I had a somewhat high expectations for Kingdom:
- I had heard the manga described as one of the great historical epics, mentioned in the same breath as Vinland Saga. I had not read either, but I was absolutely blown away by Season 1 of Vinland Saga.
- I was very interested in its setting, the warring states period of ancient China, since I enjoyed reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
- Kingdom Season 4 was airing at the time and holding one of the highest MAL user ratings of that season.
I appreciated how Kingdom S1 takes great care in depicting warfare. I enjoyed the build-up to a battle, when generals discuss strategy and foot soldiers prepare themselves. Once the battle starts, the show frequently explains strategies and the thinking behind them. On the ground, characters are constantly figuring out how to carry out orders without dying, and the emotions go through highs and lows along with the flow of battle.
However, the show is severely lacking on the visuals side to really deliver the full impact of the battles, and it hurts especially in 2022. While the use of CGI allows sweeping camera shots and huge melees, the extremely stiff and simplistic animation fails to make them convincing or exciting. One-on-one fights are not much better; the characters simply swing their weapons at each other really hard. It does not help that the environment design and background art often looked completely flat and uninspired.
Some of the hand-drawn animation does look more pleasing and expressive, and I wish the show had more of it. Also, the character designs manage to be a lot of fun. The characters have simple, distinct personalities with a variety of backgrounds and motivations, and their looks clearly communicate them and make the cast memorable. This brings us to the biggest problem I have with the show...
The main character, Xin, is very annoying and uninteresting. He is a country kid, the simple-minded and brash type, always excited to battle, with boundless ambition and confidence, and most importantly, LOUD. He has no other memorable personality traits or quirks to him, and he is given little motivation beyond "I'm gonna be the very best". He does not develop much through the season, because he is very rarely seriously challenged in his beliefs or suffers failure. On the battlefield, he displays superhuman strength and agility from the very beginning, which is never really explained. He is consistently rewarded for these personality traits and his martial prowess. This style of writing, combined with stiff CGI models, makes it hard to understand or sympathize with Xin.
Kingdom S1 spends an overwhelming majority of its time with Xin, so the other characters are not given much time to shine. Zheng is introduced as "the other half" of the story (as seen in the poster), and he offers a very different type of story and point-of-view from Xin's. However, his story almost completely takes a back seat to Xin's later in the season. We do spend a lot of time with one particular side character, exploring his personality, motivations, and battles. He becomes a stand-out in the show for me, and even has some impact on Xin as a character, but he comes late in the season.
The show misses out on exploring other storylines by focusing so heavily on Xin. With a large cast entangled in power struggles and wars, the show could have explored palace intrigue, statecraft, diplomacy and espionage, and even everyday lives of the commoners and the nobles, etc. While the show touches upon some of these briefly, it does not follow up on them; for example, a powerful figure is introduced as the de facto ruler of the country and a dangerous rival, only to disappear from the story shortly afterwards. The later seasons supposedly expand on what has been set up, but I am struggling to have faith in the series.
Despite my many complaints and general dissatisfaction, I have sat through all 38 episodes of the season. A part of me just wanted to be able to say I finished it (and leave a review), but another part of me wanted to see it improve and realize its potential. The show does steadily get more interesting as the season progresses, but the earlier parts are much too clunky, and the later improvements are not significant enough. Kingdom has announced a Season 5 at the time of writing, so I may come to enjoy Kingdom more in subsequent seasons. However, after these disappointing 38 episodes, I will not be bringing myself to watch Season 2, at least for a long while.
