Kingdom

Jun 16, 2013

134 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

tcubed (All reviews)

173 people found this review helpful

The community for this manga isn't very active on here so I thought I'd do my bit and promote this manga by writing the first review.

The story itself isn't novel, it starts off normally in a cliché manner with two war orphans who dream of becoming the greatest generals in all of China. The appeal of this series isn't due to originality but more to do with the investment you feel with the characters.

There are a number of characters that have been introduced so far and had their pasts explained in some detail. This is definitely a series where a lot of focus has been placed on character development and this aids immensely with the story telling. Each arc that goes by sees not only the main character mature and develop but it also provides an opportunity for other characters to be put under scrutiny and more information about them to be brought to the fore.

This is a manga about a kid who wants to become the greatest general in all of China and so as you would expect the theme of battle is heavily prevalent throughout. These battles are fascinating to read about and there is a large amount of strategy involved which always keeps you on your toes regarding the outcome and the direction the story will turn. This isn't just a case of one overpowered enemy beating another and through some magic the character suddenly powers up like a typical Shounen title but the characters have to earn their stripes. The battles are where the personalities of each character really shine.

Of course one has to suspend a certain amount of belief when reading any such title as you would constantly think that how would such and such survive in this situation but then by the same token reality is often stranger than fiction and I would say one of the reasons I really like this manga is that it is a lot more realistic and believable although exaggerated at times.

The pacing of the story is done well and each chapter so far has been good value. This series is extremely solid in that the story told might not be original but the way is fantastic for the genre.

The story and characters can only be put to life through the artwork, and I have to say that the artwork for this is very very good. Everything is drawn extremely well and cleanly, battles (which a lot of the manga is focused around) are extremely enjoyable to read and there is absolutely no issue understanding what is going on from panel to panel. This is the highest compliment I can pay to any series as this is my biggest problem with a lot of other manga with difficult if not impossible to follow battle scenes which really detract from the overall experience.

I really quite like the art style of the author with realistic character drawings, really cool drawings of large battles and a good range of characters with variations.

I'm really excited about this series going forward as the character development, the potential direction the story is going to go in and the upcoming battles all leave me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter in anticipation.

This reminds me heavily of Feng Shen Ji although that is more the fantasy route but I became addicted as soon after a few chapters in and this has become one of my favourite series which I am always checking on updates for.

This is definitely one of those series that just needs a bit more publicity and thoroughly deserves it's high rating on here.

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May 15, 2015

431 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

HaXXspetten (All reviews)

137 people found this review helpful

I've always been a bit puzzled as to why Kingdom isn't any more popular on this site. Despite having been publishing on a consistent weekly basis for nearly a decade by now, and despite being one of the highest rated manga on MAL, I still essentially never see anyone talk about it. It almost feels like people aren't even aware that it exists. I think this is very unfortunate, because they're missing out on what is perhaps the most inspirational manga I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

The story takes place during the Chinese Warring States period. After a full 500 years of constant warfare between the various states of China, the bloodshed still shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. It is here our story begins with a young man named Shin who has the naïve dream of becoming the greatest general in all of China. After accidentally becoming involved in a conflict over the royal throne of the state of Qin, he eventually ends up serving under the new young king who has the ambition to one day unite all of China under one banner.

As a result, Kingdom is a manga of epic proportions, containing large scale warfare with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, advanced military strategizing and incredible intensity. The battles are long and complicated, but perfectly understandable as the author's style of writing is extremely detailed and also utilizes tons of tactical maps, overviews and time jumps to explain the flow of combat. It's intelligent but without requiring much from the reader in order to keep up with the plot.

At the same time Kingdom also has extremely in-depth national politics and diplomacy between nations, further enhancing the overall sense of realism. Speaking of which, it should be stated that the manga is in fact based on true events and characters from Chinese history. Of course it's only loosely based on it as the historical records only dictate *what* happens, but the author is the one who decides *how* it happens. In other words he manages to create a story which is perhaps exaggeratedly epic, yet still never contradicts the actual true events.

The best part of Kingdom however is undoubtedly the characters. The story covers many years of time, and thus you get to see how everyone gradually grows and evolves over the course of time in very high detail. There are hundreds and hundreds of notable figures in the story, consisting of generals, commanders, soldiers, civilians, politicians, royalty and more. Especially the main military figures are superbly written, with incredible charisma and all with their own individual traits. The vast majority of them are almost impossible to dislike, regardless of which state they may come from. The amount of color they bring to the battlefield simply cannot be understated, and it feels like they're not just raising the morale of their respective soldiers in the manga itself, but the morale of the readers as well. At the same time, some of the death scenes in this manga are some of the most tragic and emotional death scenes I've ever seen in media. When one of your favorite characters passes away, you will truly feel it. Furthermore, the sheer amount of inspirational and downright moving speeches throughout the course of Kingdom is simply astonishing. The author truly knows how to touch the hearts of the readers with the way he's written the story. I really cannot praise him enough for it.

The art is extremely high detail and helps to amplify the level of intensity of the story. Especially the armies and the battlefields look simply fantastic and sometimes it makes you feel like you're really there. While it may not exactly be on the level of something like Berserk in terms of visuals, it's still more than enough to appropriately showcase the cold and harsh reality of the field of battle, and deliver that atmosphere to the readers first-hand.

Kingdom has some very long arcs occasionally during the more drawn-out battles, and I'll just say here and now that when you're in one of those segments, it's effectively impossible to stop reading it. Why? Because every single chapter ends in a huge cliffhanger! This is one of those stories which just keeps teasing you and forces you to keep reading the next chapter. And the next one. And the next one. And the- ...you get the idea. Point being that despite it having over 400 chapters published at the time of writing this, you can still easily read through all of it in just a few days, no problem whatsoever. It's just *that* addictive once you start.

Overall, in my eyes Kingdom is a manga which seriously needs more attention. I'm still not sure exactly why so few people have read it, but I really wish more people would give it a chance because it truly is one of the most influential and impressive manga out there. It stands out as a very atypical manga to begin with, but above all it is exceedingly rare for a story to be so action-packed, so intelligent yet so incredibly emotional all at the same time.

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Nov 23, 2013

272 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Kvshi (All reviews)

94 people found this review helpful

So, this is the first review for me so some things may not sound as good as the ones you've seen!

The community for the Kingdom manga isn't that big at all and I hope it can expand with a bit more hype!

Story: 9/10

As you've probably read the synopsis for the Kingdom manga already, you've realized it sounds simple and not as enticing, but you're completely wrong! Kingdom completely expands then blows away those expectations you had for the manga in general. The story consists of multiple Chinese based wars and a shifts in internal politics and in which each war plays an important role for the progression of the story which is critical in this manga. This manga also brings no irrelevant factors in anything such as "Power ups" or "Shonen like features", this is a near realistic manga that relies on real old war tactics in order to succeed,but the author mixes those tactics with a new kind of complex offensive tactics that will highly surprise you! Though there may be a bit of supernatural features, it actually makes complete sense in the plot and even creates conflicts once those "supernatural beings" appear. As you know already it's a war-based manga set in the Warring States Period,and as in war there will be great casualties on one side or both. Major will happen and I won't explain it here due to spoilers.

Characters: 9/10

The characters in Kingdom are amazing! Most characters and mainly the main characters in Kingdom and especially the big name generals past or present have very good character development and has their own goal for the future no matter what opposition is in there way. Also, it doesn't matter who it is in the 7 states of China, by the time you're updated, you're going too love either at least more then one general, main characters, commanders, diplomatic's, nobles, supernatural beings or outside oppositions. Multiple characters in Kingdom have there own sort of personality that doesn't fully bloom unless they're in the mist of battle no matter if it's strength, strategy or character development or internal conflicts itself, but at the end of the war itself, it feels like they've grown more. Also, each state of China has very diverse generals and men that are under them no matter who it is, they bring up difficult melee battles or strategic battles that are fairly interesting! Also, the author bases most characters from Kingdom from actual famous Chinese generals from the 7 States Warring Period dynasty of Chinese's history, but adds a little "flavor" to a wide variety of characters that change there way of thinking during wars and proceed boundaries outside the box.

Art: 10/10

The art in Kingdom has actually one of the best art I've seen. It's completely clean and detailed which is highly essential for a manga like this. Once you start reading and continuously start to get addicted, you'll notice the art becomes very detailed which I highly guarantee you you'll be shocked at how much time and effort Yasu puts into this manga. The art for the individual decisive battles is also what makes Kingdom so diverse and gives it to be an amazing manga!

