Ousama Ranking (Ranking of Kings)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: King Ranking

Japanese: 王様ランキング

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 23

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 15, 2021 to Mar 25, 2022

Premiered: Fall 2021

Broadcast: Fridays at 00:55 (JST)

Producers: Aniplex, Dentsu, Fuji TV, Kadokawa, Bandai Spirits

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Wit Studio

Source: Web manga

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy

Duration: 22 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.51¹ (scored by 337,886 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #128²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #327

Members: 640,029

Favorites: 12,623

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@osama_ranking

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Funimation

8.51

Ranked #128Popularity #327Members 640,029

Fall 2021TVWit Studio

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Episodes: /23

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Synopsis

The people of the kingdom look down on the young Prince Bojji, who can neither hear nor speak. They call him "The Useless Prince" while jeering at his supposed foolishness.

However, while Bojji may not be physically strong, he is certainly not weak of heart. When a chance encounter with a shadow creature should have left him traumatized, it instead makes him believe that he has found a friend amidst those who only choose to notice his shortcomings. He starts meeting with Kage, the shadow, regularly, to the point where even the otherwise abrasive creature begins to warm up to him.

Kage and Bojji's unlikely friendship lays the budding foundations of the prince's journey, one where he intends to conquer his fears and insecurities. Despite the constant ridicule he faces, Bojji resolves to fulfill his desire of becoming the best king he can be.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The sign language depicted in Ousama Ranking is supervised by the Tokyo Foundation of the Deaf. The series was released on Blu-ray and DVD from January 12, 2022 to July 20, 2022.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Ousama Ranking
Other:	Oz., Ousama Ranking Movie
Side story:	Ousama Ranking: Yuuki no Takarabako

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Bojji

Main

Hinata, Minami
Japanese

Kage

Main

Murase, Ayumu
Japanese

Hiling

Supporting

Satou, Rina
Japanese

Despa

Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Desha

Supporting

Shimoyama, Yoshimitsu
Japanese

Ouken

Supporting

Yusa, Kouji
Japanese

Bebin

Supporting

Ueda, Youji
Japanese

Dorshe

Supporting

Tadokoro, Hinata
Japanese

Daida

Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki
Japanese

Miranjo

Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Okada, Maiko

Producer, Production Manager

Herek, Samantha

Assistant Producer

Hatta, Yousuke

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

	"BOY " by King Gnu
	2: "Hadaka no Yuusha (裸の勇者)" by Vaundy (eps 12-23)

Edit

Ending Theme

	"Oz. " by yama
	2: "Flare" by milet (eps 12-23)

Reviews

Mar 24, 2022

KANLen09

Recommended

From a classic folktale (The Emperor's New Clothes) to an allegory that's worth more than a thousand words, absolutely NO ONE ever could've fathomed that mangaka Sosuke Toka's work would become more than just a classic underdog story. And instead, it took us the audience to new foundations and heights that really stand amongst the best of the best in the only way that this relative unknown author could've done, teaching us cases of human charateristics in morality, friendship, sacrifice and so much more that we just underestimated how grand everything just naturally works in every step of the way. Simply, wow, and I mean, ... WOW.

The thing that makes Ousama Ranking a.k.a Ranking of Kings work feels childish (or childlike rather) and tomfoolery, but trust me, it just simply works and exudes nothing but quality and quantity as the series progresses with each mysterious step into pure whimsical fantasy as one could get. And for a show that really is this coming-of-age story that's set in medieval times about a deaf boy becoming king and his Shadow companio escaping the treaches of malign, I'd thought that I was watching the game "A Boy and His Blob" come to life, and it is THAT engrossing to seal the deal about the protagonist Bojji and his companion Kage about their own life journeys. But what Sousuke Toka did to elevate a simple story, to simply say that we weren't prepared for what's to come, is truly an understatement to how this is a classic case of subverting tropes and naturally glossing them together to make a plot so life-manipulatively magnificent to knock our socks away. It's a tactic building upon tactics that just warrants you to pay VERY CLOSE attention every minute and every second, because one blink, and you'd miss a beat (unlike SOME people who just chooses to be ignorant and remain full of bias). Case in point, I would've never thought that the generic clash of "good vs. evil" will have that many metaphors built right into it, and Ousama Ranking is without a doubt, the new master in knowing what makes the core theme work without having to fall behind to tropes (y'know, just like all shows out there being so generically contagious). This adventure fantasy feels tight, slick, filled with all of the feelings and emotions that would wreck any viewer (plus yours truly), and above all, shines best in its own right that there's no equal out there that could match the likes of Ousama Ranking.

