Ranking of Kings

TL;DR Ranking of Kings had several amazing first few episodes and if the rest of the series followed it could have easily been a 9. There were legitimate stakes, the mystery surrounding the characters was intriguing, and the struggles of the protagonists were well handled. The middle half of the show is not as gripping as the first handful of episodes. Character motivations get spelled out for the most part and they do not live up to the mystery and intrigue shown at the beginning of the show. There are also issues with pacing, an overuse of tropes, and some characters getting completely shafted interms of development and screen time. What follows is a resolution that does not fix the previous issues and instead makes weirdly questionable decisions morally. There are also some badly injected takes on real world events concerning Japan and Korea that paint Korea as one-sidedly evil. The politics do not apply to most viewers; however, they are concerning when viewed in a vacuum. The art style invokes that of a clean looking storybook fantasy and holds up for the most part. The opening and ending songs and visuals are stellar throughout the run of the show as well. I don't normally watch shows as they air, but Ousama Ranking's first half had me gripped to the point where I wanted to see everything that followed as it unfolded. What I got was disappointment. Below is a much more in depth look at why I feel this way. Spoilers are present to fully explain why I gave this show a 5. ------------Story and Characters - 5------------ What initially drew me to Ranking of Kings, the story, starts out with immense promise. Two competing sons for the right to the throne; Bojji, the designated successor yet crippled from birth as well as kindhearted and talented in his own right. The other Daida, a younger stronger and much more arrogant prince. The first few episodes of the show revolve around who supports which prince, with each character having various stated and unstated reasons for doing so. Characters with development at this point were multilayered and had compelling individual struggles. The protagonist Bojji struggles to fit in because he is weak, small, gullibly kind, deaf, and mute. He finds a friend in Kage who recognizes his will and talent in combination with his kindness as something great. The sword master in charge of Bojji struggles between loyalty to his master and the potential he saw in another. Queen Hilling was shown at first to be harsh towards Bojji for his gullible demeanor and fully supported Daida over him, yet it is also shown how much she truly cares for him as her son. The mysterious Spear Master and Snake Charmer had their own reasons for being loyal to Bojji and Daida respectfully with each showing potential for further development. Daida himself is power hungry and craves to be as strong and as great as his father. Together with a magic mirror giving advice, Daida was willing to do anything to cement his rule. When first watching the show, I was not sure what to expect from any of the characters and I found myself pleasantly surprised at the quality of writing despite the simplicity of the premise. Eventually, the contention between the two princes is put on hold and the rest of the show starts to slowly falter. There are many debates as to whether or not the second half of the show is worse or not. Some say the quality is the same, some say it is not. I'd say the second 2/3rds of the show start to show significant problems and do not hold up overall. There are a handful of reasons for this being the character developments, the plot as a whole, pacing, the political allegory, and the tropes used. -----SPOILERS------ Starting with minor complaints, some segments of the show focused one-sidedly on either Bojji and Kage or people living in the kingdom. Some episode plots were paced weirdly and going up to two episodes with barely any development for Bojji's plot thread felt weird after seeing him every episode. Similarly, suddenly cutting to the kingdom which had been irrelevant for several episodes was also jarring at times. There are also multiple unresolved plot threads and characters introduced that go nowhere or are irrelevant. The source material is a web manga currently being published so I hope they eventually go somewhere meaningful. As far as characters go, everyone from the underworld remains fine as a character, the spearman is the most compelling of the four knights and Hilling is fine aside from one aspect. The rest of the cast did not fare well in terms of development. The biggest aggressor to this is Kage, who started out as gruff yet supportive and ultimately ended up as nothing but a mouthpiece for Bojji. His troubled past led to a sour demeanor that eventually changed when he decided to support Bojji, which he did by protecting his life and paying for his training. After this, Kage does not do anything of note except talk for Bojji because he is mute, give play by play commentary during fights and altercations, and cry. Kage hardly ever shows off his once gruff personality, instead it feels as if he was created to serve as a way for the viewer to understand Bojji's every mumbled word. In particular, his emotional crying is overused to a ridiculous degree. The swordsman tries to kill Bojji in episode 5 and then spends the next 18 episodes wallowing in pity over the fact that he betrayed his master. He went from driven and experienced to being lectured by every character in the show and being treated like a child. His student, a supporter of Bojji from the beginning, is portrayed as inexperienced and naive yet he is shown in a more mature and knowledgeable light than the swordsman on multiple occasions. In addition to this, the swordsman resorts to comical levels of self harm and pity on multiple occasions. Even after swearing newfound loyalty to Bojji, he constantly looks for ways to get himself killed in atonement even after multiple characters tell him he is wrong for doing so. What started out as an experienced tutor who questioned loyalty over potential was reduced to a bumbling sob story who can't decide between loyally serving, killing himself for redemption, or crying on the floor for forgiveness. In particular, his crying is overused to a ridiculous degree. The spearman is the most compelling of the initially introduced knight cast, struggling between two factions of loyalty. This isn't particularly groundbreaking and his hypocrisy and wishy washy nature is even frustrating at times, but, comparing him to other cast members he oddly stands as one of the few mildly decently handled characters. Like others, he still breaks down and cries but not to the point of significant overuse. The snake charmer does not get any character development aside from a handful of lines and scenes that show he is kind but pretends to be mean as a facade. He doesn't cry which makes him alright. Last of the knights is the big muscleman in charge of protecting Hilling, he does just that and is one of the few characters to actually suffer consequences from being attacked. You could easily argue that this makes him the best character between the four knights which I find sad considering he barely has any nuance in his personality. Overall, each of the knights showed promise at the beginning and by the end two were barely developed. One was bastardized from a multilayered man with ambition and drive into a devout Bojji afficionado who can't control his suicidal impulses or his waterworks, and only one of them ended up being passable as a character. An additional small gripe I have with all of them is that they decide to support Bojji over their king in the end. Even the Snake Charmer who was entirely in support of Daida and Bosse decides to support Bojji. Speaking of Bojji, some find issue with the fact he went from essentially powerless to potently strong in a 4-episode training arc. Personally, I don't have issue with it because the logic behind why it worked flowed well. Bojji was initially already very swift, he was just taught how to take advantage of that. I don't have many issues with Bojji as a protagonist, but he does cry too much for emotional scenes to feel effective. I do take issue with the fact that nearly every single one of his doubters form the beginning changes their tune with ease. Bojji went from misunderstood as stupid and naive to being seen as a driven saint compared to everyone else. I wish that other characters were not as quick to immediately fall head over heels for the newly strong Bojji. Daida is betrayed by the mirror and locked away and his consciousness in his body is replaced by Bosse. During this confinement Daida has a complete change of heart from entirely ruthless to sobbing over the misfortune of the brother he ordered executed. The Mirror, a woman named Miranjo. becomes the primary antagonist. Bosse is left ambiguous for most of the show, all that was known about him was that he was a strong king. Through flashbacks, we find out that Bosse one dimensionally cared about strength and the relationships he developed aside from Miranjo were all superficial. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this development, however the writing concerning the events and how Bosse developed as a character leave much to be desired. All the loyalty and trust he inspired as well as the loving relationships he had feel hollow and pointless in the grand scheme of things. He claims to love Hilling and his sons yet could care less about their deaths. Bosse cried at least 4 times about Miranjo, yet he did not have a single emotional crying scene for either of his sons or wives. More meaningful content happened in flashbacks and past events than anything that Bosse did in real time during the story. We also find out that Miranjo basically caused every single bad thing to happen in the entirety of the story. I wont go into specifics but Miranjo made Bosse a king because he made her happy. Then she wanted to spend more time with Bosse which involves stripping him of his kingdom so she tries to get everyone in his family killed. Bosse just sits back and agrees with this because all of his relationships are superficial. The ultimate resolution to this is Bosse rightfully dies and Miranjo is completely forgiven and Daida decides he wants to marry her. Daida decides to do this because he spent 17 episodes in a mental prison watching her past unfold. After watching the 3 to 4 year old and cradling her, he watches her grow up and develop feelings for his father. After all of this, he decides to marry her. This single development brought down the score of the show from a 7 to a 6 for me, it completely comes out of nowhere, is morally questionable, and the resolution for the cause of all their suffering is given a '''''happy''''' end. We are then left with the horrendous quote 'hate the sin not the sinner,' which is horribly ill fitting considering a particular aspect of the flashbacks shown. Some argue that the author wanted each character to get a happy end and that is the purpose for why he wrote this story. There is nothing wrong with that, but the way he did it was horribly executed. In multiple flashbacks throughout the show, characters die, are disfigured, tortured, and have lasting consequences. During the real time events of the show not a single major character dies. There are multiple fake out deaths of which include multiple characters getting stabbed through the chest, given poison, ripped in half, mauled by beasts, and bonked on the head really hard. Every single one of these mortal injuries was cured by Queen Hilling's healing powers. By the third or fourth complete reversal of death on hilling's behalf it became apparent