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Kingdom Season 3 Anime Reveals New Theme Song Artists

The official website for the Kingdom anime revealed the new theme song artists for the anime's third season on Friday. Idol group BiSH returns to perform the anime's new opening theme song "STACKiNG," while Emiko Suzuki will perform the new ending theme song "kIng," composed by Hiroyuki Sawano. Both songs will debut in the season's 14th episode on July 5.

The season resumed airing on NHK General on April 4. The anime restarted its airing from the first episode. BiSH is performing the anime's first opening theme song "TOMORROW" and waterweed are performing the anime's first ending theme song "Deep inside" as the group's first television anime collaboration.

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 last April that it was delaying the broadcast of episode 5 and later episodes of the third season. The committee explained that production had been going forward with enough time allotted, but the Japanese government's state of emergency declaration against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) greatly impacted the production schedule. The anime was later rescheduled to return in April 2021.

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 new season covers the manga's Alliance 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), Kentarō 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.

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 adaptation 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 is slated to launch in spring 2021.

Sources: Kingdom anime's website, Comic Natalie