Kingdom

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: キングダム

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Jan 26, 2006 to ?

Genres: Action, Award Winning

Themes: Historical, Military

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Jump

Authors: Hara, Yasuhisa (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 9.01¹ (scored by 63,339 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #13²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #54

Members: 175,493

Favorites: 15,494

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@kingdom_yj

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9.01

Ranked #13Popularity #54Members 175,493

MangaYoung JumpHara, Yasuhisa (Story & Art)

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Synopsis

During the Warring States period in China, Xin and Piao are two brother-like youngsters who dream of becoming Great Generals, despite their low status as orphaned slaves. One day, they encounter a man of nobility, who gives Piao an opportunity to undertake an important duty within the state of Qin's royal palace. Parting ways, Xin and Piao promise each other to one day become the greatest generals in the world. However, after a fierce coup d'état occurs in the palace, Xin meets with a dying Piao, whose last words spur him into action and lead him to encounter the young and soon-to-be king of Qin, Zheng Ying.

Although initially on bad terms, Xin and Zheng become comrades and start on a path filled with trials and bloodshed. Zheng's objective is to bring all the warring states under Qin, and Xin seeks to climb to the very top of the army ranks. Against a backdrop of constant tactical battle between states and great political unrest, both outside and within the palace, the two endeavor towards their monumental ambitions that will change history forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

In 2013, Kingdom was awarded the 17th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Grand Prize. As of April 2017, the series has sold 30 million copies.

On December 12, 2012, the series won a Guinness World Record for manga written by the most people. The record was made possible due to its Social Kingdom Campaign, where artists, fans, and voice actors redrew the entire 26th volume. Each participant picked and redrew one frame; the top 100 would be given a special edition of the manga. Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Hirohiko Araki (JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken), and many others were among the participants.

A live-action movie of Kingdom was released on April 19, 2019, a second one on July 15, 2022, a third one on July 28, 2023, and a fourth one on July 12, 2024.

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Related Entries

More characters
Characters

Xin

Main

Lei, Qiang

Main

Ying, Zheng

Main

He Liao, Diao

Main

Wang, Qi

Supporting

Huan, Yi

Supporting

Wang, Jian

Supporting

Gong, Biao

Supporting

Li, Mu

Supporting

Meng, Tian

Supporting

Reviews

Jul 10, 2024

splashlattae

Recommended

Preliminary (800/? eps)

Kingdom is set during the Warring States period in China, an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, bureaucratic and military reform, and political consolidation. The war has left seven major warring states: Qin, Han, Wei, Zhao, Chu, and Yan. Essentially, this story is based on real events with real historical figures.

I'll give a brief review of this masterpiece because it truly deserves more attention.

– STORY –
The manga is told through the journey of Shin, a slave who dreams of becoming the greatest general, and the struggles of the King of Qin, Ei Sei, to unify China under Qin's banner. Kingdom successfully balances historical ... accuracy and creative freedom, providing readers with insights into ancient Chinese history while still delivering an engaging and dramatic story. Every event showcases a substantial impact. The narrative is captivatingly constructed with dynamic storytelling techniques that shift between various character perspectives, and this not only enrich the story but also allow readers to grasp the complexities of the unfolding events. Furthermore, the narrative is highly effective in building tension and drama. Yasuhisa Hara masterfully builds climactic and emotionally charged moments.

The pacing of the story is also well-organized, with smooth transitions between intense action scenes and quieter reflective moments. Each chapter is filled with intelligent military strategies, tactics, intrigues, and thrilling epic battles that keep readers on the edge of their seats. The use of strong dialogues and character monologues also helps to portray their inner conflicts and struggles.
This balanced storytelling provides the right proportion of action, military politics, and historical elements, offering a broader and deeper context to the background of the story. This ensures that readers remain engaged without feeling rushed or bored.