Enjoyment: 10/10

I fully enjoy this manga to the point that it actually gets me hyped for the next chapters which only a certain amount of manga's can do to me right now. Kingdom brings a very interesting way of enjoyment through what the characters do themselves and bring excitement to the story before they begin huge battles with the voices of what the generals, commanders and the king of Qin which raises everybody's morale's astonishingly high!

Overall: 9/10

Overall, Kingdom is a phenomenal manga that needs actually needs to get way more hype! This manga brings almost every variety of elements a manga can do and smoothly impress us beyond boundaries. I've also been updated on Kingdom for a good amount of time and I rarely see any bad criticism to this manga which is pretty rare considering everybody has different sorts of tastes. Now that you're done reading this review, GO READ KINGDOM NOW BRO!

EDIT: Made some edits on this review.

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Sep 11, 2018

294 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 5

ChouEritto (All reviews)

63 people found this review helpful

Kingdom is a series that people like to hype up these days and indeed has a great premise of ancient Chinese warfare that harkens back to wide spanning stories such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, its poor presentation and repetitive nature causes it to be about as impressive as a second-rate Shonen.

Now, it certainly isn't an absolutely terrible series (though it being rated a 5 and not a 1 should make that obvious). It seems to have some semblance of war strategies and some of the supporting characters do develop as the story goes on to some extent.

The main complaint of the series' execution lies intertwined with both its plot and characters, or more specifically, its main character. Xin is a terrible protagonist as not only is his personality and motivation a typical hotheaded youth wanting to be the best in the likes of Naruto, but the plot armour provided to him is insane for a series that attempts to pass itself off as a historical piece. Not only does Xin outperform and defeat skilled assassins without much real experience, but doesn't even do it through actual tactics and instead just by shouting and overcoming his opponent through willpower as in any run of the mill Shonen. This practically betrays any engaging premise the series could hold as the attempts at strategies and the support characters' roles are made meaningless when the climax of several major battles focus on a kid overcoming challenges by himself without any thought put into it.
It also doesn't help that many of the support characters seem overly interested in Xin's actions or potential without much reason to do so, such as Wang Yi practically entrusting his legacy to him for typical passing the torch reasons within coming of age stories or the young girl having romantic feelings for someone so dense it took them over a hundred chapters to realise they were female.
Now, I can't fully say if the quality has improved since I dropped this work almost 300 chapters in, but if a series takes that long to become more than a typical Shonen in more than explicit content, there's no real reason to view it in any worthwhile light. Yes, some series take a while to get good, but over 300 chapters in is more than pushing the limit.

To get to the point, Kingdom gives too much of a focus to its protagonist and his Naruto-esque lack of logic to the point it heavily damages the series' overall quality. Overall, this series that is supposedly praised for its genius is one with such a lack of logic revolving around the centrepiece that it could be insulting to my intelligence.
If wanting a good manga about Ancient Chinese warfare with genius strategies and very little plot armour, read Sangokushi or most Romance of the Three Kingdoms adaptions in general (particularly the 2010 live action series Three Kingdoms) or if wanting a period drama with memorable and well written characters, watch Rose of Versailles.

Overall ranking - 5/10 mediocrity

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Jul 1, 2015

449 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Nervin (All reviews)

57 people found this review helpful

I was confused after seeing that the manga "Kingdom" didn't have that many reviews, considering that it is ranked in the top 10 manga on MAL; hence the review, as it deserves more attention. The title of the manga does not seem interesting at first glance, which is a shame, as it actually is much more intriguing. Kingdom is a military seinen manga, based on true historical recordings, enhanced with a lot of action and drama.

~Story~

The story itself appears to be generic and nothing new at first glance - an orphan,young boy called Xin, who aspires to become a great general, meets the young emperor read more

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Nov 5, 2015

421 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 6

Yakkululz (All reviews)

33 people found this review helpful

Main plot: Interesting
I didn’t know much about the warring states period, and find it really great to have a manga talking about the subject. Of course, don’t take what you read for taken, but the manga seems to follow the historical story fairly well. (If you are curious about it, try “kingdom manga history” in your favorite search engine. There is some nice work out there.) Regardless of its fidelity, it’s a nice way to be introduced to the topic.

Story telling: Redundant and cheesy
At first, I quiet liked how the story telling was done. It’s well paced, I read more

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Feb 16, 2014

330 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Stromming (All reviews)

30 people found this review helpful

I'll be doing my first review in honor of this more than awesome manga. I think it's high time it gets the 10 it deserves. I'll be using the Japanese names as the anime is in Japanese and the manga currently translated with Japanese names and it get's too confusing using the Chinese names.

