Not gonna lie, I like moments like the last page. Yes, I know that the Ousen vs. Riboku arc is generally frowned upon and that with good reason. But moments like these, when one tactician seems to comprehend his opponents tacticts just resonates with me, even if it is on such a super basic level.
That's also the reason reason why I liked when Ousen actually understood what Riboku was pulling on him and how he countered it… until Ousen then decided he needed to have a chat with Riboku. :(
I get ya and i agree. But boy was the entire Sei - Kanki dialogue weak. Absurdley weak.
Perfect. Finally time to kill off Kaine and Fu Tei. Don't let me down Hara
New chapter is out:
! I expected a lot more from Shunsuiju in defending the city or at least using some tactics to escape the city himself.
! I guess it did wonders for the morale of the Zhao soldiers if your commanding general leaves one of his prodigy deputies to defend your city and all he does is standing on the wall watching and then running away ALONE when the city is taken over, leaving you behind. Thanks Riboku
Finally, we are hearing the name Gian..the Gian (if you know the history).
Totally forgot to comment on the chapter.^^' I gotta say that I kinda like Shin in the past few chapters. He intercepted the attackers (hopefully deciding this based on his own reading of the situation) and went through and took the leader down like a boss. That was definitely needed because we cannot have him struggle with every named character if he's supposed to grow stronger. Also I really liked his speech for some reason. Usually I'm always worried when something like this happens in any manga because I'm worried it might become another example of Talk no Jutsu. But no. He made a clear statement on both understanding the importance of his superiors while at the same time condemning war crimes. Also I like that he chewed the Kanki guys out demanding some sort of respect because at the end of the day, he did save a fatal blow to the Kanki Army happening. And the final thing that I really liked is, that the opposing soldiers didn't heed his advice. Yes, he meant well but this is a battlefield and such an outcome is very likely in that situation. And as a soldier he had no other choice but defeating the attackers, which will definitely be something he'll carry with him. I liked that.
Also lol at Shunsuiju's "Thanks for trying but screw you, I'm going home!"
RIP Souhakou, we hardly knew ye.
Yeah he's done.
Ousen set them up. He knows what's up and Kan Ki does as well.
I wouldn't write off Souhakou. Maybe this first impression on him is red herring. I mean, it'd be waste otherwise, to introduce 200k army just to floor them through the mud. And he's someone at caliber qualified to lead those 200k.
Even slowing them down will throw a large wrench into Qin's plans.
Doubt those Roumou forces can simply obliterate a 200k army, but a general can die as easily as any soldier.
710 out https://sensescans.com/reader/read/kingdom/en/65/710/page/1
! I just know Hara's gonna piss me off. Instead of finally killing Heki, he's gonna get a kill and get another upgrade after all this. Riboku's unleashing the Seika Generals. Whatever they do, its to boost how great Shi Ba Shou is. Whenever Hara wants to let him loose. I want to see Chu's Kou En get busy 1 day as well.
I swear, all the blabbering about "Riboku foresaw this, Riboku predicted that, oh what a great genius he is" is infuriating. My interest for the manga has been slowly dropping for a while now, but lately it's getting worse. The bit about Shin saving Kanki despite his track record was nice, but everything else in the current story is frustrating on a weekly basis. I will probably call it quits and drop Kingdom for a couple years, until there's enough backlog to give a decent reading experience while skipping the annoying parts
At least he can't use his "genius" move named Houken anymore. Watching the coaliation arc anime adaptation made me remember how shitty that move was.
It's up there with Ousen's "genius" move of relying on Shin and Ouhon to "awaken".
The awakening thing to me has been the low part of the series so far. Holy hell was that bad. I have no problems with the speeches Shin and Ouhon gave, but they could have have this without that entire awakening bullshit.
It's not the awakening that bothered me it's the "Ousen is not changing anything and is sending them to die for days, he must have a genius plan" part.
His post-war achievements should be taken away from him. Without the trio (don't forget that without Mouten the left army was lost almost immediately), Qin would have lost easily.
Kanki, for as much of a scumbag he is, has been portrayed as a far better tactician than the supposed super genius Ousen and his deep stares. And I doubt that's what the author had in mind.
That's actually part of why I hate that part. Awakening in itself is a ridiculous concept but Ousen counting on something happening to his pawns (iirc he said it came down to having better pawns) without having any solid war strategy behind it is just ridiculous.
I forgot what this Awakening thing is.
From what I can understand, it's the Kingdom military equivalent of "getting into the zone", that serendipitous hot steak of good plays that athletes can sometimes reach.
In this instance, their "coach" (Ousen) was ridiculously expecting it to happen in lieu of doing his job and issuing actual orders.
