The Ranking of Kings Season 2 anime TV series will have Prince Bojji and Kage traveling together on a new journey. But when will Ousama Ranking Season 2 come out?
While the second season is over the horizon, the good news is that the Ranking of Kings Episode 12 release date was on January 6, 2022.
Ranking of Kings Part 2 continued the story with 12 more episodes during the Winter 2022 anime season.
The first season of the anime series was produced by animation company WIT Studio, which is best known for creating the first three seasons of the Attack On Titan anime (Attack On Titan: The Final Season was animated by Studio MAPPA) and The Ancient Magus’ Bride. In recent years, WIT Studio has focused on original works such as the Great Pretender anime and Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-.
Working in collaboration with Studio CloverWorks, WIT Studio has set the Spy x Family anime release date for 2022. Netflix’s Vampire in the Garden is also coming out in 2022.
In the future, the studio will be working on the Vinland Saga Season 2 anime, which was confirmed to be in production in Summer 2021. WIT Studio has also announced two original works, the Moonrise anime, and Netflix’s Grimm anime.
The main staff and studio making Ranking of Kings Season 2 hasn’t been confirmed yet.
For the first season, the anime project was helmed by chief director Makoto Fuchigami (Soul Eater), director Yousuke Hatta (Death Parade, One Punch Man episode director), and assistant director Arifumi Imai (Attack On Titan animation director).
Writer Taku Kishimoto (Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Moriarty the Patriot, Haikyu!!, 2019 Fruits Basket) handled the series composition. Character designer Atsuko Nozaki (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0) and sub-character designer Masaki Kawake (Love Live! Sunshine!!) were both chief animation directors. Composer MAYUKO (Cells at Work!) created the music.
The Ranking of Kings Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Ranking of Kings OP “BOY” was performed by King Gni, while the ED “Oz.” was performed by Yama. The Part 2 OP “Hadaka no Yuusha” was performed by Vaundy, while the Part 2 ED “Flare” was performed b milet.
The anime’s first season premiered in Fall 2021 after midnight on October 14, 2021 (effectively October 15). The Ranking of Kings Part 2 release date was on January 6, 2022.
The first season’s finale, Ranking of Kings Episode 23, will release on March 24, 2022. The 23 episodes were released in Japan as four Ranking of Kings Blu-Ray/DVD volumes.
- Updated February 23, 2022: Ranking of Kings manga’s English translation announced.
- Updated December 24, 2021: Added Ranking of Kings Part 2 trailer, release date, key visual, and OP/ED info.
This article provides everything that is known about Ranking of Kings Season 2 (Ousama Ranking Season 2 / Osama Ranking Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
FUNimation’s Ranking of Kings English dub release date
The first season of Ranking of Kings anime was initially streaming internationally with only English subtitles on FUNimation (not Crunchyroll, VRV, Netflix, or Hulu). In Japan, it was streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video Japan.
In November 2021, FUNimation announced the Ranking of Kings dub cast:
- Emily Fajardo as Bojji
- SungWon Cho as Kage
- Christopher Wehkamp as Bebin
- Cris George as Bosse
- Justin Briner as Daida
- A.J. Locascio as Domas
- Brent Mukai as Dorshe
- Luci Christian as Hiling
- Bryce Papenbrook as Hokuro
- Ben Phillips as Narrator
- Ben Bryant as Sandeo
- Laila Berzins as Shiina
- Kevin M. Connolly as Sorii
FUNimation’s Ousama Ranking English dub release date was on November 18, 2021.
Ousama Ranking Season 2 release date predictions: Likely to be renewed?
As of the last update, Aniplex, Kadokawa, WIT Studio, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Ranking of Kings Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of the Ranking of Kings sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Ousama Ranking Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The Ranking of Kings reviews has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s an uplifting tale about a deaf boy striving to become the world’s greatest king… that also touches on hard topics like murder, genocide, and even ritualistic child sacrifice. The innocence of the children’s picture book art style provides a beguiling contrast to the darker materials that drive the emotional drama that’s the backbone of the story.
