The end is surely in sight now, and maybe in more ways than one. We’ve reached the endgame stage of the Qin-Wei war now, and whichever side is going to emerge victorious is going to do so in very short order. There are lots of interesting storylines emerging here (just […] Read more
When it comes to war epics, it’s probably a good idea never to get too attached to anyone… I knew this moment was coming – it’s been obvious for a couple of months, in fact – so it was really just a question of when the axe would fall, and […] Read more
Magnificent bastards don’t just grow on trees. You probably saw my pictures from Jump Festa, where Kingdom had a large booth complete with cosplayers. This manga is a pretty big deal – it’s obvious that Shueisha cares about it at least somewhat, and it continues to be a strong seller. […] Read more
What a marvelous dichotomy this episode of Kingdom presented. To be clear, Kingdom the manga/anime isn’t history – it’s historical fiction. Who knows how things really played out on these battlefields – but in the end it doesn’t matter, because all we’ll ever know about those moments is what’s trickled […] Read more
That episode of Kingdom was one of those anime episodes that felt like it lasted about four minutes. Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~ – 10 This was an odd little episode of Yozakura Quartet, the series where even the eyecatches have panty shots. We’re only two weeks away from the […] Read more
As crucibles go, war is about as merciless as they come. Kingdom is all about the measure of a man – and woman – it seems to me. Generals, kings, merchants and thieves take the measure of each other, and battle takes the measure of all of them. The ultimate, […] Read more
As Harry Caray used to say, the big possums walk late… The motif for this episode was definitely chess. It’s not coincidental that military strategists have historically been good chess players, or that the game itself draws so heavily on the phraseology and indeed mindset of war (and the reverse […] Read more
If action is your thing, these two shows offered up plenty to smile about this week. Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta – 07 I hate to be a broken record (do people still get that reference? Well – even a broken clock is right twice a day…), but Hana no […] Read more
That was an episode that put the “epic” in historical epic. Kingdom 2 – 23 Bad CGI and all, this last sequence of battles has been one of the best I’ve seen in anime for a long time. Admittedly that’s a pretty low bar since hardly anyone is doing this […] Read more
Meng Tian has certainly been the conspicuously absent figure over the last few episodes of Kingdom, but it was always only a matter of time before he made his presence felt in a big way. Kingdom 2 – 22 I’ve had the feeling for a while that Meng Tian was […] Read more