Even if you don’t watch anime, watch Ranking of Kings

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Ranking of Kings It just wrapped up its first season, which means you can watch the entire show on Crunchyroll, from start to finish, without having to wait for the next episode. Reader, you should do just that!

Ranking of Kings it is a modern masterpiece. That’s not just that we get too excited in the newsletter. We’ve already named the show one of the best anime of 2022 and one of the best TV shows of 2022. As Kambole Campbell wrote, it’s “one of the sweetest and most heartwarming shows of the year.”

But what is it Ranking of Kings?

The series follows Bojji, a crown prince born unusually small and mute. Denied the throne from him due to how others perceive him, the boy is paired with a rebellious shadowy creature named Kage who serves as his bodyguard and most ardent cheerleader. Together they try to take back what is rightfully Bojji’s.

Bojji is the star, but the adventure quickly expands, giving the audience time to learn what makes each character tick. This is not a story with many simplistic heroes and villains. The result is a chopped salad with a fairytale structure, game of Thrones castle Intrigue, Lord of the Rings brotherhood, delicate domestic drama, and some of the most impressive moment-to-moment animation this side of a Ghibli film.

This week on YouTube | “Actor Ben Schwartz, star of Sonic the Hedgehog, made us a promise: if sonic 2 If I got the green light, I’d go back to our studio and do another quick interview with Polygon’s Patrick Gill. Well, things didn’t go as planned. But sonic the hedgehog 2 comes out April 8, 2022, and a Ben Schwartz facsimile HAS ARRIVED… to cross swords with his greatest rival once again.”

Four stories to read

Image: A24

Porn is making a comeback in multiplexes, in clever and provocative ways. | “In a cinematic landscape defined by its utter lack of eroticism, movies like Ti West’s new horror flick X They’re using sex, and specifically, movies set in and around the world of porn, to tease audiences and grab attention, while possibly bringing some erotic heat back to frigid multiplexes.”

The behind-the-scenes story of Paul McCartney’s work on Destiny | The corporate intrigue behind the Destiny score is more fascinating than the original Destiny story. You know things are going wrong when getting Sir Paul McCartney on board is the easy part.

Horizon Forbidden West pretends to be post-racial, but it’s not | The distant future of the Horizon Zero Dawn series is supposed to be “post-racial”. That hasn’t stopped racist tropes from popping up all over your world.

Our Flag Means Death fan art is out of this world | The growing mountains of fan art will have to satiate us until the show’s second season.

four things to see

Image: Marvel Studios

moon knight on DisneyPlus | moon knight It could be one of the most interesting TV shows in the MCU… but it’s hard to feel anything after its first episode. That said, creators have a lot of interesting directions to go with the source material. wonder gave moon knightThe friend of God Khonshu has its roots in the actual Egyptian myth. And the Moon Knight character has morphed in interesting ways over the decades of comics.

Baahubali: the beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion on netflix | RRR it’s one of the most exciting action movies in years, but it’s only being shown in limited releases. However, you can watch the director’s earlier epic (spread in two parts) on Netflix right now.

Morbius On cinemas | The Morbius movie wants what Venom has. We recommend this long overdue movie only to the most dedicated fans of the Spidey universe.

Also, everything new in streaming: death on the nile, sing 2from netflix The bubbleand more!

Three games to play

Image: Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Death Stranding Director’s Cut | The best version of Hideo Kojima’s most divisive game has finally arrived on PC. The Director’s Cut made Polygon’s Mike Mahardy a believer when it launched on PlayStation 4 last fall. “Some art, in time, will transform along with us,” Mahardy wrote. “Some art will calmly, even stubbornly, wait for us to return with a new perspective. death strandingby my estimation, he’s done a bit of both.” Available on Windows PC and PS4.

Patrick’s Parabox | This puzzle game contains crowds. The goal is to solve puzzles by swapping boxes within boxes within boxes of boxes. Recursive design has already earned this game the Independent Games Festival Award for Design Excellence and Developers Choice from IndieCade. Available on Windows PC, MacOS, SteamOS.

norco | We’ve been working on this fantastic narrative adventure and will post our thoughts next week, so don’t be surprised if this shows up again in a future edition of the Patch Notes. In the meantime, we think you should check it out! Available on Windows PC and MacOS.

free game of the week

Image: Games Arboretum

the black iris | PC Gamer’s Andy Kelly endorsed this puzzling sci-fi excursion. Here’s how he succinctly describes the premise in his review: “Somewhere in rural Scotland in the 1980s, a secret research facility is overwhelmed by an unknowable, cosmic horror called the Black Iris. Some of the scientists begin to worship this powerful entity and establish a strange religion around it, leading to the facility being mysteriously abandoned. This is the brilliantly creepy premise of The Black Iris, a mind-blowing horror game from indie developer Jamie Ferguson.” Available in hotness.io.

the best of the rest

Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon