Ranking of Kings
a review by Krynn
a review by Krynn
Ranking of Kings is a masterpiece hidden in simplicity. (No untagged spoilers)
It gets right into the story, and my favorite thing about the show is that it subverts your expectations in many ways, and I'd say that's where the show shines. You can't just judge anything here at first sight. Here are some examples:
Ranking of Kings has a very unique art style that's the opposite of 'generic anime art style' ....and I mean the literal opposite. In pretty much all other animes, the main / semi-main characters have a certain design, that lets you know they're relevant characters, whereas the very minor characters are given less details or are drawn a little differently.
This show doesn't follow that in the least. All the characters are either drawn as: very uniquely-designed, such as Bojji and Kage; or as completely plain; or as a cross of those two. By completely plain I mean plainer than you would think would be possible for any half-decent anime. And yet these characters have just as much depth as the rest, which I'll get to later.
If this show had chosen a more common art style instead of what it is (maybe bishounen), it would be seen by alot more people, but it would also lose that aspect of surprising us. Whether or not that would have been better, what it is now fits it perfectly.
The male and female characters are both done very well.
This show has done the best job of any show I've seen so far at perspective. The show is largely shown from Bojji's or Kage's perspective, and from there it looks like alot of the side characters are the 'bad guys'..
Spoilers:
But once their perspectives are shown, you learn that their motivations can be unbelievably complicated. So the characters have depth.
"But is it that deep, after all? Any average show can have complex motivations, doesn't make it a masterpiece."
True. This brings me to the next point.
It's dark.
The overall story of this season is a masterpiece in its own right, but you aren't shown that at the beginning. The first few episodes aren't dark, but even when it gets to the dark ones, the show is still building upon itself and the bigger picture. Looking back on it, the foreshadowing is amazing, and very much on the level of One Piece.
By dark I mean.. terrible violence isn't shown, but it's implied.
Not a spoiler, just dark:
Again, absolutely nothing repulsive or very violent is shown: the show does a very good job of keeping things 'pretty' while keeping the depth of what happened there. It doesn't make light of it either, at all.
But that's the main way depth is given to the characters: through, well.. deep things. Deep events, deep motivations, deep dreams, deep suffering. It's very simple, yet very effective. And that creates amazing characters. I can't say that all the characters are my favorites from anime in general, but I will say that they (all) have as much depth as some of the deepest anime characters out there.
And the characters don't do what you'd always expect. In fact, they often do the opposite, forcing you to put the pieces of everything that happened before together in your mind, which then explains it perfectly, like it was right there all along. If you wanted to, you really could sum up the characters with the word 'realism'.
Spoiler Example:
If I didn't make it clear enough, there are no plot holes or plot armor, and if it seems like there are any, it will all make sense later, and soon too.
Maybe a more minor point compared to the rest, but the music and scenery also betray what you might expect.. just because something takes place in a dungeon-style area doesn't mean that scenes there will be dark and gloomy, as compared to the areas with sunny fields. The general art is almost as tricksy as the character designs.
And the OPs and EDs give off whatever vibes they want to, but just because, say, it gives off "cheerful, bouncy lightheartedness", doesn't mean that the current arc won't be the darkest. (The ost doesn't betray you as much from what I remember: it generally reflects the characters' mindsets.)
Unrelated from how they surprise you, but most of the OPs and EDs are genuinely amazing.
The animation is very deliberate in most of the fight scenes. It's not always over-the-top, as it can be very simple when e.g. characters are just sparring. But when things get serious, the fighting / movement animation will immediately step up. But it's not like what you get from Shounen anime.. it's much more deliberate, e.g. conveying the impact of the swords clashing, or the strength of the fighters, etc.
Ok that's hard to explain so here're some examples (not really spoilers):
Bojji can be very cute. I don't usually find these kinds of things cute, but some scenes, especially later on, calmly pull at your heart and make you smile. (I could make an argument that they are objectively cute.)
The pacing is also flawless. None of the arcs feel too long or too short, even if the entire arc revolves around a fight, or training, which very much surprised me. This show has amazing balance.
There are also lots of 'cool' elements, as shown in the anime's tags: sword fighting, magic, monsters, giants, etc. (it's a fairy tale). You don't have to like those to like the show at all, though (I don't really).
So even if the art style doesn't appeal to you (it doesn't to me), if you don't mind dark shows, give this one a try. It doesn't disappoint.
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