Check out our previous episode review here.
I’m sitting here smiling and saying to myself “that was nice” despite watching such a gory episode.
The new op and ed are really great!
In the opening though…was that Daida or Bojji who was being crowned?
Since it was a bunch of shadows on the wall, I’d like to think it was Kage crowning Bojji, but we got that in the ending.
So… maybe Miranjo crowning Daida?
After all, we know Miranjo can actually leave the mirror when necessary. Given what Dorshe said about believing she perished in the war…not only is Miranjo a shadow of her former self, but also literally one who lives in a mirror.
If that is really even her after all…
I don’t know, maybe I’m being stubborn at this point, but I just don’t want to like her character yet.

The opening seemed to portray her as a happy child playing with a friend, who later used his claws to completely engulf her body. This could be the ‘being’ who ended up framing young Miranjo for all of those village crimes, before Bosse found (and fell in love with?) her.
There’s a certain lyric in the opening song that goes something like “Everything I’ve fallen in love with, and the curse that fell upon me too” and while its being sang scenes of Miranjo smiling in the mirror, the insane 1st (possessed?) Ranked Kings, Young Bosse grabbing power, and Miranjo running deeper into the forest with the mystery kid play out.

(Also side note – really glad Vaundy is doing this song. I heard and fell in love with 東京フラッシュ “Tokyo Flash” a few months ago and never imagined them doing anisongs. It was a cool surprise seeing their band name in the credits.)
Then, it looks like the Bosse smoothie is poured out onto Daida’s legs, Ouken is breathing in deeply, and Miranjo is captured by an older version of the child creature from the forest.
(So maybe this was showing what past desires drove those characters to such extreme lengths in the present?)
Then we see King Desha reminiscing on something (and a flicker of his younger self?) before we get flashes of other characters, including Daida talking and being read a story by the magic mirror.
King Desha didn’t look half bad in that flashback…he was almost as handsome as Despa.
So…what happened?

Did he get cursed or something, and the old destroyed statue in the underground town square was destroyed in one of his rages over his appearance?
Would that explain the backstory Despa told of Desha doing nothing but crying about his “ugly” face in episode seven?

Unless…Despa was somehow in on the trick, or maybe even Miranjo (and by extension Bosse) and that’s why he wants to take over Bosse’s kingdom?
I don’t know, maybe I’m getting off track here.
We’ve just got so much to talk about.

From witnessing Sword King of the Underworld Ouken savagely torturing the Almighty Kingbo, son of the insane former 1st ranked King Bojji met in the forest during episode four – to Zokku playing dumb but being the biggest schemer of them all – to Strong Chin Chad Bebin showing up randomly and letting the snakes take Kingbo’s still alive body underground – to Queen Hiling’s face off with Miranjo – and then Dorshe’s round two with the possessed underworld creatures who were living peacefully until Miranjo showed up to ruin their day.

I do wonder what Apeas was going to say when Dorshe questioned him. It seemed like he really was going to explain himself before Miranjo interrupted – and we can’t have that sort of logic at the start of the second core. Haha ☺
Man, sorry I talked more about the op more than anything else.
Ranking of Kings has been doing a lot of parallels between its central characters.
We had Bojji and Daida, and then Bosse and Queen Hiling all on their parallel journeys.
The op kept talking about how the “hero doesn’t need power” while showing Daida out of commission with Miranjo’s puppet body, along with Bojji walking, and then fighting in the ending credits.
The way it was framed, the opening made it seem like BOTH Bojji and Daida were the hero of this story.
But then again, every well-written character is supposed to believe that they are the hero in their own story, even if we see it otherwise.
And with that, I think I’ll leave this one here.
So, tell me your thoughts.
What do you think Dorshe meant by believing Miranjo ‘died in the war’? What war was he even talking about?
Is Bosse in love with the real Miranjo?
And…
Who do you think is being crowned in the new opening? Is it Bojji, Daida, or somebody else?

My dog would be big as a house coming back home, but always very happy. I miss her ☺
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