Pretty reliably, once or so a season, I go through a cycle of self-doubt with Kingdom. It’s the proverbial tree falling in a forest – if no one reads them, do these posts still exist? Of course some people read them, but not very many, and they tend to be a quiet group as well as a small one. I get past it and I keep writing, because this is always one of the two or three best series airing whenever that is. It’s just one of those giants of Japanese popular culture that for whatever reason (in a sadly common story, it’s licensed in France but not the U.S.) has never made much impact in English.
The focus of attention turns here to Wang Ben, the less likeable but more assertive of Xin’s two great next gen rivals. As we saw last week his father’s man, Han Chang (Fujiwara Takahiro) has arrived on the scene just as the Yu Feng clan is about to face off against the Fire Dragon Zi Bai (Tamura Makoto). It’s immediately clear than Han is as sharp as a tack, and he makes it clear in no uncertain terms that their current situation is all part of a well-laid enemy trap, and an immediate retreat is in order before the army is surrounded. Wang Ben, however, has other plans – he’s going to charge headlong into the enemy’s ranks and claim their general’s head.
I don’t know how this is going to turn out (presumably however history says it did) but this seems like a pretty dumb move to me. And it’s interesting that Han Chang has no qualms about defying Wang Ben (who presumably outranks him) and ordering his entire right flank to retreat – with the aside that he “wasn’t sent here to protect that guy”. Wang Ben in fact knows he’s headed into battle with one of the Fire Dragons, and even which one – in Zi Bai, a man regarded as the strongest spearwielder outside of Kanbal. Which, you know, makes this decision ever more foolhardy.
Meanwhile Ling Huang is filling Wu Fengming in on Zi Bai and his backstory, and it’s a pretty dark one. He was the stepson of the previous Zi Bai, child of one of his mistresses, and had already racked up 500 kills by the time he was 15. The only thing that kept him going was his love for his sister Zi Jige (Kayano Ai). Fortunately they weren’t blood-related, but the lord refuses Zi Bai’s petition to marry her out of petty resentment over Zi Bai inheriting his land and title due to his having no biological children. While Zi Bai is off in battle he marries Zi Jige off to another Fire Dragon, the notorious “wife killer” Tai Luci (Uo Ken)– with predictable results. And thus, the civil war amongst the fire dragons was begun.
Both Kai Meng and Ling Huang seem like basically honorable guys, so it’s not entirely surprising that they’d have taken Zi Bai’s side in that fight (not that he needed their help in the end). The current Zi is something of an automaton – which makes him that much tougher for Wang Ben to read in combat. It looks to me like the entire Yu Feng army would have been wiped out if Han Chang hadn’t circled back and attacked the Wei army surrounding them from the rear. But in the end this will surely c0me down to Wang Ben taking down Zi Bai in single combat – of falling in the attempt.
ibtachi
June 7, 2022 at 3:08 pmI’m not sure I can articulate this as well as I’d like but I feel Kingdom’s narrative typically only reaches a point worth a comment every 3-4 episodes. Its a a series of expertly paced peaks (in action/intrigue/stakes) of varying heights and flavor, followed by successive ascents to the next peak on the horizon – with some occasional pauses to take in the view and catch our breath.
This is not a dig in any sense, because the journey to get to those successive climaxes/fallouts/clashes/set-ups/character moments is always excellent, epic and thrilling. But being so good at it’s job sometimes means there’s not much more for me to say except “Can’t wait for next week”. If it’s any consolation, I’ve been here from S3 and am not planning on skipping these posts.
Guardian Enzo
June 7, 2022 at 4:20 pmThat’s an interesting way of looking at it. I don’t necessarily agree that the stuff in between doesn’t necessitate commentary, but the series does tend to be built around long arcs made up of short “pods” of episodes (mini-arcs if you like).
ibtachi
June 7, 2022 at 11:28 pmTo further clarify I didn’t mean they aren’t worth commentary at all, but rather that its only every 3 or so episodes that find myself in a position to offer any additional commentary to the stuff you’ve said already.
One of my main observations that kind of clicked in this episode was that the Fire Dragons are interestingly being portrayed in a more noble (relatively) light than the typical antagonist. But even that development is built on the last week’s portrayal of Kai Meng. Now these are not un-important but they would kind of be regurgitating what you’ve said.
The only meaningful observation that I ended up having on top of that was when I stopped to think whether there’s something in Kingdom’s structure which encourages what you called a loyal, but frequently silent, audience.
Guardian Enzo
June 8, 2022 at 7:04 amNah, I get what you meant. Unless I wanted to save ’em up and do 3-4 episode posts though it’s not an option for me.
I often have the same thing with no comments on sports anime, oddly enough for much the same reason I think.
DukeofEarls
June 8, 2022 at 12:39 amI wanted to comment just to say I’m a long time reader of these reviews as well, even though I don’t say much.
Your reviews actually introduced me to this show… 10 YEARS ago now! I’m having trouble wrapping my head around that, but it came out in June 2012. It’s since become possibly my favorite anime series of all time.
Guardian Enzo
June 8, 2022 at 7:03 amDamn I’m old… Thanks for sticking around so long!
Marty
June 8, 2022 at 6:53 pmI believe the main reason why I personally don’t comment on this series as much is because one of its main selling points are the complexity and competency with which the battles, both in the battlefield and the courts, is written.
Many writers, even really good ones, struggle with writing compelling battles. They usually go 1 of 3 ways, either:
1. The tactics don’t matter because 1 or 2 soldiers/mechs (depending on the genre) are army-destroying maestros of destruction (this was a really big problem I had with battles in Code Geass’ 2nd season).
2. One tactician is so far above the rest that everyone by comparison looks like a buffoon (the main problem I had with Arslan).
3. Two tacticians are depicted as “battlefield geniuses,” yet all it takes is 1 ace up the sleeve to completely undo the battle (Berserk and Drifters had this kind of problem, though other shows are far more egregious with it).
Kingdom bypasses that by allowing both sides to have their fair share of hyper-destructive fighters, but the scale of the battles be big enough that they alone cannot stem the tide. The battlefield is seen as a chessboard and no one single move completely unravels the opponent, UT usually a succession of strategies and counter-strategies.
However, therein lies the problem. As a Manga-reader, I already know the outcome of these struggles, so speculating on them in the comment section would be extremely disingenuous on my part.
However, it is a great show (even the CG and censorship of the 1st season wasn’t enough to make the story not compelling.).