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I have stomached my way to Episode 13 and I have to say, it's better than the previous seasons. But this is just a fundamentally flawed anime.

There is little to no suspense...we know the Qin win, we know ALL the Qin characters are effectively deities that can overcome any obstacle because all the interesting characters from other nations get little to no development and they all lose for absurd reasons anyway so... and the main character is essentially Naruto.

The action is great at times, but everything is a repeat. Antagonists do some brilliant action that hurts the "good guys," ... they seem to be winning, good guys ascend and become gods where they are invincible, can overcome any odds, literally nothing but divine lighting can stop them and they stop the antagonist because they are all immortal. Rinse and repeat. This is NOT fun or entertaining, or at least, it's not for anyone who has more than a few brain cells. I'm writing my review now because it is clear that this season is using the same formula as all the previous seasons. It is a real pity because this could have been SOOOO much more instead of the Michael Bay performance we got instead.

Overall, this is better than the first season in most things and worse in a few others.

It's more enjoyable, the animation is better and the pacing is better. But the characterization is by far a lot worse. The manga is fatally flawed in that it has one-dimensional characters that are incredibly annoying, super-powered (when there are no superpowers in the story universe), and rely on plot armor to progress the story at every single turn. Xin was already a heavily flawed main character in the first season, but the story relies on him (and other secondary characters) overcoming what are ... clearly impossible situations with deus ex machina plot armor. Xin is about to die...but then he grits his teeth for the 10th time, spouts out some nonsense about how the other character's heartfelt dreams are "wrong" and then he miraculously heals enough to overcome substantial leaps of power and strength. You get your arm cut to the bone, leg severely injured, ankles cut, head wound, about to pass out and the next second you are good as new? Sounds like Xin! So blatantly stupid and ignorant of anything other than whacking people with swords (because he is somehow a master swordsman after 1k friendly bouts with his childhood friend and a few battles) and yet he always claims he'll be the best general ever because...thats Xin! He has such little depth and likability that the only real thing you can enjoy about his character is that people get surprised by him a lot and he feels like the underdog...but by the 100th time, this mechanic is old.

Is it worth a watch like S1? Yes...and I don't think the animation studio is at fault for the story, it's just a mediocre manga (with wonderful art) that had the story setting, art style, character dynamic and creativity to really make a wonderful piece, but then feel short because they went with the popular "Naruto-esque" styled character of the time which is a writing travesty of a creation if there ever was one.

I'm frankly disappointed, and its for two major reasons:

1. The studio artwork, sound, and pacing were a bit off at times. Some scenes that should have taken longer were cut short and vice versa, the sound was at best average but the worst was the animation. Not only did it fail to capture the depth of the manga even remotely, but the use of CGI at certain scenes wasn't appropriate. I don't have an issue with CGI use, but it was clear that they were still figuring out when to use and not use it in the first season. The artwork ... also was lacking for some scenes.

2. The manga in of itself is lacking. I love the gritty artwork and historical backdrop, but the characters are severely lacking. The main character (Xin) is the typical "Naruto" character, with ridiculously long speeches about arbitrary or childish points, superhuman strength, a crudeness that everyone seems to overlook at take as charm? Him, like many other characters, are incredibly one-dimensional and the entire premise of his character is pretty ludicrous. The guy is so strong that he might as well be one punch man where the occasional loss is so minor that its really just more plot armor to justify himself being even stronger in a world of already ridiculously strong characters (that get introduced out of the blue to create challenges for Xin to overcome or pillars for him to aspire towards). It was a great premise, but the execution did not age well and that was primarily due to characterization and how the story revolves around that characterization.

Is it worth a one-time watch? Yea...it might even be nostalgic for many people. But it is a heavily flawed anime, and the 1st season is a mix of its best and worst all in one. I did enjoy the humor though...

I don't understand the really positive reviews. This was NOT a good anime. The premise was a great premise, but the show have a few major flaws throughout.

1) World logic was not consistent. The show would introduce world logic for some component, and they would then forget about it or even contradict it in later episodes. They were usually minor things, but this was frequent enough to really question the story flow. Stuff like how an entire faction despises all neighbors and wants to kill them to the writers forgetting about what motivates this faction by the end ... and it just being overlooked. Things like how "points" are relevant for a few episodes...and then they aren't. The fact that the head of Border effectively starts a coo, and everyone is okay with it. One guy can see the short future, but can also see the future years in advance to almost pinpoint accuracy...and he is then portrayed as some sort of high-level counselor to the head of the border? Etc etc etc...the list of these items are endless.
2) Characters were relatively vapid with some of the protagonists kind of being annoying to deal with. The world seems to be fascinated Osamu, who is a protagonist and "captain" of the protagonist team. He is a very weak and melodramatic character whose only exceptional talent seems to be occasionally coming up with something witty, being uncharacteristically brave for someone who is so timid, being incredibly altruistic to the point where you kind of want to barf and always being overshadowed by everyone else around him. Yet, for no reason given, this "bravery" or "tenacity" (blind luck usually) gets him the attention and sponsorship of everyone... WHAT A BAD PROTAGONIST!
3) Every episode has a few minutes going over what has happened in previous episodes. This is just a waste of time... it also adds to the feeling that the anime presents where they are trying to just run the clock and waste time without providing too many filler episodes.
4) Some of the editing is poor in the beginning with awkwardly long still frames of a moment as it has ended. This gets resolved later on in the anime, but it makes the anime seem amateurish
5) Story premise is fantastic! It is unique and fun...yet they took a great story premise and filled it with poor to amateurish writing which really diluded the show. Some characters don't even need to exist! There are also TONS of times where deus ex machina is introduced and someone appears out of thin blue, surprising everyone and saving the day. One scene has a helicopter appear out in the middle of the sea surprising everyone when someone shoots down a ladder...??? Are you trying to say that there just HAPPENED to be a comrade in a helicopter that NO ONE NOTICED in the middle of the sea that flies right next to the characters as they need to be saved??? Alot of poor writing like this is rife throughout the anime.
6) Artwork is meh...its not terrible, but its not anything to rant about. I do enjoy some of the character designs and flow, though there are also times where the artwork designs don't seem to mesh well.
7) Tied in with the world logic, for a story that seems to center on comradery and appeasing a surprisingly privileged civilian base, people seem relatively apathetic towards death. There are times when some damage is done in a city due to Neighbor attacks, or even some Border soldiers are kidnapped and the public loses their minds and start blaming Border for things that are not possibly in their realm of control. But when tons of people die, no one seems to bat an eye?

The list for these things goes on, but there are simply better animes out there to watch. They took a good premise for an anime and filled it with mediocre filler. A few episodes are entertaining until you need to rush through a few more to get to that next entertaining episode. Is it worth the watch? ...Meh...I suppose it is, though you'll probably want to skip a lot of episodes or entire swathes of sections in episodes that are just boring. Every relationship and character is so weak that the only really entertaining parts are sometimes the fighting, and even then, it becomes redundant, annoying at times, spread out too thin across multiple episodes and should only be a facet of an anime, not the only entertaining thing about it.