that there were literally no stakes in the second half of the show. Even towards the end when her healing abilities were spent and everyone was essentially dead everyone was miraculously brought back to life. The way in which this story was written established death and stakes before immediately backing out and taking away the possibility entirely. Emotional fight scenes are undermined by the fact that they probably have no real stakes when the only shown stake can easily be fixed with healing magic. Emotional scenes in general rely far too much on characters crying, realizing the error of their ways and then resolving to change or just keep crying. It is easier to name members of the cast that do not break down and cry than it is to name each one that does. I have brought the subject of crying up multiple times because I personally believe that its overuse to a ridiculous degree was that detrimental to the quality of the show. My final large complaint concerns the flashbacks to a conflict between two cultures. One culture is fighting for freedom and helps out a poor culture while the poor culture turns out to be entirely evil and sadistic and willing to betray the kind culture at the drop of the hat. What we are given is a thinly veiled allegory for Japanese and Korean conflict, with the Japanese depicted as the benefactors to an ungrateful and 'evil' Korean culture. I am in no position to lecture anyone on the morality behind the political allegory used in this show, however, from an outsider's perspective, the author let his politics get in the way of conveying a story. That awful quote from before 'hate the sin not the sinner' loses all meaning when you look at how the author portrays the Korean people. They are literally irredeemably evil and torture an innocent girl for the sake of doing so. The audience is not meant to sympathize them, but we are meant to sympathize with the girl they tortured who ended up doing just as many horrific actions because she wanted to make someone else happy. There is no moral ambiguity for the Koreans in the flashbacks, the audience is fully meant to hate the sinner in this case. Again, supposedly the author wanted a fairytale everyone is happy ending, yet he decided to make one sided ethnic racism a key component to his happy feel good story. I am in no position to lecture anyone on their politics but I found this incredibly distasteful and immensely detracting from the show. ------------ Overall 5 ---------- I really wish the rest of the series was as good as the first few episodes. The author wanted a happy fairytale where everyone got a good ending yet set the scene for a completely different story. Emotional development is reliant on crying, there are no real stakes, and characters are a mess by the end. The best part of the show is that the art style is clean aside from a few minor animation issues and the opening and ending songs and animation are good. If you can overlook those aspects, then maybe you'd enjoy Ranking of Kings. I did not end up enjoying anything past maybe episode 8, but those first few episodes were good enough to not bring this show down even lower.

Ranking of Kings was a standout in the roster of 2021 by looking like a European fairy tale. It also began as a typical underdog story about a weak prince nobody takes seriously trying to win his right to the throne, before becoming more elaborate by including themes such as psychological issues and political intrigue. Unfortunately it doesn’t do much from a point on and thus it never escapes the fairy tale vibe it began as. Most of the conflicts are resolved way too fast and in ways that insult your intelligence. 1) Selfish people and traitors will be changing their mind when they see theprince cry a lot or never give up, and will be forgiven almost immediately. 2) Bad guys are turned into misunderstood people with a last moment sad flashback that is making them tragic in an instant (even if they have caused harm to thousands of innocents) and are never punished. 3) Most negative consequences such as fatal injuries go away before you know it. Also fake deaths are abundant. 4) There is no sense of tension or high stakes when betrayals, horrible acts, and injuries can be undone so easily. It wouldn’t be a problem if the author never made it seem like stakes exist, but he does all the time and constantly deflates every conflict with cheap fixes. It’s nice to see a show taking a more serious approach with its material, but let’s not pretend it does an exceptional job. The lack of negative consequences make it come off like yet another escapism fantasy for people who wish they will be forgiven for all the shitty things they have done, simply by crying a lot. We live in a society where someone can have his entire life ruined by eating a jelly bean, and the easiest method for making people forget all the crap you have done is to manipulate them through their emotions by crying in front of a camera. Ranking of Kings relies way too much on people crying for making you think they deserve a happy ending instead of punishment for all the crap they did, and it reaches levels of insanity the closer it gets to the ending. One of the characters is even given a marriage proposal as a reward for crying despite being the most horrible person in the world. Also ignore anyone who considers this to be an instant classic or something as grand as that. It’s a very niche show that appeals to fans of fairy tales who seek something more elaborate. Most casual anime fans will not bother watching something that looks like a European fairy tale or will not be fond of a simple coming-of-age story they can find elsewhere, preferably with magical samurais and big titty ladies. As for the veteran watchers, they will most likely dislike how it gives a happy ending to people that deserve years in a torture chamber.