Add the general type match ups to the list of annoyances. Well at least there's no more than two types, otherwise we'd have Hara switching them up in battle as if they were pokemon.
Well last week it wasn't so apparent that the 200.000 is composed hugely of conscripted farmers and the like. Still hold some hope it won't be a one sided pummeling and that some of the army will survive. Mostly because it would be cool if this war ended sooner rather than later.
No scouting again, though?
Obviously not, especially when passing through a cliff side. This could only get worse if Ousen, also predicted this. It looses its charm when it becomes the crutch to these battles. Because obviously the author has free control of these events.
You mention awakening as being lame. How about, let's beat this tactic by…moving forward.
Hey, they can't outplay our tactics if we don't use any. f(ಠ‿↼)z
Seems kinda suspicious that Qin would rely on such a rag-tag group to turn the tide amid all these capable strategists in their lines. But sending 200.000 of your own people to be killed as bait is no better than beheading 100.000 prisoners, lol. No way Sei would sanction that.
Plus even top generals can be superficial when plot demands it.
I must say that "they can't outplay us, if we don't use any tactics" didn't bother me as much because I've seen so many people in my life, that were booksmart but couldn't even know how to handle the most basic of situations every human being should be able to handle, just because they haven't read about it first. I kid you not. So with that in mind, this part of Kingdom at least didn't bother me as it did everyone else. But I can see why people have a problem with it.
That's cool and all, but in this context it can only work to surprise and confuse an opponent for a little while. Best case scenario, Riboku pauses for a while, realizes Ousen is fucking with him and starts flanking harder. He's not gonna be like "There's nothing like this in strategy guides!!!" Besides, Riboku has a rich hands on experience as well.
Still, didn't really bother me much either. I welcome it over awakening any day. Plus it's not the awakening by itself, just how it was introduced. It's no different than Ousen saying "I'm counting on the fact Shin will buy level ups for his troops between battles."
Oh I totally get that this is taking it to the extreme to a point where it becomes more of a caricature of that idea I just described. Not defending it. Just saying that it didn't bother me that much because of how laughable I find these situations in real life.
As far as awakening is concerned, I don't know if it's the very concept or the way how it was introduced that bothered me to be honest. We all know that experience helps people improving theirselves in whatever they are doing. So Shin's and Ouhon's armies getting stronger is to be expected. But then again, same counts for all troops on the field. But awakening doesn't strike me as something like that. Heck, even Gyo'un (or whatever his name was) and his friend said that the youngsters need to be dealt with quickly before their armies develop to power boost levels. I know this is a manga and all but that has a bit too much a DBZ kind of power up feel to it. Not in my Kingdom please.
Chapter 711 is out:
https://sensescans.com/reader/read/kingdom/en/65/711/page/1
Its a weird feeling, that the Sense Scan translation has fallen behind so much.
712 is already out as Raw with a fan translation for the whole week and we will probably get spoilers for 713 very soon.
In general, I like the current arc, for once the Qin are not portrayed as the underdogs, obviously anything involving Kanki is pure gold and I cant wait for the full introduction of Shibashou.
I just have given up any hope to get to see some impressive strategies and tactics at play, that is just something Hara is simply not capable to depict, but then again there is always RoT for that aspect.
THAT CASTLE IS WHAT
That castle is a castle.
Heki, pls die this time.
The castle is empty, this will make Heki retreat, genius.
I don't really understand the following statement from Ten:
"The Kanki army would be best. But with the massacre fresh in their memory, they'd be a force to be reckoned with."
Who exactly are we talking about here. The Kanki army or the Sekirei? If it's the former, wouldn't that be good? If it's the latter, Atsuyo has proven that it doesn't have to be the Kanki army directly for the Zhao soldiers to fight more fiercely agains Xin. So I'm not really sure, what she means here.
It is exactly the latter. Ten's context for me is: "The Zhao hates us for the massacre, but if the Kanki army is put in front of them they will get even worse".
In Atsuyo, they could see the Kanki army from the castle top. They even tried to kill him with a suicide squad. So yeah, it was just an excuse to not send Kanki.
But in Atsuyo it was not just the suicide squad that went straight for Kanki. The Ousen army had big problems because of the hate for Kanki too. Remember how Denrimi's ladder strategy didn't really make a progress thanks to the Atsuyo soldiers suicide dives? The entire reason why the Ousen army has three times more losses than calculated is because the soldiers hated Kanki. The only difference between the guys on the wall and those going for Kanki is that the former were just used as fodder to slow Denrimi's attack down while the ladder were the elites who had a chance to actually kill Kanki. But in terms of they felt there's nothing that indicates that there was any difference between the two.
Quoting to better break down my reply.
