It definitely does manage to give you a reason to get invested. Political intrigue, wartime at all times, historical context, and then of course the usual MC & his cooler smarter rival at the core.Well excluding the animation the first episode is a great pilot episode as it gives you a lot of intrigue to get invested in the story. Both with Xin and the world surrounding him. At least it has that going for it. Purely judging by this episode.