Giant Anime Franchise Confirms New Live-Action Adaptation

March 14, 2026, 2:36pm

In the world of live-action anime adaptations, One Piece is receiving the lion’s share of attention at the moment. While the Straw Hats recently released their second season, with a third season set to drop on Netflix, Luffy and company are far from the only anime characters who will enter “our world.” One beloved franchise in particular hasn’t simply been satisfied with one live-action movie and/or one live-action season of television. Said series has confirmed that a fifth film in the franchise is in the works and has revealed the first trailer for the return of Qin Nation.

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Kingdom first arrived as a manga in Young Jump Comics in 2006, with creator Yasuhisa Hara still creating new chapters to this day. In 2019, the franchise received its first live-action movie, hitting theaters in Japan before rolling out the red carpet for three sequels. Kingdom 2: Far And Away, Kingdom 3: The Flame of Destiny, and Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General have stuck to the source material in bringing Xin’s story to life. This summer, the fifth entry of the series, Kingdom: Soulful Battle, will arrive in Japanese theaters, confirming its release date of July 17th with a brand new trailer you can check out below.

Kingdom’s Big Comeback

Kingdom, for those who might be unfamiliar with the original anime’s story, re-tells the history of China, specifically when the Zhou dynasty was in its final days. With numerous factions within the nation vying for power, the franchise would recreate historical events with an anime aesthetic that has translated well to the live-action world. As mentioned earlier, this fifth film will be a part of Kingdom’s twentieth anniversary, and the official website has hinted at what fans can expect in Soulful Battle.

“The manga is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the film is about to embark on a new legend. The fifth film in the series, Kingdom: Soulful battle, depicts a desperate situation. It is based on the “Coalition Army Arc,” one of the most popular storylines in the original work. It is the largest-scale clash of the series, featuring the souls of Qin and the Six Nations. This summer, the fateful battle that will decide the fate of the Qin nation will ignite a great flame.”

While Kingdom might not have hit the same heights as the likes of One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen in North America, the franchise has become one of the biggest currently running in Japan. With over one hundred and twenty million copies of the printed story in circulation, it routinely is one of the best-selling manga year after year. Luckily, the anime adaptation from Studio Signpost is still planning to have a bright future as a seventh season of the television series has already been confirmed, though a release date remains a mystery.

What do you think of Kingdom’s live-action franchise in comparison to the likes of One Piece? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!