If ever I can look the other way on starting an episode with a recap, it’s here.  The last new episode of Kingdom aired over a year ago, and even if it re-aired last week you can’t assume people were watching those.  I did re-watch the fourth ep this morning myself, and I’m heartily glad of it.  Even so it was hard to keep track of who everyone is and even which side they were on.  A lot of the key players in this episode weren’t even involved in #04 – that’s just the sort of series Kingdom is.

In point of fact I think Kingdom is probably one of the worst possible anime to have a forced hiatus of this length.  There are so many characters (each of them variously referred to by both their Chinese and Japanese name readings), so much military strategy, so many battle fronts.  The gist of it is that the other kingdoms have ganged up on Qin like playground bullies, leaving the mighty kingdom playing defense desperately.  There are two main fronts at the heart of the narrative at the moment – the defense of the mighty Hangu Pass (not nearly so mighty in real life), and the giant battle in which our hero currently finds himself fighting.  Though not in this “premiere”…

We Fang Ming’s siege towers with a difference have seemingly turned the tide at Hangu Pass.  The doddering old Meng Ao seems at a loss about what to do, but the bandit general Huan Yi has his own tricks up his sleeve.  He’s procured a massive amount of oil, which he uses to take down the siege tower which has targeted his position.  There’s no sign of him coming to the aid of Zhang though (if that’s even logistically possible and he has any oil left), and the original “bridge” is still standing and allowing invading soldiers over the wall.

Compared to the battle with the invading Zhao (mostly) army, the events at the pass are simple and straightforward.  The battle with Zhao is a mass of confusion, commanders dueling each other, master archers, charges and counter-charges.  Xin’s portion of the conflict gets a pass with week, with the focus on his rival Meng Tian, his father Wang Mu Meng Wu, and brilliant young archer Li Bai.  The Chu commander, Linwu, is Wang Mu’s target – and his son’s main job is to draw Linwu’s army out and into the fray so Wang Mu can claim his head.

I won’t lie – there were times during this ep were I literally couldn’t remember which side some of these guys were fighting for and who was allied with whom.  Still, it was a blast as usual – Kingdom does big, sweeping battles like few other anime.  And happily we continue to see the use of CGI be relatively restrained, especially as compared to the early first season.  There are times when I prefer Kingdom in scaled-down mode, which gives you a chance to breathe and really engage with the cast.  But I suppose it wouldn’t be fitting to re-start after a one-year hiatus with anything but the colossal free-for-all this episode was.  It’s great to have this show back.