Forum - View topicKingdom (TV).
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Season 01: Kingdom (TV) Season 02: Kingdom (TV 2) (discussion starts here) Season 03: Kingdom (TV 3) (discussion starts here) Season 04: Kingdom (TV 4) (discussion starts here) Season 05: Kingdom (TV 5) (discussion starts here) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 71 volumes, by Yasuhisa Hira) Demographic: Seinen Animation Studio: Season 01: Pierrot Season 02: Pierrot Season 03: Pierrot, Studio Signpost Season 04: Pierrot, Studio Signpost Season 05: Pierrot, Studio Signpost Genres: action, drama, thriller Themes: aristocracy, China, coming-of-age, conspiracy, duels, historical, medieval, military, power struggle, royalty, strategy, tactics, tragedy, war Plot Summary: In the Warring States Period of ancient China (475-221 BCE), Shin and Hyou are war-orphans in the kingdom of Qin. They dream of one day proving themselves on the battlefield. One day, however, Hyou is taken to the palace by a minister. Winding up on the losing side of a power-struggle, Hyou manages to return to the village, barely alive. Shin then meets a boy who closely resembles Hyou, Ei Sei. For now he is the king of Qin; later he will become the emperor Shi Huangdi. Air Date & Platform: Season 01: June 4, 2012 (Monday) Available on: Crunchyroll Season 02: June 8, 2013 (Saturday) Available on: Crunchyroll Season 03: April 4, 2021 (Sunday) Available on: Crunchyroll Season 04: April 9, 2022 (Saturday) Available on Crunchyroll Season 05: January 13, 2024 (Saturday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: Season 01: 38 episodes Season 02: 39 episodes Season 03: 26 episodes Season 04: 26 episodes Season 05: 13 episodes Total: 142 episodes ---------------------------------- There are a lot of annoying things about this anime, but the most annoying is the leading character. Not only by the way he behaves himself, but on the voice alone, which expresses only screams. Also, the anime leads to the idea that sometime in the future this leading character is supposed to become the greatest general ever, but so far there is no deepness, cleverness and subtlety in the way he acts and he is depicted overall. Voice actor makes believing in this character utterly impossible. Among many more minor annoyances is the fact that the character and his group stay ragamuffins just for the sake of recognizability through the anime, which is a cheap move by authors. Another annoying thing about this anime is how superpowerful characters, including the main one, always go powerless against new enemies/competitors, which basically nullifies not only their strength, but also strength of all of those whom they have defeated earlier in the series. This is common issue for all power level-up anime, but in this one this is done in such an obvious, dumb way that can not avoid face-palming on authors. Owl-girl is also more annoying than cute. That said, other characters in are much better. Some of them are interesting and not embarrassing at all. Overall, the story has its strong moments of well thought intricacy, so I could recommend this anime to everyone who could bear through the unbearable leading character and other stupidity. [EDIT: Fancy opener stuff added. -TK] Last edited by MaxSouth on Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I gave up on Kingdom after only a few episodes. The horrible CG faces were highly off-putting, but I could have tolerated them had there actually been any worthwhile characters or an interesting story. You are right in that the lead is very annoying, but it is unfortunate that he is not the most annoying Anime lead male I have ever seen and heard. Still, he is pretty bad.
Here is what I have preciously written about the show: Interesting idea, horrid execution. That's all I can about the faces that these characters have. The motion capture is shoddy, the mouths are disturbing and the eyes are plain creepy. If you don't know what the Uncanny Valley is, well here is a good example. It undoubtedly cost the show at least one grade and possibly two, that's how awfully distracting it was. Now, the show wouldn't have been so bad if the fundamentals of story and characters were okay, but they too were found lacking. The story was pretty basic and displayed nothing of interest. Pacing was also pretty jarring. The characters were the true problem though, with Shin being so loud and dense so as to be obnoxious, and that evil prince came across as a twerp with attitude problems who just needs to get laid. It is nice to try something different, but for god's sake, at least do it well enough that you can be proud of it. Those faces - those MOUTHS - could give small children nightmares. |
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casualfan
Posts: 333 |
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I actually watched the entirety of Kingdom from season 1 and still following season 2. I just like the politics and warfare. Even episode that's mostly about diplomacy can be quite intense.
Xin's loud mouth is quite annoying, but I enjoy his 'don't give a f*ck' attitude that just collides with the traditional era the anime is set in. So now I can't wait for him to become some super general shonen style and just ravage all the other kingdoms. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11600 |
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I couldn't tell - are you just voicing your running complaints or did you give up on it at some point? This last episode was amazing.
