User blog:Red Chevalier/PE Proposal: Hamdo

This is a proposal for Hamdo, one of the craziest villains in all of anime.

What is the work?
Now and Then, Here and There is a 13 episode OVA about a boy named Shu who is transported to another world after trying to save a girl named Lala-Ru from some robots. At first it seems like your typical Isekai but it's actually much more darker than that. The world is next to a dying sun about to go red giant and is in the midst of a severe drought. The dominant power is a militaristic nation located on a floating battleship called Hellywood, who frequently raid the other villages of the world and seek Lala-Ru because she has the potential to restore water to the world with her pendant.

Who is the villain?
Hamdo, the mad king of Hellywood and the one responsible for the entire conflict. Hamdo is a self-centered coward with the temperament of a ten year old who is only concerned with accruing more power for himself. He has an obsession with Lala-Ru, seeking to keep her all to himself and to use her pendant to create a world where everyone bows to him.

What does he do?
Under Hamdo's command, Hellywood's forces raid numerous villages across the world for resources, killing most of the adults in the villages and abducting their remaining inhabitants. The women and female children of the villages Hamdo raids are forced into sex slavery, being given to Hamdo's soldiers as "comfort women" where they face near-constant rape and abuse. The male children meanwhile are drafted into Hellywood's miliary and brainwashed by Hellywood propaganda, being falsely promised that if they fight for Hamdo they will be able to see their parents after the conflict is over (even though it is implied that most of their villages are completely decimated). Hamdo is assisted in his atrocities by his right-hand woman Abelia, with whom his relationship borders on domestic abuse, and Hamdo relies on emotional manipulation of her to keep her loyal to him.

In his debut appearance, Hamdo questions Shu for information on the pendant. As he is explaining his goal to unify the world, Hamdo goes on a psychotic tangent culminating in him grabbing his cat and snapping its neck in a fit of rage. Hamdo has her brought to him only to find she has lost her pendant. When Lala-Ru refuses to answer him, Hamdo goes ballistic on her and starts pulling her hair before restraining her. He then instructs Abelia to go interrogate Shu again and has her beat him, telling her to use whatever means she needs in order to get the information they need out of him. After Shu is beaten with a pistol to the point of passing out, Hamdo only has him let go after he realizes he may not know anything. In a later scene, Hamdo meets with Lala-Ru again and is implied to rape her. The scene cuts out before he actually does anything but it's heavily suggested by his dialogue.

Hamdo honestly commits too many atrocities to list here, but one of his most heinous is what does as his troops are engaged with the enemy. Dissatisfied at his army's efforts to protect him, Hamdo orders Hellywood to fire on the frontlines, not caring that it would kill many of his own troops (many of whom are children, need I remind you).

Heinous Standard
Hamdo is the main villain of NTHT, so he pretty much sets it. Pretty much all of the atrocities that happen happen because of him and his actions are cruel and callous enough to make him a solid Pure Evil in any other work.

Mitigating Factors
While Hamdo preaches about bringing peace to the world, it's rather obvious he only cares about conquering the world and unifying it under him as he has a callous disregard for any life that isn't himself; he was willing to send children out to die for him. His second-in-command is devoted to him but while Hamdo may have once held feelings for her, it's clear Hamdo only cares for her because she is an asset to his rule, as evidenced by his abuse of her. Hamdo has an obsessive lust for Lala-Ru, but it's not an actual love as Hamdo only sees her as a possession that belongs to him and not as a human being, and freaks out whenever she doesn't comply to his every demand.

Final Verdict
If there were ever an anime villain who deserved to be labeled Pure Evil, it's Hamdo.