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Kingdom Season 3 Anime Previews Story's 2nd Half in Promo Video, Visual
posted on by Egan Loo
The official website for the Kingdom anime posted a promotional video and main visual of Qin's king Ei Sei to promote the story's second half, "Saikoku Bōei-Sen" (The Battle to Defend Sai).
The tagline on the visual reads, "Keep Hope Alive."
The third season of the anime of Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom manga premiered on NHK General in April 2020. The anime's production committee announced later that month that it was delaying the broadcast of the season's episode 5 and later episodes due to the Japanese government's first state of emergency against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The third season resumed airing on NHK General on April 4 of this year. The anime restarted its airing from the first episode.
Funimation is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.
The third season has a new production staff compared to the previous series. Kenichi Imaizumi (Reborn!, Brynhildr in the Darkness, After School Dice Club) is directing the anime at Studio Signpost (the new name of Pierrot Plus). Noboru Takagi (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, Golden Kamuy, Baccano!, Altair: A Record of Battles) is in charge of series scripts. Hisashi Abe (Sorcerer Hunters, Berserk (2016), Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System) is designing the characters.
The season covers the manga's Coalition Army Arc. The returning cast members include Masakazu Morita as Shin (Xin), Jun Fukuyama as Ei Sei (Yin Zheng), Rie Kugimiya as Karyō Ten (He Liao Diao), Kentaro Itō as Huan Ji, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Ōhon, Hirofumi Nojima as Mōten, Shirō Saitō as Biao Gong (Hyou Ko), Kenyuu Horiuchi as Wang Jian (Ōsen), Taiten Kusunoki as Mōbu, and Akio Kato as Tō.
Idol group BiSH returns to perform the anime's new opening theme song "STACKiNG," while Emiko Suzuki performs the new ending theme song "kIng," composed by Hiroyuki Sawano. Both songs debuted in the season's 14th episode on July 5.
Hara's historical manga centers around the slave boy Xin and his dream of becoming a great general for the state of Qin. Xin helps Ying Zheng, the young Qin king who shares his desire to unify China, rise to power within the state. Xin does all he can to become a superior commander of an army capable of defeating the Seven Warring States.
The record-setting manga launched in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine in 2006. Hara said he is considering writing up to 100 volumes. A television anime adaptation premiered in 2012, and a second season premiered in 2013. Funimation streamed the series in North America and released both anime on DVD in 2016.
The manga inspired a live-action film by Shinsuke Satō that opened in Japan on April 2019. Funimation began screening the film in theaters in the United States and Canada in August 2019.
The manga is also inspiring a smartphone game titled Kingdom Dash!! that launched earlier this year.
Sources: Kingdom anime's website, Comic Natalie
