoner for a decade, held in a machine and isolated from the world after watching his teacher—his family—executed in front of him to a cheering crowd. And I get it.
What could have been a unification where a hero picks up his cause outside of himself turns into an affirmation that Adonis is selfish. He does not have respect for magic. He has a respect for Chloe. Adonis doesn’t want to save Witchkind. He wants to resurrect Chloe. By his own admission, he lives for Chloe. The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 shows Adonis’s brutish behavior and his inability to see beyond his own path. While he is choosing to help the nation of witches bring Chloe back by imbuing a witch growing on the Mito tree with his memories of her, he isn’t doing it to save them.
The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 is filled with lore and development of the world that we’re asked to buy into. It explains where Witches come from, it introduces us to Lunamilia and space travel existing in this series, and ultimately it lays the groundwork without ever feeling bogged down. Instead, the series again expertly uses its runtime to build up the audience to Adonis using his written magic to bring Chloe back from the dead. And then, right on the cusp of success, it does something different.
A master of the misdirect and cliffhanger, The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 does it all again, and yet, it doesn’t get old. Instead, it pulls you in and gets you ready for Episode 5 when it airs next week.
The Kingdoms of Ruin Season 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 — "The Nation of Witches"
TL;DR
A master of the misdirect and cliffhanger, The Kingdoms of Ruin Episode 4 does it all again, and yet, it doesn’t get old. Instead, it pulls you in and gets you ready for Episode 5 when it airs next week.
