Kingdom - Season 3

If any anime series has been really affected badly by COVID-19, it is Kingdom. The major interruption of the airing for almost a year certainly affected the gripping atmosphere that the third season had been building up in a detrimental way, and I had, therefore, cooled down before the anime series managed to return now in 2021. After all, there are some pretty major plot developments, some epic battle scenes, and the main characters are going through probably the biggest crises of their journey so far, which they have to try and overcome successfully. Everything is appropriately epic and spectacular, the battle scenes (for someone like me) are simply mesmerizing and thrilling, including the battle strategies of the generals, as well as the one-on-one fights between different characters. Plus, the animation style was more consistent, making the warfare really entertaining to watch as well. In the second half of the season, everything about the coalition and the Battle of Kankoku Pass was so fascinating that I started to get into studying all the real events of that period of history. Finding out it was not so historically accurate, and that the era of the great alliance and the Battle of Kankoku Pass took place a bit before Zheng formally ascended the throne of the Qin Dynasty, was quite disappointing. However, on the other hand, I can understand why the mangaka simply borrowed those events in order to make an already interesting narrative concerning the unification of China into something much bigger and more dramatic. In conclusion, in the end, I was not really disappointed at all, it was thrilling, entertaining and if you like battles between enormous ancient armies (if, for example, you grew up on Age of Empires or Shogun: Total War), then you should be also pleased with this one too. I was, and am, excited for the eventual follow-up, because I have an inkling of the possibilities that await me in the next season, and now the real unification is just beginning... 9/10. (18.10.2021)