English Dub Review: Ranking of Kings “Intertwining Plots”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After being thrown into the pits of fire by Domas, Bojji reunites with Kage in a big emotional breakdown that leaves both of them in tears. The prince learns that his shadowy friend has been following along with them the whole time under order from Bebin to protect him. Together, they try to escape from some poison gas but are captured by King Desha. Once Hokuro learns of Domas’s treachery, he attempts to slay him, but can’t finish the job.

Meanwhile back at the palace, the magic mirror takes King Daida below ground into an elaborate showroom of sorcery where he watches his father’s body being ground into an elixir for him to drink. Despite assurances that it will make him a powerful king, Daida refuses to partake in the practice and throws the magical potion to the ground.

Our Take:

All I can say is—finally! After four episodes, Ranking of Kings has at last become a show that might actually prove to be interesting to watch. It took the series nearly a third of the season to set up the seeds of this week’s big plot points, but they really worked here and I think this is the first time I’ve been actively excited for the next episode to land.

To be fair, I guess the excitement really began at the end of last week’s episode. Having Domas push Bojji off a cliff to plummet down into the depths of hellfire is about as good a cliffhanger as you can get, and the fallout from that moment really guides the momentum of Intertwining Plots. It seems like everyone in this show has some sort of ulterior motive going on now, and that makes for some really intriguing characters. Take Domas, for instance. From the beginning of the show, he seemed like someone who would prove to be a valuable sidekick and ally of Bojji, learning sign language for him and teaching him to fight. But after the events of the last couple outings, it’s clear that Domas isn’t the simple saint he first appeared to be.

But what’s interesting is that it’s not like he’s entirely evil, either. Sure, he may have attempted to assassinate an apparent toddler by pushing Bojji off a cliff, but it’s not because he wanted to. Based on what we know now, it’s more like Domas values loyalty and following orders above all else, and he didn’t have confidence in Bojji’s ability to lead the kingdom—which is a fair assessment based on what we’ve seen of him so far. So when Daida orders him to make sure Bojji is eliminated, he doesn’t have the wherewithal to decline the direct order from his king. He’s a very tragic character, really, and his arc alone has really added some much needed complexity to the show.

Speaking of complexity, how about that magic mirror! It didn’t do much besides give Daida evil pep talks up until now, but from the information gleaned in this episode it looks like whoever is inside the mirror has been running things behind the scenes for a long time now. That whole segment was insane; Daida watching as his father’s body is ground into a pulp and put into a potion for him to drink? That’s gross, and sets a perfectly devilish fairy tale vibe for the show going forward. Fairy tales, the real ones, are full of blood and gore and Ranking of Kings definitely seems to have turned a corner on this front this week—even Domas and his hand were pretty gruesome, too.

Overall, I’d have to say that Intertwining Plots was my favorite episode so far! It had some thrills, chills, and some solid character development when it came to Domas and Daida. It’s not lost on me that the most interesting episode yet is also the one with the least screen time for Bojji and Kage. They may be the front men of the show, but they’re some of the most boring characters at this point, and I really wish that would change soon. If the series can add wrinkles to side characters like Domas, why wouldn’t it spend more energy fleshing out our main heroes?

Ranking of Kings still might not rank very highly in my books yet, but this episode was a good step in the right direction. Here’s hoping it can continue on this path of forwarth progress in the next episode!