Spoilers When a poster of a boy sitting on a throne wearing nothing but his underwear and a cape next to a shadowy figure whose unique design I’ve never seen before, you best bet I was intrigued. Scrolling through seasonal anime on MAL, this one quickly caught my eye. As I always do, I added it to my list and I wait. This one seems special, and I don’t want to dampen the experience by watching something weekly. But as the season went on, the show grew in popularity, and it rose to the top of the MAL charts. Now that intrigue has turned into interestand, dare I say, excitement. I’m not one to buy into the hype; I’ve been disappointed one too many times, but there was something mysteriously captivating about that poster. It was simple; it didn’t try to cram in the entire cast; it was itching my curiosity in a way I haven’t felt in a long time, inviting me to explore its world and story. After months of delayed gratification, there were finally enough episodes that I can comfortably binge, and so I did. What came of it? Well, I was already well-prepared to be disappointed, but certainly wasn’t prepared for the deep, emotional satisfaction this 9-hour journey Ousama Ranking put me through. Holy fuck, the animation quality is on another dimension. Like what in the fuck am I watching? How is this even possible for TV anime? And guess what? Most of it is hand-drawn goodness. Unlike Attack on Titan, where they have 2D characters soar through a 3D landscape, the backgrounds here are hand-drawn. Watching all of these fight scenes, especially Prince Bojji vs King Bosse, was a sight to behold. Seriously, watching a hand-drawn background move around as Bojji flies through the air made me deeply nostalgic for no reason. And the actual fight choreography was nothing short of impressive. The movements felt crisp and had a good flow from action to action, but it was also snappy when it needed to be. I could actually follow what’s going on for once, and with none of the flashy nonsense we see in Demon Slayer. What’s even crazier is how the characters emote in the middle of a fight. I remember in the first episode, when Prince Daida had a spar with Domas using wooden swords, I could see the frustration building up in Daida, and then he shook his head to refocus. The way his cheeks moved in a goopy manner and the sweat flying off his face was so cool to see. And well, speaking of emotions, Ousama Ranking has some of the best crying animation I’ve ever seen. Crying is usually attributed to 1 or 2 emotions, usually overwhelming joy or grief, but really, crying can run the whole gamut of emotions. Be it frustration, anguish, or fear, the way tears fall and how the eyes and face contort communicate so much information visually that it’s hard to describe in words. It’s Wit Studio, so I’m sure they used CG here and there, but it was so well integrated that I legitimately couldn’t tell. Legit, whenever I thought I saw CG, I paused to stare at the freeze-frame, and I swear it was hard to tell the difference. I would go as far as to say Ousama Ranking has set a new production standard for other studios to strive for. This is some next-level KyoAni shit. But enough gushing over the animation. It’s no good if there isn’t a good story to back it up, and I’m glad to say it does. First and foremost, Bojji and Kage’s relationship is a dynamic I don’t think I’ve seen before. Well, protagonist and mascot sidekick is something we’ve seen a million times (everyone knows Pokemon, right?), but Ousama Ranking has a different take on this trope. You see, mascot characters typically serve 1 function, and that’s to be cute. They’re only there as a pet that follows the protagonist around for emotional support, but these charas can get tiring after a while. Not only are they amorphous blobs that don’t take human shape, but a lot of them also have a vocabulary strictly limited to their name and some weird noises. Emotions are conveyed through facial expressions and tone of voice, so needless to say, these charas can only communicate a very limited set of simple emotions, but Ousama Ranking switches this up a bit. Bojji is deaf, so he can’t speak. Kage can speak, but has an amorphous body. This presents a unique challenge for both the animators and voice actors to convey emotions in a more expressive way, and I love it. Just the way these 2 charas act and interact breathes so much life into the show; it’s so much fun to observe such a refreshing dynamic. Bojji, being the one who can use facial expressions, serves as the emotional core of the duo, while Kage is the mouthpiece that connects them to the outside world. It’s a beautiful, symbiotic relationship that I can’t help but adore. Even after only a couple of episodes, when Kage disappears for an extended period of time, his presence was missed. I would like to point out that most of the characters have very literal, straightforward names. King Bosse is the boss of his Kingdom, duh; Queen Hiling is a healer, duh. Anyone who’s seen Naruto knows that “kage” means “shadow,” and well, Kage is literally a shadow…and metaphorically. Yes, all of these very literal names also have metaphorical implications, but most notable of them all is, of course, Prince Bojji himself. I’ve seen enough anime to know that “Bocchi” means “all alone” in Japanese, so Prince Bojji is literally--and metaphorically--all alone. And what happens when you’re all alone? Well, you’re only left with your shadow. The story following Bojji is your typical shounen underdog packed with a hidden OP ability and hyperbolic time chamber, but considering how charming Bojji is as a character, this is hardly an issue. What’s more compelling is the unfolding conspiracy at his home kingdom and how each character plays a role in that conspiracy. It’s been a while since I’ve seen characters this multi-faceted. Some characters we