Reviews for Kingdom

I've always been a bit puzzled as to why Kingdom isn't any more popular on this site. Despite having been publishing on a consistent weekly basis for nearly a decade by now, and despite being one of the highest rated manga on MAL, I still essentially never see anyone talk about it. It almost feels like people aren't even aware that it exists. I think this is very unfortunate, because they're missing out on what is perhaps the most inspirational manga I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The story takes place during the Chinese Warring States period. After a full 500 years of constant warfarebetween the various states of China, the bloodshed still shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. It is here our story begins with a young man named Shin who has the naïve dream of becoming the greatest general in all of China. After accidentally becoming involved in a conflict over the royal throne of the state of Qin, he eventually ends up serving under the new young king who has the ambition to one day unite all of China under one banner.

As a result, Kingdom is a manga of epic proportions, containing large scale warfare with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, advanced military strategizing and incredible intensity. The battles are long and complicated, but perfectly understandable as the author's style of writing is extremely detailed and also utilizes tons of tactical maps, overviews and time jumps to explain the flow of combat. It's intelligent but without requiring much from the reader in order to keep up with the plot.

At the same time Kingdom also has extremely in-depth national politics and diplomacy between nations, further enhancing the overall sense of realism. Speaking of which, it should be stated that the manga is in fact based on true events and characters from Chinese history. Of course it's only loosely based on it as the historical records only dictate *what* happens, but the author is the one who decides *how* it happens. In other words he manages to create a story which is perhaps exaggeratedly epic, yet still never contradicts the actual true events.

The best part of Kingdom however is undoubtedly the characters. The story covers many years of time, and thus you get to see how everyone gradually grows and evolves over the course of time in very high detail. There are hundreds and hundreds of notable figures in the story, consisting of generals, commanders, soldiers, civilians, politicians, royalty and more. Especially the main military figures are superbly written, with incredible charisma and all with their own individual traits. The vast majority of them are almost impossible to dislike, regardless of which state they may come from. The amount of color they bring to the battlefield simply cannot be understated, and it feels like they're not just raising the morale of their respective soldiers in the manga itself, but the morale of the readers as well. At the same time, some of the death scenes in this manga are some of the most tragic and emotional death scenes I've ever seen in media. When one of your favorite characters passes away, you will truly feel it. Furthermore, the sheer amount of inspirational and downright moving speeches throughout the course of Kingdom is simply astonishing. The author truly knows how to touch the hearts of the readers with the way he's written the story. I really cannot praise him enough for it.

The art is extremely high detail and helps to amplify the level of intensity of the story. Especially the armies and the battlefields look simply fantastic and sometimes it makes you feel like you're really there. While it may not exactly be on the level of something like Berserk in terms of visuals, it's still more than enough to appropriately showcase the cold and harsh reality of the field of battle, and deliver that atmosphere to the readers first-hand.

Kingdom has some very long arcs occasionally during the more drawn-out battles, and I'll just say here and now that when you're in one of those segments, it's effectively impossible to stop reading it. Why? Because every single chapter ends in a huge cliffhanger! This is one of those stories which just keeps teasing you and forces you to keep reading the next chapter. And the next one. And the next one. And the- ...you get the idea. Point being that despite it having over 400 chapters published at the time of writing this, you can still easily read through all of it in just a few days, no problem whatsoever. It's just *that* addictive once you start.

Overall, in my eyes Kingdom is a manga which seriously needs more attention. I'm still not sure exactly why so few people have read it, but I really wish more people would give it a chance because it truly is one of the most influential and impressive manga out there. It stands out as a very atypical manga to begin with, but above all it is exceedingly rare for a story to be so action-packed, so intelligent yet so incredibly emotional all at the same time.

The community for this manga isn't very active on here so I thought I'd do my bit and promote this manga by writing the first review. The story itself isn't novel, it starts off normally in a cliché manner with two war orphans who dream of becoming the greatest generals in all of China. The appeal of this series isn't due to originality but more to do with the investment you feel with the characters. There are a number of characters that have been introduced so far and had their pasts explained in some detail. This is definitely a series where a lot of focushas been placed on character development and this aids immensely with the story telling. Each arc that goes by sees not only the main character mature and develop but it also provides an opportunity for other characters to be put under scrutiny and more information about them to be brought to the fore.

This is a manga about a kid who wants to become the greatest general in all of China and so as you would expect the theme of battle is heavily prevalent throughout. These battles are fascinating to read about and there is a large amount of strategy involved which always keeps you on your toes regarding the outcome and the direction the story will turn. This isn't just a case of one overpowered enemy beating another and through some magic the character suddenly powers up like a typical Shounen title but the characters have to earn their stripes. The battles are where the personalities of each character really shine.

Of course one has to suspend a certain amount of belief when reading any such title as you would constantly think that how would such and such survive in this situation but then by the same token reality is often stranger than fiction and I would say one of the reasons I really like this manga is that it is a lot more realistic and believable although exaggerated at times.

The pacing of the story is done well and each chapter so far has been good value. This series is extremely solid in that the story told might not be original but the way is fantastic for the genre.

The story and characters can only be put to life through the artwork, and I have to say that the artwork for this is very very good. Everything is drawn extremely well and cleanly, battles (which a lot of the manga is focused around) are extremely enjoyable to read and there is absolutely no issue understanding what is going on from panel to panel. This is the highest compliment I can pay to any series as this is my biggest problem with a lot of other manga with difficult if not impossible to follow battle scenes which really detract from the overall experience.

I really quite like the art style of the author with realistic character drawings, really cool drawings of large battles and a good range of characters with variations.

I'm really excited about this series going forward as the character development, the potential direction the story is going to go in and the upcoming battles all leave me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter in anticipation.

This reminds me heavily of Feng Shen Ji although that is more the fantasy route but I became addicted as soon after a few chapters in and this has become one of my favourite series which I am always checking on updates for.

This is definitely one of those series that just needs a bit more publicity and thoroughly deserves it's high rating on here.

So, this is the first review for me so some things may not sound as good as the ones you've seen! The community for the Kingdom manga isn't that big at all and I hope it can expand with a bit more hype! Story: 9/10 As you've probably read the synopsis for the Kingdom manga already, you've realized it sounds simple and not as enticing, but you're completely wrong! Kingdom completely expands then blows away those expectations you had for the manga in general. The story consists of multiple Chinese based wars and a shifts in internal politics and in which each war playsan important role for the progression of the story which is critical in this manga. This manga also brings no irrelevant factors in anything such as "Power ups" or "Shonen like features", this is a near realistic manga that relies on real old war tactics in order to succeed,but the author mixes those tactics with a new kind of complex offensive tactics that will highly surprise you! Though there may be a bit of supernatural features, it actually makes complete sense in the plot and even creates conflicts once those "supernatural beings" appear. As you know already it's a war-based manga set in the Warring States Period,and as in war there will be great casualties on one side or both. Major will happen and I won't explain it here due to spoilers.

Characters: 9/10

The characters in Kingdom are amazing! Most characters and mainly the main characters in Kingdom and especially the big name generals past or present have very good character development and has their own goal for the future no matter what opposition is in there way. Also, it doesn't matter who it is in the 7 states of China, by the time you're updated, you're going too love either at least more then one general, main characters, commanders, diplomatic's, nobles, supernatural beings or outside oppositions. Multiple characters in Kingdom have there own sort of personality that doesn't fully bloom unless they're in the mist of battle no matter if it's strength, strategy or character development or internal conflicts itself, but at the end of the war itself, it feels like they've grown more. Also, each state of China has very diverse generals and men that are under them no matter who it is, they bring up difficult melee battles or strategic battles that are fairly interesting! Also, the author bases most characters from Kingdom from actual famous Chinese generals from the 7 States Warring Period dynasty of Chinese's history, but adds a little "flavor" to a wide variety of characters that change there way of thinking during wars and proceed boundaries outside the box.

Art: 10/10

The art in Kingdom has actually one of the best art I've seen. It's completely clean and detailed which is highly essential for a manga like this. Once you start reading and continuously start to get addicted, you'll notice the art becomes very detailed which I highly guarantee you you'll be shocked at how much time and effort Yasu puts into this manga. The art for the individual decisive battles is also what makes Kingdom so diverse and gives it to be an amazing manga!

Enjoyment: 10/10

I fully enjoy this manga to the point that it actually gets me hyped for the next chapters which only a certain amount of manga's can do to me right now. Kingdom brings a very interesting way of enjoyment through what the characters do themselves and bring excitement to the story before they begin huge battles with the voices of what the generals, commanders and the king of Qin which raises everybody's morale's astonishingly high!

