History Manga / Kingdom

''Kingdom'' is a manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Hara which began serialization in ''Weekly Young Jump'' in 2006. It won the 17th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award Grand Prize in 2013. The manga also earned a Guinness World Record on December 12, 2012 for Manga written by the most people; the record was due to its "Social Kingdom" campaign in which fans and other artists were given the task of redrawing the entire 26th volume.[[note]]A total of 1,087 people participated in the campaign, including manga creators Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Hirohiko Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Takehiko Inoue (Vagabond) and Hiroshi Motomiya (Salaryman Kintaro). Voice actors Masakazu Morita, Jun Fukuyama, and Rikiya Koyama, voice actresses Yōko Hikasa and Rie Kugimiya, and singer Etsuko Yakushimaru also participated. Each participant redrew one of the approximately 1,000 panels from the volume.[[/note]]

* AnimationEvolution: It used to have terrible animation (especially in CGI) but with each season the animation quality slowly increased. The upgrade in quality resulted in more people watching the show and becoming fans in the process.

''Kingdom'' is a manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Hara which began serialization in ''Weekly Young Jump'' in 2006. It won the 17th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award Grand Prize in 2013. The manga also earned a Guinness World Record on December 12, 2012 for Manga written by the most people. The record was due to its "Social Kingdom" campaign in which fans and other artists were given the task of redrawing the entire 26th volume.

* BladeOnAStick: The podao or ''guandao'' is the primary weapon of choice of most characters. Spear users, most notably Wang Ben and Earl Zi, are also fairly common.

* TheStrategist: He Liao Diao makes steps to become this near the end of season 1 and has enrolled in a strategist school in season 2 and becomes the Fei Xin Unit's strategist by the end of season 2.

* Older than They Look: Lady Zhao, the Queen Mother, looks great for age as she retains a beauty that leaves others blushing just by looking at her.

* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler:Yang Duanhe, He Liao Diao, Qiang Lei, Liao, one of the six great generals, and Mi Ling to a lesser extent.]]

* BloodKnight: Many generals crave war and combat more than anything, revering the battlefield. Notable examples include Wei Fire Dragon [[DumbMuscle Kai Meng]], Great Heaven Lian Po and the entire Ze Nuo Clan.

** Li Mu is undefeated in the Shiji, while in the manga he was defeated in the [[spoiler: Battle of Zui/Sai by Yang Duanhe and Zheng and in Zhuhai/Shukai Plains against Wang Jian.]]

* GreyAndGrayMorality: While some individuals might be leaning closer to either white or black, most of the actual conflicts in the story is between two grays. After all, many of the enemies the Protagonist faces are simply soldiers defending their homeland rather than random villains, while the protagonist's faction is hardly squeaky clean.

* AllForNothing: The reason why Li Mu and his men are so loyal to the Kingdom of Zhao despite their declining state and [[TheCaligula less-than-stellar monarch]] is because they put their hope in the [[TheWisePrince Crown Prince Jia]], believing he would be able to return Zhao to greatness. However shortly after [[spoiler:Zhao's defeat in Ye/Gyou the king chooses to disown Prince Jia in favor of his equally depraved second son Prince Qian, now known as King Youmiu. Even after King Daoxiang's death, Zhao still can't catch a break]].

** Wang Yi and Pang Nuan. Wang Yi hates Pang Nuan for slaying his fiancée and fellow great general Liao, while Pang Nuan lives for nothing more than to kill Wang Yi to right his only defeat. [[spoiler: He succeeds, but the manner of his victory leaves him unsatisfied. Thereafter, Xin somewhat takes up the torch to strike him down in his stead, though it takes a ''long'' time for Xin to get to the level of being able to fight him anywhere near equally. In fact, it's implied that this very trope is part of the reason for Pang Nuan's contradictory attitude towards participating in wars despite lacking any genuine patriotic motivation to do so, as a Wushen/Bushin like him is supposed to be the WorldsStrongestMan, yet locations like a battlefield give rise of combat veterans who can face off with him despite down performing the insane training routines Pang Nuan goes through daily to maintain his level of strength. In effect, because there are those out there who can match him equally, thus invalidating his reason for existing as 'the strongest', Pang Nuan naturally develops a one-sided enmity with them and seeks them out to validate his reason for being.]]