Anyway, my own experience is that: 1) it was hard to get past the cg animation, and the fact that the king-to-be looked like Michael Jackson. Some of the other character designs were just plain hideous as well. By somewhere around the 20s I think, the look started to improve, to the point where I was actually liking it by the end of the first series. Ironically, in Kingdom 2, they seem to have submitted to the complaints (and/or got more money) and there is much less cg, but now the character designs of everybody are so ugly, I'm longing for the old look. 2) It's driving me crazy that no one can seem to agree on any of the names. I think I've seen 5 different spellings of Shin's group, and to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure his name is Shin, since it's been spelled several ways in the subs and none of them match what I'm hearing the characters say. That's always an issue when doing Chinese history in anime, but it's completely out of control in this one. 3) I too was not a fan of Shin's constant yelling and stupidity, but he does grow out of that a bit once he starts participating in real, full-scale battles, and not the melee skirmishes that made up the first half of the first series. He still yells, but he also has begun to stop and reflect on things, and his yelling is often in the service of rallying his men. He really has shown a lot of character growth, and I expect that to continue. 4) It took me over 20 episodes for this to really get its hooks in me. I thought it was somewhat interesting in the beginning, enough to stick with it, then it got very interesting and I'd enjoy each episode, but it was still mired too much in shounen tropeland to make me think much about it after watching it, and then it suddenly turned into can't wait until the next episode, can't wait for next season. While waiting for K2, I went back and watched from the beginning, and found the whole thing much more enjoyable without all my previous reservations getting in the way. Still too much yelling in the beginning though. 
One turning point for me was the episode where they were (spoiler for episode 13) spoiler[storming the castle, and Shin is helping/dragging one of the mountain warriors to their next battle while telling him about his life and ambitions, asking him about his family. He finally realizes the man has died.] There was something so moving about that scene that it really got to me. Maybe because for once he wasn't yelling.  But it's probably one of the most memorable spoiler[nameless cannon-fodder deaths] I've ever seen.
I also like that they've been able to take their time in showing Shin's growth. He is insufferable and always going off half-cocked in the beginning, but he's learning. You don't become a shogun leading thousands of troops overnight. On that note, it's not a cop-out that his troops are still in rags. They're foot soldiers, even in his distinguished group, and without nobilty or money to back them up, they stay that way (what Shin is attempting was simply not done). Armor is paid for by the soldiers themselves (Shin managed to buy some because of his extra reward for successful head-hunting), weapons are bring-your-own, and they barely get paid enough if they survive to send back to support their families. They're considered so expendable that it would be a waste of war funds to give them armor and weapons. And if I can enjoy those spectacular super-powered war horses, I can overlook the magical healing properties of the fabric. 
Sorry for the long post, but I usually feel like I'm the only one outside of Japan who's watching this (they must be watching or there wouldn't be over 40 episodes - and they couldn't have pulled off the Social Kingdom record-setting manga event ).
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Cam0
 Posts: 4927 |
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I felt like Kingdom was pretty good although it was definitely difficult to get into at first. I guess the odd use of CG was the most off-putting aspect of Kingdom. Sometimes they'd use CG for like conversation scenes and then traditional animation (whatever you call it) for fight scenes, sometimes it was the otherway around though. And they'd just go back and forth between CG and animation. Doesn't make any sense. Like they'd run out of money and receive more money during the making of a single episode.
I didn't find Xin to be that annoying. I just didn't mind him, I guess my brains were off most of the time. The superpowerful characters ruined bit of the show for me. Since it has actual war with armies facing off each other it just felt wrong when there were these guys protected by whatever high spiritual power that made them invulnerable to weaker enemies and they could just take on literally hunders of them all by themselves.