Story
The story is not in itself original. I know what you're thinking, a young boy wants to be a hero, how would that be different from most other popular fighting manga? Well, although it doesn't differ that much, it tells the story in a fantastic way that it really doesn't matter that read more

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Oct 23, 2020

657 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 1

SleepingDandy (All reviews)

9 people found this review helpful

This can only be expressed as a poor mans Vinland Saga. Despite being one of the few products on this website that contains a score above 9.00, it is pretty bad. I have heard years of its praise, and It disappointed, quite a bit.

Story 1/10
A boy and a trap spar everyday until the trap is sent to the royal palace. Then when the trap dies as a body double, the other boy he gains super saiyan 4 and bodies a so called royal assassin. As the assassin wheezes his last breath, he says “No U”, and an army appears. Then another trap, in the form of a bird appears, letting him through a “secret passage”. Then the boy weasels himself as a general, and then after a timeskip, he and 4 randoms mess up fodder characters killing so many randoms, you start to realise its a seinen.

The story then does this setup about 500 times.

A kingdom gets upset. After some horrible political debates, that would never happen in real life they want to go to war. The good guys always have the advantage until the bad guys get a plan. The plan is then hyped for 5 chapters as a enemy general just sits there, muttering to himself that the plan is happening all according to plan. Then the plan does absolutely nothing. While plan of course does nothing, and the Generals just attack cannon fodder, until the bad guys retreat. This repeats for over 600 chapters, just with random civilisations that appear out of nowhere each time.

Art 1/10
Now if you are going to copy Vinland Saga, at least do the art right. The characters and the art style hurts my eyes. The main character doesn’t even look human, have you seen him. His eyes look like a tiger, and the CG in the anime makes him look more realistic. With thin arms and legs that somehow don’t snap when facing wind pressure, the boy carries the strength of a titan in those arms.

The other character designs are just copied and pasted, just changing one feature. Every character looks like a demon, or a version of a trap. The fights are dull and boring, and the protagonist one shots any person who he see’s. I prefer the CG in the anime rather than the poorly drawn pictures in this manga.

Character 1/10
Boy these characters were amazing lets go through them. The protagonist was an edgier version of Eren Yayger. With no particular character, or sense, this genuis, seems to get more powerboosts than Ichigo. Using the power of the dragon balls, invested in him, he kills hundreds of randoms, knowing only the word mad.

Then we have the other character. Everyone else. That’s right, everyone else is essentially the same character, with no uniqueness, and following the tropes to a tee, they are there too make the main character feel strong.

Enjoyment 1/10
Reading all 600 chapters was torture. I read it in one sitting, and began to question the meaning of life. Absolutely Horrible

Overall 1/10
Needless to say, you should never read this in your life

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Sep 24, 2014

403 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

zFoxx (All reviews)

22 people found this review helpful

This is one of my all-time favorite ongoing manga series being produced. It seems to be ranked high overall but I think this is a highly underrated manga and the community seems dead or quiet. I hope if you take the time to read this that I will persuade you to pick up this wonderful series. Fans of Vagabond, Berserk, and Vinland Saga should be drawn in to Kingdom.

History
Kingdom is a historical Seinen based on the Warring States Period in China. A time of constant war between the 7 states of China, it would last for 500 years until a King would unite all the read more

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Apr 27, 2015

429 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

korosensei-san (All reviews)

20 people found this review helpful

This is My First Review I Hope You Like it,And Sorry For My Bad English(I'm From Egypt).

Story:
9/10
The Story Of This Manga is From The Kind That makes You Stick in Your Chair.
This Story Makes You Love Wars.
The Story Talks About two Orphans Whose Parents Died From Wars.
The Story Starts When Xin Goes To The Village And Meets Piao.
In Your First Impression You Will Think That This Is A Traditional Story,But When You Get In The Story You Will Think The Opposite,From The Great Things That The Story Takes Place In China That Means That We Will See A Lot Of Action And Bizarre Great Things.
From read more

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Mar 2, 2019

591 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

MScientist0 (All reviews)

10 people found this review helpful

Have you ever flipped a page of a manga, then suddenly screamed out with a fiery passion that only a shonen protagonist would have after viewing the contents of the next spread?

