The Kingdom Season 5 release date is confirmed for January 6, 2024, the Winter 2024 anime season.
The Kingdom Season 5 anime TV show will finish the story of the Koku You Campaign story arc from the Kingdom manga series and continue from there.
Studio Pierrot and Studio Signpost are returning to animate. The main staff making Kingdom S5 haven’t been announced yet.
In the past, Kingdom manga creator Yasuhisa Hara has served in a supervisory role on the anime production staff. It’s likely that Hara will return, and any studio changes will probably be minor.
After all, the first two seasons were produced by animation studio Pierrot, which is best known for Naruto/Baruto, the upcoming Black Clover Season 5 anime, and the original Bleach anime series (Studio Pierrot also released the Bleach Season 17: Thousand-Year Blood War anime in late 2022).
The third and fourth seasons of the Kingdom anime TV series were produced by Studio Signpost, but since that’s the new name for the Pierrot subsidiary Pierrot Plus, it wasn’t much of a change.
What is not minor is the main staff changes between each Kingdom season. Several times the director and main staff have changed, so it’s possible that the Kingdom Season 5 staff will change once again.
However, there were some staff members retained in earlier seasons, including episode director Mitsutaka Noshitani, key animator Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, and several others. Most of the main staff remained the same for Seasons 3 and 4.
The third and fourth season was helmed by director Kenichi Imaizumi (The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, episode director for 2015 Charlotte anime). Writer Noboru Takagi (Golden Kamuy Season 4, In/Spectre Season 2) wrote the series composition for Kingdom’s third and fourth seasons, as well.
Artist Hisashi Abe (Moriarty the Patriot Part 2, Berserk 2016) was the character designer for Seasons 3 and 4. Composers Kohta Yamamoto and Hiroyuki Sawano (Solo Leveling, Bubble) created the music.
The Kingdom Season 5 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music haven’t been announced yet.
The Kingdom Season 4 OP “Rei -ray-” was performed by SUIREN, while the ED “Dazzling (Genyou)” was performed by haku.
The Kingdom Season 4 Part 2 OP “geki” was performed by zonji, while the Part 2 ED “Believe” was performed by Misaki.
The Kingdom anime’s fourth season originally began airing in Japan on April 9, 2022. Both the third and fourth seasons had 26 episodes in total, while the first and second seasons had 38 and 39 episodes, respectively.
Each season was composed of multiple cours. A “cour” is a three-month unit of TV broadcasting based on the physical weather seasons. Most anime seasons feature 12 or 13 episodes per cour.
The third season of the anime series suffered from delayed production due to the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic. The anime series was eventually rebroadcast in 2021 from the very beginning.
The Kingdom Season 4 Episode 24 release date was delayed by NHK due to news coverage of Typhoon Nanmadol. Rather than airing at midnight on September 17, 2022, the 24th episode was aired back-to-back with Episode 25 at midnight on September 24, 2022.
The fourth season’s finale, Kingdom Season 4 Episode 26 (Kingdom Episode 129), was released on October 1, 2022 (which is effectively midnight in Japan on October 2, 2022). The broadcast in Japan was actually delayed by 45 minutes due to local news coverage of an earthquake.
- Updated November 21, 2023: Added new teaser PV trailer.
- Updated October 11, 2023: Added exact release date and new poster.
- Updated October 1, 2022: Kingdom Season 5 anime confirmed for January 2024.
This article provides everything known about Kingdom Season 5 and all related news. As such, this article will update over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Why the Kingdom Season 5 release date is in January 2024
As of the last update, Studio Signpost, NHK TV, Shueisha, and Avex Pictures have officially confirmed the exact Kingdom Season 5 release date. On October 1, 2022, it was officially confirmed that the fifth season is coming out in Winter 2024.
Anime Geek predicted that the anime production committee will have Kingdom renewed. In June 2022, the manga series was listed in the Top 3 Oricon manga sales for the month right next to SPY x FAMILY and Tokyo Revengers. In total, the Kingdom manga had over 90 million volumes in circulation in June 2022.
This ongoing popularity pretty much ensures that Kingdom Season 5 is inevitable. The only question is when it’ll come out.
The fourth season was confirmed at the end of Kingdom Season 3 Episode 26 on October 17, 2021. On that day the anime series released a teaser visual of the anime sequel. The Kingdom Season 5 anime was announced in a similar fashion in October 2022.
In the past, Anime Geek successfully predicted that the turnaround time for the fourth season would be much shorter. A big part of the reason for the long 6-year wait between Kingdom Seasons 2 and 3 was the fact that the anime was catching up with the manga series. When Season 2 finished airing on March 2, 2014, the manga was only up to Chapter 336 of Volume 31.
So the producers needed to wait years for the manga creator to generate more chapters. Even after there was enough source material, anime productions take years of planning, and the studios, staff (which includes many contractors), and voice cast need to be scheduled in advance.
In the case of Kingdom Season 5, the manga is very far ahead, with over 400 chapters remaining to be adapted as of October 2022. This is largely due to the anime series being delayed by an entire year by the COVID pandemic.
Assuming that the producers have planned out the production schedule in advance, it was predicted that Kingdom 5 could come out relatively quickly and it’s likely that Studio Signpost is already scheduled. Considering that the Kingdom manga is literally hundreds of chapters ahead of the anime, it’s also possible that the wait for Kingdom Season 6 could be relatively short, as well.
Crunchyroll’s Kingdom Season 5 English dub seems likely
In the past, FUNimation released the Kingdom English dub for the first two seasons. While FUNimation was streaming the third season with English subtitles, an English dub version still hasn’t been announced. Similarly, FUNimation and Crunchyroll haven’t announced a Kingdom Season 4 English dub… yet.
The Kingdom Season 3 Part 1 Blu-Ray box set was released by Crunchyroll on August 23, 2022. The Crunchyroll Store lists the audio languages as being both English and Japanese, which means that a dubbed version is included.
In 2022, Sony announced that the FUNimation content would be moved over to Crunchyroll. Presumably, the dubbed version of the third season will eventually be streaming online and then a Kingdom Season 4 English dub release date will be announced at a later date.
Therefore, it’s possible that Crunchyroll will eventually produce a Kingdom Season 5 English dub.
Kingdom manga compared to the anime’s fourth season
The story for the anime series is based on the Kingdom manga by writer and artist Yasuhisa Hara. Serialized in Weekly Young Jump magazine since 2006, the manga series is already up to Volume 65 as of June 17, 2022.
Publisher Shueisha’s website says that Volume 65 contains up through Chapter 712. Historically, four new manga volumes are released per year (only three volumes released in 2021).
Unfortunately, an official English translation of the Kingdom manga series has not been announced by any North American publisher. (Still!)
The Kingdom manga’s ending is not coming any time soon. Back in 2015, the manga creator was interviewed by Da Vinci magazine, and he stated that he wished to convey the idea that humanity tends to repeat war while proclaiming a desire for peace.
To achieve that goal, Hara says he will need to target Kingdom Volume 100 for the ending. From the perspective of anime-only audiences, that goal means there could be over 10 anime seasons in total, so we should expect Kingdom Season 6, 7, and so on in the coming years.
Anime fans have been pleased with the third and fourth seasons of the anime adaptation. Some anime fans criticized the first two seasons for using a lot of garish 3D CGI animation.
Studio Signpost also used CGI in the third season, but it wasn’t egregious. 3D character models were used whenever the camera zoomed out to show entire armies, but when the camera closed in on the action, the battle scenes were hand-drawn 2D animation.
The first season of the anime adaptation covered the first 173 manga chapters with 38 episodes. The second season slowed the pacing down significantly, adapting 78 chapters with 39 episodes.
The third season picked up the story again with Chapter 261, with Episode 1’s title being named after Chapter 264. The third season adapted both the Coalition Invasion story arc and Kyou Kai’s Revenge, which meant the third season covered Chapters 261 through 364, which is 103 chapters in total.
Adapting 103 chapters meant the third season had two cours again. Condensing the story too much would have created pacing problems, otherwise.
The fourth season picked up the story again with Volume 34: Chapter 364.
All in all, the fourth season’s finale, Kingdom Season 4 Episode 26, found a stopping point corresponding to Volume 41: Chapter 441.
This adaptation pacing was a surprise since Anime Geek originally predicted that the fourth season would end with the Ai Country Rebellion Arc that runs from Chapter 402 through Volume 40: Chapter 437. Instead, the fourth season’s finale dipped its toes into the Koko You Campaign Arc that runs from Chapter 438 through Volume 45: Chapter 484.
It’s a good stopping point since the announcement of the attack on Kokoyou Hill sets up the events of the Kingdom Season 5 anime. Ending with the Ai Country Rebellion Arc would have made for a relatively slow climax since it largely focuses on the Queen Mother establishing the new state of Ai and planning their next move.
That means the fourth season adapted in full four story arcs: Kyou Kai’s Revenge, Conspiracy in the Court, Fire Dragons of Wei, and the State of Ai arc.
Finishing the Koku You Campaign arc in the fourth season would have provided proper resolution for multiple character arcs. The military campaign would have also finished the fourth season on a high note with a battle scene.
On the other hand, the Ai Country Rebellion Arc is about the same length as the other three preceding story arcs adapted by the fourth season. Studio Signpost apparently decided to maintain good pacing rather than rush things in order to reach a more climactic stopping point in the story.
Such a stopping point leaves only the Koku You Campaign arc and relatively short Bureaucrats Job story arc before launching into the Western Zhao Invasion arc, which is the biggest story arc of the entire manga series thus far. Since that story arc is 147 chapters by itself, it’s probably best to adapt it with four cours in the Kingdom Season 6 and 7 anime.
Assuming that’s the plan, Kingdom Season 5 should be two cours again since it only needs to adapt 54 chapters. The fifth season should also be relatively short assuming the adaptation pacing averages close to three chapters per episode.
Kingdom Season 5 plot summary (spoilers)
The last time we watched the Kingdom anime, the Qin had finished off the Ai rebellion. The next target in the Qin military campaign is the Koku You Hills, a strategic area that is also coveted by the Zhao.
The Hi Shin unit is dispatched to join the main force of General Kan Ki and his army. On the other side, Zhao sends the armies of Kei Sha and Ki Sui.
The first day goes badly for the Shin since his unit is ambushed in order to trick them into retaking the central hill area rather than moving forward. Things get even more complicated when there’s an assassination attempt!
Despite the ongoing battles, there exists a village in Koku Hill that remains blissfully unaware of the war between the Qin and the Zhao armies. Audiences will learn about the Tragedy of Rigan and how it pertains to the current fight.
Will the Qin be able to win the battle for the Koku You regions of Zhao?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Kingdom Season 5 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!