Kingdom 2nd Season

Intro: This 2nd season is both better and worse than season 1, but overall it is weaker.

Anime vs. Manga character names:
King Zhen = Ei Sei
Xin = Shin
Qiang Lei = Kyou Kai
Li Mu = Riboku
Wang Qi = Ou Ki
Meng Wu = Moubu
Fei Xin Unit = Hi Shin Unit
... He Liao Dao = Karyo Ten
Lian Po = Renpa

Story: 7/10
The story picks up where season 1 left, revolving around Xin and Zheng starting to act on their plan of uniting all of China. It follows the power struggle between the King Zheng and the right chancellor as well as Xin's successful military career.
This 2nd season has a bit more flaws and plot holes but it is just as enjoyable as the 1st season.

Some flaws and plot holes I remember:
1. The creators wasted 5 episodes showing Zheng's past instead 1 episode, which would have been much better.
2. How did Zheng's mother become The Harem Queen?
3. The generals are more OP than ever.
4. How did Lian Po smash as huge boulder with his polearm?
5. Zheng's maind getting pregnant is unexpected and not suited to the show. I don't remember seeing the king be romantically involved with her. Let's just throw a "Oh, by the way, I'm pregnant" and then continue like nothing happened. Probably the chancellor is going to assasinate the maid causing Zheng to act irrationally.
6. Why not stop the great general's advance by cutting the horse's legs?
7. These horses seem indestructible when ridden by a general or the MC.
8. Why did an entire unit stop in the middle of a war to talk about Qiang Lei's past?
9. Why does Xin not wear the armor he bought in season 1?
10. How are Xin's clothes the same form season 1, after being cut and tworn apart and Xin getting taller they fit perfectly?


Characters: 5/10
The characters are failry generic but they are decently characterized and get some development.
It is upsetitng to see how inferior Xin is, intelligence wise and the fact that he is no getting any smarter make being a great general a hard thing to achieve. Xin is still giving me cringe reactions when he says/has stupid reactions.
The support characters are better this season, they are better characterized.
The relation between Xin and Qian Lei develops more and more which is a good thing.


Animation: 7/10
The animation is fluid and the art is nice but the utter lack of gore/blood is awfull.

Sound: 7/10
The opening theme is good, the ending theme is nice and the OST is well suited to the tone of the show, the voice actors do a good job as well. The result is an overall good sound experience.

Enjoyment: 7/10
This 2nd season is more entertaining than 1st season, with better animation and better fight scenes combined with a good plot.

Overall: 6.3/10
In the end, Kingdom succeeded in doing its job of entertaining the viewer. I recommend completing this series, season 1 and season 2.

Kingdom 2nd Season (Dub) Review

Story (6/10) Fair
More Specifically (6.75/10) Fair+

Majority of the story that was being adapted from the manga stayed intact, but sadly since once again this is being adapted by probably my most hated animation studio, Studio Perriot they can't do a manga justice 9 times out of 10 they never do. Just like the first season certain smaller but still important arcs were either rushed or skipped over. And to add insult to injury Studio Perriot had the audacity to add filler to series with a already has a ridiculous amount of canon source materiel to be adapted anyway. Non-canon flashback filler ... which seemed like a poor attempt to further deepen the characterization of one of the main characters. Sadly the flashback filler I felt was extremely boring, intrusion to the canon source material (which certain wasn't lacking) and not needed one bit in my opinion. For further elaboration on the anime adaptation not doing the manga justice I'll explain more in the enjoyment section.

Art and Animation (5/10) Mediocre
More Specifically (5.50/10) Mediocre

If there's one thing you've probably heard about Season 2 of Kingdom is that "it's far better than Season one, oh it's night and day". This statement is not true, if Season 1 was night then Season 2 is like sunset. Everyone knows the absolute main reason why this overall adaptation sucks and it's because of the horrible and intrusive combination of CG anime and handdrawn artstyle that Studio Perriot decided to go with. Is the CG less consistent in comparison to Season 1 like they say? Yes. But is it gone? No. Is there far more handdrawn than CG? Yes. But during the more important scenes is this handdrawn artyle consistently present? No it is not and that's probably one of my biggest gripes about Season 2 of Kingdom, hell this entire adaptation. It's the fact that absolutely no scene that I thought was amazing in the manga was adapted satisfyingly well in this anime. And that's sad because this is one thing you would assume an anime watcher would have over a manga reader is the fact that they get to enjoy ANIMATION and not just any animation GOOD ANIMATION. Not what this adaptation offers which was basically some of the worst CG I've ever seen in anime, some decent handdrawn scenes during basically scenes that had no animation what so ever and when there is a fight scene let's basically do the entire fight scenes in colored slide shows with sound or just combine it with horrible CG.