To wedge the knife cutting deep into the heartstrings, how does one manage to do character writing so deep and rich in philosophical humanity that there's always answers for every question? Only Sousuke Toka can do that, and for all the basis of watching Ousama Ranking in these past 6 months, I have felt nothing but happiness, love, sadness, anger, and the most important of all: the fear factor that continues to shake as the series progresses. Every character is not just a cardboard cut-out, because each and every one of them has a purpose to carry their own dreams and ambitions to the extreme points of sacrilegious lamentation, even going as far to the point of pursuing infighting when things go south. I don't wanna go too deep with the characters here, because that would make for an absurdly long essay that could match the likes of Wikipedia (and technically spoil the series for what's to come). But, make no mistake that from the simplest (Bojji and Kage) to the most complex (kings Desha and Bosse) of characters, nothing says more than rareified exquisity when human beings (plus a shadow) can very naturally be their imperfect versions of themselves the way they see others too, topping up with the mysteries of their own backstories that filled with tremendous amounts of weight that is both heartfelt and relatable. This is to the point where I can finally mention the currently famous meme out loud: *smack slipper on the floor* "E-M-O-T-I-O-N-A-L D-A-M-A-G-E"! And boy, Ousama Ranking is truly an emotionally damaging series for all the right reasons, which are layers upon layers of what defines perfect, yet imperfect humans, with no-nonsense "padding" drama.

Author Sousuke Toka's manga art style isn't the best and feels rough, and that's where Wit Studio under the guidance of debut director Yousuke Hatta comes in, and it truly elevated this unknown manga that has gone without an English translation right until the anime came out.

Speaking about Wit Studio first, the animation studio is obviously going through a transition phase that's leaning away from the days of Attack on Titan and (hopefully not) Vinland Saga. And what came out of it is a totally brand new Wit Studio that is once again ready to experiment on shows of other formats like Great Pretender, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song and the upcoming season's Spy × Family collab with CloverWorks, all while retaining the same quality that the studio has garnered the notoriety from all these years. And I still have to say that ANY Wit Studio production will never ever miss the mark when it comes to strikingly beautiful visuals and breathtaking animation, and Ousama Ranking is no different in that regard. Being a childlike fantasy that meanders close to Studio Ghibli's stories, and filled with an action-packed adventure that can rival studios like Ufotable and Studio Bind (because Mushoku Tensei really set the bar too high to insanity), Wit Studio always delivers, and delivers hard with passion and dedication to the craft that it's basically next to flawless at all.

And what's a studio without the dedication and hard work of the staff team behind Ousama Ranking, most particularly debut director Yousuke Hatta. Having worked as episode director with high-profile people like Shingo Natsume (One Punch Man S1, Boogiepop 2019, ACCA: 13) and Yuzuru Tachikawa (Death Parade), it left more than enough experience for the newbie director to execute his own craft in Ousama Ranking, and it really shows considering the unique and vibrant aesthetics with distinctive art style with simplified faces and expressive animation that fits well, almost the point of paying an omage within the lineage of the directors who helmed Sonny Boy and Mob Psycho 100 respectively. The staff team under Yousuke Hatta also MUST be given props for going above and beyond to adapt the manga up to 11, because it could not be said enough that this was a team effort that's a match made in heaven.

Most crucially, what's an anime without music, and while most cases the music always is anime's saving grace when everything else fails, but Ousama Ranking just clearly defies logic to present 2 sets of OSTs that just more than fits the theme and mood of the series. And while I prefer the 1st Cour's arrangement with King Gnu and yama, Vaundy and milet aren't slouch musical artists either, and all 4 songs are great in their own right. In the 1st Cour, the happy-go-lucky aesthetics served Bojji and Kage's journey well with King Gnu's OP song "BOY" which is one hell of a bop, and yama's ED song "Oz." that's a reference to The Prince of Oz to signify the symoblism of a not-so-simplistic fairytale journey. And when the 2nd Cour came in with Vaundy's "Hadaka no Yuusha", that's when all hell broke loose with a slow, but steady gung-ho song with the finest sakuga OP animation heralded by Jujutsu Kaisen's OP director Shingo Yamashita, it's yet another impressive work in the books and you can feel every inch of that influence. milet's ED "Flare" is a nice song to purposefully round things up as a whole, or should I say "People makes the world go round".

To say that Ousama Ranking is perfection, more than subjectivity and the classic tale of what it means to be an underestimated underdog's rise to success, I'd think that there's a better way to sum this show as a whole, and that's starting and ending with metaphors. See, this show has laid the hidden meaning of "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link", and putting this in Ousama Ranking's context, realistically sums it up as: "You're as strong as your weakest link." There is NOT a single shred of doubt in my mind that Ousama Ranking will be remembered for months and years to come, and it's the new, modern classic of jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring motivation at its finest.

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Mar 24, 2022

BigDaddyTuesday

Mixed Feelings

TL;DR Ranking of Kings had several amazing first few episodes and if the rest of the series followed it could have easily been a 9. There were legitimate stakes, the mystery surrounding the characters was intriguing, and the struggles of the protagonists were well handled. The middle half of the show is not as gripping as the first handful of episodes. Character motivations get spelled out for the most part and they do not live up to the mystery and intrigue shown at the beginning of the show. There are also issues with pacing, an overuse of tropes, and some characters getting completely shafted in ...

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Mar 24, 2022

MonadProxyy

Not Recommended

************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.

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