Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Confession time: between the last Ranking of Kings article and this one, I took the time to watch the entire goddamn series, in preparation for 2021’s year-end article. This turned out to be a remarkably easy process; Ranking of Kings is a delight from start to finish, and its story winds in such unexpected yet ultimately satisfying ways that it’s easy to one-more-episode your way through the entire first season.
Bojji’s adventures feel simultaneously iconic and personal, with the show using its ostensibly archetypal characters to ultimately reveal the irreducible complexity of any one person’s experience and perspective. It’s simultaneously a work of fantastical invention and poignant humanism, a combination that describes many of the very best works in anime. It’ll take until the show’s second half to determine if Ranking of Kings stands among them, but for now, I’m happy to once again experience one of 2021’s greatest productions!
Episode 2
Interestingly, we open with an expansive recap from Kage’s perspective, detailing basically all the events of the first episode. Ranking of Kings occupies a specific position where it’s clearly designed to be family-friendly and enjoyable for kids, but is also unabashedly continuity-heavy, which is generally discouraged for shows intended for younger audiences. Conflict models like monster-of-the-week or tournament arcs are favored in children’s media not just because they’re easier to write, but because they don’t discourage children who can only catch an episode once in a while, because they’re easy to follow even as one-off adventures. But Ranking of Kings’ narrative proceeds more like a whimsical, escalating fable, and thus the best compromise possible here is a recap that might catch any just-tuning-in kids up to speed
That said, the show also airs at friggin’ midnight or so in Japan, so I’m not sure where this younger audience would be coming from. Anime’s current late-night model isn’t really great for shows with genuine mass appeal like this one
This OP still strikes me as melodically insane. It feels like the string progression and vocal melody are perpetually on the verge of crashing into each other, and yet it always resolves cleanly. I’ve rarely heard a melody capable of giving me so much anxiety
Right from the start, we open with an ambitious sequence of shots. We open with a blur of post-production haze almost completely distorting the background, which is the intent: through this effect, the production emphasizes how Kage’s mother is almost blinded by fear. Then, there’s this extraordinary dolly shot racing alongside Kage and his mother, a shot only possible because the “camera” is low enough to the ground that only the cobblestones must be continuously redrawn. Even so, this is still an ambitious degree of added animation, and for a shot that’s simply being used to establish tension and setting, rather than dazzle through action. This is one of Ranking of Kings’ most rare and laudable of strengths: its insistence on using top-notch animation to elevate the general fluidity and cinematography of the production, rather than simply going into “sakuga mode” when we get to an action scene. Again and again, Ranking of Kings’ union of storyboarding and animation intent elevate its drama and aesthetic, making it feel more filmic than many actual anime films
The post-processing haze over this sequence emphasizes the heat of the day, and further enshrines bright light as Kage’s hated natural enemy
Simply animating Kage and his mother is an exercise in advanced perspective and movement. Pretty hard to create a sense of momentum while animating a nearly two-dimensional black blob
Love Kage’s little animal toy, a heartbreaking signifier of his current innocence
They are pursued by a member of the “Light Clan,” who can create light. Bless Ranking of Kings for possessing the confidence of invention, with no desire to slot all of its supernatural elements into some mathematically sound diagram. If your story’s dramatic fundamentals rest in its characters and themes, there is no need to treat magic like science
“Geslan” seems to have turned this country’s king against the shadow folk
More ambitious shots as Kage flees, using the shifting rocks of this field to maintain a sense of depth as Kage rushes into the horizon. Shots into or out of depth are for the most part totally impractical in animation, but Ranking of Kings refuses to make any cinematographic compromises
Kage is saved by the “Countess Poise,” a young girl who even screams in unison with his cries of grief, in order to protect him from discovery. At every turn, Ranking of Kings introduces easy choices for potentially villainous forces, only to immediately complicate our understanding of them. The “shadow clan of assassins” would be easy to fear, particularly after we first saw Kage steal from Bojji – but as we’ve quickly learned, they were a persecuted minority who clearly had their own sense of honor and charity. And now, the forces that hunted the shadow clan are immediately complicated, as we learn this government also contains people willing to risk their own life to save Kage. As is fitting for a show about a boy who’s frequently dismissed based on his fundamental nature, Ranking of Kings refuses to let any character or organization stand as a one-sided antagonist
Absolutely gorgeous backgrounds as rain starts to fall, with the distant clouds and downpour illustrated in soft watercolors
As in the first episode, multilayered compositions frequently create a sense of depth in the shot, balancing the production’s picture book affectations with shots that feel deliberately cinematic
The wooden horse feels even more devastating now, as a final sign of his mother’s influence and his lost childhood. Just after we learn it was a birthday present from her, we see him forced to try and barter it for a single apple
