In this world, kings are ranked based on their power, skill, and how they treat their subjects. Bojji is the first son and heir of powerful 7th ranking king, Bosse. However, while Bojji is good-natured, he is often mocked as a fool because he is cannot speak and they believe him to be deaf. While not physically strong either, Bojji has a strength of heart that earns the affection and loyalty of many he crosses paths with, including his most recent friend, a jaded shadow creature who swears to always have Bojji’s back as he tries to become the best future king he can be.
I cannot condense how much I enjoy this series into words. That is all. If you feel the same way and came here looking for Ranking of Kings anime recommendations, we got you.
Anime Like Ranking of Kings
For Fans of Coming-of-Age Stories
Kemono no Souja Erin
In a nation that is threatened by civil war, Erin lives with her mother who tends to the Grand Duke’s powerful war-lizards as a doctor. However, after an incident with the Grand Duke’s favorite war-lizard, Erin’s mother is held responsible. While trying to save her mother, Erin falls in a river and is swept away to a neighboring region. On her quest to get home, she encounters many different people and learns the harsh truths of her world.
Both series are set in their own unique worlds and follow a young character as they grow up in their world. However, while Ranking of Kings has a more basic plot, Erin puts in a lot more detail in the world-building and storytelling.
Moribito
It is said that a widespread drought is coming to the Shin Yogo Empire, and in order to avoid famine, the reincarnation of the water spirit must be sacrificed in order to prevent it. However, the water spirit is the emperor’s own son. In effort to save his life, the prince’s mother spirits the boy away with a mysterious female mercenary to protect him until the Emperor reconsiders.
If you condense it down, both series are about young princes and their protectors. The princes learn of the world and the protectors attempt to protect the big hearts of their wards. However, Moribito is more your standard and straightforward tale, though not without exploring its unique world.
For Fans of Emotional Tales
To Your Eternity
One day, an entity, for reasons unknown, threw an orb to Earth. With no emotion or identity, the orb is meant to gather sensations and is able to take the shape of things it encounters as it learns. For many years, it was a rock, and then it became moss, and when a wolf took its last breath near it, it became the wolf. After wandering for some time, it met a boy. After a long struggle, the boy, too, took his last breath. With human form, now the orb sets off on his never-ending journey where he will meet many new people and have many new experiences.
Both are ultimately stories about growth as a person. However, both stories are done in a way that is atypical of your standard anime, and that is what makes them both similar and special. Things don’t turn out as you would expect or hope, and it creates a great way of drawing you in and leaving you stranded in emotional places.
Made in Abyss
The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold adventurers have descended into it. In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot, kicking off the start of her epic adventure.
Immediately noticeable is that both series have that child-like, immature sort of art style to them. They use this to undermine the mature struggles that characters in both shows will endure. They both look like childish shows, but definitely are not.
Somali and the Forest Spirit
With humanity all but extinct after severe prosecution, the world is ruled over by spirits and all manner of strange creatures. One day, a golem that serves as guardian of the forest meets a young human girl. She has no memory of her parents, but the golem decides to at least seek out other humans to return her.
If you enjoy tales of innocent characters being protected by a more realistic individual in a fantasy world, Somali and the Forest Guardian can provide. However, it does tell your more standard journey-type quest story rather than Ranking of Kings that kind of keeps you guessing on what it is doing.
Girls’ Last Tour
With all civilization dead, only Chito and Yuuri remain. Together they decide to hop on their motorbike and wander aimlessly looking for their next meal and fuel. Despite a bleak existence, they remain each other’s light in this dead world.
Both series feature a journey of discovery and growth on the part of the main characters with some interesting twists along the way. However, perhaps their most similar traits are that they are both made in a more childish art style that belies the maturity of their plots.
For Fans of Fairy Tale Vibes
Snow White With The Red Hair
Shirayuki is an herbalist that lives a normal life in the country of Tanbarun. However, when her beautiful red hair is noticed by the Prince Raji, he tries to make her his concubine. She then decides to cut her hair and flees into the forest. It is there she is rescued by the second Prince of neighboring country, Wistalia, named Zen. In order to repay her life debt to him, she sets her hopes on becoming the court herbalist in the capital of Clarines.
Both shows are strongly evocative of the fairy tales you might have heard as a child. Snow White is, however, a little more specific in that respect. What makes both shows unique is that they don’t go the way of the fairy tale stories. Things are messier and more difficult, which actually makes them amazing.
Guin Saga
The kingdom of Parros has been invaded. The king and queen have been slain, but their twin children have been spirited away by a strange device in the palace. Lost in the Roodwood, they are rescued from invading soldiers by a strange amnesiac leopard-headed man named Guin.
Both Guin Saga and Ranking of Kings follow young royals after a loss as they try to accomplish various goals. While Guin Saga is the darker and more action-based story, both it and Ranking of Kings examine situations pretty maturely.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan
The young prince Arslan is ready to prove himself on the battlefield, but on his first battle, his father is betrayed and his kingdom is conquered. With his army in shambles, Arslan is forced to go on the run in search of allies to bring him back home.
Both series follow a young prince who has just been through a traumatic upheaval in their life that lost them their position. Most similarly, they also follow princes who are more tender and kind than they are strong and smart, which endears them to many. However, Arslan tells a more political and militarily strategic story.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Ranking of Kings? Let fans know in the comments section below.
