Ousama Ranking

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 the ... prince 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.

Contains slight spoilers.

First things first: This anime is NOT suitable for kids.

The art is gorgeous. Vibrant colors, lush backgrounds, smooth animation, distinct characters and even somewhat of a retro vibe. Definitely drew me in instantly.

Sound is fine. Nothing outstanding.

Story is lacking. Mostly uses betrayals for shock value and in place of a decent plot. No original ideas. Tries too hard to elicit certain emotions from the viewer.

... Most characters are pretty much stereotypical. A "don't judge a book by its cover" message is hammered in right from the start.

What caused me to give it such a low score and ultimately drop it? It's deceptively violent, which absolutely turns me off.

A whole species is massacred. You could argue it's deserving of this fate since its members are assassins who self-admittedly even kill children.
A child character is beaten up by his own brother so badly he suffers several broken bones. The aftermath is shown.
A frozen dead body is ground up (I'm not kidding) in some kind of a giant blender to be made into a potion - which the dead person's young son is supposed to drink (again, not kidding).
A creature is beheaded.
A character chops off his own hand after he pushed another character into a pit that leads to the underworld.
Most of this is shown on-screen.

That's a nope from me.

As for the rating, I go with MAL's definitions: 1 = appaling.
The lovely art doesn't change the score.

The best way I can sum up my experience with Ousama Ranking is disappointment.

The series has a unique art style and interesting concept. I liked how the bright “picture book” style contrasts with some of the darker themes that come up. I was invested for the first 10 or so episodes because of the story, art, great music, and good fight animation.

However, the writing and pacing destroyed my investment in the second half of the first season. In order to avoid spoilers, I will not list anything specific, but pretty much all of the deaths got reversed in some way. This is the ... BIGGEST problem I have with the series, so it’s not something I could avoid mentioning. It destroyed the stakes in the story, because if a character seemed like they were definitely dead, they would get “revived” not even an episode later. It got so out of hand that I started rolling my eyes and hoping for characters to die for good. It’s especially bad because one of the strengths of the series is that it does a good job fleshing out the backstories of side characters. After mourning the “death” of a character, seeing them come back makes it feel like the writers are toying with your emotional investment. It feels like nothing has weight in the story. Rather than a serious story with a childish art style, it turned into just a childish story, because they were unable to let even somewhat major characters die, over and over again.

Another downfall of the second half of the first season is that they would interrupt intense fights. Although I love learning more about characters and their backstories, they would tease an intense fight with a cliffhanger, but then show a flashback or irrelevant scene and cut back to the fight already being over. I don’t know if it’s because of budgetary reasons, but it’s a huge letdown and seriously frustrating. On the flip side, I looked forward to the fights because they would show some pretty awesome/unexpected moves and had great animation.. it just sucks that they would interrupt the flow and then sometimes skip it altogether.

My last gripe is with the progression of the main character’s strength. I love a good underdog story, but the whole point is that the underdog works to gain their strength throughout the story. The main character starts off being weak and incompetent, which is fine, but I expected him to grow his strength by facing off with stronger and stronger opponents throughout his journey. Instead, he becomes one of the strongest people in the world after training, mostly off screen, for 2-3 episodes. After training we see him battle small fry once, and the other strong characters (with an exception) instinctively know that he’s unbeatable. At his core, he did not change, despite there being a few scenes where they attempt (and fail) to show some sort of growth in his resolve. His power feels forced and unnatural, like something given to him rather than something gained through true growth. He becomes way too powerful, absurdly fast.

I see some people recommend this as a series you can enjoy if you want to shut your brain off, but I disagree. I think it’s just disappointing and not worth a watch.

I wanted so badly to love this series in its entirety. Hells, I was warned by a friend but I didn't listen, I was drawn in to it by the beautiful animation and music - the classical literature slightly presented in a different angle - all combined to form something new.

Of course I was drawn in badly, and I'm a crybaby I'll be honest I cry easily and I was perhaps in a tearful mood so this anime suited me incredibly.

That is.

That is.

Until the ending they decided upon.

