OP: “GOLD” by PEOPLE 1

And with this, everything from the Spring Preview has premiered – unless you count Golden Kamuy of course, but that’s a special case if ever there was one.  The final debut is an odd one in so many ways, the return of Ranking of Kings with Ousama Ranking: Yuuki no Takarabako.  In the first place because this is a weird series.  It started out – and looked for a long time – like a serious contender for 2022’s AotY spot.  In the end it didn’t even crack the Top 10 (though it just missed, and would have made it in 2021).  That was a result of some frankly stunning directions the plot took in the second cour.

Now we’re back with The Treasure Chest of Courage.  It was a surprise to see a sequel so quickly, though the first season did quite well commercially, because there didn’t seem to be enough material.  And there was a reason for that, because this isn’t a sequel in the strictest sense.  We know it’s all or mostly anime-original, and if the first ep is a guide, it looks as if it’s going to be made up of stand-alone stories from the first season’s timeline.  If that sounds like an OVA, that’s what the first episode played like.  If indeed that’s what we get for the next nine weeks, it amounts to a full-season OVA, which would certainly be a rarity in anime.  But would it be a good idea?

Given that we don’t know for certain what form the rest of the season will even take, I’ll withhold judgment on that.  But not on the premiere of course, as that’s in the books.  And it was fine, in a “solid OVA” sort of way.  Given the crater S1 face-planted into, maybe original material isn’t such a bad idea.  Certainly focusing on Bojji and Kage isn’t – they were the one element of the first season that never jumped the shark.  And that’s especially true with Despa being the third point of a triangle, because he was always the best of the side characters (and there are a lot of good ones with Ousama Ranking).

The elephant in the room with Despa, of course, is the man playing him.  Sakurai Takahiro has been pretty much blacklisted by the industry after the scandal surrounding his infidelity – Despa is one of the few roles where he hasn’t been replaced.  I won’t dredge up that argument here – believe what you will about the merits of that.  But I will say that it’s hard to imagine Despa being played by anybody but Sakurai.  He’s so good at roles like this, and given that I’d never read the manga when the show began he’s irrevocably linked with the character in my mind now.  For the sake of the series, I’m glad he’s still here.

The first two stories are set during Bojji’s time as Despa’s protege in the Underworld.  The first involves Despa freaking out over an age spot and sending Kage off the find a shuddercap mushroom to treat it.  This involves rescuing an old lady from a wild beast, only to find out that she was the terrifying creature he’d been warned about who lived in the forest.  However this is not a case of no good deed going unpunished, as she’s eventually won over by Kage’s relentless integrity and gives him a shuddercap pie to take home.

The second chapter has Despa sending Bojji and Kage off to make some money, under the guise (and maybe not just the guise) of it being real-world experience for Bojji.  His unique attributes make it a challenge to find the right fit, but eventually Kage comes up with a scheme straight out of Hunter X Hunter.  And this is not the first time the vibe with Bojji and Kage has reminded me of Gon and Killua – they’re very obviously a homage to that pairing in many ways.  All in all both parts are a pleasant if unremarkable return to the Ousama Ranking universe – we’ll see if the rest of the season follows that pattern.

ED: “Atemonaku” by Aimer