The Ranking of Kings is a surprisingly good anime. It started last season and the preview art for the different streaming services were using was not at all appealing. A rolly-polly little kid wearing a diaper and a crown, drawn in a very simplistic style wasn’t a good introduction. With nothing left to watch, and vaguely intrigued by the description, it ended up on my television screen. Holy smokes, it’s awesome. Do not judge this show by its streaming service thumbnail… I mean usually you can but not this one!

The show is based on a manga by Sōsuke Tōka – released online and printed by a division of Kodakawa publishing called Enterbrain. You can find more on Wikipedia as well.

The main character, Bojj, is a child prince who can’t hear and can’t speak. He’s also not very strong, despite being the son of two giants. He meets another child from of a race of assassins, the orphan Kage, who convinces Boji to give him all of his clothes (despite the fact that Kage is not human shaped).

Lots of mayhem and madness ensues but from the very beginning, Kage and Boji get along well because Kage can understand Boji and Boji understands Kage. Boji’s step mother taught him and a few staff sign language and this is how people usually converse with him. There is a LOT that I am leaving out of the story but I ended up with tears in my eyes on more than one occasion in the ~20 episodes that have aired.

A lot of action has already played out on the first half of the season playing on crunchyroll currently but I’m excited to see more. Boji’s hearing and speech are not an impediment and are the source of his powers in the story. It’s very exciting to see the “disability” not treated as a bad thing in the story. If you watched the show, let me know what you think!