I had noticed of course as the story and mystery unravels itself, the ... more well... Subpar it became but I held on in hopes of fully understanding and comprehending the entirety of the series' story.

Alas. Alas.... My heart was stomped out the moment <spoilers> came back and said such ridiculous words in the second last episode. There would be nothing left to save this story. It was over. I merely continued watching the next episode half heartedly out of mere respect of the start and what could have been's.

This could've been a truly wondrous series. Could have. Perhaps one day someone might be interested in rewriting this story, fleshing out the characters more and ah perhaps not... Do whatever this anime had gone down into.

Everything that was good about this anime was ruined, nullified - by the end. A story is a whole. Even if the start is stupendous, the middle decent, but if the ending is awful - then... Then it taints the entire series into truly a poorly written one. Perhaps the writing had never been good, we were simply lured in from seeing familiar classics rehashed into what the beginning teasingly promised could be something so much more with a veil of intrigue drawing us deeper in and watching until the end for... For what are we but fools hoping to see a fantasy they were so very interested in be as good as its start? I held on my hope but I feel bitter now like it was for nothing.

This isn't the animator's fault. Nor the voice actors. No. The fault lies in the writer.

A poorly written but well animated and voice acted anime.

...I even sought out fanfiction but not many wrote an AU. Merely cute character interactions. Fair enough. Perhaps I'll take a turn at it one day. Perhaps not. I have other priorities.

But I suppose this is just like reality isn't it, such disappointment is... a stark reminder of life.

I wanted this to be a spoiler free review but I have to first of all - address the incredibly disturbing thing at the end.

<SPOILERS FROM HERE ONWARDS> .
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DAIDA IS A CHILD. MIRANJO IS NOT.

JAPAN STOP WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS CHILD/ADULT RELATIONSHIP FANTASIES HELLS

Consequences and coherence. To me, these are the most important aspects of drama. A good story cannot be without consequence, nor can it be without coherence, and how a story is told has a profound impact on these elements. Ousama ranking is an incoherent story poorly told with little consequence. It is also a fantastically animated, imaginative, and beautiful work that, on a visual level, rivals the output of industry giants like Miyazaki. But that isn't enough to overcome its flaws.

I have no interest in writing an overly long review as my carpal tunnel is getting worse. But, in short, this is a show that ... lost its way. The story and world are told through flashback rather than revealed in a natural way. Everyone has a "flashback" expository story to be told, but it builds to very little. Information that would have shaped an understanding of the world is dolled out perhaps a scene or two after it has become relevant. Even without this, the show devolves in its latter two thirds into relatively generic, shounen esque nonsense. Several fights of little story consequence have taken up four episodes, for example.

At the same time, there are relatively few consequences in the show. Characters who give heroic sacrifices are fine mere moments later. In a world where death has no permanence or meaning, it's hard to get a feel for the stakes. Should I care when a character dies in one episode only to be revived in the next? Doubly so when this happens multiple times?

I had hope for Ousama Ranking. It is an odd, fairy-tale like show that, in the beginning, did not conform to the usual strictures of the medium. But as time has gone on, it has grown less and less inspired, in my mind. Oh, and the opening and ending theme songs are atrocious, which I could forgive were it not for the overall disappointment.

When I saw that this show had a rating above 8.80 on MyAnimeList, I was very interested in seeing what the hype was about. I gave it a go and watched 8 episodes. For the first few episodes, it seemed pretty interesting. After a while, though, it felt like the show was dragging on without going anywhere interesting. I ended up dropping it.

Art:
What draws a lot of us to this show is its fairy tale art style. There is a unique charm to it. It's simple and easy on the eyes, while still maintaining a good sense of lighting and atmosphere. However, while the art ... style is great, the scenery can be boring because almost every object in the show looks generic. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like all the props were modeled off of a stock photo, whether it is the protagonist's crown, a knight's armor, or a fantasy creature like a goblin or a strong barbarian dude.

