Ousama Ranking, or Ranking of Kings, is a show I did not expect would leave much of an impression on me. Like most who probably started watching it, I saw clips online of the show's cute art style, with positive word of mouth further reinforcing my interest to watch the show. Eventually, I bit the bullet and absolutely loved it. It took a couple rewatches of the first two episodes to really adjust to the absolute sense of sweetness and love the show exuded, but once I got to use to it, it really left quite the impression. By the 10th episode, I was bugging my friends to watch the remainder with me. We quickly caught up to where I was in the show, and continued forward. Everyone loved it. We thought it was heading towards a markedly unique and different place that other anime had yet to venture, or that was the case until we reached the second part of the season.
For context, the show is about a Prince named Bojji, who is deaf, and by proxy, mute. The entire kingdom, family, and court think little of him, and much prefer his younger brother, Daida, to ascend the thone once King Bosse dies. I'm going to go into spoilers for the rest of the show going forward (so if you haven't watched the show yet, leave), but if you just want a quick yes or no to watch the show, yes. Go watch the show. The chances you'll like it is higher than the chances you'll dislike it. Anyways, major and minor spoilers ahead.
The show has a sizeable cast, of which, it does a fairly good job at juggling every character's personality, ambitions, and flaws. Every new character they introduce is unique in their own right, and it leaves me perfectly satisfied. My personal favorite character was Despa, the younger brother of the king of the Underworld. Funny, charming, and intelligent, he serves as the mentor for Bojji.
By the time the show begins moving into the second half, the cards are pointing towards conflict. Bojji, who has assumably died to the Kingdom court, has been usurped by a reincarnated, King Bosse, possessing the body of his son, Daida, thanks to a mysterious mirror. The setting leaves much to the imagination. How will Bojji beat Bosse? How will Daida get his body back? Who is the lady in the mirror? What about the Big Four?
Here is where my problems lie. The second half is what killed the show for me - it rushed the ending.
__Hunter X Hunter's Chimera Ant Arc and Ranking of Kings
__
Hunter X Hunter, a popular shounen anime, has an arc widely considered to be one of the best in anime called the Chimera Ant arc. The arc is long, and focuses on the threat of ants who evolve by eating intelligence lifeforms. Minor to major spoilers for Hunter X Hunter At the end of the arc, the main cast tries to infiltrate into a castle, and this infiltration is incredibly well done, with minute by minute coverage of each character's action, both friendly and enemy. Each character has their own motivations to be apart of the operation, with fights breaking out between both sides throughout the castle.
I bring up the Chimera Ant arc because there is alot common between HxH and Ousama Ranking's arcs here. Not in the copy-pasted way, but in spirit, there is a lot in common. Both shows see their main cast try to infiltrate a castle to stop a big bad, with different groups spread throughout the castle trying to achieve their own goals. Some of the subplot points are similar too, for example, like with Daida being trapped in his own body, and in HxH Gon trying to save [redacted] in somewhat similar position.
The problem with Ousama Ranking's arc, is that it wastes a lot of time. Characters teleport around the castle, we don't fully understand the logic behind some characters (Which is fine to some degree, but Apeas literally had no clear established motives for most of the show), and there seems to be conflicting motives for some characters with established motives (cough cough Apeas). HxH was able to take care of some of this by fully establishing everyone's motives before the final showdown, but it also simply had more episodes to really take its time with a minute by minute view of the infiltration. Ousama Ranking did not have the opportunity to go minute by minute, so it had to do some teleporting and some weird vibe cut-cornering to get to the conclusion.
The segment feels very disjointed. Bojji rides into the castle, saves his mom, makes friends with an ogre, goes down to the basement meets the underworld king, saves domas, goes back upstairs, sees Ouken, fights Ouken, sees Miranjo, etc. There is just alot going on, and that is not factoring the other cast members doing their own things in the background. More time to really flesh out a proper linear progression of events was what the show needed, but sadly could not get.
__ J.J. Abrams and the Mystery Box
__
J.J. Abrams is an American director known for his work on Star Wars and Star Trek. He created the idea of a "mystery box," in which, the writer would present the viewer a mystery, then keep in the box until the ending, in which it is revealed what is inside the box. Stringing the viewer along this trail is what ultimately is important though, as what is in the box does not matter so much as getting the viewer to be there. Ousama Ranking does the initial mystery quite well, with the biggest mystery by far being the mystery behind Bosse's revival. The mirror, and her motives for his revival, leave the viewer guessing on how things will play out, and is at the core of the story's drive.
They keep the mystery in a box for most of the show, with the first crumbs being fairly small, first a figure of the character, then a name, and then eventually a face, nothing crazy. Eventually, they bring in more and more information, like how they are to marry and how she is a follower/believer in Bosse. Bosse, for his part, seems fairly indifferent and cold to the situation, serving as a largely passive force. This leaves much to the imagination. Is Bosse apart of this? Why does mirror girl want Bosse back? Who is she? The problems though, start to emerge with the trail to the unraveling of the mystery box.
As mentioned before, there was some sloppiness with how the build-up to the finale was built. By the time the viewer reaches the end, at least for me, I was kinda miffed. When they started revealing information, slowly, that the mirror girl (Miranjo) was some sort of psuedo-daugher/wife thing with Bosse, it kind of irked me. Then they reveal, that more or less, the entire point of this conflict stemmed from a communication misunderstanding between Bosse and Miranjo, Bosse, who rescued Miranjo when she was a child after killing her father, said he was happy to spend the rest of his life taking care of her, he breifly mentioned at one point he once wanted to be the strongest in the world. Miranjo takes this as he still wants to be the strongest, despite him never saying that. He then plans with Miranjo to sacrifice his first son essentially, and then get a second son for revival purposes. But when Miranjo and Bosse both turn around and say they didn't want any of this, it just leaves me incredibly confused. Like, did you guys just not have a conversation at all after the initial plan drafting phase?
The two just bumble into being the bad guys, with Ouken, their servent, posing to be a more dangerous threat than either Miranjo or Bosse. I can spend all day explaining why I don't like them, but it just seems like a poorly written mystery and an unfullfilling end (Not even going to mention Daida and Miranjo getting married).
Conclusion~~~~~~
The show was so good for the first half, but quickly ended up becoming a rushed mess that left much to be desired in terms of writing. The bad guy's had poor and confusing motives, and a weird relationship that needed more time in the oven. I do not think motives and relationships need everything to be explained directly to the viewer, leaving some of it to the imagination is half the fun, but the state of Miranjo and Bosse's relation is atrocious.
I see where the show is going with the wilderness king and Kingbo, but I earnestly hope it turns out better in the future. The Ouken/Densha/Despa story line was very good as well, and I hope they continue to expand that as well.
I give the show a 79 out of 100. It used to be at a 90, but quickly tumbled to "ok" territory for me.
21 out of 27 users liked this review