Overall: 9/10

Overall, Kingdom is a phenomenal manga that needs actually needs to get way more hype! This manga brings almost every variety of elements a manga can do and smoothly impress us beyond boundaries. I've also been updated on Kingdom for a good amount of time and I rarely see any bad criticism to this manga which is pretty rare considering everybody has different sorts of tastes. Now that you're done reading this review, GO READ KINGDOM NOW BRO!

EDIT: Made some edits on this review.

Kingdom is a series that people like to hype up these days and indeed has a great premise of ancient Chinese warfare that harkens back to wide spanning stories such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, its poor presentation and repetitive nature causes it to be about as impressive as a second-rate Shonen. Now, it certainly isn't an absolutely terrible series (though it being rated a 5 and not a 1 should make that obvious). It seems to have some semblance of war strategies and some of the supporting characters do develop as the story goes on to some extent. The main complaint of the series'execution lies intertwined with both its plot and characters, or more specifically, its main character. Xin is a terrible protagonist as not only is his personality and motivation a typical hotheaded youth wanting to be the best in the likes of Naruto, but the plot armour provided to him is insane for a series that attempts to pass itself off as a historical piece. Not only does Xin outperform and defeat skilled assassins without much real experience, but doesn't even do it through actual tactics and instead just by shouting and overcoming his opponent through willpower as in any run of the mill Shonen. This practically betrays any engaging premise the series could hold as the attempts at strategies and the support characters' roles are made meaningless when the climax of several major battles focus on a kid overcoming challenges by himself without any thought put into it.

It also doesn't help that many of the support characters seem overly interested in Xin's actions or potential without much reason to do so, such as Wang Yi practically entrusting his legacy to him for typical passing the torch reasons within coming of age stories or the young girl having romantic feelings for someone so dense it took them over a hundred chapters to realise they were female.

Now, I can't fully say if the quality has improved since I dropped this work almost 300 chapters in, but if a series takes that long to become more than a typical Shonen in more than explicit content, there's no real reason to view it in any worthwhile light. Yes, some series take a while to get good, but over 300 chapters in is more than pushing the limit.

To get to the point, Kingdom gives too much of a focus to its protagonist and his Naruto-esque lack of logic to the point it heavily damages the series' overall quality. Overall, this series that is supposedly praised for its genius is one with such a lack of logic revolving around the centrepiece that it could be insulting to my intelligence.

If wanting a good manga about Ancient Chinese warfare with genius strategies and very little plot armour, read Sangokushi or most Romance of the Three Kingdoms adaptions in general (particularly the 2010 live action series Three Kingdoms) or if wanting a period drama with memorable and well written characters, watch Rose of Versailles.

Overall ranking - 5/10 mediocrity

I was confused after seeing that the manga "Kingdom" didn't have that many reviews, considering that it is ranked in the top 10 manga on MAL; hence the review, as it deserves more attention. The title of the manga does not seem interesting at first glance, which is a shame, as it actually is much more intriguing. Kingdom is a military seinen manga, based on true historical recordings, enhanced with a lot of action and drama. ~Story~ The story itself appears to be generic and nothing new at first glance - an orphan,young boy called Xin, who aspires to become a great general, meets the young emperorPiao. This is of course not as simple as it sounds: military conquests, political strive, drama and death will be the fate of these two protagonists. The narration is well presented, gradually improving as the story progresses, while at the same time managing to introduce suspense as well as enabling the reader to immerse himself in the story. The pacing of the story is slow, at times, but improves over time. Readers may find the beginning of the narrative slow, as the author dedicates it to explore the motives of the characters, as well developing them; nevertheless, the reader will be rewarded with a good and well paced story, progressively becoming more interesting as it continues.

This applies to the battles that take place too: these don't only consist of raw fighting. It is bundled together with clever warfare. These are explained very well, which gives a good insight on how warfare was executed in that period. The clever narration together with the military strategies gives a feeling of realism. However, there is a problem involved with the military warfare. Important figures such as generals or the main characters are ridiculously overpowered, often making strategies on the battle fields pointless, partially destroying the realistic touch it created. Nevertheless, battles not involving these were well executed.

The story is not entirely focused upon the main characters. Through background stories of other characters, it manages to maintain the reader interested, as well as building and showing the world of current China. When Kingdom isn't focused on military warfare, it presents slice of life moments. One lacking aspect was that it didn't focus on developing characters.

~Characters~

The cast of Kingdom is big, but the reader is introduced to a handful characters in the beginning; however, as the story develops, a lot of characters are introduced as wars extend to a larger scale. This leads to a problem; a big amount of characters lack depth and are a bit generic. This does not mean that all of them are uninteresting, as for example the emperor or other secondary characters have quite an interesting background, which makes it possible to understand the decisions and motivations of the characters.

Taking as example Xin, who wants to be the greatest general of all China. This character is the usual shonen stereotype, hard-working, dumb, and ridiculously overpowered when it comes to very dear situations with power ups without too much training. This breaks the gradual character development I personally like to see, besides of loosing credibility. Nevertheless, this didn't bother me that much, as the story already since the beginning hinted at this.

As for the secondary characters, back ground stories would have been desireable in order to understand their actions and motivations. For example, the "enemies" of the protagonists are shallow, and have no real purpose other than being the enemy. Most of them are suggested to be very famous; more information on the why and how they were so famous would be enticing as well. This will probably be explained later on, but this remains yet to be seen.

~Art~

Let me begin by saying that the art of the characters at first glance are not that appealing; however, I found it a very nice change to the current design of characters of the current mangas, which are all very similar.

The art style fits really well with the era in which it takes place: The era of warring states. The style does not evolve significantly over time, but the way how combat scenes are drawn does. One thing I liked are the angles at which the scenes were drawn: this gave a good insight on the magnitude of the battle, as well as making it more interesting for the reader.

Backgrounds, when drawn, are well done and at times spectacular. nevertheless, there is often a lack of backgrounds on scenes and panels, which would be desirable to fill that white void. However, this doesn't hinder the story.

~Enjoyment~

After finishing the anime, it left me intrigued on how the story continued; however, I began reading it from the beginning in order to not miss a single thing, and I must say, it was very well worth it. I generally like reading military/historical mangas, and so far I must say Kingdom is one of the best I have read so far. From the impressive story, the epic battles with clever explained military strategy to the different and outstanding art, as well as the amount of characters that were presented, Kingdom is definitely one of my favourite mangas.

So if you are interested in military/historical mangas, want a change on the other mangas that are out there, or even just want to enjoy very well drawn battles with the story of how Xin becomes a general, I can definitely recommend Kingdom. Don't expect deep political battles, in that case it is recommendable to read The Ravages of Time.

Thank you for reading.

Kingdom is a particularly difficult Manga for me to talk about, because much of what I think of it stands in stark opposition to what it claims itself to be. Kingdom is a story for peace; it is a story that knows how horrible wars are, it is a story that is much about the importance of human connection, of seeing the value of even the smallest, most meagre man within an army of tens of thousands. Yet it is also a story that turns the violence of battle into simple entertainment, that shows fields of war as the sole domain of certain individuals who,from high up on their horses, dictate the flow of life and death and all that lies between. Kingdom shows us events of immeasurable cruelty and looks at us to tell us that this is war, that this is the suffering that must be prevented, yet it is this cruelty that never touches a single character.

What makes this story so difficult to discuss for me is the degree to which it is either unaware of its own contents or how it lies about the beliefs it holds and ideas it conveys. For this reason alone, this review will be split into two parts. Usually, I like to base my writing on a central through line, most commonly this takes the form of the message a work leaves me with, but this is not a foundation on which I can discuss Kingdom in a balanced manner. Though I do not particularly like this Manga, unlike its author, I want to give the subject I am writing about a good look, as free from bias as possible. Because of this, there will be a first part solely concerned with Kingdom’s ability to entertain and function as a self-contained story and piece of art, while this review’s second part will be solely concerned with the ideas propagated in Kingdom, their ideological and political implications, and why I believe them to be reason enough for you not to read this Manga.