– CHARACTERS –
Kingdom has highly diverse characters, each bringing their uniqueness and playing a crucial role in the story with their own motivations and complexities. They all contribute to making the story feel vibrant and realistic. From the spirited protagonist Shin (Xin) with his incredible character development, to Ei Sei (Ying Zheng) with his grand vision and strong leadership, Kyou Kai (Lei Qiang) the prodigy warrior with a tragic backstory and unique fighting abilities, and Kan Ki (Huan Yi) with his ruthless and unconventional war tactics and mysterious background, adding elements of intrigue and tension to the story, to antagonists like Ri Boku (Li Mu) with strong motivations and impressive skills and intelligence. The dynamic relationships between characters add another layer to the overall narrative, making it more touching and keeping readers engaged.

Although the main characters and some important supporting characters often receive significant development, there are still many minor characters who appear but do not get enough depth. This can make some characters feel less memorable or merely supplementary. However, given the large cast, this does not significantly affect the overall progress of the story and is not a major issue for me.

– ART & ILLUSTRATION –
The art style is one of the main strengths of this manga. The illustrations are highly detailed, especially in depicting large-scale battles and character expressions. This enhances the narrative by capturing the intensity and scale of the battles remarkably well, making each scene feel vivid and thrilling. It's truly impressive how they consistently maintain such high-quality art on a weekly basis!

– ENJOYMENT –
This aspect is a bit personal, but Kingdom has always provided an exceptional reading experience up to the 800 chapters at the time this review was made. Historical themes are among my favorites, and this manga has had a significant impact on me as a reader. The balance between mostly accurate historical aspects and the author's creative additions successfully presents an engaging world-building that keeps me hooked on every chapter. The author managed to build tension and develop the story in an intriguing manner.

Okay, this is actually my first ever review, so you might find many flaws there. However, my huge love for this manga has driven me to write this review because, without exaggeration, I feel it would be a shame not to express just how great Kingdom is.

Overall, Kingdom is an extraordinary manga and a must-read for anyone who enjoys historical stories with strong strategic elements.

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Sep 26, 2021

okaaaaay_kee

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (695/? eps)

It's good. It's interesting. The art may probably throw you off a little bit in the beginning but it grows on you. Kingdom is a manga of great exaggeration, whether that b the character design, the gory battles or cutting of several heads in a single stroke. And the art is on of the driving forces in that regard. the story for the most part is just ok. It's really nothing spectacular and it is very predictable at times but it does have its moments. one thing to note is that, while taking basis from the real world history of china, there is a ...

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Aug 18, 2021

duylinhsss

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (400/? eps)

Why is Kingdom trash.

Click bait title. Before you Kingdom fans jump on me like the way Kingdom simplifies warfare and merely depicts waves of soldiers crashing onto each other, let's be patient and think about this question: why do Shin fight? He wanted to become the best general because... he wants to be not poor? He desires to be cool? He wants to stand on top of the world? What motivates him to kill, again and again, respectable people? Well, as the first act went on, it shifted to Shin following Sei's dream of uniting China and ends the chaos. That sounds good, right?

Let ... me first tell you about the background to the story. I think many who read Kingdom is aware of the history behind it, but not to the extend that they think. Sei, or Zheng actually, is the first emperor of China. His rise to power, as in Kingdom, is full of intrigued. His father, the unexpected king of Qin, passed, and he's on the throne now. Yet the real power behind him, Lu Buwei, a famous historical figure, is rumoured to be Zheng real father, for he gave his concubine to Zheng's father. Lu Buwei's power helped Zheng secured his throne, and later Zheng executed his own brother and his family. I shall call Zheng, Qin Shi Huang or QSH, from now on. QSH, then, using an incident involving his mother, turned against Lu Buwei and removed their faction from his court, through blood. After uniting China, he executed his brutal repression of any other philosophy other than Legalism. He's famous for burning of Confucianist materials, as well as executing their scholars. He ruled China with an iron fist.
That's not all the details about his life, of course. I didn't mention much of the warfare materials that created Kingdom. Kingdom followed QSH's life pretty well, by most standards, included many important events in QSH's life as well as Qin's rise to power. This is why I feel Kingdom was a very bad take on such an important part of history. QSH can be considered the turning point in Chinese history in many ways. The modern CCP's take on how to rule China, is influenced a lot by what happened 2200 years ago. Yet, Kingdom is the Akame ga Kill of Chinese history.
Akame ga Kill is not the first, nor last, nor perhaps even the most famous example of adding violence and death to a shounen to make it more interesting. In the course of doing that, they do a inadvertently reduce the stake of the death occurred. If everyone can die, and it's all very tragic, why were they slashing through tons of people? Aren't those people too? Why is it that during those "chosen" characters death, the series turns into a sombre mood. Yet, outside of that, the death of thousands, hundreds of people are a mere background? Are we suppose to take this seriously or is this a light hearted get stronger fight next opponent kind of story? Kingdom did the exact same thing, only, it added the very important piece of history attached to it.

