This review contains spoilers

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 to say the least.

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 author or something must have happened because everything went to shit. After the first half I just kept 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.

What makes or breaks a series is often its cast of characters. Ousama Ranking's characters are surprinsingly good, or atleast that's how they were 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.

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. With all these physical handicaps in mind, without even mentioning the fact that he's extremely shy and childish, I couldn't wait to see what clever path the author was going to take me on. Unfortunately, it seems that making a character as 'flawed' as Bojji in such a setting ultimately couldn't work, or atleast the author couldn't come up with a satisfying twist in their narrative. Indeed, everything that was established through the first half of the anime is simply thrown out the window in the second half. Daida is manipulated by a mirror and completely removed from the story because his father is reincarnated in his body and Bojji undergoes training which makes him literally the strongest character in the show... Daida's complex struggle to emulate his father's strength is gone. Bojji's endeavour to overcome his physical handicap is gone; him being mute and deaf doesn't even matter because he can read lips and people somehow understand him when he's 'speaking'. The clash between the two brothers is dealt with in absentia. Thus, the anime turns into a battle shonen where tension is totally missing, 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 manifesto which got me confused at first 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.

I wanted a satisfying twist on the hero's journey, I wanted Bojji to find a smart and inspiring manner to deal with his shortcomings, but this is not it. Because to me that's where the potential of the series was: how do you overcome physical handicaps, or how do you live with them? Portraying a disabled character is definitely a tricky task, but making your main character absurdly op in the span of a few episodes is not the answer I was hoping for. Ousama Ranking's first half is very enjoyable, but its second half is utterly disappoiting. It doesn't capitalize on its strengths, it establishes 'rules' but completely forgets them, it doesn't respect its characters and ends up in mediocrity.