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Ranking of Kings Anime's Promo Video Previews 1st Episode

The official website and Twitter account for the television anime of Sōsuke Tōka's Ranking of Kings (Ōsama Ranking) manga began streaming on Friday a promotional video for the first episode.

The web manga centers around Bojji, a deaf, powerless prince who cannot even wield a children's sword. As the firstborn son, he strives hard and dreams of becoming the world's greatest king. However, people mutter about him behind his back as "a good-for-nothing prince" and "no way he can be king."

Bojji is able to make his first ever friend, "Kage" (shadow) — a literal shadow on the ground who somehow understands Bojji well. (Kage is a survivor of the Kage assassin clan that was all but wiped out. No longer a killer, Kage now makes ends meet by stealing.) The story follows Bojji's coming-of-age as he meets various people in his life, starting with his fateful encounter with Kage.

Minami Hinata plays the protagonist Bojji, and Ayumu Murase plays Kage, a shadow that becomes Bojji's friend.

The other cast members include:

• Yuuki Kaji as Daida, Bojji's half-brother
• Rina Satou as Hilling, Daida's mother
• Takuya Eguchi as Domas, Bojji's swordmaster
• Yōji Ueda as Bebin, Daida's swordmaster
• Hiroki Yasumoto as Apis, "the king's spear" and loyal man-at-arms
• Hinata Tadokoro as Drusi, Hilling's bodyguard and shieldbearer
• Daiki Yamashita as Hokuro, a footman that looks up to Bojji
• Kenta Miyake as Boss, the ruler of the Boss Kingdom, and Bojji and Daida's father
• Takako Honda as Shiina, Bojji's late mother and the former queen
• Maaya Sakamoto as the Magic Mirror who secretly advises Daida
• Yoshimitsu Shimoyama as Death-har, the king of the afterlife
• Takahiro Sakurai as Death-par, Death-har's little brother

The series will premiere on October 14 at 12:55 a.m. (effectively, October 15) in Fuji TV's noitaminA timeslot. The anime will also air on the network's affiliated stations. It will stream in Japan on Amazon Prime Video, one hour after it airs on television, before streaming on other services. The anime will run for two continuous cours (quarters of the year).

Funimation will begin streaming the anime with English subtitles on October 15, and it will also stream an English dub.

Yousuke Hatta (One Punch Man episode director, Boogiepop and Others assistant director) is directing the anime at WIT Studio, with Arifumi Imai as assistant director. Taku Kishimoto (91 Days, Fruits Basket 2019, Moriarty the Patriot) is in charge of the series scripts. Atsuko Nozaki (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky) is designing the characters, while Masaki Kawake is the sub-character designer. Both are credited as chief animation directors. Makoto Fuchigami is the chief line director. Masaru Oshiro, Shin Ogasawara, and Nozomu Fujii are the main animators. MAYUKO is composing the music.

Yūji Kaneko is the art director, while Kazushi Fujii is handling the art setting. Ken Hashimoto is the color key artist. Kazuto Izumita and Noriyuki Ueda are both compositing directors of photography. Kiyoshi Hirose is editing. Yasunori Ebina is the audio director, while Yasunori Ogata is handling sound effects. Maiko Okada is credited as animation producer.

The band King Gnu (first Banana Fish ending) are performing the opening theme song "BOY." Yama performs the ending theme song "Oz."

Tōka has been serializing the manga on the user-submitted manga website Manga Hack and other venues since May 2017. Kadokawa published the 11th compiled book volume on August 12. The manga's circulation has reached over 1.3 million copies.

Sources: Ranking of Kings anime's website and Twitter account, Comic Natalie