Ranking of Kings

Bojji’s Grand Adventure

Ranking of Kings (Ousama Ranking / 王様ランキング) is a fantasy adventure anime based on a web manga. It’s 23 episodes long, began airing in the fall of 2021, and was animated by Wit Studio.

As you may have guessed by the fact that I’m reviewing the series now, I didn’t watch it while it was airing. But, the second OP of this series was in the DoubleSama Discord server’s “Best Anime OP of 2022” bracket. Not only did that remind me that Ranking of Kings existed, but the second OP is extremely good. It’s what made me want to watch it.

So, what is Ranking of Kings about? It’s about the adventure of Prince Bojji, a tiny, deaf, and mute boy destined to be the next king. Or, he would be the next king if those around him didn’t think his disabilities made him incompetent for the role.

To prove everyone wrong, and to prove to himself he can do anything, Bojji sets out on a journey. The initial plan was for this journey to be rather short and simple. But, no good adventure has ever gone to plan.

On his travels, Bojji discovers a lot about himself and the world around him. Most importantly, he learns that his disabilities don’t define who he is and what he can do. He may not be able to speak, but he can still make friends. And while he may not be physically strong, he can still fight in his own way.

The series also covers the best and worst of people. On one side, there are those who only take from others and even commit genocide. But, on the other, we see that kindness can be found in even the most unlikely of places.

Some Amazing Characters (Hiling Appreciation Section)

I’m already jumping into spoilers. So, if you don’t want the series spoiled, go watch it and come back.

Ranking of Kings has a lot of great characters. And, it might surprise you to find out that Bojji isn’t one of my favorites. He’s fine. The characters I like the most are those who are on Bojji’s side no matter what. The ones Bojji can always count on to be there for him.

There were many of these characters. In fact, pretty much every character — even the “villains” — cared about Bojji in their own way.

But, my favorite character of the whole anime has to be Queen Hiling. Kage might be Bojji’s #1 fan. However, Hiling has been in Bojji’s corner since day 1. And what I liked most about her is that we didn’t know that at the start of the series.

When the series started out, Hiling seemed like this evil stepmother character. It seemed like she disliked Bojji and wanted her own son to become the next king because she wanted power. But, that couldn’t be further from the truth. To Hiling, both Bojji and Daida are her sons, and she always does what she thinks is best for them.

I was planning to write about other characters here, too. But, I might as well just make this the Hiling appreciation section of the review.

I absolutely loved when we got to see some of the flashbacks of when Hiling first came to the castle. It was great to see how much she wanted to connect with Bojji. She was one of the very first people to put in the effort to learn sign language so she could communicate with him.

She also inspired others to do the same.

An Unexplored World of Possibilities

Besides Hiling, there are other good things about Ranking of Kings (I swear). There are a lot of other good characters. Kage of the Shadow Clan is a great companion for Bojji. King Desha is a cool pseudo-antagonist. And there’s even Bebin, an assassin who, like Hiling, cares about Bojji despite how it seems at first.

But, all these good characters lead to my biggest issue with the series. It sets up an amazing world of interesting characters and places. And then, we only get to see a small fraction of it.

For example, let’s consider the title of the series. What is the Ranking of Kings? It’s an international ranking of all the kings of the various kingdoms. This concept introduces a lot of cool ideas and places we could explore. But, we don’t. Instead, I think we know of like 4 kings in total.

Also, since this is a fantasy series, there are a lot of magical things going on. And we don’t really explore those either. Are there other giant creatures that can speak like the 3(2)-headed snake? Do more people have superpowers like Desha’s lightning and Ouken’s immortality?

I’d also like to learn more about the Demon. We got a bit of backstory involving the Demon and Miranjo. But, I would have liked more than what we got. The existence of the Demon was one of the most interesting things about this world, to me.

And, I should mention that the anime doesn’t cover the entirety of the series. Chapter 155 is the final manga chapter covered. But, as far as I know, there are 185 current chapters and it’s still ongoing. So, it’s possible we get a second season. But, I honestly doubt it will happen.

Conclusion

In the end, I gave Ranking of Kings a 9/10. It has some slow parts in the middle. And I wasn’t the biggest fan of how the season ended. But, the world and characters are very good — mostly the characters. If you want a great fantasy adventure anime to watch, this is a good pick.

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My review of The Treasure Chest of Courage is available now.