Funny it has that Bleach-like aspect, but the main character is like Naruto, but with Ichigos voice actor. wtf |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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And now, in the 7-9th episodes of the second season: spoiler[
1. the future king is made to be completely insane and only meant for mental hospital, not to rule; 2. Contrary to what is depicted, no, no matter how much one gets beaten, sences do not disappear; 3. Having (literal) senses or not is unrelated to person's ability to be king at all; depiction of future king's doubts because of this issue makes him incredibly stupid; 4. Emotions such as liking the moon have nothing to do with whether person feels senses or not; future king's savior is made to be fool, too; 5. there is no way to treat mentally disabled person with just saying that their delusions are not real; 6. ghost's fake dilemmah on whether future king should "sleep" "in the darkness" along or not is shown to give some doubts to him -- even though it is obvious that he would be killed if he would not try to fight for the throne anyway -- what even further shows how stupid the future king is. Xeng probably has medical condition, dementia.] One lame BS after another, everyone is made to be an idiot, and viewers are treated likewise. Cheap psychodrama does not look believable at all. All I have from this is rolling eyes and endless facepalms. This show would better stick with military tactics and strategy, not this. Otherwise it looks pathetic. Also, whole idea that spoiler[king as child was at enemy state with his personality was exposed and not bing killer, tortured to death] is an utter BS. Authors were too stupid and/or lazy to come up with better story than that. Also, spoiler[woman's reasons for saving future king are not quite adequate, too: 1. she and her friends were not saved with saviour risking his life (later episode when he did risk his life and died from that is not personal); 2. her saviour did not selfishly risked life of his friends; 3. unlike her, nor he was making his own saviour's act waste by basically killing himself; 4. unlike her, nor he was aiding the enemy state while at that.] Finally, the zombie-talk in the end spoiler[long-dead woman savior shown giving her wordy fare-well speech], is a typical abuse. As well as spoiler[future king shown to be surpised and angry at her death, even though it makes no sense as that outcome would be only the most obvious in the world. More adequate reaction would be sadness. It looks like the future king is mentally ill of dementia even after being "healed" of his double personality and delusions.] |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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In episode #10 and in prior episodes, authors introduce stupid looking, empty-headed spoiler[woman main character, which is supposed to be soul mate/love interested of the young king. She is depicted to be so dumb with those petty useless talks that she even gets almost killed because she was repeating aloud the stuff she has just heard by eavesdropping on conversation between Queen Dowager and Chancellor. The girl portrayed to have dementia, even though authors mean her to be just shy girl.]
Last edited by MaxSouth on Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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one piece's Oda said he loves the Kingdom manga
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11600 |
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Unnecessary spoilers added, in case people think real history is spoilage.
If I understand what you're saying here, I'm not sure you realize that Qin Shi Huangdi (born Zhao Zheng, Ei Sei in the anime) was a real person. He was indeed spoiler[born in the state of Zhao and kept as a hostage there to keep the peace. Although he was treated badly there due to the rage over captured Zhao soldiers being buried alive after the battle of Changping as shown in the series, "bad treatment" may be a relative term. I think they were just not treated with the respect due their status while in the Zhao court. At any rate, Huangdi felt he was treated badly and took it out on Zhao later on.] So while the authors spiced things up quite a bit, they didn't make up the whole situation. And well, Huangdi, he of the spoiler[Terra Cotta Army, really was a bit crazy (maybe Mad Hatter crazy in his later years, since he was taking mercury pills in an effort to gain immortality). He did some great things for China, but he did some really heinous things as well.]
I have to agree with you on that one. I was facepalming pretty hard when I saw that, and it was so easily fixed with just not moving her mouth and making it her thoughts. spoiler[The eunuch would still have stabbed her since it was apparent she could have overheard], but there was no reason to make it so obvious. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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In episodes ##12-13 some heroes are pictured to see and comment on battle that absolutely impossible to be seen from where they stand. They also wonderfully capable to hear what is going on there. And those who participate in battle able to talk to each other, though it is impossible in all that noise.
Those series have a lot of smartness in it, but it always ruined by incredible stupidity that authors add to it. Last edited by MaxSouth on Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Gina: thanks for the input. "Real history" and depicted here are still too different, and this is the reason why this anime's version looks stupid. spoiler[In "real" history Zheng never was hidden, undercover or on the run in Zhao, so whole drama in this anime is nonsense. Zheng's role in Zhao was a guarantee that interstate agreements will work. Granted, he probably had cold attitude from people Zhao, but he had servants and full pension; no similar to anime.] Authors could work harder on this.
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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What an utter nonsense episodes #14-15 were: there is no way how openly adversarial military warrior would just come up spoiler[the camp of an army and kill several generals.]
Authors of this anime seriously think that viewers are idiots, and/or authors are too lazy and/or too stupid to come up with anywhere sane row of events to portray. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11600 |
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I'm still mystified as to how you got the idea that this series ever intended to be realistic in any way.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11600 |
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Heh, well now we know why he's been shouting throughout 55 episodes.
Not a half-bad welcome speech though.
I'm also really enjoying Shin and Kyou Kai's relationship. Even though they're both starting to be aware of each other at a male/female level, it doesn't get in the way. I hope it stays that way, without one or the other suddenly needing to protect the other from everything. |
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dan7el
 Posts: 111 Location: Albany, NY |
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What! Kingdom has an anime? Where have I been? I just started reading the manga. The 12-year old boy inside me is loving the pure burning shonen screaming power of Shin. He just has to want it more and try harder. AARGH!
I am going to watch this now! I just hope his voiced is not as annoying as the English Raki's voice from Claymore. Please. No! |
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