Even when denied, he still doesn’t try to steal the apple: he trades his horse for it, but is beaten regardless. Ultimately, he only gains food when a man with a wicked grin finds him beaten in an ally, and offers him the barest scraps of a pre-eaten fish
Of course, this man’s actual plan is to use Kage for his shadow clan nature to facilitate his thievery
The contrast between our understanding of Kage in the first and second episodes naturally illustrates Ranking of Kings’ most fundamental theme: all of us are products of our history, all of us contain multitudes, and all of us are capable of great and terrible actions. Kage was introduced to us as a thief so callous he’d rob the shirt off a deaf boy’s back, but over the course of this episode, we are harshly chastened, as we discover the path of life experiences that would inevitably lead Kage to that first episode introduction. Kage was never “destined” to be a thief in some fundamental way; he lived a hard and punishing life, and every lesson he’s internalized since his mother’s death has forced him towards thievery and distrust, purely for the sake of his own survival. Through this contrast, Ranking of Kings cautions us against trusting our first or least charitable impressions of others, emphasizing that behind every harsh word, there could easily be an entire lifetime of emotional complexity and turmoil
Even though this man mistreats Kage, he is at least welcomed here. In the episode’s most devastating moment, Kage waits until the man is asleep to crawl next to him, and raise his tiny hand to connect with the one person who hasn’t spurned him
But of course, this man only wanted Kage for his usefulness as a thief, and alerts the authorities once he learns there’s a bounty out for him
“Why do we do that stuff?” “Maybe because we were born with the perfect bodies for doing bad things. But listen: we do whatever we can to serve the interests of those who need us. That is our light.” A complex moment, as Kage’s mother readily acknowledges that the shadow clan has performed unconscionable actions. Many of us are born into roles we cannot escape, but even assassins find their own forms of dignity and justice
As in the first episode, this show’s relentless low-angle shots present the world as vast and imposing, drawing us further into Bojji and Kage’s perspective
Even after being betrayed, Kage still clings to this man, the only person who showed him even a hint of kindness. The cruel flipside of his mother’s words: people as hated as the shadow clan must be true to those who need them, for who else will take them?
And so this man dies in a senseless bar scuffle, only realizing in his final moments that he’d tossed aside the one person who cared about him. No one is a monster; even this man is capable of remorse and regret, untimely as it may be
More gorgeous backgrounds as Kage travels the land, and then one final vignette of a grocer throwing his rightfully paid-for tomato on the ground, emphasizing that Kage would never again find a charitable soul until Bojji. He is naturally hardened by the course of these years, and emerges as the Kage who was eager to trick Bojji, but also secretly harboring a hope that he might one day find another family. No person is defined by any single quality; Kage is both the young boy seeking his mother, and the hardened thief who knows trust is weakness
“Why did I come back here for a boy like him?” Thief-Kage has lost sight of his original hope for community, but it still drives him
Bojji is too quick for Daida to strike, but his own strikes land with no damage at all
Bevin the snake master makes an interesting point: the way Bojji fights, it makes it seem like he’s mocking his opponent, even though he’s truly trying his hardest. Bojji’s methods do not inspire confidence or loyalty among his men
Purely through the timing of Bevin’s appearances, his presence here is framed as subtly menacing, like he’s just waiting to see Bojji fall. Of course, his actual statements are entirely neutral; like with Kage, the audience is here being primed to distrust Bevin, and thus once again be confronted by our inherent eagerness to compartmentalize and vilify those we do not understand
At Domas’ suggestion, Bojji begins fighting without dodging, and gets immediately battered as a result
Eventually, the spearman Apeas stops the battle, but only after Bojji has been severely beaten
Back in Daida’s room, we are introduced to the magic mirror that promised him he’d be king
Spurred on by the derision of the crowd, Bojji rises in spite of his injuries, and attempts to carry a sword. The low-angle layouts and post-production blur emphasize the hopeless enormity of this task, with the camera cutting in below Bojji, emphasizing how impossible this task feels from his perspective
“You won that fight. Take pride in it.” Bojji’s attendants may mean well, but they cannot be a friend and ally to him like Kage can
The subtle effect of Bojji’s tears leaking through his bandage as Kage announces his support is heartbreaking. Just gorgeous character acting here, as Bojji is suspended between his general defensive posture and his hopeless joy at gaining a true friend
And Done
God damn this show is good. It’s an indescribable delight seeing all of the distinctive strengths of anime be applied to such a thoughtful, poignant, and effortlessly imaginative story. Crossing weather-worn art design with all the tricks of modern post-production, Ranking of Kings evokes the best strengths of both illustration and cinema, all in service of a fantastical page-turner celebrating the complexity of human nature. With the medium’s aesthetic past and digital future both shining through, Ranking of Kings embodies anime’s greatest strengths and highest callings.
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