Story:

The story is where this show falls apart. At any given time, it feels like it is either beating your head in with an obvious message or making you wonder what the hell is going on. For the first couple of episodes, the former is the problem. There is little but backstory and establishing that the protagonist is a good person. Then, the third episode comes in, and the show suddenly turns into a weird clusterfuck of ideas. A character dies and turns out to be a demon or something. The characters are at first surprised, but in the next scenes nobody seems to care about how or why he morphed into a monster. Then there's a giant magical snake, a fight between two characters we barely met, and the main character just so happening to almost kill himself for completely unrelated reasons. Then, for some reason that's ALSO not yet explained, one of the characters talks to the magic mirror from Snow White. It would be interesting if one of these aspects of the plot were revealed more slowly. Instead, the show just barrages you with these ideas and expects that you care about whatever is happening. In the next few episodes, the MC goes on a couple completely unrelated adventures that don't seem to have any connection to each other, while his brother gets involved in some evil magic ritual.

Character:
Some of the reviews I read laud the show's characters as being complex. While I can see where they are coming from, I think that a lot of this complexity is artificial. The show seems to use the same repeated formula to establish character depth:

1) Introduce character as being completely one-sided. For a few scenes, they might be a kindhearted idiot, a clever thief, an asshole, or a strict parent.

2) Introduce a character trait that contradicts the first. The thief
extremely kind deep down and has a tragic past. The asshole might just be insecure about his brother. The harsh parent may care for her son deep down. Or the kindhearted idiot is just really good at dodging for some reason.

3) That's it. You made a complex character. No further character development is needed.

To be fair, the show might advance beyond this pattern. However, after eight episodes, I do not expect it to improve very much.

Also, the main character feels much less like a real character than an object of pity/adoration. Just throwing that out there.

Overall:
Despite its issues, Ousama Ranking is a decently fun show. It's competent enough to never be laughably bad. However, there is not anything particularly captivating about it. Its world is little but a storybook fantasy land, and few of its characters are particularly interesting. If you want to watch the show, go ahead. You might see something to love about it that I did not. However, I do not understand the hype.

Simply appalling. The first few episodes are nothing special, but you get the sense that you are about to watch a decently written underdog story set in a fantasy world that has a small semblance of originality. But the writers were just tricking you into wasting your time.

The story quickly devolves into nonsensical plot threads with characters acting completely unnatural, and the main character completely skips any sort of journey and just becomes OP on the spot. Characters that have been established as baddies are forgiven with literally 0 explanation, no matter how many or who they've killed in the past. Dozens of people die ... during the story, but not really because one character runs around fixing them all up every time. They pretend to throw a wrench in the cogs when one time they are out of power, but the situation is resolved within 3 seconds. I could keep going on and on about all the failures in this show, but I won't.

That's because I sit here and ponder WHY this show is the way it is. The only explanation I can come up with is that it was done on purpose. What was the purpose? I'm not sure, I can only come up with some guesses. To sum it all up, utter garbage, and they have thoroughly succeeded in wasting a few hours of my time.

After 15 episodes, I had to give up.
It was really painful to watch Ranking of Kings: after the first three episodes, the plot slowly becomes completely non-sense and characters act stupidly most of the time.
I'll explain briefly which are the best and worst points of this show for me:

ART & ANIMATIONS (8): the anime's cartoon style is actually pretty good and portrays decently every character.
Good settings, colors and animations: dynamic and well-detailed (I couldn't expect less from an "overrated" action anime).

CHARACTERS (5): I'll give only a 5 because for the reason I mentioned before: they're well-drawn. Only that.
Most of the time the characters act without ... a purpose, doing non-sense things.
Their interactions are extremely mundane and part of the "cast" is even useless for the plot.

PLOT (2): terrible.. TERRIBLE!
The beginning of the story is decently introduced and then.. everything flows completely uncontrolled.
Who wrote the plot, probably had a deadline of 2 hours because I can't understand how randomly every single situation came off.
Every main aspect of the story is poorly explained (or not at all): the reasons why someone has to do a specific thing are stupid or too obvious.
Too many useless flashbacks: if you can't study and put on a good psychological profile on every character, it doesn't mean you have to force people watching their previous life constantly.. no one cares and no one needs it.
Everything happens without a logic, just because the plot has to go on and there's absolutely no care for details: you just have to see a cute deaf-mute kid become a king and the writers pretend that's enough to make the entire anime enjoyable...

