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Kingdom Manga Gets Its 1st Stage Play Next February

TOHO announced on Monday that it is producing the first stage play adaptation of Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom manga. The production will run at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre in February 2023.

Hara's historical manga began with the slave boy Xin and his dream of becoming a great general for the state of Qin. Xin helps Ying Zheng, the young Qin king who shares his desire to unify China, rise to power within the state. Xin does all he can to become a superior commander of an army capable of defeating the Seven Warring States.

The record-setting manga launched in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine in 2006. Shueisha published the 64th compiled book volume on February 18. Hara said he is considering writing up to 100 volumes. A television anime adaptation premiered in 2012, and a second season premiered in 2013. Funimation streamed the series in North America and released both anime on DVD in 2016.

The third anime series based on Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom manga premiered on NHK General in April 2020. The anime's production committee announced later that month that it was delaying the broadcast of the series' episode 5 and later episodes due to the Japanese government's first state of emergency against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The third series resumed airing on NHK General in April 2021. The anime restarted its airing from the first episode.

The anime's fourth season will premiere on NHK General on April 9 at 24:00 (effectively April 10 at 12:00 a.m.).

The first live-action film adaptation of the manga opened in Japan in April 2019. Funimation screened the film at Anime Expo in July 2019, and began screening the film in theaters in the United States and Canada in August 2019. The sequel film, Kingdom II: Harukanaru Daichi e (To Distant Lands), will open in Japan this summer.

Source: Comic Natalie