Kingdom - 05 - Lost in Anime

I hope the seiyuu in this series are being paid by the decibel.

I don’t know my Chinese history well enough to speak to the historical accuracy of Kingdom, but I can speak to the entertainment value – and thus far, it’s pretty consistent. Now that the excessive use of CGI seems to be behind us (it’s still there for some of the action bits, but I can live with that) the elements of the series that always worked are easier to appreciate. It’s quite unlike any other anime currently airing – a straight-ahead GAR extravaganza with severed heads in boxes, duels to the death with assassins and both tactics and strategy. The political and military side of the story is actually somewhat complex, but the personal side is pretty straightforward.

I hadn’t realized from his brief appearance last week, but it’s actually Koyama Rikiya playing Wang Qi, the ever-grinning General who’s gone over to the side of Seikyou. This is quite a change from Kiritsugu and Masaru-san-chan, that’s for sure, and this is about as over-the-top as I’ve every heard Koyama. But when in China, I guess – in this series, subtlety is not exactly the order of the day for the cast. Wang Qi seems to have taken up against the true King largely because he’s bored with how peaceful things have become, and he sees a better chance for chaos and a rain of blood under the younger brother.

Wang Qi is also an old colleague of Changwenjun from the civil servant’s military days, and seems to have some respect for him. Interestingly, Wang Qi has obviously presented a bogus head to Seikyou’s men, claiming it belongs to Changwenjun – but the question is, why? Did he merely fail to slay his for during the battle he recounted, and doesn’t want to admit it? Or did Changwenjun somehow win him over to the King’s side? In any case we certainly know Changwenjun isn’t dead, as he turns up at the mountain pavilion just as Xin is finishing up his battle with Muta, the assassin of the Southern Bessa Tribe.

Now why do assassins always get so cocky? All Muta had to do is use his poisoned darts right from the beginning but no, he needs to prove his worth by using only his axes. If Muta was as fearsome an assassin as he claimed to be, then I guess than means Xin is pretty darn strong because once Zheng snapped him out of his paralytic fear, Xin pretty much had the upper hand the rest of the way. Like so much else in this series this was a test of strength for Xin, and now that he’s passed the series looks to be taking a new turn, with Chengwenjun and the King reunited. If the series is fundamentally about Zheng’s journey to being a great King and Xin’s to being a great General, this was the week they seem to have taken the first big step.

6 comments

Ishruns

July 5, 2012 at 6:41 am

I'm not watching Kingdom and as it's not one of the shows I would personally enjoy much I probably won't but GE do you really enjoy?

Your posts on it seem to be growing shorter and shorter, they're almost the length of the episodes of Hyouka you least like or a digest size. Guess you might bundle this and AGE together with one of the new shows if you do continue it.

admin

July 5, 2012 at 6:53 am

You got me curious, so I checked:

First impressions – 7 paragraphs
#2 – 3 paragraphs
#3 – 3 paragraphs
#4 – 4 paragraphs
#5 – 4 paragraphs

So nope, the posts aren't getting shorter. I like it as much as I have from the beginning, pretty much – which is a decent amount. It's not mind-blowing or anything, but it's solidly entertaining and refreshingly old-school. But it's probably not the easiest show to write long posts about, as it's quite straightforward – there's not much in terms of symbolism or open-ended events.

I could see this being a digest series, if the schedule fell that way. We'll see how the season goes…

Ishruns

July 5, 2012 at 7:39 am

Sorry for the extra work, probably just felt short compared to your other stuff. Since you like Hunter x Hunter, Kenshin and Avatar I guess simple old school shounen is much to your liking.

Do you like Naruto or One Piece as well, since I see them as much the same? (I don't, too long and cliched)

admin

July 5, 2012 at 7:56 am

Not extra work, don't worry – curiosity is a good thing, and I wondered if you might have picked up something I missed.

I have to confess I'm not a fan of either One Piece or Naruto. I tend to like shounen that's a little more edgy, I think – or in the case of Kenshin, poignant and bittersweet. While I consider the RK manga the best shounen ever, in some ways it could almost be seinen. Not that the distinctions mean all that much.

I mean to give One Piece a longer trial run sometime, because it's so popular that I keep thinking there must be some hidden depth there I'm just not seeing.

Margaret

July 5, 2012 at 5:38 pm

I confess — I started watching this simply because Koyama Rikiya is in it, though I'm liking it for other reasons now, as well. It took awhile for his character to appear for any significant amount of time, but I'm not disappointed. He is so versatile with his voice!

My suspicion is that Wang Qi is a very complicated character, so I'm not taking anything he does or says at face value. 😉

admin

July 5, 2012 at 6:41 pm

I think you're right, Margaret. The character design is a bit grotesque (well, a lot of them are, here) but there's something deeper to the guy.

Kingdom – 05

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Lost in Anime

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