Ehm, no.

I was really disappointed about this anime.
It was giving me really good vibes since the start but it slowly kept getting worse just because the plot was less important than the art style.

OVER(rated)ALL (5) --

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 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.

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.

It is very sad that an anime so promising like this one has so much potential on it, but it was all wasted!
It has some really good firsts episodes, but it starts falling apart very quickly.
It really tries to subvert your expectations at every minute and almost none of them have impact.

The story focuses in the wrong places in each aspect, and the characters are very inconsistent both in motivations and ideals. One chapter they might be villains and in the other they might be Bojji's best friend, and then villains again, and so on...

And yeah, the villain is horrendous and has no ... redeemable qualities. How every character reacts to her and what their relationships are it's pretty much stupid or over the top.
The series tries to make character arc with characters WE DON'T EVEN CARE ABOUT or that show up for a small amount of chapters. It's pretty annoying.

Although the animation for the fights are great, these don't have any sort of impact because tehere is absolutely no consecuences and danger is non-existing. Every lethal injury is healed with magic in a second and there is absolutely no tension at all.

And for no Spoiler sake, let's just say the ending was rushed, poorly done and HORRIBLE.
So yeah, Bad execution at almost everything.
So sad considering how much potential it was. Animation was the best aspect of it.

I feel a lot lately as if certain genres are testing the waters for how garbage they can be, before people seem to care. Shonen is especially guilty of this, this might be the 5th or 6th time in the last 2 years I have seen this story.

An 2 Dimensional protagonist, with the motivation of being the best, with a character flaw that makes them weak, but then they get training, get strong, and now everyone respects and loves them, despite not having made any changes as a character themselves.

Ranking of kings really does not challenge this idea at all, but perhaps worse, ... with an anime that brags in it's opening all of the kingdoms I thought there might be more character driven plot points, or world building. But, we only see 2 kingdoms. And a short journey through a forest, and nothing of the common people living in these worlds, what they eat, what culture there is, side characters have absurd motivations that change depending on who they last had a conversation with. Things are shown to the viewer and then explained multiple times over.

I do however appreciate that they branched out into new artistic ideas, but animation, art and a soundtrack that kicks ass, does NOT make up for this story being a homogenous blob that blends in with everything else in the genre, but done worse than ever. Exposition, 2 dimensional characters, and lacking a narrative outside of, Bojji was weak, but now he's strong and deserves respect like Naruto, Deku, Ichigo, which are just a few examples that told this story, but better!

While these flaws aren't ground breaking in themselves, Infact a lot of Shonen I can still enjoy, even if just for action scenes, quick comedy flashes, or great world building. But Ranking of kings has none of these things. The action in episode 1 is kind of a sick bait to make you believe it'll have choreographed immense action, and not just two guys slapping their swords together, but it doesn't. It is, pretty much that one scene and then the Aizen trope of behind the scenes scheming that no one could see.

TL;DR: This is one of the worst, most trope heavy Shonen story I have seen in recent memory, while the art and sound carry this piece, the story is irredeemably awful

Disclaimer: Read all of my review before hating on me.

Ousama Ranking greets you with a MC with differents characteristics that we are normally used to in a very refreshing way. However, the way they made this MC (Bojji) to express himself is very annoying. Yes, people who can't talk still produce sounds from their throat even though it does not produce sounds that we perceive as words, it does not feel either like they are crying all the time. In the anime, when Bojji express himself it feels like he is crying almost all the time and to me it is just pain for my ... ears. Even though I like this character overall, the way he gets to express himself is as much annoying of Asta in Black Clover in the debut where he was screaming all the time. To me, that just ruins the experience of enjoying Bojji when in fact I found his character very refreshing.

Despite all of the above, I think that this anime for its story, and characters is very great. I am someone who is very compelled by the soundtrack when I watch an anime. For Ousama, I have only enjoyed the first ending in that matter. For the art, I don't like it but it is representative of the manga visuals. For my enjoyment, it has been crippled by some flaws like how they made Bojji express himself and others in the story that I won't discuss here because I don't want to spoil anything.