Despite how heartwarming the anime can be, the industry is driven by cold, hard numbers like streaming revenue and the impact on manga sales. Unfortunately, FUNimation doesn’t give any indication about the popularity of its exclusive titles.
Being animated by WIT Studio should have gained the anime’s first season some attention, but the anime’s first season was seemingly relegated to dark horse status by anime fans who dismissed the TV show on face value alone. But as word of mouth spreads the popularity of RoK should rise.
Before the anime premiered, the manga’s circulation had reached over 1.3 million copies by September 2021. By mid-November, the boost from the anime caused the manga to reach 1.5 million copies in circulation. However, this boost wasn’t enough to get the manga in the Oricon Top 30 during that time frame.
Regardless, it seems likely that the anime production committee will have Ranking of Kings renewed for a second season based on its rising popularity in the anime fandom. The biggest issue was the relative lack of source material available for making a continuation when the anime’s first season finished in March 2022.
What’s more, anime projects are scheduled years in advance. The availability of WIT Studio is of secondary concern since they have multiple projects all lined up for the coming years.
Therefore, it’s predicted that it’ll be a multi-year wait before fans get to watch Ranking of Kings 2. By 2024, there should be enough new manga chapters for creating a second season.
Ranking of Kings manga creator started at 41 years old
The story for the anime TV show is based on the Ranking of Kings manga by creator Sousuke Tooka. The Ousama Ranking manga is sometimes officially spelled as Osama Ranking.
Self-published on the website Manga Hack since May 2017, Kadokawa’s Enterbrain began publishing the physical volumes in February 2019. The manga series was up to Ranking of Kings Volume 12 as of December 10, 2021.
New chapters are released on an inconsistent basis. When Volume 12 came out the web manga was up to Chapter 180.
The manga is officially divided up into multiple story arcs. Ranking of Kings Part 2 started with Chapter 156 on May 8, 2021. Volume 12 should contain the ending of Part 1.
In February 2022, North American publisher BookLive Co., Ld announced an official Ranking of Kings English manga translation. The first four volumes were released as a digital eBook on February 25, 2022.
One fact that stands out about Tooka is that he started his manga career at the age of 41 as a corporate dropout. Tooka’s parents still think he’s working as a salaryman and he doesn’t tell them since he’s afraid they’ll worry for him if they realized he made a living by drawing manga.
“I felt reluctant to quit my job at the age of 41. However, it is also true that I’ve had an easygoing life since I am single and have nobody to provide for,” Tooka said in an interview with Anime News Network. “Besides, I’ve always felt uneasy about what I wanted to do and I didn’t enjoy my life. It was inevitable that sooner or later I would go down the path of a manga artist.”
Previously, he had submitted his work to a picture book competition. Kage was originally created as a character in that picture book and although Tooka won a prize his career as a picture book artist never took off.
The creator also discussed how his work subverts the fairytale stereotypes, but his answer reveals how Tooka might choose to finish off the Ranking of Kings manga’s ending.
“I’m a delicate-hearted person, so I love stories with happy endings. I’d like to make everyone happy if I can,” he said. “But I can’t do that for the bad guys. The core is as simple as that.”
Fortunately, it seems like Bojji’s story is just getting started since Tooka only began creating the second story arc in 2021.
Ousama Ranking manga compared to the anime
When an anime is adapting a book or a manga series sometimes the original creator will be involved either directly in the scriptwriting process or they’ll at least provide feedback and answer questions. Tooka revealed that he didn’t have any input on the anime although he’s grateful to the team at WIT Studio for doing such a great job.
Typically, manga readers prefer that any anime adaptations stay as true to the source material as possible, with many anime studios almost adapting each scene panel by panel. In this case, WIT Studio chose to rearrange the presentation of certain details in order to give the story an air of mystery.