Sound (Dub) (6/10) Meh
More Specifically (6.75/10) Meh+

Knowing how many episodes I had to bare though I couldn't find myself watching it in sub although to be quite far that's definitely the superior one out of the two if you asked me and why is that? Well it's because for the most part the english dub acting behind this adaptation sucks really badly. Voice actors chosen for the characters sound like they should but for the most part they sound like they are reading from their script and pausing in the middle of lines and it is completely noticeable when it happens and destroys any immersion you possibly were holding on to. The only reason the category even reaches the realm of a 6 is because that opening theme song was great, I never skipped it and sadly was the most enjoyable part of this entire anime, once the opening ends that's where it for the most part became a dread to watch sadly.


Characters (7/10) Good

The characters just like the story for the most part were adapted ok enough none of them had their personalities changed during this adaptation. Now going back to the english dub voice acting for a bit if there's anything that'll make you not like a character it might be that but if you're watching in sub then you probably didn't have this issue. Censorship which I'll take about more in the next category does kind of hurt certain characters because it does take away the presentation of how brutal this character was meant to be portrayed when it a scene is completely changed for censorship purposes.


Enjoyment (4/10) Bad

My enjoyment like I said ended when the anime opening ended and that's a very bad thing to say. Like I said earlier and I can't stress this enough I can't remember off the top of my head any pivotal moment that was in the manga that I thought was amazing or hype done well to any degree in this adaptation within it's 39 episode run. It was either ruined by censorship, modified, CG or worse of all, all three all at the same time. This is what happens when a great Seinen manga is adapted by a company that can't and would go anywhere near the lengths that the manga did. You can tell they only grabbed this manga series to adapt because it was raising in popularity in Young Jump and just like Tokyo Ghoul which is also in Young Jump and has it's anime being adapted by Perriot is garbage thanks for ruining my enjoyment once again Perriot.


Overall (6/10) Fine i guess but for me still disappointing

I rated the manga a 9.65/10 and ranked it in my top 5 favorite manga of all time, I love the Kingdom manga it's phenomenal please go read it. This Season 2 ended right before what people consider the best arc in the series (at the time) and to be honest thank god that didn't adapt it because I don't think I can watch one of my favorite manga series be turn to shit anymore than I already have. Going from a 9.65/10 to a 6.00/10 is a massive drop and should say more than just something. And to be honest giving this anime a 6.00/10 is being massively generous because I know if you haven't read the manga but have watched this anime you probably fairly enjoyed this garbage because you have no clue why the manga is rated as high as it is on this site, just like how I have no clue how this anime adaptation can muster over an 8.00/10 on this site. Is it better than Season 1? Yeah but that's not saying much since season one is a steaming pile of doo-doo butter with only the music carrying it. Just go read the manga please, Studio Perriot go fuck yourself.

Kingdom's manga is my favourite ongoing manga lately but it's anime adaptation is almost a complete fail. Don't let yourself fooled by it's high rating!
The first 15 episode were great, unlike it's previous season. Whether it is momentum , Shin's battle cry or the serious story telling narrator that you like, i know that you won't respond well after watching the more latest new episodes
as the animation will get a lot worse then Kingdom S1! As the way you see how those soldiers & characters move in battle it will only ruin your mood.
~Overall~
As a fair warning there are a few arcs that ... aren't faithfull to the original works!
And that's why my comrads all dropped this anime...
Considering that i don't know much about other historical animes, i only know much about hisorical mangas which i would like to recommend:
- Historie
- Shoukoku no Altair
- Kingdom
- Vinland Saga