English Dub Review: Ranking of Kings “His First Journey”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Now that the king has passed on his kingdom to another, a member of the Kingdom Ranking Committee arrives. He will judge the ranking of Daida’s new kingdom, and the kingdom that ranks above the others is granted an item from the Divine Treasure vault. Meanwhile, Prince Bojji is off on his first quest along with Hokuro and Domas. It doesn’t get off to a great start, as Bojji has his bag stolen and then has his entire body stolen when he falls into a pit and spends a night dancing with a crazed hunter. There’s even an assassination attempt on the young lad—but he manages to make it through all these trials… until Domas takes matters into his own hands. He takes Bojji to see the so-called Gates of Hell and surprise, surprise, he pushes the young prince into the pit! Finally, Daida has a strange nightmare in which he realizes that he has to make a choice to take his father’s power back.

Our Take:

It’s the fourth episode of Ranking of Kings and Bojji has officially set off on his journey. It’s a rough ride along with his attendants Domas and Hokuro, but it definitely is going to make Bojji into something he wouldn’t have been otherwise… even if that thing is a dead prince. His First Journey ends with something of a cliffhanger as Domas apparently tries to kill Bojji himself by pushing him into the pits of hell. It’s a surprising ending for what turns out to be the most exciting episode of the series so far.

The first three episodes seemed mostly content to set up the characters and their relationships with each other, but episode four takes things into new territory—literally, because Bojji and his compatriots are setting out in search of adventure. They barely begin their travels before misfortunate befalls them, though. Bojji attracted the attention of a ne’erdowell by giving a gold coin to a puppeteer, and he ends up having his bag stolen from him. It’s not his finest moment, sure, but I was a little annoyed at Domas for lecturing him about it. Bojji is a kid who has presumably never been outside the palace city’s walls before, and wasn’t it Domas and Hokuro’s duty to watch over him? Sounds like Domas is passing the blame to me, which makes more sense after finishing the episode for sure.

The rest of Bojji’s journey gets even more intense. He falls into a hole in the forest and meets a strange mountain man who teaches him about hunting and dancing the dance of reconciliation. Watching Bojji dancing his feet off with this weirdo is definitely the most fun the show has had so far, and I wish it would lean into this weirdness more as the season progresses. Alas, we part ways with the hunter dude and then it’s off to the races again. From here on out, the episode gets into some pretty heady stuff centering around Domas.

Domas, as we’ve seen in flashbacks, has a certain kind of affinity and affection for Bojji. He learns to sign, and seems excited to talk to Bojji once he does. But Domas is also seemingly a strict rule follower who doesn’t say no or question when it comes to accepting orders. After Bojji is almost assassinated, he suspects that Bebin is behind it and goes looking for him. It’s a little unclear if he actually does locate him or not, but judging by the way he acts at the end, I’m thinking he may have found Bebin and that meeting causes what happens next: basically, Domas pushes Bojji into the depths of hell.

It’s pretty crazy, and definitely makes me excited to see what’s going to happen next. My main criticism around the show so far is that it hasn’t really given me anything to get invested in. Bojji isn’t particularly interesting and neither is Daida, but now that Domas is fully caught up in some kind of deception, it looks like things are definitely going to start speeding up sooner rather than later. And what’s up with that mirror anyway?