'Kingdom' Opens Official Instagram Page

Kingdom is one of the oldest running shonen series, but it doesn't quite get as much attention in the West as its younger counterparts seen in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump and other magazines.

But now that the Kingdom manga has officially opened an Instagram account, now fans will be able to interact with the series more directly and hopefully get it the recognition it deserves.

The official Instagram account for Yasuhisa Hara (@kingdom_yj_official) has been sharing new details about the Kingdom manga and anime for dedicated fans that follow the account. Currently, the account only has 22 posts and 16.5K followers but expect both of those numbers to change as the days and months roll on.

So far a series of specially picked character portraits have been displayed, and the account has future plans to share previously unknown character designs, names, and other tidbits specifically chosen by Abe Koshi. These scenes and tidbits will offer a window into the series that has been unavailable to fans otherwise, and offers a cool alternative to just researching the series on a Wiki.

The series has also used Instagram's story function to its full effect as the account has already shared bits and pieces of the first six episodes of the Kingdom anime. With each of the story clips only being about thirty seconds or so, it is not exactly the most ideal way to experience the series. But what the account hopes to accomplish, however, is to get new fans of the series interested in what it has to offer. It's sure to accomplish what it wants, especially if it does deliver on great behind the scenes facts and fun.

If you are not familiar with Kingdom, then you have quite a bit to read. The series was created by Yasuhira Hara and is still on-going. The story is set in China during the Warring States period and follows two orphans named Ri Shin and Hyou. When the latter dies, Shin finds himself involved in a conspiracy which allows him to join the army. Shin dreams of becoming the world's greatest general, and the hero tries to do so by helping Ei Sei of Quin unify China before its internal conflicts split it apart.

Yasuhisa Hara's series first debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump in 2006, and has been collected into 48 volumes as of October 2017. The series was adapted into an anime series that ran for two seasons from 2013 to 2014, and has been adapted for an English language release by Funimation.