Ranking of Kings

Episode 10

It finally happened. It's an episode of Ranking of Kings that I'm only lukewarm on. It was bound to happen eventually, and in this case it's a matter of reality just not meeting my expectations. We spent two weeks away from Bojji and Kage as the young prince trained under Despa to master an unrevealed weapon with very successful results. He split a rock in two and Daida-Bosse looked into the mirror to discover his son was the most powerful person in existence. That's a lot of build-up for this episode's reveal, and I was expecting something flashy.

Bojji's new abilities are the exact opposite of flashy. They're strategic, which isn't surprising, and don't require a ton of physical strength either. Everything about the reveal makes sense in context to the story and what we know about Bojji. It's just, you know, acupuncture with a rapier. That in and of itself doesn't kill it for me; instead, I think it has to do with how these precise jabs are depicted when Bojji is set-up to engage in a bar fight. He delivers his pokes without any kind of animated flair or effects when he strikes the enemy. The result left me feeling rather deflated after spending so much time excited to see exactly how the show would deliver on its set-up.

I also, for the first time, found the big emotional moment at the end excessive. Having won his first trial, Bojji has to consider what to do now. He could make his return to his kingdom, but he is (understandably) afraid of facing the adults that moved to have him killed. He also has lingering doubts that Queen Hiling may have been involved since she sent him on the mission with Domas in the first place. Kage scolds him for his doubts, remembering the loss of his own mother and the kindness and consideration he saw Queen Hiling display towards Bojji. Bojji becomes angry at himself for doubting his stepmother and starts smashing his own face in as punishment.

I didn't really need that, to be honest. The scene carries on far too long, to the point that it seemed excessive. All the crying and self-flagellation was honestly uncomfortable for what felt like a small misstep by a kid who has had a lot of people he trusted try to have him killed recently. A couple of face slaps would have been fine instead of busting up his whole face.

This comprises the meat of the episode, although there is one side tangent with the three-headed snake and Bebin. He seems like he's playing the long game in a mostly honorable way. While he still supports Daida as ruler overall, he is undermining him at this point because Daida's actions are influenced by the mirror and not in his actual best interest. We'll have to see how this plays out, but it'll be interesting to see how things at court change once Bojji returns and the rest of the players learn he isn't dead.

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Ranking of Kings is currently streaming on Funimation.