Part 1. Kingdom The Entertainer

Over the course of its more than fifteen thousand pages, Kingdom manages to construct a narrative that grows and grows smoothly and cohesively. At no point, reading this Manga, was I ever left with a feeling that a chapter betrayed what came before, that the author somewhere messed up in their planning or that the carefully built-up structure of interlocking events and arcs even slightly drifted apart. If there is one thing that I find worthy of praise here beyond all else, it is the standard of quality kept throughout every single one of those hundreds of chapters and thousands of pages. Never once does Kingdom dip below some standard of quality you would expect from it, but in reverse, Kingdom also rarely exceeds expectations. While this story most definitely has narrative high points and arcs that are better than others, if you finish the first 170 chapters of this Manga, roughly equivalent to the anime’s first season, you will have seen the heights this story sores to, and this is a high point it manages to reach quiet consistently close to a dozen times over the course of its long runtime. That being said, you will not find it exceeding this point; you will see story arcs that more densely contain the same high points with less downtime in between, but the peaks this story contains are all kept under the same ceiling. I do not wish to talk about this too much, as this ceiling I am referring to is largely based on Kingdom’s ideological failings and will thus be discussed in part two, but there is an aspect of this that I want to talk about here, and that is the narrative side of messaging within media.

A story always says something; a narrative conclusion always entails a solution that is sold as functional or dysfunctional, and in this regard, the narrative structure of Kingdom is one that bleeds into itself, as there is never an elevation out of the known into territory that feels even remotely new. Story Arcs throughout Kingdom move on much the same ground; this is even figuratively the case, you will rarely find visual variety in the many battles this story spans. Historical accuracy, though commonly disregarded by this Manga, is a reasonable explanation for why much of the environments of Kingdom are the same. Pitched battles did predominantly occur on flat, mostly even terrain, and in the case of this Manga, the given location where an armed encounter occurs is largely accurate to history; still, it does little to distinguish them from one another. The fields of combat bleed into one another in a way that would almost be poignant if this were a fact acknowledged by the story, or bolstered it in any way. Nonetheless, we are left with a lot of visual and narrative set dressing of large battles, which sure took a lot of effort to create, but does not leave a lasting impression. All battles within Kingdom, no matter how many chapters they might span, no matter what result they might lead to, are largely devoid of substance. This is the case because, as we will get into in part 2, Kingdom does not contain effective messaging for these battles, nor does it even really have messages to convey, but also because of the way that it depicts combat.

Throughout a given battle, you will see beautifully illustrated and detailed infographics to show the positions of troops and specific individuals, and right off the bat, there are a few things that are problematic with this. Though Kingdom is a struggle for the impossible, a story about realising what was previously decried as a dream within a dream, it fails to convey this in an effective way narratively, due to a severe lack of realism. Time and time again you will see conflicts in which the protagonist faces of against an enemy that is supposed to be deeply cunning and dangerous beyond belief, often times you will see the “good guys” fail against them, yet every single time you will notice, that team Qin (that is team “good guys”) will never have more combatants than whatever dangerous man they are facing off against. Every struggle needs to be so fragrantly David v. Goliath that you inevitably notice how utterly irrelevant the number of combatants is to begin with. Never, throughout the entirety of all of Kingdom will you see an unnamed character be responsible for the death of a general. Every chapter, you get 10 panels of people ripping each other into shreds, you get long speeches about the dangers and futility of war, but not once does this random cruelty befall a single character we know. Instead, every general is a hulking wall of meat that effortlessly slices a group of ten heavy-armoured soldiers in half with a single swing of their glaive. This is such a problem that Kingdom actively struggles with making its enemy generals seem more and more dangerous. Both the first and most recent big baddy our protagonists face off against are introduced with that same move, with a bunch of good guys running at them, and a bunch of good guys falling apart after being sliced to bits. Turns out you can’t properly convey strength at this point of exaggeration, without outright making the glaive longer every time, until the next general can cut a hundred meters far or develops into an outright technical nuke. With this, we run into the inevitable problem of turning war into a Shōnan-like spectacle, which is once again twofold. For one, there are again apparent ideological problems with this, which we will get to in part 2, but here I want to focus solely on the inefficiency of telling this story within a war-centric setting. Kingdom is fundamentally about a set of protagonist characters overcoming a set of antagonistic characters, and relevant to this are rarely more than five people on each side. To base such a story on the violent battlefields of hundreds of thousands of combatants not only creates a deeply historically inaccurate portrayal of warfare, but also unnecessarily bloats this story with redundant elements. As strange as this might sound, war is largely obsolete to Kingdom’s canon. Obviously, these events are historical; obviously, these acts of martial warfare did occur, though not in any shape even close to what this Manga portrays them as, but for the story that it tells through this history, these wars are nothing more than wallpaper covering the pages. These could just as well be back-alley brawls or, more accurately, scheduled matches in martial arts dojos and public gymnasiums. For all this story is concerned, the thousands of soldiers present at these fights do not amount to much more than rows of screaming fans, cheering along for their side’s Big Guy. There is another side to Kingdom’s battles, one which I expected to be its heart, and that is its use of strategy. Unfortunately, while there are some plays at strategy in here that had me dumbfounded, wondering how I didn’t think of that beforehand, all of it is narratively meaningless. Strategy is only ever the thing that builds the scene, that brings our two buffed guys into the same room. The outcome of all wars will always end with a single blow-by-blow action scene.

Yet there is another side to Kingdom, far behind the battlelines, one of political intrigue, of courtroom struggles, and it is here where this Manga’s better half, as well as its furthest steps into the realm of ideological pondering and soul-fuckery occur. I quite like much of what happens in these unfortunately rare few chapters, in which we at last leave behind our unsalvageable main cast (whom we will get to soon), and finally dive more into the “competent” side of this nation’s leadership. Here, you will unfortunately have to accept that Kingdom tries to sell you some real freakish idiots as morally good people to lead a nation. Still, if you can get over the way this Manga portrays the Qin Dynasty’s generals and chancellors as bastions of good in a world of evil, there are, at the very least, some interesting ideas here. Generally, don’t expect anything particularly smart to come from this, but there are a lot of things that are good food for thought, and unlike a few other people I’ve talked to, I quite like the dabbles in Confucian and Legalist thinking we get throughout these chapters. Mainly, though, courtroom drama and intrigue serve as much-needed breaks from long and tiring battles, and it is here that the story seems to actually move. While a given fight is obviously an event instrumental to the goals of all parties involved, the act of warfare itself, which, as I said, is not something you really see here, tends to be a long and painful endeavour. Victory is when there is once again time to breathe, and following it, time to move. The things that were fought over are claimed after the battle is over, lines are moved, ranks are handed out, updates and plans are exchanged. It is here that the story manages to establish its sense of scale, and if it wasn’t for the few glimpses we got behind the walls of capitals alike, there truly would be nothing to distinguish this Manga from its contemporaries in Shōnan Jump.

At last, we are left with two groups we have yet to discuss, our protagonists and antagonists. To start with the former, Kingdom stars Shin, a slave who slowly builds himself up with the goal of reaching the rank of Great General. This is close to all there is to him. There are small bits of his character we get that go beyond this ambition; Shin is a generally empathetic person, he tends to see the best in people, struggles for his comrades, fights for those who lay their hopes upon his shoulders and carries the burdens of the ones his blade could not protect. All this is true, yet the person I envision reading that sentence, the person I expect most to see when they read it, is so much closer to Guts from Berserk than Shin, and yet Guts is also a tormented, brutal soul that was so often cold and distant and could not care for the men and women around him. But that is precisely why I see a character like Guts as embodying such values to a degree that Shin could never portray. Shin was never a broken man, though he is a child of war, and though he grew up under the doctrine of heroic sacrifice and military ambitions. What makes Shin so utterly boring is the way in which he flattens the world surrounding him. Shin is not the product of his time; he is a character solely separate from his environment, not one you see spout and change out of the people he meets across this journey, but one that always already saw a lesson beforehand, so he can teach others of its meaning. Though this is the story of Shin, a man destined for impossible greatness, overcoming all odds, you will not see him grow; he will be the same child at age thirty that he was at the beginning. I am not saying that Shin should grow from warfare, I simply ask that a character is changed by their experience, be it shellshock or genuine love and maturity or growing incompetence from bad friends or wisdom imparted by those that did not make it as far as he did… but this is not Shin, for Shin does not change. It is this that, beyond all else, turns all battles into the same. You watch the same kid fight the same stupid struggles, and you want to see him change, you want to know that at some point he breaks because of it or looks back upon the past and sees some kind of stupid young self that he no longer is, but he can’t. You will not find introspection in these characters, neither forced nor willingly; you will not see this band of warmongering “good guys” grow into something they weren’t before. A few times throughout this story we get short arcs that are not focused on our protagonist Shin, and time and time again we see people expand their abilities, we see friends grow from little girls to military experts that judge the battlefield like few others, we see coldblooded assassins turn back to at last use that knife of theirs to cut away that path that binds them to their craft… and yet again, the only thing that changes when they inevitably come back to the party, is their ability. These aren’t characters that grow; these are characters who, to use the Manga’s own language, “level up”. It is this that, beyond all else, contextualises all characters that find their place on the battlefield. They are abilities, they are buttons to press at some point throughout combat, so we can get a panel of them using their special move, or being all smart and seeing through the strategy, but because all of this is irrelevant, because all combat only ends in the same one-on-one struggle between Shin and an opposing general, they truly often feel like less then nothing. I do not know the names of any of Shin’s fellow unit members, except for Kyou Kai and Ka Ryo Ten, who are both irrelevant and are coincidentally also the two most important characters besides Shin. There are over a dozen named foot soldiers that don’t die, simply survive all struggles, even though every time we see them, they are about to be sliced in half, and never do they accomplish anything important, because, no matter how many soldiers they kill, soldiers are irrelevant; only the lives of generals dictate the battlefield.

