Bastard! Avatars

Bastard!! Destructive God of Darkness is a manga by Kazushi Hagiwara. It first appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump, in 1988, and continues to be published irregularly today in Ultra Jump. Currently, it spans 24 volumes.

Kazushi Hagiwara is an enthusiastic fan of heavy metal music and Dungeons & Dragons, using ideas from both of these in the Bastard!! story. Many characters and places in the story, for instance, are named after members of Hagiwara's favorite bands.

In the anime, the six episodes tell of the awakening of Dark Schneider (also called Darsh or Darshu by those who know him well) and his subsequent attempts to destroy his old allies (The Four Lords of Havoc) and take over the world, whilst winning over multiple love interests. Dark Schneider had been imprisoned fifteen years earlier, trapped inside the body of Yoko's friend Lucien following a failed attempt to take over the world. In the meantime, his four generals attempted to resurrect the god Anthrasax, who would bring about an apocalypse and create the Sorcerer's Kingdom from the ashes of the old world. The story takes place in the future, a post-apocalyptic time following the release of Anthrasax at the height of Modern Civilization. Technology is gone and magic has asserted itself as a force in the world. Shortly after the fall of the modern world, demonic creatures began to appear en masse and forced humans to revert to a feudalistic, city-state based society.