English Dub Review: Ranking of Kings “The Sacrifice of Dreams”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

In a flashback, we see the origin of King Bosse’s power. He was a giant, but wasn’t very strong—until he made a deal with a demon. In order to give Bosse power, the demon required someone of his own blood, so Bosse sought out the strongest woman alive and that’s where Bojji came from. In the present, Hokuro returns to inform Queen Hilling of Bojji’s death, but she doesn’t take the news well and decides to kill the messenger. But before she can, Domas returns and frees him, and the two of them are given a new task by Daida/Bosse.

Our Take:

This week, Ranking of Kings flashes us back to the past with an episode that tells the story of how King Bosse’s great power came to be. It’s an interesting episode that reaffirms my observation that the show seems to be at its best whenever Bojji is not the main focus of the plot. The machinations at the palace are leagues more interesting than watching Kage sweep the floor while Bojji trains offscreen, like in the last episode. Of course, even when Bojji’s offscreen, he’s still involved in what’s going on in the forefront.

The Sacrifice of Dreams opens with a blast from the past as we are transported to the time when Bosse made a deal with a demon to gain unnatural strength. While we don’t get to see all of the evil agreement, we get enough to fill in the basic backstory of Bosse, Bojji, and his mother. I’m most interested in Bojji’s mother at this point. As the strongest woman in the world, who as far as we know didn’t come by her power through any evil dealings with demons, she could be the influence Bojji needs to take his training further. Isn’t she dead? you might ask. I don’t know, anything’s possible with this show.

After getting that history lesson, we’re landed back in the present where King Daida has been trapped (in the underworld maybe?) and King Bosse has taken over his body. The king, Miranjo, and Apeas are a little evil league of their own, and together they plot to assassinate Hilling next. I thought Bosse might show a little affection for his former wife, but I guess that’s not the case. I have no idea what’s motivating Bosse besides power at this point, since it’s clearly not love or familial bonds. That might be one of my biggest criticisms of the show so far—there’s plenty of interesting action on the surface, but I’m not convinced that there’s very much going on below that yet.

We do get some of the best character development so far in the form of Domas and Hokuro, however. Their storyline is definitely my favorite part of this week’s episode, and the two of them have a fun dynamic together. Hokuro is super honorable but naive, whereas Domas is jaded and subservient to every rule no matter how vile. I couldn’t see how the two of them would work together at first given their disagreements over Bojji, but now I’m starting to really enjoy them. Domas’s guilt seems to be changing him for the better, and Hokuro is eager to become stronger and is willing to learn from Domas despite the evil he has done. Honestly, if the rest of this season just chronicled their journey to the underworld, I wouldn’t be mad.

But unfortunately I think we’re about to return to Bojji and Kage next time. The end of this ep finds Bojji just finishing his training under Despa. Kage and I are both curious to learn exactly what the boy’s been taught—especially since Despa just told us that he couldn’t be taught strength since he doesn’t have any to begin with. Was that a lie? Has Despa granted him some skill of mental toughness? Who knows, but I hope that the show starts to show me the same strength that it apparently sees in Bojji to call him the strongest person alive.