YMMV / Ranking of Kings

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Queen Hiling. She changed from apparent Wicked Stepmother at the beginning to the absolute favorite character of a wide swath of fans by episode 3, with many calling her the "Best Mom" in anime in years.
  • Prince Despa. He is introduced as a greedy and vain pretty boy who gets into drunken brawls before his true depths are revealed. It's hinted that the first time he gets flattened at the pub with meant to give more plausibility to the one where Bojji got to try out his new abilities for the first time.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Kage staying by Bojji's side at the end of episode 2.
  • Episode 3:
    • Hiling's flashback of how she bonded with Bojji over the years and grew into the role of his mother.
    • Bojji giving Hiling a kiss on the cheek as thanks for the chance to travel.
  • Just after an adult Boji trusted has attempted to kill him, it turns out that Kage has been keeping an eye on him all along. If there was ever a moment where Boji needed someone to show genuine care for him, it was then.
• Jerkass Woobie: After joining the attack on Bosse Kingdom and bullying around his compatriots, Kingbo gets curb-stomped by Ouken. Then we flashback to his days of royalty to see just how far he has fallen and how much suffering he has endured as he pathetically bleeds out on the floor.
• Moe: Bojji is an adorable little prince who is kind and has a bright smile on his face.
• Moral Event Horizon: Miranjo ordering the death of Shiina, and ignoring her pleas to spare Bojji. This act led to many fans declaring their hatred for Miranjo.
• The Scrappy: The entire kingdom of Gyazuka. In a series that runs on Gray-and-Gray Morality, the residents of Gyazuka are just a cardboard kingdom of hats of lazily written evil people. Their blatant evil nature soured many viewers from the jump.
• Spiritual Successor: With its artstyle mirroring a children's fairy tale book, zany and uniquely designed cast of characters, and its story about a young child setting off to become a great king in a fantastic land, this is the closest you can get to new content for Little King's Story.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The show clearly wants the viewer to feel pity for Miranjo's mother, portraying her as a trusting person betrayed by those she helped... except those she helped, the blatantly villainous residents of Gyazuka, are so Obviously Evil that she just comes off as a complete and utter dope for helping them at all.
  • Miranjo herself can come across this way as well. Her manipulation of the royal family in order to prolong both her and Bosse's lives while using and disposing of his wives and children as she sees fit makes her feel less like an adopted daughter and more like a jealous yandere.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It is a shonen manga drawn in a familiar child-friendly fantasy book style reminiscent of mid 20th century manga, but the story does not pull punches in depiction of tragedies of warfare and general conflicts as it dives deeper on the situation surrounding many kingdoms and races, that includes women and children who were executed in horrific ways in the past wars. The anime is more aware of itself, as it airs late at night, on Fuji TV during the noitaminA block, typical for airing anime aimed at older audiences.

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