Kingdom of Chaos: Born to Kill

At long last, another orphan project completed! In this case, it's a four-part OVA from 2003-2004, Kingdom of Chaos: Born to Kill. It is based on an online browser game, Kingdom of Chaos: Spectral Force the Universe. The first two episodes were subbed by Anime-Blitz twenty years ago; then nothing. Orphan is pleased to bring you the complete series.

Reactions to the show have been mixed. The author of The Land of Obscusion blog quite liked it and called it the best of the Idea Factory shows. On the other hand, the translation checker/translator wrote, "I don't think I've ever seen a show whose ambitions were so disparate with its budget. It fits the bill of 'too big for its boots' perfectly." YMMV.

Kingdom of Chaos is set in the mythical continent of Neverland. Fract, the Generalissimo/Leader of the Nazi-like nation of Bjor, has conquered more than half the continent. He now has his eyes set on the agricultural nation of Orthozes, which had resisted conquest once before. Opposing Fract are an outnumbered army of knights and a ragtag band of mercenaries. The latter include an enigmatic stranger, Aide, who has lost his memory; a former Crimson Knight, Mara, who is disillusioned with her regiment; and an immensely strong beast-man, Dino, who is fighting to protect what remains of his family.

The mercenaries discover that Aide bears an uncanny resemblance to Fract. They formulate an audacious plan to utilize Aide's appearance in order to slip into Fract's camp and assassinate him. However, they do not realize that all of them are caught up in the even more outrageous plan of a powerful demon, Mugen (Infinite), to punish Fract for his misdeeds in this life, and the next... forever.

When I first edited the show, I found the visuals very off-putting. The palate is drear, the lighting is dark. A lot of CGI is used, and it's pretty obvious. The DVDs are letterboxed, so a lot of screen real estate is lost. But the lack of budget forces the show to concentrate on the mercenaries, their backstories, and their interactions. I found that quite interesting, and I liked the show better when I watched it during release checking..

A few notes:

• The lengthy prologue, repeated in all four episodes, states that Fract had tried to conquer Orthozes at the start of his career but had failed. As the story makes clear, it was Fract's father who tried and failed. Fract was strongly motivated by a desire to succeed where his father did not.
• Fract's title in Japanese is soutou, which can be translated as leader, supreme commander, generalissimo, or fuhrer. I've used generalissimo throughout.
• In the fourth episode, the demon introduces himself by saying "I am infinite." Mugen means infinite in Japanese, so it may be his name, his attribute, or both.
• The website for the game, shown in the title sequence, has vanished. Not even the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has any of it.

The voice cast is small; the show is basically a three-hander (Mara, Dino, Aide/Fract).

• Suwabe Junichi (Aide/Fract) played Bonten in Amatsuki and Jae-ha in Akatsuki no Yona, both Orphan releases. He also played the titles roles in Cuticle Detective Inaba and Space Dandy, Fuuma in the later X properties, Archer in the Fate Stay/Night franchise, Ren in the Uta no Prince-sama franchise, Yaichirou in Uchouten Kazoku, Worick in Gangsta, and Hayama in the Shokugeki no Souma franchise.
• Nakai Kazuya (Dino) played Zapp Renfro in Kekkai Sensen, Ryuuji in the Ao no Exorcist franchise, Date Masamune in the Sengoku Basara franchise, Shizuki in the xxxHoLiC franchise, Zoro in One Piece, Hijikata in Gintama, Mugen in Samurai Champloo, and Moses Sandor in Tales of Legendia.
• Matsuoka Yuki (Mara) played Senoo Aoki in the Ojamajo Doremi franchise, Ayumu in Azumanga Daioh, Kanaka in Shigofumi, Evangeline in the Mahou Sensei Negima franchise, Lisa in Girls Bravo, Nana in Elfen Lied, and Inoue in the Bleach franchise.
• Shimomura Tomoharu (Mugen) appeared in Air Master and Sakura Taisen.
• Shindou Naomi (Leo, a ragamuffin who recruits Aide) had featured roles in Mai Hime, No Game, No Life, Appleseed XIII, Asobi ni Ikuyo, Driland, and Gaiking. She played Rappi in Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen SC and Hiroki's Grandmother in Chuck Shimezou, both Orphan releases.
• Mannaka Yukiko (Kanon, Fract's squeeze) appeared in Scrapped Princess and Green Green.
• Hirotsu Yukiko (Dino's daughter) appeared in Air Master and Blue Drop.
  
• Ryuutani Osamu (narrator) appeared in Air Master and Persona 4.
• Saitou Kimiko (Cerona, Mara's former commander) played the title role in Snack Basue, Rem in Death Note, Marie in Dimension W, Sofia in Golden Kamuy, Muugi in Made in Abyss, Micchan in Migi & Dali, and Chieko in Princess Jellyfish.
  

The director, Katou Taisuke, also directed RUN=DIM, Generation of Chaos Next, and Kingdom of Chaos The Universe.

This project actually started as a result of a comment in the blog post for Nayuta. (Yes, boys and girls, I do read your comments, but don't expect any more requests to be filled.) I thought that finding a good set of raws might encourage someone (else) to finish the project. An anonymous friend found the ISOs, and a different anonymous friend encoded them. The result was published as an Orphan-raw. Then, Perevodildo took an interest in the show. techdamage transcribed the old fansubs for the first two episodes. Perevodildo checked them and translated the last two. He timed all four episodes. I edited and typeset (not much). Topper3000 and Uchuu QCed. The release includes 16 (!) untranslated extras and promos, all of them about the game rather than the OVA itself.

So Orphan has finished another orphan series, and it feels pretty... pretty good! Whether Kingdom of Chaos itself deserves that label is up to you, Dear Reader. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net.