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The one-word series summary bonanza continues. This time around, it’s “epic”.
Kingdom has been sneaky good for a long time, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that while I’ve barely noticed the transition, it’s become quite an attractive show visually. Those horrendous days of bad CGI character animation seem like a distant nightmare now, and everything has leveled up – the character modeling, the animation (much less CGI in general, and even then it’s used appropriately), the backgrounds. If things had started out this way, Kingdom might have won over a much larger audience than it did.
For me, I’ll always have a taste for epic storytelling in anime, and all the more so because it’s become a virtual dinosaur in the current environment. But the key to really successful epics is that they have to be able to tell personal stories too – the switch from panorama to zoom is what makes these stories connect emotionally and keeps the sheer magnitude of them from getting exhausting. Kingdom’s structure is to tell the tale of Warring States China – about as epic a story as there is – through the personal stories (highly fictionalized) of the people who drove it. And while sweeping chronicles of battle like the one that ended S1 are the meat of the series, it’s equally adept at the small-scale stories like the one it’s telling right now.
My only disappointment of the episode was that Wang Qi didn’t have a larger role to play – he offed the incompetent replacement Zhao commander, but that was it. Every second of Koyama Rikiya eating Wang Qi’s dialogue for lunch is pure gold, but there was plenty of other good stuff here. Of course the story is of Zheng’s lost childhood as a hostage in Zhao, the source of his twisted relationship with his mother, but the context was delivered in a big way. Namely, the massacre of 400,000 surrendered Zhao soliders by the Commander of the Qin army. The two states had been at war for years so it wasn’t as though there wasn’t bad blood to begin with, but what happened when the two-year stalemate was broken cemented a fierce and intense hatred among the people of Zhao – a hatred which finds a convenient outlet in the disgraced Zheng and his mother.
History has debated the event – there were very real practical concerns that drove the Qin commander Bai Qi to order 400,000 Zhao soldiers (in truth the number was probably significantly lower) buried alive. If they were simply released they’d return home to be used as soldiers in the inevitable next round of warfare between the two nations. There would be serious issues of feeding such a huge group of prisoners on a march back to Qin – and what to do with them then? Nevertheless, the murder of hundreds of thousands of surrendered prisoners can only be viewed is a vile and reprehensible act, and the enmity it caused as completely justifiable. Sadly in the context of this fictionalized account, it was Zheng and his mother who suffered terribly for it – he reduced to petty thievery and subject to daily beatings, she to selling her body to the disdainful men of Handan, Zhao’s capital (in reality of course a young boy in Zheng’s position in that era would have been subject to even more terrible abuses, but there are areas a show like this thankfully isn’t going to go). The really terrible part is that their identities were seemingly known to all the locals, and it’s also interesting that it was Lu Buwei who managed to get Zheng’s father out of Zhao, while leaving the woman and child behind.
There’s a very interesting angle to this story historically, though Kingdom has given no indication that it’s going to explore it – and that’s that many historians believe Lu Buwei was actually Zheng’s father. That would certainly be a dramatic wrinkle – but there’s plenty of wrinkles already. We finally meet Zi Xia, the woman who saves Zheng’s life (the implication being that she’s going to pay with her own). She’s the head of the black market in Handan, a child of the streets herself, and it’s she who takes pity on the wild-eyed urchin and decides to help the agents of Qin who’ve come to rescue him at last from the hell he’s been enduring. The reason they finally did so is because King Zhao has died, making Zheng the new Crown Prince.
It’s interesting to see Zheng from this angle. What’s made clear is that in order not just to survive his ordeals but to do so without being broken he had to be not just strong in resolve, but a little bit broken to begin with. The street-child Zheng is a feral cat – quiet, watchful and vicious when cornered. It seems as if his mother was a bit frightened of him all along, and that she much more than he was indeed twisted and scarred by the ordeal of living as a hated enemy in Handan. Frankly I don’t think any of this bodes well for the notion of a mother-son alliance – it’s not as if there’s any indication these two ever loved or even liked each other to begin with, and the sense is that she’s done things that he can neither forgive not forget.
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Gary Cochran
July 24, 2013 at 12:54 pmGood analysis of this episode. I think his mom suffered from some mental illness to have a dislike for her son from such an early age. The question is who will be the one that takes this feral little boy and rehabilitates him into the young King he is today? Is it Zi Xia or perhaps someone we have not met.
