Autumn 2021 First Impressions – Ranking of Kings

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 23

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Kings are ranked by their physical prowess and the number of knights and followers they have. Prince Bojji, heir to the his father’s kingdom, has none of those things. Deaf and unable to speak, he also bears the burden of bullying, snide remarks of the people he encounters. Many people think Daida, the second prince and son of the King’s remarriage, is much more fit to be the next king.

One day while Bojji is playing outside, he encounters a strange shadow creature named Kage who manages to talk him out of giving up his clothing for Kage to sell. But Kage and the Prince seem to be able to understand one-another. Though Kage’s past marks him as someone potentially dangerous, he follows Bojji back to the palace and witnesses his true inner strength begin to show itself. When Bojji challenges Daida to a sparring duel, very few actually anticipate the outcome.

Impressions: What is strength? It’s a big question with a multitude of potential answers. I think about those answers a lot, because the question of what constitutes a strong character has been debated time and time again as I’ve grown up and further into anime fandom. I’ve spoken before about the many panels I’ve attended and in which I’ve participated which purport to discuss what a “strong female character” in particular actually is, and it’s my perennial dissatisfaction with those answers that has kept me focused on studying the non traditional solutions to that characterization dilemma. In short, physical strength is only one part of the puzzle, and not even a necessary one; oftentimes it’s the various other flavors of human “strength” – emotional, ethical, supportive or even one’s own self-esteem – that speaks more to me as a viewer.

Bojji is the type of character that exemplifies what I’m talking about. It takes strength to withstand the type of bullying he deals with, and further strength to avoid becoming hardened and bitter from it. People excuse their own bad behavior by telling themselves that the target of their ill-intent can’t understand what they’re saying anyway, but it doesn’t take a sense of hearing to feel the hot, hostile stares of others, or to sense the maliciousness of what they’re saying exhibited in their body language. I worked with a deaf woman many years ago, and one thing that she said that always stuck with me was that hearing people “lied” – their body language and the look on their face often ran contrary to what they were saying with their words. Bojji isn’t stupid – he knows what people are saying. But he saves his crying for when he’s alone, in a heartbreaking example of what it takes to survive in an emotionally hostile environment. I’ve been there, too.

But if swordplay is the language that the other characters will understand, well, there’s more than one way to play that game as well. While the world we’re in may sometimes worship brute force as a way to solve all problems, nimble light-footed nuance is often the more effective (and accessible!) way of handling things. Bojji may not be gifted with the sword, but he does seem to be quick and athletic in a way that’s unusual enough to surprise his foes (and which has allowed him to avoid attack by snakes… perhaps an earlier assassination attempt? I don’t want to think about the implications of that too hard right now, yikes).

Kindness, gentleness, emotional intelligence, these are all things that, at one time or another, were and are considered forms of weakness. It pleases me that, at least on it surface and one episode in, this series seems to be poised to position them as the strengths they deserver to be categorized as.

Pros: There are multiple examples of parental love demonstrated during this episode, which is something I find to be surprisingly and unfortunately uncommon. Both Bojji’s late mother, shown in flashback, and his father, a big, strong man who one might expect to demonstrate much colder feelings toward the son who possibly won’t be able to succeed him, are warm, kind, and loving.

I learned this more from being on Twitter a lot, but the sign language depicted in the episode appears to be genuine Japanese sign language rather than something made-up for the series which I think is cool.

This episode, and by extension the show, seem to have cultivated a really beautiful storybook aesthetic that fits with the tone of the material very well. The designs also play very loosely with an unrealistic sense of scale – both his mother and father loom incredibly large (literally) in Bojji’s eyes. This does a lot to imply character relationships without speaking them aloud, which is another technique that works well for this story in particular.

Cons: You know… it’s rare that I’m left with almost nothing critical to say. I tend to believe there are ways for every piece of media to improve, although how necessary those improvements are really varies from piece to piece. To be honest, I’m not really coming up with anything here.

I suppose the one thing I’ll say is that I don’t believe that Bojji is played by a deaf actor, and I think that could have only added to what is otherwise a very emotionally genuine experience.

Content Warnings: Bullying, including bullying specifically related to a character’s disability. Violence, including brief images of blood.

Would I Watch More? – I’m deeply excited to continue watching this series, and I’m glad I finally got around to reviewing the first episode so that I can catch up with it!