There are two more units/armies that we commonly hear of throughout the story, both of which are utterly irrelevant except for the two men that lead them, who also don’t change and have the same dynamic for over a decade's worth of chapters.

Lastly, I want to quickly talk about King Sei, the “young” monarch whose expansionist ambitions create all of this Manga’s story and a very interesting and deadly period in Chinese history. He will be the protagonist of this review’s second part, but for now, I want to declare him as this story’s second most interesting character (there is one general that tops everyone else by a mile). Sei is central to the narrative’s biggest ideological conflict, and strangely, it is his character that is mirrored for our primary antagonist, Ri Boku. This is problematic, as Ri Boku is the wall that stands at the end of Shin’s narrative and military road, yet Ri Boku does not make for an interesting antagonistic force against Shin in the slightest, as these are not characters that have any conflict beyond the mere battlefield. In its current form, taking the character of Shin and assuming that he could not be changed (which would obviously be preferable), the kind of antagonist this story required would be one that mirrored Shin, but this is not possible, because Shin does not hold any interesting moral or ideological positions and neither is he created to be wrong in any of his believes. This leaves us with Sei as the de facto protagonist of the narrative’s actual plot, while Shin is simply the lens through which we observe it. I must quickly add that this is not at all accurate to the way this story is actually told, but still, analysing it from this angle at least makes many of its narrative choices understandable. The conflict between Sei and Ri Boku is interesting, though this is the kind of ideological struggle that requires two things: firstly, a deep enough understanding to actually depict these positions accurately and with that, the necessary understanding of history to not turn a tyrannical dictator into the perfect nice guy. This is the problem with Sei, he is a good guy more so than even Shin, he is portrayed as morally atop the world itself, while his actual position is terribly stupid and led to a suffering so great that you could fill every single page of every single chapter of Kingdom with lists of names similar to the thing they did in Chainsaw Man (I am sure some people know what I am referring to), and still you would not get everyone that died because of Sei’s commitment to military action over diplomacy.

Kingdom’s best antagonists are a rare few old men struggling with the idea that their time is soon to pass, and that they are no longer the new kids to dictate the flow of blood on the battlefield. Apart from them, this Manga’s antagonists are as hollow as our protagonists, fighting for not a whole lot more than nationalism, and even of that, we do not get an even remotely interesting analysis. Once again, the enemies our protagonists face off against are like rocks to climb over; they could be training dummies, because that is narratively all they amount to. If all our progression amounts to stat increases, to “level-ups”, then there is no person to overcome, because an interaction with a person would create an environment in which our characters would change, and this seemingly must be avoided at all costs. It probably doesn’t need to be said, but our non-character antagonists do not change any more than our already unchanging protagonists.

With that, we reached the end of the first part, and to leave it on a positive note, I want to at least mention one more time the level of quality and detail in this Manga’s drawings. They are not interesting, not narratively, not contextually, not through experimentation and strange new compositions, but still, they adhere to their boringly great quality.

Part 2. Kingdom The Teacher

Kingdom is a story that is, at the same time, deeply politically ignorant, and very far up its own arse in a way that quite reminded me of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. In this way, it is special because it fills the role of teacher so much worse than most stories, but wears its clothes so casually.

All stories to some extent have a lesson within them, something they give their readers to carry on with. Some are more focused on this than others, Manga like Vinland Saga, Takopi or Ping Pong, which never waste a second, staying focused throughout it all. There is a distinct style to these stories, and it is often the colours of grandeur. When you have a thing that you find important enough to share, then you frame it on a stage you see as befitting. Kingdom is one stage builder, but what it puts into the spotlight is subpar and not fully formulated at its best, and outright fascist at its worst. For me, the apparent stupidity of its lessons was only highlighted through this contrast between contents and presentation, yet I understand that this is not the case for everyone, and so we need to understand the apparent dangers in mythologising the wrong lessons. Kingdom particularly struggles with this, due to its historic context.

Sei is a man who existed, who lived as the Qin Dynasty’s first emperor, and so his actions to some degree are bound to history. This is not to say that Kingdom stays true to this history; instead, we view China’s ancient nobility through rose-tinted glasses and gloss over the mass murder of dissenters and far-reaching censorship this king was once known for. Instead, Sei is a good character by the purest meaning of the word; he is a just king, a loving king, one who views his citizens alike as equals, even as he sends them off to die in the thousands. His ambition, true to history, remains the conquest and unification of China, but this is not displayed as the warmongering insanity it was, but instead as the necessary way towards an end to warfare. Kingdom presents him as a man who bloodies his hands, but who sees what is necessary and commits the violence required to at last birth a better future. Unfortunately, a single look at history informs us, the Qin Dynasty, once it united China, to at last stop the endless wars, persisted for a meagre 15 years, before internal conflicts, either violently suppressed or violently fought to the end, ripped it apart.

The reality is simply that peace can be protected with violence, but it can never be achieved through its use. The violent annexation of a nation will never create an environment of long-lasting peace. The ambition for a unified China is a noble one, at least as it is presented in Kingdom, but all strive for equality, to remove borders, be it between nations, ethnicities or social classes, can only be achieved through acts of equality and diplomacy. War is by its nature hierarchical, both in the environment that births it, but also in the environment it creates. The slaughter of another always entails a degradation of their humanity, a refutation of their rights. It is because of this that peace, a state defined through equality, cannot be achieved with means of warfare.

King Sei’s plan for unification was always destined to fail, and this alone is not a problem. You can tell a phenomenal story about futile ambitions, and the deeply broken and unlikable people who carried them, but this is not what Kingdom attempts to be. King Sei is not a fool, is not a lunatic authoritarian, but the one good king. This fundamentally misrepresents the ideas propagated within this manga, but also the very real history from which it draws so much of its setting. To portray a king as competent at all is highly questionable, be it only because any competent and “good” king would do all in his power to slowly and safely convert his Kingdom into a democratic nation. The mere depiction of hierarchical structures is not problematic, but to show them as efficient or functional when every part of history shows us that they aren’t, is not only disingenuous, but dangerous. It is here that Kingdom’s openly nationalist story drifts into the realm of fascism, and to understand this, we first have to look at militarism.

I have already talked to some extent about how poorly Kingdom portrays war in Part 1, but it is now that we finally get to its broader implications. Today, we attribute the field of historical analysis called “Great Man Theory” to Thomas Woolner, himself both an imperialist and monarchist. For Woolner, history was “[…] but the Biography of great men”, and it is this view that underlines all that is Kingdom. All wars are decided by individual figures, and almost always are these figures shown to be naturally capable beyond all reason, and their position as commonly great generals validates the hierarchical structures that elected them to their positions. It is undeniable that the men who united China under Qin had a deep proficiency for war, yet it is both wrong to depict them as particularly wise and to depict this ability as a physical capability for combat. These battles should, on the one hand, be focused on strategy, with no general, no soldier at all, ever being portrayed as martially skilled enough to change the tides of battle through physical combat alone. There can be offsets on the battlefield, but these must be down to strategy or chance. On the other hand, these generals were not great men to change history, but instead were themselves the product of said history. When talking about Shin, I described him as solely separate from the world in which he supposedly grew up, and it is this reason that portrays the author's utter misunderstanding of history better than any other. Our world is ruled not by people but by ideas; it is ideology and thoughts that dictate the flow of history. During the Autumn and Fall Period, these thoughts were feudalism, nationalism, statism, expansionism, militarism, monarchism, totalitarianism, Confucianism, Legalism and hierarchy, and these are principles that led to centuries of warfare and suffering. To believe that it was a list of great men that dictated this era means to cut them away from the chains of their environments. They were not the judges or creators of history, but simply another stream along which it inevitably flowed.

These Hero-characters on which all this narrative is built are an essential part of militarism and its propaganda, and because of this, it is deeply tied to fascism. Umberto Eco describes the fascist, be it Führer or foot soldier, as the hero of their own legend, and it is the fascist’s deep desire for plot, for narrative, that brings him to try to move his story and in doing so risk his life on the battlefield. It is hard to read holocaust scholars and philosophers talk about the drive for glory and not see it reflected in this manga time and time again.

This is the inherent contradiction of Kingdom, the gaping abyss that lies between the words of its protagonists and this story’s actual contents. While Shin will be depicted as a force of good, as a soldier who stays true to his morals and thus embodies the values of Sei’s humane war, this is as backwards as the war itself. Shin’s portrayal as a “good guy” is not necessarily ahistorical, there most definitely have been soldiers through out all wars, which detested war, and yet continued onwards, but these were men that either hated the systems that pushed them into bloody sacrifices, or they were themselves the ignorant victims of doctrine, which they could not parse from their previously held believes. Shin’s beliefs, as presented by this manga, stand in contradiction to what he is fighting for, and this contradiction is never addressed. He is a man for whom war did good, who served his nation until his nation served him, who was born a slave and reached the highest ranks of military service, but this story isn’t real. Nobody grows or is made better through warfare, and sure, there are necessary wars, which have to be fought to protect what is dear, but even those wars are better not to occur at all. The ideas of military fulfilment are irreconcilable with principles of equality, peace or safety, all of which Shin believes in to some degree. To sell us a character like him in this day and age is like the soft lie of a fascist, to get you on board with his wars. “You can keep your principles”, they tell you, “There are men just like you fighting for the homeland”, they assure you, but all of it is bullshit.

Kingdom is propaganda, consciously or not, to get you to see war as a deadly game, but not an uncomfortable one. Death is plastered along all pages, but never does it meet a familiar face, never does it come unexpectedly, never is it dirty. Even when we see a man get tortured and diced, we are sold the lie that he remained, that he was strong until the last second. But this isn’t war, in war those familiar faces break, in war you don’t just die, you suffer. War isn’t a game with deadly stakes, but a long and suffocating track through a swamp of razorblades, and it is not one that is endured, but that seeps into the self and slowly drowns it. A man who truly sees war always dies, though there might be a thing that returns, and though it might in some hollow way still resemble him. Through this, Kingdom launders history and its atrocities, it turns the King into a trusted figure, the state into a competent institution of functional technocrats and sells you the lie of a good authority that fights for those it looms over. War is turned into a means of entertainment, and suffering is whitewashed into the simplicity of death, of a body being sliced in half, just as the one before it, and the one before that, and the one before that. There are comrades in war, friends you find in bloody struggle, not people to cling to in your darkest hours, but souls with whom you will soar to new heights. There is a home to return to, that always waits for you, that loves you, that thinks you fight for it, as you disappear for months on the battlefield. These are the myths of Kingdom, they are fascist, authoritarian, totalitarian, imperialist myths that exist to appeal to those who do not have a life that fulfils them, and thus, looking for something new, are susceptible to the propaganda of kings.

You should not read Kingdom for the same reason you should not trust a psychic. They will tell you that all they want is in your interest, that they are honest, fun, enjoyable people, and that they just want to talk. They don’t. Even if this story’s author does not want to recruit you into the military, the psychic sure will. To give them your time means to make yourself vulnerable to the ideas they spread, and those ideas will make you lonely, hateful and, if you sign that recruitment document, maybe even dead. Be mindful of the ideas that dictate the media you consume, because you won’t always be on your guard, and they will lie to you, and you will take their word for it.

This is why you should not read Kingdom.

Main plot: Interesting I didn’t know much about the warring states period, and find it really great to have a manga talking about the subject. Of course, don’t take what you read for taken, but the manga seems to follow the historical story fairly well. (If you are curious about it, try “kingdom manga history” in your favorite search engine. There is some nice work out there.) Regardless of its fidelity, it’s a nice way to be introduced to the topic. Story telling: Redundant and cheesy At first, I quiet liked how the story telling was done. It’s well paced, Iquiet like the humor, and so much stuff is going that you may wish to shorten your night to read more of it. “Just one more chapter… Oh, the sun is rising.”

But the problem is that the story is always told the same way. The worst being battles. Normal soldiers are useless, Generals kill everything, and tactics are there to maintain the show, but have no influence on the course of battle.

Another problem is how things are told. Everything has to be put in a way it’s amazing to read, making dialogues are unbearably cheesy.

Characters: Bad

You follow Xin, a very simple minded boy, who gets stronger and stronger. He meets other people, who are either as simple minded as him, or so smart everybody is amazed when they talk, even if it’s to say hello. They all kill tons of people and you should find it very cool. The end.

Art: Good drawings, bad designs

I really like the art because, you know, drawings and stuff. Looks nice, there are some details, you see what I mean. Maybe =l. Actually, it gets better the further you read. Faces are a bit weird at the beginning. But I do have a problem with the character design. Strong people are usually twice the size of a normal person, because why not. Many weird faces too. In short, many humans, but many aliens too.

Conclusion: Very strong start, disappointing continuation

I do believe you should give it a try, for regardless of its many faults, it’s still enjoyable to read. But if you don’t like it from the start, you should just give up on it.

Ps: I’m not a native English speaker. If you find mistakes, please tell me so I can correct them.

I'll be doing my first review in honor of this more than awesome manga. I think it's high time it gets the 10 it deserves. I'll be using the Japanese names as the anime is in Japanese and the manga currently translated with Japanese names and it get's too confusing using the Chinese names. Story The story is not in itself original. I know what you're thinking, a young boy wants to be a hero, how would that be different from most other popular fighting manga? Well, although it doesn't differ that much, it tells the story in a fantastic way that it really doesn't matter thatit's not the most original story.

The story revolves around the young boy named Shin who is a slave and aims to become the greatest general under the heavens and although he is the main character, you get plenty of time to see other characters and their struggles and they develop in ways you didn't expect which can drastically change Shin's life.

The story is based in real events with real people although there most likely are a few changes here and there to fit the manga.

Characters

The characters are really well made. There is only a few main characters and although they might be "main" characters, they are not always around but can be missing (due to various cirumstances necessary for character development) for volumes and you just get to see them in a short bonus or in a "at the same time in another place" type of extra.

The manga introduces character after character (although keep in mind this has been running for quite a while) so there is plenty to keep in check but they also kill off a lot of characters, some of more import than others, to make it easier.

The characters that you get to enjoy are all unique and there isn't a single character that doesn't have a personality and the girls doesn't all have giant plots.

Art

I really enjoy the art style of the manga. In the beginning it was on the verge of being plain to look at but you can clearly see the changes as you read and it's turned into a fantastic thing to look at. As this is a manga about war you will see huge detailed scenarios with plenty of details. Although it cannot quite compare to the awesome style of Boichi's work Sun-Ken Rock, it comes really close.

Enjoyment

This is currently my favourite manga (that is currently still publishing) meaning that One Piece / Fairy Tail is being pushed back even further on my list.

Overall

This is definitely a must read for people interested in China's (or Japan's) warring states period.

Kingdom to me just lacks class. I think series that handle heavy and ambitious topics should be treated with adequate respect and sense of tonality/tact befitting them. Kingdom fails terribly in this regard for me, just feels like a childish iteration especially relative to the only other "War" manga I read that also covers a certain period in ancient Chinese history (The Ravages of Time). I wasn't very fond or impressed with Kingdoms characters or story. Only perspective I found genuinely interesting is Ei Sei's. The Art style wasn't a problem as I was reading it but looking back on it I just don't reallylike it. This is how I feel with kingdom entirely, when I was reading the series it was actually fairly enjoyable and easy to read but as I look at on it I just don't care and don't find it good/impressive. As for If I would recommend it to others. I would. I think the average person isn't going to care about the problems I have with it and if they do care probably won't be to the same extent at all. I think if you are looking to have fun, you'll get what you came for.

This is one of my all-time favorite ongoing manga series being produced. It seems to be ranked high overall but I think this is a highly underrated manga and the community seems dead or quiet. I hope if you take the time to read this that I will persuade you to pick up this wonderful series. Fans of Vagabond, Berserk, and Vinland Saga should be drawn in to Kingdom. History Kingdom is a historical Seinen based on the Warring States Period in China. A time of constant war between the 7 states of China, it would last for 500 years until a King would unite all thestates under one flag. The author uses information from the Shiji a historical document that covers China’s beginnings, the Warring States Period, and even beyond that. It was written 200 years after the story takes place. The story itself is about 70% fact and the other 30% the author’s touches. I used those percent’s because the Shiji and a couple other documents are the only known forms of written history from this time in China. Not much is known about the exact details in Qin’s quest to unify China, but all the events, people, and wars that were written down in the Shiji are present in the manga and he follows what was written, but the Shiji does not go into great detail into the events so the author had to put his own spin on it to make the story interesting. Besides a few most characters including our main character Xin were actual people, but their background may not be exactly what happened.