No?

Then you my friend, are missing out on one of the greatest manga series ever.

Kingdom is a story that follows a certain servant boy, as he rises up to become a great general of the heavens, during the warring states period in China. In essence, you could say that this is your average shonen protagonist that screams a lot and does the impossible, who slowly matures over the course of the story. However, it's read more

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Feb 22, 2015

130 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Dude_Perfect (All reviews)

13 people found this review helpful

"An eternal struggle by men risking their lives that never come to an end. Good grief, this is exactly what makes these chaotic times so interesting."
- General Ouki

Story: The manga is based on the tumultuous 500 year warring period of China. read more

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Jan 14, 2020

426 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 8

Kingerty (All reviews)

5 people found this review helpful

This is THE MANGA, for people who grew up playing things like Dynasty warriors, who know the story of the Three Kingdoms so well they want something similar yet, different, so we go back in time even further to experience the Warring states period. I LOVE THIS MANGA. The art the characters. I'm just about finished with the coming of age arc for the second time(I got about this far before droping it). I wish the story was a bit faster, it seems like a lot of promotions of the characters are just fillers for the main event, and what long fillers they are...

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Jun 13, 2017

520 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

BDProductions34 (All reviews)

10 people found this review helpful

To start it off, I have no problem saying Kingdom is one of the greatest manga out right now. With all the incredible writing, breath-taking action, and page turning intensity, you'd think this manga would be more popular. But alas with poor anime adaptions and a lack of a proper English release, I guess this series is destined to remain underground, which is unfortunate because that means so many people are missing out on how truly fantastic this series is.

To give a cliffnotes version of what this story is about. We have an orphan boy named Shin who has a dream of becoming the greatest read more

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Aug 23, 2020

650 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

MiMiKitten (All reviews)

3 people found this review helpful

Man, kingdom is a manga that really exists in a weird place for me.

One on hand, I think this is one of the greatest pieces of art ever created, with gravitating characters, a fantastic story based on real history, and gorgeous art.

On the other hand, I think kingdom has it's fair amount of flaws. Let me say this, although kingdom has it's fair share of flaws, I still consider this series to be amazing out of pure enjoyment.

Kingdom is a story about warfare, specifically the warring states period of China, wherein the first unified Chinese empire was formed. Our main character, shin, read more

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Nov 27, 2017

519 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Senryakku (All reviews)

8 people found this review helpful

What can I say, other than if you enjoy anything related to ancient warfare, and especially China, that Kingdom is one of the best treat that you can get for yourself.

______________________

Enjoyment.

The enjoyment that you will get from this manga is simply off the chart. All you need is a bit of epic music in the background to accompany your reading (I recommend two steps from hell). Do not even bother watching the anime unless you feel the need to appoint some voices to your favourite characters (I do admit they didn't mess that up at least).

_______________________

Story and characters.

Now, what make this seinen war manga so good? It's simple, the main forces behind it are characters with enormous charismatic auras, paired with a gigantic scope. Yes, the scope of this manga is also what allowed it to run for so long (more than ten years now).
After all, right off the bat, we are told that the end goal is to unify China. I'm around 500 chapters, and there's still not even a hint of our protagonist to be even close to succeed yet. Of course it's not like they lost sight of the goal, but rather that in order to achieve this goal, the protagonists need some time to grow, each one of them.
So do not even worry about pacing or the manga losing steam because it doesn't.

Most of the characters are stereotyped, but they all feel genuine, and none of them are irritating which is a good point. You can pretty much root for anyone. (apart from a few very bad guys that are just there for the sake of being bad).
Some of the best characters of this manga are actually quite evil to reflect the time period, but even then you still love them, because they're badass.
I would also add that the majority of the characters have plot armour for obvious or historical reasons... so I guess going in without knowing too much about the warring states definitely is better, because sometimes you really don't know if someone is actually gonna get killed in action.

Another thing... what you will witness in this manga is that generals are basically super-heroes. It's actually completely normal, because these periods of china history are pretty much mythical. Do not worry, some components of ancient warfare remain realistic: the tactics, the maneuveurs, the actual time it takes to finish a battle or a siege involving thousands of soldiers. But generals... they will cut down in half men in armour, they will kill hundred of them, no problem. And you will love it.