Overall, I give this anime a 7,4/10 for what I have seen so far. You may have seen that I gave a note of 2 to this anime but it is that I am in disagreement with its current ranking. To me, this anime does not rank above great anime like Spirited Away, Promised Neverland, Violet Evergarden, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Death Note, Mononoke Hime, Demon Slayer and even One Piece.

Ousama Ranking still have potentiel because we are only halfway into the episodes, but I am sure it cannot be ranked over the anime that I have listed above. In time, I will change my note to a 7,4 or maybe even higher, but as long as I found it overrated my overall will be a 2.

Wow. The first half was actually not bad and it hooked me. Boji is by FAR my favorite character, but the majority of all the other are completely off. I don't understand why everyone acts so dumb. The ending was horrible, all characters would backtrack and the show writers felt like they wanted to have their cake while eating it too. There were no sure decisions and Kage got extremely annoying to the point where I would have preferred an announcer from a futbol game. I was extremely baffled how inconsistent the characters were, but the fight scenes were not bad. If you give this ... show a watch, you really don't need to watch the drama because none of it ever goes anywhere and everyone walks on pillows. 4/10, the show's action and my boy Boji couldn't save this show. I'm not coming back for season 2.

P.S.: Not sure why, but the art was extremely mediocre that it was as if an amateur YouTube animator made the show from 2008.

+ It has a strong concept: a deaf boy with no physical power wants to be the strongest king
+ The art style fits incredibly well with the fairy tale theme
~ Why, in a show called Ranking of Kings, do we only meet 2 kings?
~ The stakes are never real because no one ever dies, they're always healed
~ Character do things with potentially major consequences for inexplicable reasons
~ Choices rarely ever make sense, because the plot is always stringing us along
~ Characters also pop in and out of the story whenever it is convenient, even when it isn't dramatically compelling
~ They withhold important story details for ... multiple episodes instead of telling us what we need to know immediately (why are we waiting 3 episodes to learn of Bojji's weapon?)
~ Relies heavily on flashbacks to reveal motives, and yet those motives still feel half-baked
~ Despite spending his formative years finding no success with physical training, our protagonist solves his problems with MORE TRAINING, WOW

= Overrated and insubstantial; emblematic of everything you'd find in bad Shonen storytelling, and completely falls apart by the end of the story

I don't watch much anime these days, mainly because I'd say I've watched all there is to see in anime. 90% of what you see out there are regurgitated plots with reskinned cast that behave almost exactly the same, and sound almost exactly the same. Amidst that, I found Ousama Ranking as something that stood out, something different. Though Bojji's woes are often found in shounen-- a kid with big dreams with no power to back it up; I was compelled to root for Bojji. Something I haven't felt in a long time. Whether it's his innocence or simply cuteness, I can't say, but needless ... to say the beginning parts of the series hooked me to the show immediately. I was drawn in by this colorful world, and whatever this ranking of kings was, I grew fond of almost every character, and I just found myself binging the show. Precisely due to this is why I just find it so disappointing, so unforgivable what they did with an otherwise perfect hook to a story.

As I continued to watch the show, the good parts of it are few and far between. At the very least, in the very beginning, I had the perception that the characters were very layered and had complex motives and emotions. We see this in Bojji's struggles, Kage's development, Doman's feelings towards Bojji, Hiling's love for Bojji, and even Daida's ambition to be a strong king. I also have to admire the art style, it really does bring such life and expressiveness to the world and its people that you don't often see in anime nowadays. But my praises end there.

I believe Ousama Ranking fell off when Bojji fell off that tower. For real. Not only did the show actually started becoming worse after that episode, but it began a trend of saving characters when they should've died.