For example, the manga was quite forthright in explaining that Bojji’s weak body and hearing disability were the results of his father King Bosse making a deal with a devil. However, the manga held back Bosse’s motivations for why he made this decision.
So when a devil suddenly appeared out of the dead king’s body without any explanation the sense of mystery was upheld all the way up to Episode 8. The King Bosse flashback episode even included an extra chapter from Volume 1.
Titled Chapter 13.5, the special bonus chapter added an extra layer to Bosse’s motivations for selling his firstborn’s life force to the devil. Originally, the web manga made Bosse out to be completely selfish and uncaring, so this retroactive change to the printed version prepared readers for a more nuanced character.
Speaking of nuance, that moment when the swordmaster Domas betrayed Bojji also came as a shock to anime audiences. In the manga, Domas’ assassination attempt was openly foreshadowed by cryptic internal monologues leading up to the Gates of Hell. The maniacal laugh by Domas was also a good touch since it gave voice to the hysteria caused by the inner turmoil he was experiencing.
The anime also made the story flow better by combining flashbacks and introducing anime original scenes to connect certain plot points. For example, an original scene that has Bojji trying to escape out of his castle room was used by the anime to connect to the Queen Hiling flashback.
In the manga, this flashback simply happened after the Queen healed Bojji’s wounds from his duel with Prince Daida. The anime also didn’t show us who was healing Bojji at first, so this bit of misdirection caused audiences to reduce Hiling to being the evil stepmother trope until her hidden depth was revealed.
In some cases, the anime reshuffled the timeline by revealing certain details earlier. For example, Episode 1 covered the first 5 chapters and pulled elements from later chapters, including Kage’s confrontation with the snake tamer Bebin. Episode 2 similarly pulled forward Kage’s backstory in order to develop the theme that Bojji is in the same boat as the last surviving member of the shadow clan.
In some cases, the way the anime changed the story made certain scenes confusing. For example, anime Episode 2 didn’t describe or show how King Bosse never dodged an attack, which better explained why everyone viewed Bojji’s swordsmanship as being dishonorable or unkingly. The anime also didn’t explain that one of the prices Bosse paid for his deal with the devil was a lower life expectancy, which explained why he died at such a relatively young age.
The backstory of spearman Apeas was condensed too much by the anime. In the manga, Apeas was talented with the spear but too timid for combat. When he was promoted to Spear of the King he became more confident and tried to live up to his king’s expectations. When Apeas began to sustain mysterious injuries that couldn’t be inflicted by a human, it turned out that he was continuously challenging a griffin until he killed it and presented the defeated creature as a trophy to his king.
It was inevitable that some scenes and dialogue would hit the cutting room floor. After all, even with two cours to work with, WIT Studio needed to pick up the pacing to reach a good stopping in the manga.
By Ranking of Kings Episode 12 (Ranking of Kings Part 2), the anime had adapted up through manga Volume 6.
All in all, it’s predicted that the first season’s finale, Ousama Ranking Episode 23, will find a stopping point that corresponds to manga Volume 12: Chapter 155.
The ending of the first story arc makes for a natural stopping point for the anime. Thus, the second season should pick up with the story arc in Ousama Ranking Part 2.
The bad news is that there currently aren’t enough new manga chapters available for making even a single-cour Ranking of Kings Season 2.
Even worse, English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime will have to wait until the fan translation projects catch up. Even if an official English translation is announced it’ll likely take years for the published volumes to catch up, as well.
Osama Ranking Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: This article was initially published before the Ranking of Kings Episode 23 release date. Spoilers will be added over time. In the meantime, here is the official summary for Volume 12.
Invincible or the strongest…? The fate of the world is decided in Volume 12! Bosse who surrendered himself to fate in pursuit of being the strongest. Miranjo who repeated the tragedy for the sake of her loved ones. Bojji carves out a future with his courage and bonds.
“If you can’t stop me, that’s fate.”
Will Bojji’s “Sword of the King” reach the “invincible” who stands in his way?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Ranking of Kings Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!
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