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The main turn down for me was the way in which storytelling was done through animation. Seeing first few episodes of Kingdom anime made me realise for the first time how a bad anime could be made out of a good story (I have read just few chapters of the manga, but it seemed good).
I am no expert on animation. But here are the problems which I felt were there:

Character development lacked. For the changes in the feelings of the characters, there was no proper transition. The characters hopped from one emotional state to another. It was as if the anime was just making sure ... to cover all the checkpoints in the story, and didn't care for the how it made it there.

Animation in places was pretty lousy. I think blame might lie on direction. For example, in episode three, when the Generals are talking and fighting on horseback, it doesn't convey the sense of danger and urgency that comes out of life and death situations. If there wasn't a dialogue that explained things, you wouldn't know they were trying to take each other's lives.

The animation seemed computer generated, and I think it wasn't handled properly. The problem may lie with higher frame rate it allows. The creators are not adding subtleties that should be added to accompany a higher frame rate. Our brain would probably expect greater details in movements in higher frame rate. An analogy would be— showing a low resolution image on retina display. It would be a waste.

The manga comments on and shows us about lives of people who are physically very different from majority of us. Very truly, without any softening they show how their lives are. What they have to do to survive. As it shows harsh realities, it is no manga for children as the bitter reality will be too much for them to digest. It is not obscene, just states the things as they are.
The manga also has elements of fantasy in it. But those things haven't been very well explained. But I may be feeling that because I am an outsider to Japanese culture. It also ... has heavy nostalgia towards the end. The feeling of nostalgia doesn't sit very well with me, because I think missing the past doesn't do anything much for us, doesn't serve much of a purpose. But my belief doesn't void the fact that we all sometimes miss the past. Even I do.
The manga also raises the question of how things could have been very different from how they are. But that remains for reader to answer. For the plot, as well as in generally.
It is a good manga for serious reading. I would recommend it.

People have their own sorrows. This manga tells a story which prompts us to look beyond the past of others. People cannot chose what happens to them. Most often circumstances rather than our will dictate what our actions are.

The idea of the story is very poetic. A woman who has attempted suicide thrice and a convict who has killed three people and also has tried to kill himself many times-- such are the kind of people that society generally gives up on. Either we are not able to help them and therefore avert our eyes, or don't understand them so turn away. We see ... them as incorrigible.

What do these people think of society back for having themselves treated in that way? They must feel as if they are not parts of the society. They must feel like the world is not for them. And yet they have to follow its norms. That must be very suffocating. That is possibly why they try to take away their own lives-- to get away from it. Can a person from within the society reach out to a person like that? Probably not as the insider can only imagine how they see. Another person from outside might.

The manga addresses the issue of difficult childhood and how it molds our lives throughout. It is not easy to steer away from the results of trauma from past. But should we we even ? Don't those sad experiences turn us into our present selves? Rather than forgetting them, shouldn't we try to build on them, learn and benefit? That would be a more satisfying result.

The story is comment on people who blinded by their own troubles forget how others feel. There is a comment on how the religious people are humans only, and have their own flaws. The story doesn't follow the the stereotype of people being reformed by religion. In the real world many people don't want to deal at all with religion. The story is about such people too.

I like this manga because it lays bare the sorrow of people who have lost everything and don't care about anything at all now. It gives the reader the hope to be happy also.