-Side note – Most of the characters names in the manga are slightly different due to their being no Chinese characters in Kanji for the author to use. Also most of the names of these historical people use such old characters of Chinese that most citizens wouldn’t know what it means.

*WARNING RESEARCH THE HISTORY OF CHINA AT YOUR OWN RISK IT MAY CONTAIN FUTURE SPOILERS*

I didn’t follow this advice and have been spoiled to the possible events that will happen past chapter 403

Story 9/10

The story starts off with our main character Xin (Shin) a war orphan who is a servant along with his best friend Piao. Their dream is to become a Great General under the Heavens. Piao is noticed by a noble and is sent to the capital to serve as the Kings body double. I won’t go more into the story, because I don’t want to spoil it. Some say this arc may be cliché but it’s done perfectly. It will go on to get better and better with each arc. I would like anyone that wants to read Kingdom to have a spoiler free experience.

Battles 10/0

What makes Kingdom one of my favorite manga’s of all time is the Wars itself. What you expect is just a bunch of fighting with lots of blood and gore. All those things are present, but it does one thing I haven’t seen done yet and that is the strategy and tactics used in war. It is continuously switching between characters throughout battles to give the reader a better understanding of how armies were led. It will go from brutal battles on the front line to the headquarters where the strategists and commanders of both armies are thinking of ways to counter each other. The fighting in the battles are awesome, I believe they are on par with the battles seen throughout the Golden Age Arc in Berserk.

Characters 10/10

This is where Kingdom excels there are so many characters in this story that you will hate and love. Xin our main character is awesome, he doesn’t care what your rank is he’ll tell you how we feels. He seems to be like your typical main character, loud, obnoxious, and an idiot, but you will only grow to love Xin and the rest of the main characters. I just got to say Ou Ki is a God and you’ll know what I mean later if you read it. The story just doesn’t focus on its main characters there are many commanders, generals, soldiers, and politicians that the story focuses on. There is a lot of character development from this story, the main characters grow and develop in many different ways showing just how far they have come since the beginning. Even some foot soldiers that survive continue to grow and rise up from peasant farmer turned soldier to a glorified 100 man and 1000 man commanders. I could go into so much greater detail about the character development, but I don’t want to spoil the story, just trust me that it is there and is done excellently.

-Side note: There are female characters in this story even on the battlefield so if you think it’s just going to be a sausage fest you are wrong. More than likely the people that some female characters were based on were more than likely men, due to women rarely being seen on the battle field.

Art 8/10

The art in this story is hit or miss to some. I think personally the art is good, at times it can be a little cluttered, that could be, because I am reading online since the manga is not published in America. The faces of the characters themselves are always drawn in extreme detail; the emotions they show also are done really well. There wasn’t a moment where I thought the art was terrible and it never turned me off, that could be because the story is so good I looked past it, but I can understand how some could be turned off. However everyone interprets art in their own way so I will let you be the judge.

Overall I believe any fan of Seinen and history buffs should definitely check this manga out. I promise you won’t be disappointed and I suggest reading the first arc in one sitting, it isn’t too long and will grasp your attention. If you love Berserk you will love Kingdom. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you fall in love with this series like I have.

This is My First Review I Hope You Like it,And Sorry For My Bad English(I'm From Egypt). Story: 9/10 The Story Of This Manga is From The Kind That makes You Stick in Your Chair. This Story Makes You Love Wars. The Story Talks About two Orphans Whose Parents Died From Wars. The Story Starts When Xin Goes To The Village And Meets Piao. In Your First Impression You Will Think That This Is A Traditional Story,But When You Get In The Story You Will Think The Opposite,From The Great Things That The Story Takes Place In China That Means That We Will See A Lot Of Action And Bizarre Great Things. FromThe Things I Hate In The Story That it shows Some new Characters For a Short Time And These Characters Die Without Making Us Know The Character longer time.

From The Things That I Love In The Story Is The Excitement,Comedy,Sad Moments They Are All Perfect in This Amazing Story.

Art:

10/10

Oh My God! When I See This Art Sometimes I Think That I See Real People Not Drawn People.

I Love This Art Including The Blood,The Killing Scenes,Everything About This Art Is Perfect!!

The Only Thing I didn't Like Is Some Disgusting Drawing That Appeared In The Manga.

Character:

10/10

Let's Start With The Main Character Xin.

Xin Is Brave,Strong and Bold,we saw him Talk to The King Of Qin Ei Sei Normally,I Like That He Doesn't Fear Anything,and He Got Great Hope And Ambition,I Didn't See Him One Time Having Despair.

The Thing I Didn't Like In Xin That He Kind Of Reckless And That Gets Him In Some Troubles.

and There we see Ei Sei The King Of Qin,This Character I See It's Perfect.

Intelligence (we got it),He Can Fight With a Sword (we got it) and He Is sober(we Got it).

I Didn't Like In Him That He Sometimes Make Decisions that hurts his allies,and he doesn't Care About That.

and there some Great Characters That appeared and had Left a Special Place in our heart Including The Generals,Soldiers,Citizens and People That Made Sacrifices.

Enjoyment:

10/10

As I Read this Manga,I Enjoy Reading Every Page(Saying One More Page) Until I Get The Last Page In The Chapter and I Have To Wait Next Week To Read The Next One,Then Everyday I Can't Wait To The Next Chapter To Come.

All Of That Because The Great Enjoyment Of This Manga.

I Read Another Mangas And I Saw A Lot Of Kinds Of Excitements,But This Manga Had Its Own Kind Of Excitement That Could Be From The Best Kinds Of Excitements Ever.

The Things I Didn't Like That Sometimes We See The Chapter Most Of It Is Speeches And The Rest is Few Action.

Overall:

10/10

I Recommend This Manga To Everyone,And If You Haven't Read it Yet,Just Read It And I Promise That You will read a Legendary Manga that Makes You Love it Forever.

Thanks For Reading My Review,I Hope You Like it.

Kingdom is literally a fucking masterpiece for manga in general, i have only very few complaints here and there, but they don't take any points off the score for me in any way, there will be very minor spoilers in this. For this review instead of using the chinese names, which MAL does, i'll be using the japanese ones. Story The story is about Shin and Ei Sei whom each have their own goals but work together to accomplish them. Particularly what invests me so much into the story is the way it plays out, you are actually going on campaigns here in their own arcs, which is superinteresting to see, whilst not being a 1 to 1 replica of historical events, it uses a lot of the set pieces and adds a few of it's own elements but mostly is accurate to historical events.

A thing i'd like to bring up for a bit is the romance, which i dislike in a ton of medium since it can feel super forced and not really earned, which in Kingdom there is some romance here and there but i don't have a problem with it since it doesn't feel forced as hell and isn't focused on too much.

Without spoiling too much i can't say much more about the story but i can talk about the characters which is partly why the story is so good.

Characters

The characters of Kingdom is arguably the best thing about it, it has a huge variety of characters which are not forgotten basically ever throughout the manga, and it's not just like only the major characters are important which a lot of other manga only like to focus on. Yes, the generals and such are usuallly the most interesting to focus on, but that doesn't mean the series ever focuses too much on them only.

Each general also has their own underlings which Kingdom takes excellent time in making them feel like actual characters instead of some henchmen with no feelings.

You'll have lovely characters from your shounen protagonist in a seinen manga. You'll have characters which can be inspirational. You'll have characters whom can be funny at times and defuse the situation. And you'll find characters with some of the most interesting stratagems which are honestly just fun to watch.

Art

The art for this manga is beautiful, it isn't the best i've ever seen, but i think it's definitely up there and have nothing to complain about here.

Enjoyment

I loved reading every chapter thus far and got a ton of enjoyment out of each and every one of them, it always has something up it's sleeve which makes it fun to read and it's one of them few manga where predicting what's going to happen is pretty hard, ofcourse in a campaign it's more obvious and you'll usually have a good idea over the overall outcome but the way it gets there is just insane.

Overall

Literal masterpiece, i know this can sound somewhat biased since i am fully caught up with basically everything in the "Kingdom Medium" but give it a chance and it won't dissapoint u, most likely, and in the case it does, it probably wasn't for u.

Have fun reading!