______________________

Art

Now this isn't an art that I had ever seen before, it's typically "round", I guess. But it's still pleasantly good to the eye. And frankly, some scenes are simply breathtaking. "Epic" is probably too weak to depict some of these panels.

______________________

Conclusion:

I just hope this manga keeps going for another ten years. This is imo the work of at least half a lifetime. The warring states period is no joke, especially since you plan to finish your work when your story has a clear historic end. And to me if after 500 chapters the author still manages to make my heart race, then the next 500 will certainly do the same.

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Dec 30, 2015

458 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

FieldMarshal (All reviews)

8 people found this review helpful

This Manga is a must watch for anyone who is into motivational, war and power manga. This is my number 1 manga ever. This one manga surpasses all others.

What it has:
-Failures, the main character fails and recovers.
-Inspiring people, generals that inspire you to follow their path and to be at their level.
-War, the entire manga is about war and only ceases war on the battlefield to move to the war in the government, a battle among governing powers for who gains control.
-Women, although not many the few that exist are very relevant to the entire story.
-Strategy, this series has some major battle strategies and shows read more

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Feb 14, 2020

630 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Sautori (All reviews)

3 people found this review helpful

I highly recommend reading Kingdom, to anyone who is willing to spend a bunch of time reading a detailed, action packed, interesting story about ancient China. I knew little about the warring states period before i picked up this manga, but the story made me excited about reading wikipedia articles and a whole book about the subject, and for me that is the power of this manga, and what makes it great instead of good.

The story is interesting enough to keep you around for the next chapter, and if you appreciate the discussion of ancient battle tactics you are sure to enjoy the long drawn read more

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May 20, 2014

Unknown of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

reimacram (All reviews)

7 people found this review helpful

So this my first review for my new account. Please don't hate me
*Please read the plot first so you would now what I'm spouting here :3*

So the story revolves around this guy called Li Xin.This guy has an incredible (impossible) amount of strength and courage (typical in every shounen).

The strategy on how to portray the ancient wars in China is awesome and all but as usual, exaggeration to some war stuff was added. Samples:
1) A 5 foot 2 kid with a sword defeated/or on par with a 7 footer giant using a large spear enough to barbecue an elephant (don't give me that David and read more

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Dec 28, 2013

292 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

arielphf (All reviews)

7 people found this review helpful

Since this manga has only a couple of reviews, let me add one more '9' to the list.

This manga has a somewhat predictable but solid storyline set in the Warring States era of China (240 BC or there abouts). It may be a typical story line, but it's done very well and in my opinion, the reason certain storylines get told so often is because they are interesting to people! You can read the summary to see what this manga is about, so I won't bore you by repeating it, but I did want to touch on the high points.

Story: Well paced, easy to follow and the characters have credible reactions to the situations they are presented with. What happens to the main character is improbable, but through the skillful storytelling, you can easily believe he gets to the place he ends up. I'm not usually into this sort of battle manga, but the story is intricate enough and credible enough to keep my interest.

Art: The art is acceptable - nothing fantastic or horrible - it satisfies the requirements of the story telling, though I wouldn't be able to single it out for being notable in any way except that it is superior to the atrocious art of the anime. *shudder*

Character: As I indicated above, the characters are very credible and their actions are believable. As with lots of other shonen stories, you don't see a lot of introspection from them, especially the very simplistic protagonist, but you get enough to remain interested in the story and engaged in the characters. I don't feel a whole lot of emotional connection to the characters, but what I do feel is consistent and solid. No weird OOC stuff to distract from the story.

Enjoyment: I managed to get through 292 chapters of a shonen manga when I don't usually like the genre. It kept my interest and while I wasn't dying to get back to it, I did read it through because the story was good.

Overall: I've read lots worse 'poor boy makes good' stories in my time but this is one of the solidest and most credible. I sort of wish the author had had a more talented artist to showcase the story, but I think for the audience it is aimed at, it is adequate. A definite 'should read' if you like solid story telling, lots of battles, camaraderie among warriors and period settings. There's no magic (though Xin's fighting skills are a bit incredible), but it is a very good tale worth reading.

Also should note that I have tried watching the anime for this but haven't finished it yet. While the artwork for this manga is nothing spectacular, the anime's art is horrible; cheap looking CGI with some hand drawn parts that make the CG stuff stand out (badly!) even more. If that kind of thing bugs you, stick with the manga - you won't get anything more from the anime than you already get from this manga.

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