Ranking of Kings finally explained more about Miranjo’s past in episode 18, and the tragic story of the Houma Kingdom also told us how Bosse got involved. The episode began with the king talking with Bebin, saying all the people surrounding have been kind, and that Miranjo is the person he holds most dear. In the past, he traveled to the Houma Kingdom to fight mages in his quest to become stronger. After he took the life of Miranjo’s father, her mother saved his life. He talks of her kindness, and the reason he stayed in the kingdom was to watch Miranjo grow up.
The kingdom where people could use magic, something only the gods used, was one of prosperity and kindness. They learned that the gods were enslaving kingdoms one by one, and so they stood up to them and tried to stop it. Bosse also joined, but the fight became more difficult as time went by, and so they decided to join forces with the Gyakuza Kingdom. This kingdom was the complete opposite of Houma, and the people in Gyakuza were pretty much all textbook villains. They’d learned to do anything it takes to survive, and they abused the goodwill of the friendly kingdom to improve their own lives while not giving anything back.
We saw that Miranjo’s mother was the doctor at their village, where people tricked her to get her money and where no one seemed to actually care for others. This is a nice parallel to Hiling, who also tends to show kindness regardless of what happened previously. In the very same episode, we saw her heal Apeas despite knowing he might betray her again. Yet another person we saw do this is Bojji, who already reminded Miranjo of her mother in the last episode due to his desire to protect everyone no matter how hard it might seem.
Her mother believed in the people of Gyakuza, and Bosse explains how she didn’t realize her efforts were futile until the very end. When the fighting with the gods seemed lost, the Gyakuza Kingdom betrayed Houma and sided with them. They came to Miranjo’s house, killed her mother and went after Miranjo herself. While we didn’t see what happened here, we already know they removed her skin and cut off her hands so she couldn’t fight back since it was shown back in the first cour.
This explains a little about Miranjo’s motivation, but it seems like she might still be able to go back to being kind and respect her mother’s teaching. She might have to show it soon to help Bojji, who fought hard to protect everyone before having to see Desha get stabbed in front of him. That also brought upon another question – what was the flashback Desha got with Ouken? Did Ouken somehow really reach out to his brother and tell him to focus on saving others before him (we already saw that Desha and Despa have a telepathic way of communicating, which means Ouken might also be able to do something similar) or was it just his brain playing a trick on him? Either way, we also saw Ouken’s face, and he’s clearly not in his right mind.
Episode 18 of Ranking of Kings ended on a cliffhanger with Kage unleashing a new form, and we’ll see how it plays out this Thursday! If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to vote for it as the best of week 7!
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© SousukeTOKA, KADOKAWA / Ranking of Kings animation film partners