believe to be allies, like Domas and Apeas, end up betraying Bojji at some point in time. Other characters that initially appear to be antagonists turn out to be our friends, like Hiling and Bebin. This makes the plot unpredictable in a way I enjoy. Not only are their motivations well-justified, but it also highlights how there are many angles to a given conflict. There are no “picking sides” in this story like you would see in Star Wars; there isn’t a “good side” and “evil side.” Real life is hardly ever that simple. No, there’s only the individual, and each individual has their own idea of what’s righteous and just; what one person thinks is “the moral thing to do” will hardly ever align with the next. Not only that, there’s a constant battle within each character to “do the right thing” and not cave in to their selfish desires. A good example is king Desha. In order to overthrow his tyrannical father, he was forced to commit genocide because it was the “right thing to do.” He experienced anguish and guilt over the atrocity, but how much of that was motivated by greed for power? It’s kind of impressive how pretty much every relevant character has a duality to them. Hell, the devil only wanted to stay pretty, and even the drunken no-life rando who raised Kage has a sympathetic side to him, and it really makes for a compelling story. And probably the most sympathetic character of them all is Miranjo, who serves as an excellent foil to Bojji. They’ve both suffered a childhood riddled with betrayal and loss, but what separates them is that Miranjo caved into selfish desires. Miranjo lost trust in the world, while Bojji had the strength to forgive and the courage to trust his allies, both of which are fairly traditional western values. By the way, there’s a lot of Westen symbolism in here: David vs. Goliath, Snow White, Holy Mother Mary. I feel like I’m rambling at this point because I’ve only finished the show like half an hour ago and scrambling to organize my thoughts. Anyways, Ousama Ranking is a great show, and it didn’t disappoint. Thank you for reading.

What happened to Ousama Ranking's story? Did someone kidnap the author halfway in and force him to write a mediocre battle shounen with terrible pacing? This show is incredibly confusing. In short, Ousama Ranking felt like watching two different shows. Its first half or so was actually very enjoyable, making use of complex and interesting characters in a context à la Game of Thrones topped with gorgeous art and symbolic writing - albeit as subtle as a brick through a window -, but then the fire nation attacked the mangaka or something must have happened because everything turned to trash. After the first half I justkept wondering what happened, what caused such a shift in quality, I was so focused on this that I could barely comprehend what I was watching anymore but maybe that's a good thing, in a way I got spared. I don't want this to be a full review of the show, so I'll just briefly talk about the most important aspect of any show for me: its characters. Ousama Ranking's characters are surprinsingly good, or that's how they seem to be at the start of the show. They all have their backstory, allegiance and motivations and even those that appear shallow at first end up being interesting. Two characters have to be talked about: the two princes, Bojji and Daida. Daida is the second prince, he is gifted, strong-minded, ambitious and uncompromising. Even though he seems to be a complete asshole at first, it turns out that he has standards, morals that he's not willing to abandon. Bojji is the first prince, he is exactly the opposite of his brother. He is weak, cursed, and not fit to be a king. He is also deaf and mute. This next paragraph contains spoilers These two princes are interesting because of how drastically different they are and because they are basically competing for the crown after the death of their father. Even though Daida is most fit to become king, he's the second prince so Bojji should take the crown instead. This premise is very solid. It made me wonder how Bojji was going to deal with conflicts. Being deaf, he cannot hear what people are saying to him. Being mute, he cannot speak to them. Being extremely weak physically, he cannot resort to force to solve problems. How is he going to deal with his brother and everything else? What an interesting conundrum! Well, guess what... Everything that was established through the first half of the anime is simply thrown out the window. Daida is manipulated by a mirror and removed from the story because his father is reincarnated in his body and Bojji undergoes training which makes him the strongest character in the show (this is not a conjecture, it is stated in the anime). Daida's complex struggle to emulate his father's strength is gone. Bojji's physical handicap is gone; him being mute and deaf doesn't matter because he can read lips and people somehow understand him when he's 'speaking'. Thus, the anime turns into a battle shonen where there is absolutely no tension, people are gravely wounded but then healed, wounded again but healed again, and wounded one more time and left for dead just to be healed again because why not. Nothing seems to happen for the remainder of the show. We learn about the main antagonist's backstory which apparently is some sort of Japanese nationalistic memorandum. I was at first very confused by this backstory but it now unfortunately makes a lot of sense. One last thing to mention is the series' main antagonists and one word to describe them is boring. The series goes into such great lengths to make them complex and misundertsood that it forgets to actually make them interesting. If you really want to watch this series, just pretend it's 10 episodes long and has an ambiguous ending and call it quits, or turn your brain off and watch the whole thing.