I have consumed thousands of episodes of Anime-Manga. I've watched and read dozens of different types of content. I have read many fantasy novels. But I have never seen a series that impressed me so much. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is that the story is true. Of course, there are parts of fiction, but when you think that these wars really happened, one is really impressed. The characters are very good, it's also good to witness their their progress. There were dozens of moments that got me excited while reading, and made me wonder "how we're going to get out ofthis situation".

The characters, who stand out with their intelligence, are so well designed and thought out that you are very well convinced. And that's one of the things that makes Kingdom good.

Also, one of the favorite parts is that the battles are tactical. Coalition War, Zhao Invasion, Han season, Bayou war season... These are all battles and seasons that are fought in a tactical way.

Have you ever flipped a page of a manga, then suddenly screamed out with a fiery passion that only a shonen protagonist would have after viewing the contents of the next spread? No? Then you my friend, are missing out on one of the greatest manga series ever. Kingdom is a story that follows a certain servant boy, as he rises up to become a great general of the heavens, during the warring states period in China. In essence, you could say that this is your average shonen protagonist that screams a lot and does the impossible, who slowly matures over the course of the story. However, it'snot a story as boring or cliche as that. While the MC might be exactly as you expect him to be, the supporting characters are far more detailed and interesting than you'd expect. They all have their own roles to fulfill on the battlefield, and off it. Therefore, it's not only the protagonist that drives the story, but rather, the decisions that all the characters make. If those decisions contradict each other, that's when conflict occurs.

A noteworthy aspect of the story-telling used in the series is the telling of the story through the perspectives of several different characters. This allows us further insight into the motives of each character, and helps us grow to empathize with them in some cases. By fully understanding the character, we as the audience are then able to fully appreciate the impact of the actions they take. This switching of perspectives can sometimes be unexpected, but so far, I've enjoyed each and every character arc throughout the story. Even if, not all of them go the way we want them to.

The art is super detailed. Everything just looks great. Especially the facial expressions of characters. Whether it's rage, despair, or even comedic moments, you'll be able to clearly tell what characters are feeling just by looking at their expressions. Of course, not every panel is flawless, but the climactic moments of each arc, always are inexplicably detailed.

This is one those manga that you finish reading, then feel motivated to go out and save the world and what not. I just love all these characters so much, and I can't wait for the next chapters to come out. I'm so glad that I decided to give this manga a shot, cause if I didn't, I'd seriously regret my life decisions. You might not feel as strongly as I do about this manga, but for those of you who do, I'm glad that you're enjoying it as much as I am.

Thank you for reading this review!

What can I say, other than if you enjoy anything related to ancient warfare, and especially China, that Kingdom is one of the best treat that you can get for yourself. ______________________ Enjoyment. The enjoyment that you will get from this manga is simply off the chart. All you need is a bit of epic music in the background to accompany your reading (I recommend two steps from hell). Do not even bother watching the anime unless you feel the need to appoint some voices to your favourite characters (I do admit they didn't mess that up at least). _______________________Story and characters.

Now, what make this seinen war manga so good? It's simple, the main forces behind it are characters with enormous charismatic auras, paired with a gigantic scope. Yes, the scope of this manga is also what allowed it to run for so long (more than ten years now).

After all, right off the bat, we are told that the end goal is to unify China. I'm around 500 chapters, and there's still not even a hint of our protagonist to be even close to succeed yet. Of course it's not like they lost sight of the goal, but rather that in order to achieve this goal, the protagonists need some time to grow, each one of them.

So do not even worry about pacing or the manga losing steam because it doesn't.

Most of the characters are stereotyped, but they all feel genuine, and none of them are irritating which is a good point. You can pretty much root for anyone. (apart from a few very bad guys that are just there for the sake of being bad).

Some of the best characters of this manga are actually quite evil to reflect the time period, but even then you still love them, because they're badass.

I would also add that the majority of the characters have plot armour for obvious or historical reasons... so I guess going in without knowing too much about the warring states definitely is better, because sometimes you really don't know if someone is actually gonna get killed in action.

Another thing... what you will witness in this manga is that generals are basically super-heroes. It's actually completely normal, because these periods of china history are pretty much mythical. Do not worry, some components of ancient warfare remain realistic: the tactics, the maneuveurs, the actual time it takes to finish a battle or a siege involving thousands of soldiers. But generals... they will cut down in half men in armour, they will kill hundred of them, no problem. And you will love it.

______________________

Art

Now this isn't an art that I had ever seen before, it's typically "round", I guess. But it's still pleasantly good to the eye. And frankly, some scenes are simply breathtaking. "Epic" is probably too weak to depict some of these panels.

______________________

Conclusion:

I just hope this manga keeps going for another ten years. This is imo the work of at least half a lifetime. The warring states period is no joke, especially since you plan to finish your work when your story has a clear historic end. And to me if after 500 chapters the author still manages to make my heart race, then the next 500 will certainly do the same.

"An eternal struggle by men risking their lives that never come to an end. Good grief, this is exactly what makes these chaotic times so interesting." - General Ouki Story: The manga is based on the tumultuous 500 year warring period of China.It follows the exploits and escapades of young orphan Xin and a young ambitious king Zheng. "Take me to the heavens" is a promise that Xin has vowed to keep by becoming the greatest general under the heavens. The onerous path in front of Xin coincides with Zheng who aims to bring the entire China together. While one has to deal with the connivers and their contrivances inside the kingdom preventing its disintegration, the other has to ward off foreign advances which threatens the peace of the kingdom.

Art: While the art is as good as the rest of the mainstream manga's out there, his art really shines when the author depicts battle scenes. Gore is abound in the manga so read with caution.

Character: Many of the characters are loosely based on historical figures. With the Mangaka introducing a horde of characters it is no wonder if you have to peruse through the previous chapters to recall them. The Mangaka delves into the dark past of the main characters which helps in understanding their psyche. Mentors along the way guide our hero's as they walk this arduous path.

Enjoyment: I am enjoying reading this manga which has an amazing story, awesome art, great character development and well General Ouki's lips...if you know what I mean.

Overall: As I have not read this manga fully I am not sure of how things are going to pan out in the future and thus the score 9. But I am sure that if the manga retains this quality this manga deserves no less than 10.

If you're fascinated by history, military strategy, political maneuvering, and emotionally charged battles, then Kingdom is one of the few manga (alongside Ad Astra and Ravages of Times) that truly delivers on all fronts. At its core, Kingdom is a war epic unflinching, intelligent, and full of heart. What makes it stand out in the manga landscape is its unique historical setting: the Warring States Period of ancient China, an era vastly underrepresented in modern media compared to the more popular Three Kingdoms or Japan's Sengoku Jidai. By grounding the story in this lesser-known yet incredibly rich period, author Yasuhisa Hara taps into a world brimming withconflict, philosophy, and ambition largely inspired by ancient historical records like the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) and the Zhan Guo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States). This choice alone gives Kingdom an air of mystery and freshness that instantly draws in the historically curious reader.

But Kingdom is not just about large-scale battles and the tides of history. It’s also about ideas. Beneath the blood and chaos lies a deep philosophical thread: the pursuit of peace through war a contradiction that mirrors the realpolitik of its time. War isn’t glorified blindly; rather, the manga invites you to reflect on the cost of power, the nature of leadership, and the price of unity.

You’ll encounter brilliant military tacticians, courageous generals, cunning chancellors, and visionary kings, each contending not only on the battlefield but also in a world of shifting allegiances and unforgiving ambition. The characters are well-developed, their ideals constantly challenged, and their arcs woven tightly into the broader narrative.

At the heart of it all are two young boys, each with a dream that will change the world, their journey filled with intense hardships, powerful enemies, soaring victories, and crushing defeats. Through them, we witness both the beauty and the brutality of warfare, sometimes as a romanticized spectacle, but also as a force that shapes nations and breaks men.

As former Navy SEAL and DEVGRU operator Andy Stumpf once said:

"The most horrible things I’ve seen have been in war, but also the most beautiful ones."

Kingdom captures this duality better than any other manga. It’s not just a story, it’s an experience. And for those drawn to the complex dance of war and statecraft, it’s nothing short of essential.

To start it off, I have no problem saying Kingdom is one of the greatest manga out right now. With all the incredible writing, breath-taking action, and page turning intensity, you'd think this manga would be more popular. But alas with poor anime adaptions and a lack of a proper English release, I guess this series is destined to remain underground, which is unfortunate because that means so many people are missing out on how truly fantastic this series is. To give a cliffnotes version of what this story is about. We have an orphan boy named Shin who has a dream of becoming the greatestgeneral in China. So he goes through many a battlefield with his ragtag group of friends, raking up achievements and getting closer and closer to his dreams of unifying China and becoming the greatest general ever.