I want to love Kingdom, I really do. I love historical comics, I love 3 Kingdoms, I love the Warring State, I love the Iliad. To boys, there were something just melancholically exciting about stories of men dying on the battlefield. Kingdom fails completely on that front, and if it was simply trying to bring that genre into a younger audience hands, I think it is completely unnecessary to dumb down the most important period of East Asia into, shounen battle comic.
The battles, the fighting, seems well done. It depicts fighting between thousands of men, duals between generals, strategy, manoeuvres, trickeries are all here and it seems great. However, those are only skin deep. It is not the first nor last to discuss and depict warfare in detail, but it is perhaps the most famous right now. I think a comparison with something like Hawkwood is in order. Hawkwood depicts warfare but in much smaller scale. It is also depicting it more realistically. The soldiers are more important than burly generals riding out to fight on epic 1 on 1. However, because warfare is on a much smaller, realistic scales, effects are much easier to depict. A cavalry charge, flanking, archer, positioning, movement, formation, ambush, weapons, logistics, are all well drawn. This is all in Kingdoms, but it is often mentioned in passing, or sometime ignore completely. That's fine, because if Kingdom is that sort of work, akin to Iliad, then it invites something even worse.

Iliad don't depict warfare realistically. In oral's tradition of the time, Iliad is mostly dramatized, event driven tale of the Trojan War. It seems to be similar to how Kingdom is, half the time. The generals, duking it out, man to man fighting on the front, to decide who's more favoured by the gods. This seems to be shounen-esque, yet, Iliad is taken seriously by everyone. The reason for that is very simple, Iliad is truly an epic with a message, a theme, the encompass the zeitgeist of ancient Greece. Glory, fury, pride, legacy and ultimately, fate are concepts in the Iliad that resonates throughout their world. Iliad depicted glorious generals, going into battle to leave a legacy, yet all fall victim to fate. All of those famous heroes, with passages about their deeds and fame before stepping it, fought valiantly against each other, only for one to kill another. All of that, all of the heroic deeds, all of the training, the fighting, the glory, the blood, the pride of warrior, all of that, so one men can slay another. Iliad, in the end is about the meaninglessness of warfare. The king of Troy, begging an enraged Achilles, to return his son corpse. Even as enemies, they can still respect each other as men in a world rules by fate. It tells the people of the time that, glory in battle might make your mark in history, but true fulfilment lies in forgiveness and peace, not killing on another, even in a world where fate, or the gods, dictate that great men must kill one another, to be great. Kingdom has none of these nuance. The battles between generals are, just that. It doesn't have a theme to encompass the entire warfare of ancient China. It fails to honour the generals that was slain on Shin's path to be the best, because it was written as a shounen, sprinkled with seinen. A math test with some realistic physics scenario added, all skin deep to avoid any realistic complicated consideration of the scenario. For maths, that's fine, because it is meaningless. For historical figures, this is a disrespect to the story and the people that died, leaving the legacy of today's world.

