Ranking of Kings earned its crown after only one season

polygon.com:

The young prince’s self-assurance leaves him as his stepmother looms over him, looking down her nose at him, and literally overshadowing him in a scene tinged with an ominous red, arched eyebrows, and posture all geared to match the sharpness of her admonishments to him. We recognize the hallmarks of this kind of character; we’ve seen this story before. Only, not quite. This is the first time we see Queen Hiling, a character who, throughout Ranking of Kings, becomes one of the series’s most selfless characters, driven by her love for her two sons. Many of the characters in Wit Studio’s anime begin with a similar disparity. Their visual designs and the obfuscated intent behind their actions create an entirely different image than what we learn of them later on.

Adapted by directors Yōsuke Hatta and Makoto Fuchigami and writer Taku Kishimoto from the manga by Sōsuke Tōka, Ranking of Kings follows that of Prince Bojji, a young heir to the throne viewed as unfit to rule because of his deafness and lack of physical prowess. There’s a lot to love about the show — most immediately its use of sign language, the colorful, graphic art direction, and the frequently goofy elasticity of its characters. But its continual upending of almost every first impression made by its characters is every bit as striking.

With Hiling as a leading example, Ranking of Kings manages many other reversals by calling upon a history of stock characters from classic fairy tales, ones that’ll be familiar to most through cultural osmosis. In her first appearance, she might seem like the classic evil stepmother as per the Brothers Grimm, seemingly vindictive and dismissive of her stepson Bojji while her other son Daida easily earns her favor. But, as we