Seems simplistic, right? Something you've seen or read a million times? Well you'd be wrong. While the basic premise might be something you're familiar with, the power of any story is in it's execution and what really makes a series unique is how it develops its characters and themes throughout the course of its narrative which Kingdom does brilliantly. This series is set in the Warring States Period of China with is characters and setting based around real history. And while it's basic story beats follow the actual historical timeline, this series is more of a dramatic retelling than a realistic account, something that actually benefits this story greatly(which I'll explain later). So the story follows Shin and his best friend Sei, the current king, as they attempt to do the unthinkable and finally unite China and end the 500 years of warfare that's plagued its land.

[STORY]

~The Warfare~

Now this story is essentially told through the multiple large scale battles that were key for the state of Qin's unification conquests of China. Somthing which coincides with the dreams of its main cast. This is definitely the selling point of the series as the war battles are some of the most intense and nail biting I've ever seen done in an entertainment medium. Usually when you watch war battles in movies or even other anime, it boils down to essentially each side giving their dramatic speech about glory and honor before they finally charge each other in a mindless blaze of glory as we watch the main characters cut down swathes of enemies in heroic fashion.

While there's nothing wrong with that and can be quite entertaining if done correctly, it never truly sat right with me. It seemed like they were missing a key and important element in warfare that nearly never gets represented in other narratives, which is STRATEGY and TACTICS. While many might bore you in the lead up to the battle with superficial Scrubs type dialogue filled with meaningless "strategic" mumble jumbo that doesn't really mean anything or is even followed up on during the battle itself; Kingdom is the one series that really incorporates strategic and tactical warfare and manages to weave it into its narrative that feels equally fun and engaging in a way that glues you to the page, eagerly exited for what happens next.

The way Kingdom shows warfare in its narrative is very unique and is something that really sets this series apart and makes it special. Each major story arc is based around a large scale campaign which, from beginning to end is a strategic chess match between both opposing generals. A campaign in Kingdom can cover many aspects of warfare from siege battles, guerilla warfare, and just straight up pitch battles where each side faces off against each other on an open plain.

For a series which relies on the success and excitement of each battle, it pulls it off really well. Each campaign arc feels freshly unique, exciting, and tense while developing the characters and theme of the manga throughout. One thing that keeps each battle different and unique is it's emphasis on how much the battle relies on each sides general. In this series a general isn't just some random guy who motivates his troops and gives basic orders. Each general in the series has very unique characteristics and styles of warfare that never feels the same as any other.

Each general approaches a battle differently which is one of the many things that keeps the reader on his toes, never knowing what's gonna happen next. If you read/watched Hunter x Hunter, then you'll absolutely love this aspect of Kingdom. Because just like that series, this mangaka knows how to capture the tactical nuance that involves two extremely intelligent individuals with different approaches to battle trying to figure each other out. While Kingdom doesn't have crazy abilities or interesting super powers, the author does an amazing job at capturing the different approaches each general brings to the battlefield.

If you're still having trouble imagining the sheer amount of epicness that goes on during a Kingdom arc; Imagine the grand scale of One Piece's Marineford arc or a Lord of the Rings Battle sequence, the strategic planning and tactical nuance that goes on in the Hunter x Hunter narrative, and the sheer epicness of the hand to hand combat and warfare carnage of a 300 battle scene.

Yes, that's Kingdom.

~Themes~

Now, what truly sets a series apart from any other is how the series carries out and executes its main themes. It's one thing that Kingdom also excels at. One of the main themes of the series is yes, the generic follow your dreams trope we've seen in many series before it. However like I said before and I'll emphasize now, it's not necessarily the IDEAS that make a story special but the EXECUTION that sets it apart.

With the main character, Kingdom sets up an underdog story about a poor orphan servant named Shin who has big dreams and is willing to put everything on the line for it. Every underdog story needs two main things to truly work; One - you need to feel like they're an underdog and Two - their eventual triumph needs to be worked for and feel believable. These are two aspects that Kingdom definitely hits out of the park.

Shin aims to be a general and not just any general, the greatest general ever. Throughout the series we see many highly intelligent and amazing generals that make Shin look like a grain of sand in the ocean, however throughout each of his campaigns he continually proves to the characters and the reader alike why his dream is not just a dream and something that he is going to make work in a way that is realistic but also manages to surprise and amaze us every time.

However, in that journey of chasing his dreams, manifests another major theme in the manga; what it means to be a general, a man who leads armies, who strikes fear into his enemies but also inspires his allies. Like I mentioned before, each general is different and approaches warfare from their own unique way but one thing that all generals share in common is how important they are on the battlefield and to the soldiers they are in charge of. It takes a lot to get to the point of general, like managing to survive through harsh battlefields, developing trust and comraderie with your men, and shouldering the burden of all those who were lost during your path to glory.

Shin learns all of these lessons through each of his campaigns, strengthing his character as he loses comrades on the way and strives to protect the comrades he still has. Each arc not only adds to the character development but also strengthens the themes of the narrative and makes Shin's dream of becoming general all the more impactful and important to the reader.

The last major theme, shows itself in Shin's best friend and sort of co-main character Sei. He is the current king of Qin(the nation that Shin and co represent) and dreams to end the 500 years of warfare that have plagued China's lands through military conquest. What makes this themes execution amazing is that while at first we are met with the good merits of the dream, ending warfare and bringing peace to the land.

However as you go further in the series the dream gets challenged by the author and the characters alike as they question what that dream truly entails. We soon realize that Sei's dream isn't as virtuous as you may initially think. It involves destroying every other state through a few short years of horrendous warfare in sacrifice for a hopeful centuries of no war in the future. Sei is met with opposition to this idea by kings and officials of other nations whose lives and countries are at stack because of this idea and even members of Qin's court who are horrified by all the death and violence that are going to come when this vision becomes enforced.

This brings nuance and depth to something that very well could've been a black and white, shonen styled dream. It's things like this that make Kingdom the mature and dynamic series that it is.

~World Building~

Another aspect of storytelling that Kingdom nails out of the park is how it crafts it's worlds and how it represents the political and military situations between each state in China. As stated before, the strength of the generals in this series are extremely important to not only the battles but how they represent the military might of their state. It allows you to really understand the strengths of the different states that are vying for supremacy in China.

Just like how One Piece sets up important characters and power groups that represent the different power structures that help hype up future engagements, Kingdom does this as well. It establishes the important and powerful generals and states early on so that when we get to those engagements there's already a level of hype and attachment involved, creating that excitement that Kingdom consistently generates.

[CHARACTERS]

~Main Cast~

With its great level of depth in its warfare and thematic storytelling it also has some pretty damn cool characters. At first glance it's main character Shin may seem like a standard shounen protagonist type with the whole dumbass with big dreams and a heart of gold troupe that we've seen so many times, however, the harsh choices he's forced to make mature realities he faces in this Seinen manga, allows him to be so much more than that. This series has heroic and exciting war battles but it never shies away from the true reality and darkness of warfare. With the nature of this series it really forces a level of maturity and intrigue that you don't really see in the main characters of many shonen series. Many times Shin is forced to develop and mature as he loses comrades, narrowly escapes death, or faces the harsh reality of the murder and rape that follows citizens of conquered cities. He comes a long way from his childish self and it's a journey that's really worth seeing.

I just realized that this review has gone on for way too long, so I'm just gonna wrap it up by saying that the main supporting cast is also fantastic with a lot of depth that complements Shin well. They get enough attention to get you to care but not enough to take away from the story and the generals of the series are some of the most exciting and unique character types that really keep this manga exciting and worth watching.

This is easily my favorite manga and I recommend anyone to give it a chance. Easily the most underrated manga out right now.

Kingdom is one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written. The arcs the fights the characters the art everything is master class there is no lack of action of intensity in any given arc. The story is unpredictable not forcing you to pick sides showing you the terrors of war. Shin is a beautifully written main character and maybe seen as a nuisance at times but he is truly one of the greatest developed characters in all of manga history. This is the perfect war manga and a great read for anyone looking for a long yet rewarding story. I 100% with all myheart recommend kingdom to anyone who is interested or may be in the future.

This is THE MANGA, for people who grew up playing things like Dynasty warriors, who know the story of the Three Kingdoms so well they want something similar yet, different, so we go back in time even further to experience the Warring states period. I LOVE THIS MANGA. The art the characters. I'm just about finished with the coming of age arc for the second time(I got about this far before droping it). I wish the story was a bit faster, it seems like a lot of promotions of the characters are just fillers for the main event, and what long fillers they are...