Ronbb
July 24, 2013 at 8:13 pmJust aside…I love the new look of your top banner…so refreshing. I like the green tone and the image (love HXH). If I remember correctly, green is your favourite colour?
Agreed with Gary — this is another good episodic review. About the one-word summation, I thought of "colourful" for Kingdom last week because the story is just so rich, but it didn't sit too well with me. I think your "epic" fits much better.
I so agree with your point about telling personal stories, and that's why I have been enjoying Kingdom since S1 and have never minded its bad animation. I really like how this show blends history in its fictional story. While Zheng was "labeled" as a brutal tyrant in history, this show is looking at from Zheng's angle of how he — together with other characters — struggles and unifies China. The fictional gaiden of Zheng strikes a nice balance and makes a good story. It fleshes Zheng out a lot more helping the viewers to bond with him while giving context of what shapes the future heartless Emperor — which probably won't be covered. I think the shift of focus to Zheng probably signals future plots of how Zheng takes real sovereignty in the palaces and — if we have enough time — how Qin takes down the other six states one by one. While I very much enjoy the current character-focused arc, I am anticipating some epic stories to come…am really getting excited here.
Rannta
July 24, 2013 at 9:02 pmEnzo, any thoughts about new season of hajime no ippo? Maybe you didn't follow the series at all, but I WOULD LIKE episodes reviews of ippo.
admin
July 24, 2013 at 10:09 pmMy first thought was, "why does every classic shounen get better anime treatment than Rurouni Kenshin?" I'm undecided on it – I'll see how it looks after the first couple of eps.
elianthos80
July 26, 2013 at 12:10 amOn the side of visuals Wang Qi's lips have shrunk oh noes, I want them as big and as red like they used to be. I'm not even joking. And alas his screen time could have been lusher too. But it was still good. /fangirling
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While you have your connection with Watamote it seems Zheng's arc so far is close to a few of my memories in places instead. It's a bit like a funhouse mirror. Let's say I'm not surprised by his behaviour and by his scars (literal and figurative) at either age – and he has lowered his guard and spilled the beans to Xian pretty much as I was expecting too. May the girl keep her mouth shut outside of his bedroom… – .
I don't know if Zi Xia wil live long enough to single-handedly influence and shape Zheng's whole being into the relatively functioning young man we are seeing in the present – for instance I like to think Changwengjun managed to contribute some once the prince was back in Qin – but I found it interesting that Zheng's gaze when he's calm resemble Zi Xia's rather than his mother's.
@Ronbb: Green is one cool and fateful colour oh my sister *insert starry shoujo eyes here*
Ronbb
July 26, 2013 at 4:39 amGreat to see you back online…hope that you are enjoying summer. I like green — not the full spectrum of the green palette though. The one Enzo chose for the LiA text is soothing for the eyes. About Zheng, I also noticed that his gaze changed when he talked to Zi Xia. She probably won't be the only one helping Zheng, but I do look forward to seeing the bonding between the two next week :).
elianthos80
July 26, 2013 at 7:22 am@Ronbb: thank you and I wish you the same. Painful internet issues aside I'm in a very green place – with no snot green hues in sight. Hooray assorted lush alpine vegetation – so I'm quite happy on that account at least X,D.
I'm looking forward to see the bonding, although I might have to wait much later than next week to get the chance to watch the episode myself. I'll get by via Enzo's post and your comments *tears*. Seriously, you're a pretty thoughtful poster. I enjoy reading what you have to say and this series deserves some love so keep commenting :,D.
Ronbb
July 27, 2013 at 2:13 am@elianthos80: wow…that's a hugh compliment…and I'm totally flattered. Thanks a lot! I enjoy reading yours as well — you bring a different experience and perspective here, and that helps broaden my view. I like the space here — I love reading Enzo's reviews and insights, and I like that the readers here are more intellectually mature. Also, if I am allowed to say…teehee, I think people here have better taste. Well, for instance, not that many bloggers appreciated season 1 of Kingdom, but Enzo did, and that has given us a space to talk more about this wonderful but underappreciated show. Enjoy indulging yourself in the beautiful scenery (jealous) and see you around soon :).