Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage

Anime: Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage
Studio: WIT
Episodes: 10
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Disability

When I made my top 10 series of 2022 I put Ranking of Kings at the very top. We’re now halfway into 2023 and looking back on it I think I still stand by this choice. The artstyle, the music, the characters and even the story itself were all fantastic and I still remember how I spent every week waiting for a new episode to come out. So when a “sequel” was announced I was immediately excited. This excitement dimmed a little bit when I learned that it consisted more of side stories and extra content instead of a direct sequel but I was still pretty excited. Then I forgot about it for a little while until it started airing recently. Today, let me give you my thoughts on it. This review will contain spoilers, but no major spoilers. If you are planning to watch any sequels to the first season I suggest you watch this show since there are enough important events that you’d be missing out on. With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

This series definitely starts off slow. We dive into some side stories about things that the characters from season 1 went through that didn’t quite make the cut. These stories range from encountering strange creatures we’ve never seen before to Boji and Kage living their lives in the underworld with Despa. We get a little bit more Kage being happy with his mother, which is heartbreaking knowing what will happen later and we get some silly competitiveness amongst the big four. My favorite stories are the ones that are more emotional. This show has always been about disability representation and seeing these characters being loved and cared for is just such a joy to watch. The cast have reprised their roles again and everything from start to finish feels just as polished as the first season does. I do prefer the original season, especially when it comes to the opening and ending themes. They’re fine for this series, but they’re not as amazing as Vaundy’s Hadaka no Yuusha. We do get treated to Aimer’s Atemonaku as an ending theme which is a great nostalgic sounding song, but I feel like using Aimer for your soundtrack is unfair at this point. I firmly believe she’s one of – if not the – best singers currently making anime themes.

Moving on to the final episode. If you haven’t seen this show, this final episode seems to pick up the story in a more serious tone than some of the previous ones. We ended season one with Boji giving up the throne to his brother and going on an adventure to find Kage. The two reunite and start a journey to go “wherever they want.” But there were more things happening at the end of season one. One major thing that happened was that Desha won the Ranking of Kings. His goal has been to save his brother, Ouken, from the curse that’s made him into a soulless, immortal warrior. He seems to be successful in his task in this episode and we get Ouken back. Everything seems to have a cost though. Ouken deals with a god who was going to harm the people inside of the building where the winners are taken. Who they all are isn’t really explained yet at this point, but I am very pleased we’re getting a sneak peek at a potential second season. A second season might still be far away though, looking at the source material. When Ouken finds out that his brother has lost his memory, he immediately starts preparing to fix this. What a good man.

All things considered, I’m very happy with what we got. It wasn’t a full sequel yet, but to fill in the time between seasons this was a fantastic way to flesh things out a bit more that didn’t have me bored one bit. I hope you enjoyed this season as much as I have and thank you for reading.