The show is bogged down by excessive uses of flashbacks to explain motives; something that becomes near-necessary when the only plot-twist is that of betrayal. It also suffers from ironically, rushing plot points while having such slow scenes. With episodes bogged down by 5 minute long-flashbacks/recaps at the start, slow training/slice of life scenes, long scenes of just running/inconsequential dialogue, the show struggles to pace itself to the upcoming climax. In an episode, we might see Bojji training/chilling, a flashback of Apeas, Miranjo going into the underworld and back, and Hiling in exile, and in the next episode, Bojji is running back home, the criminals are amok, and Hiling is back. There's simply no time for these plot threads to develop and converge naturally. King Bosse advices many of his knights to bide their time and do certain things when the time was right. I would be inclined to believe that was supposed to be a climactic battle that the show would be leading up to, where answers will be given, and plot threads are resolved. Instead we see Doman in exile and back in just a couple of episodes.

The show is inconsequential, and no one truly dies, and no one is truly bad. Bosse dies King Baratheon style, gets revived. Bebin dies, survives. Daida's body is taken over by Bosse, still alive inside dark dimension. Bojji thrown off a chasm, survives on a ledge. Anyone getting hurt near Hiling? Believe it or not, survives. Even Miranjo who's orchestrated all these atrocities, is redeemed at the end, and we're supposed to sympathize with her.

What could've been an incredibly immersive world, filled with colorful and engaging characters was ruined by a mediocre "tragic" witch scheming plot that the show could've done without. At least the side characters are fun and Boy by King Gnu slaps.

************NO SPOILERS************

Ousama Ranking: How to create expectations and miserably fail to reach them!

Ousama Rankings is a cliché story about a boy named Boji and his journey to become stronger. It's filled with many plot elements found in the old anime times, it has many of these old shonen clichés and it doesn't even try to make its own but adding anything new except it's very own bullshit logic.



"Bro you need to get ... into OS, it's a very mature seinen anime that is just too good. You will love it!"

Okay so I can get how most people will love it - good fights and animation,
tries to be emotional and does hit for many, bloody and decent storytelling but in no way do I get how this is a mature seinen anime. The characters are dumb as hell and are written similarly to shonen characters with no depth, and these characters have rushed development and the same personalities that you have probably seen in another anime.
The main character has tons of bad plot armour which doesn't help me like it either, the author did something else to him very early which I won't spoil but it's bad for the future of the series and could quite possibly make it worse.

One other thing about this show is that despite being 23 episodes into the story, we have barely explored the world, and that time has been wasted on bad melodrama where the show is screaming "CRY FOR ME!!!!!!" and with no good reason as to why. I am not a fan of melodrama, especially when it's trying so bad to make you cry but I don't have a good reason to.

The story is told in a simple way, with nothing that felt bad, it's portrayed nicely, despite the other flaws, the storytelling is decent and I like it, it's also why the show is rated as high it is right now but sadly, this is the best part.

But this show is very inconsistent in its tone, you see, right now they are showing some tragic scene but the next moment, very conveniently the tone changes to that of showing hope. Now that is not wrong, every shonen does that but OR does it so conveniently fast that it ends up being bad.

This show is also very predictable. I have seen many shonen, and as I mentioned it uses those same clichés and so, the experience is very predictable, you can expect almost everything except its own bullshit haha.

The music is absolutely fantastic, and the visuals are great too. Especially in the second opening, it was very fire and I can't describe how much I like it, it's that good.

Sadly this show wastes too much time on unnecessary plot elements, and that time could have been spent to explore more of its fantasy setting, and develop the characters nicely instead of giving "rushed" development.

The execution was in my opinion very bad, the show tries to be so much but really just fails even at the most basic things. I am not a fan of how it does what and I very sadly am disappointed badly.

Overall?
Just ask yourself, Are you new to anime? Do you like shonen? If the answer is yes, then without a doubt, you should watch OR but don't expect it to be mature or well written. Truly a disappointment to me.

No, this review is no troll.

Ousama Ranking, a story with a title that has zero relevance to anything, sporting visuals from the 90's that makes even early One Piece fans cringe, with a cast of characters each dumber than the other, and an MC that is so pitiful you want to put them out of their misery.

If this is a show that gets an 8.5 rating on MAL, god save us all.


Animation / Art / General Visuals - 7/10
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The show looks stupid. There, I said it. It does. The art style is just stupid.

