Ranking of Kings (王様ランキング, Ōsama Rankingu) is a 2021 television anime series based on Sōsuke Tōka’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by WIT Studio, and the staff credits include director Yōsuke Hatta with chief director Makoto Fuchigami, screenplay writer Taku Kishimoto, character designer Atsuko Nozaki and music composed by MAYUKO. The season was first aired in Japan on October 2021.
Background:
“Deaf, non-speaking, and unable to wield a sword, Prince Bojji doesn’t seem like a typical heir, and his kingdom agrees. As his brother plots to take over, Bojji allies with an outcast creature named Kage – who believes in him like no one has before.”
Plot Synopsis via Crunchyroll, October 2022.
WIT Studios have worked on a number of fantasy projects since they were formed, like The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga, and another one added to their line-up is Ranking of Kings which has a rather intriguing art style which reminds me of Disney a lot. Also notable is that the main character for the series is also disabled which is not common for anime or manga to cover, especially in this setting. That said, many people liked the anime and while I have heard its latter half is not as popular as the first half I was still interested in watching the series.
With the success of its anime adaptation, more Ranking of Kings related projects were announced with a spin-off series Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage which aired during the Spring 2023 anime season, and a theatrical film in the works scheduled sometime in the future. While WIT Studios are known for passing on their projects to other studios (with some staff members continuing to work on them) when it comes to sequels, I’ll be curious if they stay on for a second season when that happens.
Ranking of Kings was licensed by Funimation and is one of the titles that would have been with Aniplex of America due to the licensor, but Aniplex in Japan decided to ease their rule on keeping their titles exclusive to their US branch, so this series alongside a few others like Horimiya, My Dress-Up Darling and WONDER EGG PRIORITY went to Crunchyroll and Funimation instead.
Given that Funimation eventually rebranded as Crunchyroll due to the merger, Ranking of Kings was released by Crunchyroll for home video. The home video release did make its way into the UK but it was overpriced, lacked a slipcase and did not include a limited edition version.
Limited Edition Contents:
There’s a bit of a new trend with Crunchyroll in the past year, where if a two-cour series receives a combo pack release for its first half, then the other half will eventually have a limited edition option as well, and that applies to Ranking of Kings.
The limited edition box set features a rigid box that houses Part 2’s Amaray case and a slipcase as well as a 152-page artbook and a spare cardboard box that includes 4 art cards and an embroidered patch. While limited editions from Funimation sometimes have exclusive artwork, this is just the same as the regular edition. The artbook offers production artwork and staff illustrations.
The rigid box artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Crunchyroll limited edition releases. The SRP for the limited-edition set was $89.98 and there’s no exact unit count.
I ordered Part 1 and the Part 2 limited edition through Rightstuf ($37.29 + $51.63, thanks to the 10% GotAnime membership which on top of that also had a 15% discount code applied from their Summer sale) plus postage and pre-paid VAT. A standard edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack was also released on the same day as this edition.
Physical Contents (Part 2 Limited Edition):
- Rigid Box with slipcase, Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
- 152-page Art Book
- 4 Art Cards
- Embroidered patch
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Crunchyroll
Released: 11th October 2022 (Part 1), 22nd August 2023 (Part 2)
The standard release for Ranking of Kings Part 1 contains episodes 1-11 across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, and the limited edition release for Ranking of Kings Part 2 contains episodes 12-23 across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs. All the discs were encoded and authored by Crunchyroll.
Audio options include Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The white subtitles are locked during Blu-ray playback and the regions are compatible with Blu-ray players set to A & B and DVD players set to 1, 2 & 4 with NTSC support.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | Part 1: 2 (1 BD-50, 1 BD-25) Part 2: 2 (1 BD-50, 1 BD-25) |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | Part 1: 1 2 4 Part 2: 1 2 4 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | Part 1: 2 Part 2: 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Web Previews
- Textless Opening Song “Boy”
- Textless Closing Song “Oz”
Disc 4:
- Web Previews
- Textless Opening Song “Hadaka no Yūsha (Naked Hero)”
- Textless Closing Song “Flare”
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Ranking of Kings is available to order through multiple retailers across the United States. For the Part 2 limited edition Blu-ray & DVD release, it is available to order on Amazon UK (via AmazonGlobal), Amazon US, Otaku UK, Rightstuf and United Publications.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment