Ousama Ranking

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]

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

Cook, Justin Producer

Okada, Maiko Producer, Production Manager

Inoue, Megumi Producer

Ooshima, Kazuki Producer

Reviews

Jan 20, 2026

either17

Recommended

Absolutely loved it from beginning to the end. The entire season felt like an endearing tale recounting the adventures of a great cast. I have read somewhere else that the conflicts were resolved too quickly - Some were some lasted for longer but overall that allowed the anime to be much more engaging and fast paced with new plot elements being added as the story went on!

The characters were all very loveable and genuine ! While Bojji is undoubtedly the focus of the story and rightly so alongside Kage- other characters deserve the spotlight thanks to their colorful personalities and make the episodes that ... much more interesting. All the main and support characters were in the end motivated by their own feelings and desires without being inherently bad which made them very relatable.

As for the story the pacing is good with different arcs being wrapped up in a few episodes each, the story elements without being novel are well handled and it’s hard not to be invested in our duo’s adventures. Ousama ranking’s world building deserves a lot of praise - it draws from european fables and legends blending them together very nicely.

It is the freshest and most heartwarming anime I have watched in a very long while if not ever! It’s highly reminiscent of earlier adventures shonen such as Konjiki no Gash with whom it shares many aspects but Ousama ranking manages to feel original and nostalgic at the same time ! What a fit!
Oh. And. It’s insanely pretty. The music is also a complete treat ! I highly recommend listening to the ost while studying or working- it soothes the soul ~

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 5, 2026

Impala

Mixed Feelings

I really wanted to love Ousama Ranking. And honestly, the first half had me completely sold. The animation is gorgeous, the soundtrack is doing a ton of heavy lifting, the art style is charming in a storybook way, and I have no complaints about the voice acting. Bojji is instantly likable, the world feels cruel and unfair in a way that actually hurts, and for a while it felt like I was watching something special.

Then the second half happened, and it quietly kneecapped the whole show.

The core problem is simple: this anime is terrified of consequences. Like, full-on panic attack levels of terrified. No matter ... how bad things get, nothing ever sticks. Without spoiling anything, characters get mentally wrecked, physically destroyed, stabbed, crushed, cursed, whatever and it almost always gets undone. After a while, “death” scenes stopped feeling tense and started feeling like filler, because I knew the undo button was coming.

It got to the point where anytime something serious happened, I didn't react emotionally anymore. I just sat there waiting for the heal, the save, the revival, the “actually it’s fine” moment. And I was almost always right. I felt no tension because I was conditioned to stop caring. And it’s not just the damage, it’s the forgiveness. Holy shit, the forgiveness. Characters do genuinely horrible things, and instead of dealing with the fallout, the show just tosses in a sad flashback and expects that to clean the slate. Murder? Betrayal? Manipulation? It’s fine, they were sad once. Let’s move on.

The story keeps trying to sell this as emotional maturity or kindness, but it doesn’t feel wise. It feels lazy. Forgiveness without consequences isn’t deep, it’s just the narrative refusing to get its hands dirty. The show wants to feel gentle while constantly sidestepping accountability, and that combo just doesn’t work.

Bojji himself also kind of suffers from this. What made him compelling early on was how stacked the deck was against him. He was weak, isolated, powerless. Every small win felt earned. Later, he becomes so absurdly capable that his struggles stop feeling relatable. At some point I was no longer rooting for him; I was just watching the animation flex.

And yes, the animation is incredible. That’s honestly what carries a lot of the later episodes. If this show looked average, I don’t think half of these fights or emotional beats would land at all. Underneath the pretty presentation is a story that keeps pretending it’s dark but never has the guts to commit. That’s the most annoying part. The show clearly knows how to write a cruel world. You see it in the grim backstories. You see it in the setup. But the actual present-day story takes place in a padded, consequence-free version of that world where nothing truly bad is allowed to last. It wants the vibes of tragedy without paying the price.

By the end, I wasn’t mad, I was deflated. This could’ve been something great. Instead, it’s a show with high production values and writing that keeps chickening out whenever things get uncomfortable. Pretty, emotional, and ultimately hollow.

Solid 5/10. Looks amazing. Writing’s doing the bare minimum.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 5, 2023

douve_atomique

Not Recommended

What happened to Ousama Ranking's story? Did someone kidnap the author halfway in and force him to write a mediocre battle shounen with terrible pacing? This show is incredibly confusing.

In short, Ousama Ranking felt like watching two different shows. Its first half or so was actually very enjoyable, making use of complex and interesting characters in a context à la Game of Thrones topped with gorgeous art and symbolic writing - albeit as subtle as a brick through a window -, but then the fire nation attacked the mangaka or something must have happened because everything turned to trash. After the first half I just ... kept wondering what happened, what caused such a shift in quality, I was so focused on this that I could barely comprehend what I was watching anymore but maybe that's a good thing, in a way I got spared.

I don't want this to be a full review of the show, so I'll just briefly talk about the most important aspect of any show for me: its characters. Ousama Ranking's characters are surprinsingly good, or that's how they seem to be at the start of the show. They all have their backstory, allegiance and motivations and even those that appear shallow at first end up being interesting. Two characters have to be talked about: the two princes, Bojji and Daida. Daida is the second prince, he is gifted, strong-minded, ambitious and uncompromising. Even though he seems to be a complete asshole at first, it turns out that he has standards, morals that he's not willing to abandon. Bojji is the first prince, he is exactly the opposite of his brother. He is weak, cursed, and not fit to be a king. He is also deaf and mute.

This next paragraph contains spoilers
These two princes are interesting because of how drastically different they are and because they are basically competing for the crown after the death of their father. Even though Daida is most fit to become king, he's the second prince so Bojji should take the crown instead. This premise is very solid. It made me wonder how Bojji was going to deal with conflicts. Being deaf, he cannot hear what people are saying to him. Being mute, he cannot speak to them. Being extremely weak physically, he cannot resort to force to solve problems. How is he going to deal with his brother and everything else? What an interesting conundrum! Well, guess what... Everything that was established through the first half of the anime is simply thrown out the window. Daida is manipulated by a mirror and removed from the story because his father is reincarnated in his body and Bojji undergoes training which makes him the strongest character in the show (this is not a conjecture, it is stated in the anime). Daida's complex struggle to emulate his father's strength is gone. Bojji's physical handicap is gone; him being mute and deaf doesn't matter because he can read lips and people somehow understand him when he's 'speaking'. Thus, the anime turns into a battle shonen where there is absolutely no tension, people are gravely wounded but then healed, wounded again but healed again, and wounded one more time and left for dead just to be healed again because why not. Nothing seems to happen for the remainder of the show. We learn about the main antagonist's backstory which apparently is some sort of Japanese nationalistic memorandum. I was at first very confused by this backstory but it now unfortunately makes a lot of sense.

One last thing to mention is the series' main antagonists and one word to describe them is boring. The series goes into such great lengths to make them complex and misundertsood that it forgets to actually make them interesting.

If you really want to watch this series, just pretend it's 10 episodes long and has an ambiguous ending and call it quits, or turn your brain off and watch the whole thing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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