The animation quality is however pretty good. If only the show didn't look like it was ... drawn by someone from the 90's. Still, the action scenes are quite fun. Though some of the fights are rather poorly directed and make little sense. I'm also not a fan of the ketchup/raspberry jam blood. I wasn't sure if I was watching fights to the death or someone making breakfast.


Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 8/10
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I guess there's not much to complain about here. Music and sound is good, voice acting solid. Though I find it pretty disturbing that there's a main character that's deaf and mute and continues to make disgusting sounds. While accurate to life as to how a deaf and mute person would speak if they tried, I'd rather that the MC was just completely silent instead.


Story - 3/10
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Gibberish and stupid. That's the only way to describe the story. Full of endless plot holes and loose ends, missing explanations, irrational character decisions and straight up nonsense. Pacing is all over the place, there's never any real suspense because nobody really dies as there's a character with healing powers who just keeps bringing everyone back...

The story features a deaf, mute kid with dwarfism, and zero physical strength, who despite everything just happens to be the nicest person in existence. Why? Well fuck you, that's why. Main characters just have to be the goodest of the good. Doesn't matter if they're born disabled and disliked by everyone, they must still be happy as pigs in shit and inspire us all to be good too. Eh...

Anyways, this cripple of a kid is the son of a great king and he's supposed to become the next king. But shit happens and he is rightfully kicked out, and because he's determined to become a king nonetheless, and some folks like him, he travels to another kingdom where he finds a mentor that spends a few weeks training him and turns that cripple into the most powerful human being in the universe because... yeah, sure. Why not.

All the while all kinds of nonsense is happening in the kingdom because a bunch of characters have all lost their marbles and are doing all kinds of gibberish. So the cripple who's now a god has to return and save the day.

Also I guess it's worth mentioning that the title which talks about ranking the kings is some arbitrary ranking given to the kings of this fantasy world and... yeah, it literally doesn't mean anything and is never relevant.

Wow, clap-clap. Amazing story. Please stop.


Characters - 3/10
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Everyone is stupid. I can't find a way to sugarcoat it. And I find it kinda hilarious that the art style is so goofy and somehow it fits the characters perfectly because everyone's brains are just as goofy.

Not a single character in this show makes any god damn sense. Everyone is just dumb and keep doing dumb shit.

We talked about the MC who's apparently the paragon of goodness, which is also the only character trait he really has. His personality is as thin as paper. No real grand motivations or aspirations other than the "I must become a great king" which is just borrowing aspirations from his own parents. How original. He's all about that "power of love and friendship". Zero life skills, knowledge or capability, but oh yes, must save everyone through willpower alone. Oh how anime loves that trope.

I think they must be the most unlikeable and most pathetic character in the history of anime. I thought Bungoue Stray Dogs's Atsushi takes the cake, but at least he has a functional body and acts like a mostly normal, if depressed, human being. While the MC in this show is a funny sounding cripple who should have died 10x over because he's that dumb.

Side characters aren't any better. The MC gets a sidekick who's essentially a Sasuke from Naruto, except far more pathetic.

The MC's family is about as cliche as expected as well. A half-brother that makes fun of him for being weak, a step-mother of that half-brother who similarly considers him a failure. All kinds of royal servants that flip flop between being loyal and betraying him. It's a mess.

Though arguably none of them are as bad as the so called "villains" who have some of the stupidest motivations I've ever seen in any anime ever, and some of the stupidest plans of execution. I kept beating my head against the wall out of frustration as I watched the show, hoping that all the nonsense would make perfect sense in the end, but it never did. Everyone is just stupid.


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Total - 6/10

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"Adventures of a cripple Tyrion Lannister if he was dropped on the floor as a baby", aka Ousama Ranking is a show I cannot recommend because I don't understand who it is supposed to appeal to.

The fantasy world has promise, but exposition is bare bones and a bunch of concepts are barely touched. Ranking of kings? Kingdoms of gods? The underworld? None of it is explained or fleshed out.

Characters are dumb, visuals goofy.

But I guess it's worth watching for one reason - just to be able to say that you've watched this super highly rated show, so that when someone recommends it next, you can tell them to eat a bag of dicks.