Note: I use the Romanization provided by Funimation in the subtitles, but from the pronunciation it isn't entirely clear if pinyin or Wade-Giles is being used. Refer here for pronunciation differences.

In some ways Kingdom is to Chinese history as Vinland Saga is to the Vikings – an in-depth look at a period of history many people have a few ideas about, but don't actually know terribly well…just without the balance of history and story that Vinland Saga has. Firmly rooted in the history of China, specifically the Qin Wars of Unification, which took place roughly from 247 – 221 BCE, Kingdom follows the rise of young general Li Xin, just called Xin in the story, and the equally young king Zheng as they fight to unite the six smaller kingdoms. Where this differs, at least in the anime (Kingdom is based on an award-winning manga by Yasuhisa Hara, which currently stands at forty-one volumes) is that where other works of historical fiction tend to focus on the characters, Kingdom puts the emphasis on the battles being waged, at least as soon as Zheng attains the throne in episode fifteen (of thirty-eight), making this more about military strategy than the actual people involved. If this is not your cup of tea, Kingdom is unlikely to hold much interest for you, as many of the battle scenes are described rather than shown with wooden markers on a map showing the movements and placements of the forces.

The story begins around 247 BCE, with thirteen-year-old King Zheng ousted from his throne by his younger half-brother Cheng Jiao and his cronies. Forced out of the capital, Zheng is protected by a small army of supporters when Xin, following the will of his dying friend Piao, meets up with him in a bandits' village. Taken aback by each other in equal measures, Xin and Zheng nonetheless form an alliance, and Xin quickly impresses not only Zheng, but the more battle-hardened members of his entourage, specifically Chang Wen, a former warrior who helps to shape Xin's natural talent into something more useful. Xin and Zheng also meet up with Diao, a not-very-disguised girl from a lost mountain tribe, who becomes Xin's Piao replacement, a best friend for him to come home to and to feel at ease with. Not that she quietly waits around in the background – despite the historical setting, there are a fair amount of strong female characters in the story, the most notable of which is Qiang Lei, a descendant of a mythical tribe whose sword dancing skills are nigh on unbeatable.

Qiang Lei is actually one of the few characters who doesn't suffer from the series' heavy use of 3D animation and stylized designs. This is largely because she's mostly covered up, but also due to the fact that the less than stellar rigging makes everyone look like they're floating stiffly just above the ground rather than actually moving on it, and that works quite well for her specific style of fighting. Other characters suffer more, with some designs' attempt at mimicking actual Chinese facial features veering into the realm of caricature and real problems animating muscle movement. I absolutely appreciate the fact that characters such as Xin and his fellow soldiers are drawn as muscular despite their wiry builds; it just doesn't quite pan out when they're actually using those muscles. On the plus side, there's a real feeling of diversity in terms of the costuming of each group within the show, from the mountain tribes, who look a bit like they've walked off the set of Princess Mononoke, to the armor of Zheng's forces, which gives viewers the hint that he's the emperor behind the famous terracotta army in Xi'an. The scenery, on the other hand, is absolutely breathtaking when the characters aren't just running around a dusty plain fighting – from the secret mountain palace of a former king to the swampy riverside where Xin, Diao, and Zheng meet up, there's a tremendous sense of place that makes you wish you could just step into the screen and breathe the air. The feeling of size is also very well done, with looming castle walls once again reminding us of the feats Zheng will go on to accomplish (the Great Wall of China in this case) while showing just how advanced this civilization really was. Given these visual accomplishments, it really is a shame that the animation is so uneven – in places it works, particularly when more mixed with traditional animation, but by and large it's stiff, awkward, and at times downright ugly.

As I said before, the majority of this season, once we get past the introductory phase and set Zheng on the throne, is about battle tactics and fight narration. The majority of the character development happens in episodes 1 – 15; we do see Xin, Diao, and Qiang Lei develop beyond that through their experiences on the field, but very few new things are revealed about any of them once we know their motivating factors. It's a shame that we don't get to see Xin and Zheng interact more after episode fifteen, because the two balance each other out in terms of brains and brawn (not that Xin isn't intelligent); hopefully in season two there will be more of them together, as is implied by the final scene of this season. The shift in focus also seems to set up some confusion about the target audience for the show. The first fifteen episodes really feel more like traditional shounen action with a plucky underdog protagonist and a clear cut set of heroes and villains. Once the unification wars actually begin, however, the story is more likely to appeal to historical fiction enthusiasts, although the scenes of war remain largely gore-free apart from blood spatter. The fact that tactical explanations take precedence over actual fighting (and scenes such as General Wang Yi's training plan for Xin are largely glossed over) make this unlikely to be appealing to shounen action fans, but it never quite goes into enough historical detail to make it worthwhile for military history buffs. It gives the show an unbalanced feeling, and I get the impression that this is due to what may have been left out in adapting the story from the manga.

Also strikingly odd is Funimation's release of this series. It is one of their less impressive efforts, containing no extras whatsoever and defaulting (as they had previously said it would) to the subtitled track rather than the English dub. This turns out to be for the better, as the dub is pretty awful, with a lot of awkward acting, no consensus on how to pronounce the Chinese names, and some of the saddest battle cries I've ever heard. (In all fairness, the awkwardness could be in part due to the lip flaps, as is clear in a few scenes.) More oddly, there is no listing for the English cast anywhere on the discs (I tried to find a cast list and even basic information on where this dub was produced - no dice. If anyone out there knows the mysterious origin of the dub for this show, lend me a hand!). The Japanese track, despite having some excellent voice actors among the cast, is also fairly unimpressive, although on the rare occasions where Xin speaks below a bellow it is much more enjoyable. It is worth mentioning that the Japanese pronunciations of the Chinese characters is generally used, so what you hear will not necessarily match up with what you read. The other oddity is in the character Pang Nuan's speech – in both sub and dub, he speaks informally, using “thou” and its conjugations rather than “you.” It is an interesting choice that may indicate that the character feels superior to his opponents and only comes off as slightly awkward because the informal is so infrequently used in English today.

Kingdom has all of the hallmarks of what should be an engaging historical action saga – a solid base in history, interesting events, and exciting battles. Sadly an over reliance on tactical narration instead of actual battles, clunky animation, and characters who cease to really develop after episode fifteen brings it down, miring the story in a morass of talking, war models, and weird-looking horses. The sub-par English dub further reduces the chances of this finding a wider audience. It's a shame, but Kingdom feels like a lot of wasted potential – a story that should be great but just doesn't quite make it. If you're a fan of military history or Ancient China, there's likely to be more here for you than if you're just looking for a new action anime, but even then, Kingdom doesn't quite work.