If you are about to tell me that, there's the unexplored middle ground, and that Kingdom fulfils that, I say, go read 3 kingdoms. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, RoTK for short, is the dramatization of the Three Kingdoms period, which takes place at the end of the Han Dynasty. If you are familiar with RoTK, you can immediately spot the similarity between Kingdom and it. RoTK has it all, an epic retelling of events, great generals battling each other on the battlefield, political intrigues, warfare intrigues and manoeuvres, reality of the feudal system, suffering of common people, Confucianism against legalism, and best of all a theme to encompass the spirit of not just the period, but of modern Chinese thoughts in this case. If you are not familiar, well, 3 kingdoms essentially have a few storylines, but it focuses, of course, on fate of the three kingdoms, Wei, Shu, Wu, and their struggle to survive and dominates China. Most of the famous and familiar events took place in the early period, before the formation of the rivalry between the 3 kingdoms. The novel often mentions epic duel between famous warriors like Lubu, but also talking about the personality, the nobleness or wickedness in episodes to portray the characters. It also tells a lot of what happens during campaigns, manoeuvres, tricks or legends of these events. You can almost call it shounen-esque, but again, unlike Kingdom, it has a many message to tell, but the most encompassing one is the cyclical nature of rise and fall. Heroes rise, fall, rise again, just like their kingdoms. No matter how great you are, how much intrigues you performed, how extensive your list of deeds are, you are merely part of the wheel of history. The sacrifice, death, are celebrated, as well as evil deeds condemned. It is a little of a downer, perhaps. But the novel always mention glorifies actions of which are glorious, morally just rather than falling into the cynicism due to the chaos of the time. That's the nature of historical epic. You must never forget to be historical, because these are real lives, lives of those who lived it to the fullest. Reducing it to a shounen struggle to become famous, or to become just, is insulting to historical epics.

So, a supposed historical epic, completely disrespect historical epic, where else are the values of it, other than in simple minded entertainment with history sprinkled on? Could it be, the art? Kingdom art is nice, it's fine. It doesn't look great, it does look stylistic and different, but not in a way that fascinates me. I don't care for its preservation, should aliens come to earth, conquer it and then ordain the burning of comics. That's the best I can say about it.

It's really not a bad comic, after all of this. I can't fault it having bad story, bad characters, bad pacing, bad art. However, all everything it does is average. There's nothing particularly memorable or interesting about it for me, as a comic. For flavours, it added a lot of characters relationships, some personal struggles for the characters to overcome through the power of will, or friendship or just muscle. It positioned itself as a historical epic is the misstep, in my opinion. I would rather the author depicts some kind of fictional land, like Youjo Senki or Arslan, than a very interesting and rich historical period to embarrass itself. If you have no idea about the history of the period, it might captivate you. Just remember that none of the political intrigues and discussion about philosophy matters later on.

Would I recommend Kingdom? I would simply say, no. There are better works out there deserving of attention and money. Vinland Saga, does epic historical journey to be something, far far better than Kingdom. Vagabond explores philosophy of life and the sword, far far better than Kingdom. The manga, Shiji, retells the story of this period and the lesson much better. Buddha, is not comparable because it was written by a true master, the pioneer of the medium. I even prefer things like Hawkwood, Woflmund, Koukoku no Shugosha, Gunka no Baltzar depiction of battles much more than Kingdom. If some simplistic warfare is your cup of tea, why not Youjo Senki? Epic journey to be conqueror, why not Arslan Senki, Historie? For a complete replacement, why not just The Ravages of Time? That one in my opinion suffers from the same disease as this. However, that one is actually cool, with fantastic art, completely epic. Ad Astra, also terrible, but has better art. Even Drifters have better fantasy element. It performs very well, far better than many of these actual good works. I think Kingdom is just in the middle of all of them, not too technical about combat, not too serious about the period, not too much details. It appeals to the mass just like how Naruto or AgK used to be.

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Poll: Kingdom Chapter 803 Discussion Ramkec - Jul 20	0 replies	by Ramkec »» Jul 20, 10:16 AM
Poll: Kingdom Chapter 549 Discussion duderus - Feb 27, 2018	17 replies	by ProGoddess »» Jul 19, 11:50 PM
Poll: Kingdom Chapter 750 Discussion Ramkec - Mar 6, 2023	8 replies	by Sasuke-mustang »» Jul 13, 4:23 AM
Poll: Kingdom Chapter 752 Discussion Mei-o_Scarlett - Mar 17, 2023	29 replies	by artisemotion_123 »» Jul 12, 7:07 AM
Poll: Kingdom Chapter 801 Discussion Ramkec - Jul 4	1 replies	by AhmadMti »» Jul 8, 5:44 AM

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