#miranjo
What do you think it takes to be King?
So in my endeavours to watch some newer animes I stumbled upon Ranking of Kings after a friend recommend it to me and it kept popping up here and there, and I decided to give it a shot. It is not at all what I expected but I have zero regrets! It was such a beautiful and powerful anime and I was excited to draw the cast for it!
“I must be saved!”
Me: Hmmm, this Demon is clearly the mastermind behind all this.
Demon: “This is the second time you betray me, Miranjo”
Me: Goddamit Miranjo WTF.
Me, knowing full well i´m gonna understand (if not forgive) Miranjo the moment i see her backstory:
Me, Studying:
Me, Analizing Ousama Ranking Turns and Twists:
Ousama Ranking:Hell is paved with good intentions.
Ranking of Kings was so good but the ending with Miranjo was such a load of bullshit, like fuck off.
It could have been such a good closure if they just hadn’t tried to push the Rule of Obligatory Romance to such a ridiculous fucking degree. Miranjo was raised by Bosse since a child, then she develops a fucking Freudian-like lifelong crush on him, makes a deal with a demon for him (that only she paid through mind you), then fucks up the entire damn kingdom and everyone around it in a scheme that lasted several years, kills, maims or attempts to kill basically everyone in Bojji and Daida’s life.
And THEN, after all that shit show and realizing that she fucked up, be saved from the consequences of her own actions by Daida, the pubescent boy she mentored for years since childhood and then betrayed, by him making a deal with the devil -the very thing that started all this bullshit, and will probably have some serious consequences to him - and out of nowhere hewant to marry her??? And she accepts it??? And everyone just gotta deal with it???
I known that with the show’s whole central bit about kindness and forgiveness, she would be saved and probably have a happy ending one way or another, and I wanted Miranjo to have a chance to heal, but did they have to be so fucking messed up about it??? What the fuck?! They managed to run into the horrible cliches for female characters and antagonists in the worst way.
Miranjo relationship to Bosse is very ambiguous in tone, it could be much more in a “he saved me and took care of me, so I need to repay him somehow by helping him”, that is a feeling that could pair very well with her only superficially explored Survivor’s Guilt. And in Daida and Bojji’s case she could simply taken a role of an adviser or an older sister (since, yknow, THEY WERE RAISED BY THE SAME GUY)
The anime was still overall a really good experience, but fuck if that storyline’s ending wasn’t unsatisfactory and messy as fuck. It felt like trying to pull Happy Ever After and character development with duct tape, and not even Miranjo’s but Daida’s. Daida who didn’t even need this bullshit to make his character likable mind you, he got his by trauma and self reflection time in the shadow realm. Miranjo’s bad writing wasn’t even for her, she was completely damseled and this pisses me off so much. God I’m so frustrated, this was such a great story and production with awesome characters, but this stands out like a sore spot even in this fairytale setting. They both deserved so much better.
Anyway, this was just a rant. Hope I can still see the show on a good light moving own despite it
It was so mind-boggling. This show has such nuanced writing most of the time, but then it snapped its fingers and made the whole cast not only forgive Miranjo immediately but also accept her as Daida’s queen? And Kage abandoned Boji?
The last episode honestly feels like it was written by a different staff.
