9: Ruler's Crown

The scene: Shiromitsugawa, a run-of-the-mill college town that has launched several failed attempts to drum up tourism and revitalize itself, including sponsoring a high-budget-but-poorly-written anime based on local folklore. A storm is about to descend on this sleepy town.

We follow Kakeru Niimi, a man who can be a bit curt at times but who has a strong sense of responsibility and a kind heart. Kakeru's ordinary life is thrown into chaos after the local shrine's sacred relic shatters. In the wake of this event, several young men and women awaken to superhuman abilities.

What was once a run-of-the-mill life in a run-of-the-mill town soon turns into a quest to track down a super-powered serial killer before they can strike again.

(Source: Sekai Project)

Niimi, Sora Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Yuuki, Noa Main

Fujita, Akane Japanese

Kujou, Miyako Main

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Kousaka, Haruka Main

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Niimi, Kakeru Main

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Takamine, Renya Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Fukazawa, Yoichi Supporting

Yamamoto, Kazutomi Japanese

Ghost Supporting

Takamori, Natsumi Japanese

Sophitia Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Naruse, Satsuki Supporting

Takeda, Hana Japanese

Fukura, Kei Producer

Kondou, Maki Producer, Planning

Fukuba, Kazuyoshi Producer

Nakagawa, Shinobu Producer

Reviews

Jul 24, 2025

Palad1um

Recommended

Preliminary (4/13 eps)

I will preface this for anyone who hasn't read the Visual Novel (VN) series:
[WARNING: DON'T WATCH THE OP AS IT CONTAINS A HUGE SPOILER]

I read the VN series and really enjoyed the way the linear, non-linear story plays out.
If you like a solid mystery, that picks up the pace and turns into a thriller by the end of it with a great payoff, this has the potential to tick those boxes, while providing a great cast of characters and decent animation quality.

Only 13 episodes is a tight timeline, but I've been impressed so far by how they've managed to fit the important story points in ... without diverting from the original intent of the characters and their development as of Episode 4.

With the current pacing and setup along with clever use of the way each of the 4 VNs share a common beginning, and intertwining events unique to each characters route to be happening simultaneously I can see this anime succeeding as an adaptation in the same vein as an Anthology movie.

So far, this has been different to an adaptation like the first half of Rewrite, where 9 -Nine- has kept the story changes and original timeline to a minimum which really benefits this story as it is fundamentally a straight line with a single playing/reading order.

The voice cast is absolutely stellar, with Sora's VA in particular giving one of the most memorable character performances I know in the VN, so I'm looking forward to hearing her really let loose when Sora has some more screen time.

If done well, each of the heroines has a great character arc, with a buildup and payoff that chips away at the mystery of the Evil Eye User. This mystery and payoff is potentially ruined by the opening animation, and as such I would highly recommend to not watch it until the later episodes, despite the catchy theme and otherwise well curated animation.

Overall, I highly recommend this anime to anyone who enjoys a mystery, with a fun cast of characters and a pretty huge payoff in the end.

But this all depends pretty heavily on how the adaptation is handled, so I will update this review disappointed and bemoaning what could have been, or triumphantly gloating about the success of a solid visual novel adaptation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 26, 2025

Squeekencats

Not Recommended

Preliminary (5/13 eps)

I was really excited to watch this because the story of the visual novels is quite good and has a nice gimmick.

I highly recommend to play the visual novels instead of watching this anime. It does a better job at setting up the characters and the mystery compared to the anime as of episode 5. Admittely I am biased, because I played the visual novels first and loved the story and characters.

Episode 1 was fine but episode 2 and 3
pacing was terrible and episode 4 has little to no build up.
Episode 5 has the same pacing issues and a noticeable drop in animates ... in quality.

The only good things about the anime are that it has the same VAs as the visual novels and the designs of the main characters translate well in the anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: 9: Ruler's Crown Episode 6 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 2	9 replies	by Greninja_170 »» Today, 7:43 AM
	Poll: 9: Ruler's Crown Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 26	8 replies	by Safuan12616 »» Jul 30, 3:33 AM
	Poll: 9: Ruler's Crown Episode 4 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 19	13 replies	by Tennouji »» Jul 28, 7:51 AM
	Poll: 9: Ruler's Crown Episode 1 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 5	32 replies	by FranqitoH »» Jul 26, 6:40 PM
	Poll: 9: Ruler's Crown Episode 3 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 12	14 replies	by FarCritical »» Jul 24, 4:54 AM