But in Atsuyo it was not just the suicide squad that went straight for Kanki. The Ousen army had big problems because of the hate for Kanki too.
Exactly, which is why I say, Zhao currently hates Qin as a whole. But the thing I wanted to point out is that Zhao used soldiers that were personally affected by Kanki's massacre to employ this tactic. And I think that the fact that the Zhao soldiers could see Kanki's flag while the siege was occurring simply fueled that hatred even more so they could throw themselves out.
Remember how Denrimi's ladder strategy didn't really make a progress thanks to the Atsuyo soldiers suicide dives? The entire reason why the Ousen army has three times more losses than calculated is because the soldiers hated Kanki. The only difference between the guys on the wall and those going for Kanki is that the former were just used as fodder to slow Denrimi's attack down while the ladder were the elites who had a chance to actually kill Kanki. But in terms of they felt there's nothing that indicates that there was any difference between the two.
You are right, the suicidal soldiers and the elite forces had nothing that separated them in terms of their hatred for Kanki. Both forces were willing to die to get the job done, and I think that went double because they could see Kanki outside.
So jumping to the current predicament:
The soldiers stationed at Sekirei could turn to be a dangerous force and would become unpredictable (like commit suicide) if they saw Kanki's army ready to siege them. The thoughts of what could happen to them if they lost could make them desperate.
On the other hand, another army would still incur Zhao's wrath, but they might not try any desperate moves or tactics.
But if all they need to do is see Kanki's flags then the situation is still the same because the Kanki army is right there. They are only letting others (Heki) do the heavy lifting. Just as they let Ousen do the heavy lifting in Atsuyo.
I understand that it comes down to if Reebok has again selected only families of the massacred soldiers to hold the line. Judging by what Rei says about the castle it might be a different thing he has planned here. But in the end it's Ten's perception of the situation we are talking about. And since shave realized how far the Zhao's hate for Xin is right now, I don't really think that it makes that much of a difference which army takes the charge. Especially if the great commander is still Kanki.
I get what you are saying, I just think that they want to emphasize that possibility. The difference might be small, but enough to warrant caution.
A few pages back we were talking about exaggeration. While I agree that the overall situation is the same, regardless of whom takes down the castle, they want to bet in that small possibility making a difference.
We also can say that whomever takes the castle makes a difference because of the clear contrast between Shin capturing troops and Kanki, but mostly on the reception of the people surrendering to them.
But, more than anything else, I think it is the exaggeration of "seeing the person you hate across the room" vs "Who the fuck is this Heki-bro?"
That makes total sense. I just found it a bit weird to come from Ten in this situation which is a direct resolt of the Ousen army having to stay behind because all of Xin faced Zhao's hatred.
Really not appreciating padding chapters like this one. Should have been clearly obvious the city is empty long before an attack was mounted. It's just simple teasing. Could have saved couple pages just by narrating what came of the siege.
I understand the author wants to convey the feelings of puzzlement and anxiety the main cast ifs feeling, of course, but it could have been done with less.
At least it gives us Heki a taking an absolute victory with zero casualties.:ninja:
It's teasing Heki's real battle up ahead. He's gonna get some heads for trophies, confirmed!
Chapter is out. https://sensescans.com/reader/read/kingdom/en/66/714/page/1
! Come oooon, he is just pulling what Sei did in Sai.
Interesting. 3 way battle, with Kanki troops in middle sitting patiently? I don't think so. I wonder which side will Kanki choose. And what about backside?
Feel like a fool for expecting a plot more intricate from Riboku. Fog of war + mass recruit = win.
Qin was like, let's just attack to move the plot forward, whatever. Although in the end they did have to attack in order to get things going, since there would be no gain in staying back. Just wish they EMPLOYED SCOUTS FOR ONCE.
Well at least it's exciting, can't argue that really. :happy:
Qin should just go "welp, the government of Zhao clearly hasn't fled here yet, so let's go back south and slay everyone". :ninja:
Feel like a fool for expecting a plot more intricate from Riboku. Fog of war + mass recruit = win.
Qin was like, let's just attack to move the plot forward, whatever. Although in the end they did have to attack in order to get things going, since there would be no gain in staying back. Just wish they EMPLOYED SCOUTS FOR ONCE.
Well at least it's exciting, can't argue that really. :happy:
They did employ scouts,but they got wiped out.
Kanki will most likely go for the castle itself while two sides are busy fighting.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
They did employ scouts,but they got wiped out.
Kanki will most likely go for the castle itself while two sides are busy fighting.
Oh puh-lease. 
Don't need scouts to get within 100 paces of an opposing enemy force of about 50 thousand soldiers to notice them. Those Zhao wings had no business surprising the fuck out of anyone.
