Spoiler Free Kingdom Review Kingdom is currently one of the most popular manga in Japan but it is not as well known outside of Japan compared to other big popular series. I am going to split this review into pros and cons.PROS STORYLets get started with the pros first thing is the story from a outside view looking in you might think to yourself a manga about Ancient Chinese history and warfare doesn’t sound too appealing but this is actually its biggest strength. The main plot is that the setting is Ancient China and there are 7 States with the State of Qin being the home to our protagonists. Shin is a orphan who wants to become a Great General which is the highest military rank and Ei Sei is the crown prince of Qin and his goal is to unite all the States of China into one to end the age of warfare and usher peace throughout the lands. So throughout the series we see Shin trying to rise through the ranks to reach his goal of Great General by participating in numerous campaigns and eventually lead his own army and Qin is trying to capture key cities and areas to allow them to expand their territory. One of the best parts of Kingdom are the arcs in between the wars which revolve around politics as we find out during the 1st arc that even though Ei Sei is in line to be the next king he has 2 other ppl he also has to overcome that stand in his way to become king and that gets very intense. Back to the war arcs they are done very well as actual strategy is involved and explained that just makes you go wow. ARTNext the art is phenomenal Yasuhisa Hara is not only a good storyteller he is an amazing artist the art is very detailed and improves drastically after the first couple arcs you can literally feel the weight of the blows and clashes between the characters through the page. CHARACTERSNow I am gonna talk about 3 characters Ousen, Kanki, and Kyoukai. Ousen is a General from Qin and he is one of the smartest characters in the series he outmaneuvers the enemy army numerous times with very elaborate plans that he sets up far in advance. Kanki is also a General from Qin and he is a very cunning character and his army doesn’t operate like a traditional army as he was a former bandit and all under him are former bandit clans as well he likes to destroy his enemies morale through fear and torture as well as using unorthodox methods to win his wars he is just such a badass character that even though some may not like him you have to respect him. Kyoukai is from an assassin clan and her character at first is all about revenge but afterwards she gets amazing character development. Another thing is about the characters that are outside Qin from the other States, they may be enemies but the backstories for a lot of them and when they die it makes a small part of you sympathize with them and understand that they are also fighting for their own beliefs, dreams and home States and citizens.CONSNow on to the cons the main character Shin has a lot of plot armor but tbh that is most series obviously the mc will have plot armor but Shin is very strong or gets strong at a fast rate but this was not really a problem for me as he worked hard to get there and went through numerous battles he also trained a lot even before he joins the Qin military. The other con is a lot of the arcs are long for example some arc lengths are 65 chapters, 60 chapters the longest arc is 146 chapters this might be a problem for some people as they might struggle to finish some arcs there are some really short arcs as well but majority of the big arcs are lengthy but because of this length I feel that once you finish an arc its more impactful also the author has enough time and chapters to include everything he wants so it doesn’t feel half-assed and rushed.

There are many more things I could have dived way more deeply into like more story characters and even themes and relationships but I would like everyone who reads this review to experience it themselves and the brilliance of Kingdom.

Summary It has top tier action, worldbuilding, very good themes and different perspectives, great buildup and evokes emotion and gets better over time.
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