4th Kingdom Anime Series’s Teaser Highlights Ei Sei’s Ambitions on Next Battlefield

The official website for the Kingdom anime posted a teaser promotional video for the fourth anime series on Thursday.

The new series depicts the aftermath of the Coalition Army Arc and the largest battle in history, which tore a great gash across Qin as well as all of China. The video above begins with Ei Sei telling Prince Sei Kyou of his lifelong ambition: to become the ruler who unites China. Shin and Ei Sei take another step closer to that ambition upon a new battlefield in the next series.

The returning cast includes:

Masakazu Morita as Shin

Jun Fukuyama as Ei Sei

Yoshimasa Hosoya as Ō Hon

The fourth anime series premieres this spring.

The new series’ teaser visual featuring Sei Kyou (Cheng Jiao) with the tagline, “I’m next,” debuted after the 26th and final episode of the third Kingdom anime series in October 2021.

The third anime series based on 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 series’ episode 5 and later episodes due to the Japanese government’s first state of emergency against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The third series resumed airing on NHK General in April 2021. The anime restarted its airing from the first episode.

Funimation streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.

The third series had a new production staff compared to the previous series. Kenichi Imaizumi (Reborn!, Brynhildr in the Darkness, After School Dice Club) directed 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) was in charge of series scripts. Hisashi Abe (Sorcerer Hunters, Berserk (2016), Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System) designed the characters.

The series covered 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 Ito as Huan Ji, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Ōhon, Hirofumi Nojima as Mōten, Shiro Saito 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 series 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 also inspired a smartphone game titled Kingdom Dash!! that launched in 2021.

Sources: Kingdom anime’s website, Comic Natalie