Ousama Ranking: Yuuki no Takarabako puts me in a bind as a reviewer.  It’s perfectly pleasant, but there’s not a lot of meat on the bones here in writing terms.  There’s no subtext to speak of, and character development isn’t really the point.  These seem (so far at least) to just be side stories from the S1 timeline.  Very much, as I theorized, a “season of OVAs”.  I’m perfectly pleased to have it – I like Bojji and Kage no less than ever, and so far we’re burdened with none of the extraneous BS of the final arc.  But while it would feel wrong not to cover anything Ousama Ranking-related, these eps pretty much cover themselves.

This time around the focus is on the trip home with the Royal Guard, once Bojji’s training with Despa is finished.  The first chapter has Bojji and Kage taking on some bandits after mistaking the sleepwalking captain for a “wild beast” (if such beasts actually exist as rumored, we never see them).  Not much to see here, just a reminder than Bojji is pretty muuch invincible while he has that rapier in his tiny hand.

The second chapter is a little more notable, mainly because for me the art is extremely Mononoke Hime reminiscent.  There’s always been more than a whiff of Ghibli to Wit’s work on Ranking of Kings, and the art director here is one of the best of the business in Kaneko Yuuji (as he’s reminding everyone with Tengoku Daimakyou).  The whole oasis sequence with those strange creatures was rather enchanting – ultimately predictable of course, but lovely to look at.