Review of The King's Avatar
As The International 2019- the biggest event in DoTA history- slowly ended, I have a sudden urge of watching something e-sport related and luckily Quanzhi Gaoshou or The King's Avatar is the perfect one for me. Quanzhi Gaoshou is based on a Chinese serial web novel of the same title written by Butterfly Blue. It follows the story of Ye Xiu, who widely regarded as a trailblazer and top-tier professional player in the online multiplayer game Glory, a very popular MOBA game. "Battle God" is a title rewarded to him for his skill and achievement in the community. But for sponsorship problems, he gets kickedout of the team. Luckily, while wandering that night, he found a job as a supervisor at a internet cafe. As the 10th server of Glory opens, he started over again as "Grim Lord", his skills quickly caught the attentions of top guild and there, the story begins.
Even though, this anime is not about E-sport sorely but there's still showing what happens in the industry that we can look and have an understanding about. Like what they have to go through as a pro, training day to night in order to increase their skill,... Like how the old sometimes can't maintain their skills anymore and have to step down to the talented youth. That's some interesting insights that this anime done very well.
Now onto the story, Ye Xiu is a veteran player, he has played Glory for 10 years. That I can relate to since I've play DOTA for almost 10 years too. After playing for that long, it's obvious that he loves this game very much. The anime is his adventure along with his friends of finding his ways to the pro scenes again. I'm so glad I get to watch an anime about actual gamer presenting in a respectful manner. They gets treated as stars, as successful people just like those in real life. I never understand why e-sport is not a big thing in Japan like the rest of the world. Like they always have something against the gamer so they never get recognition they deserved for their hard works and sacrifices.
The great things about characters in this show is that they're adults, so most of the time, I never get annoy when watching them unlike those over-dramatic teenagers we usually see in anime. We get to see a humble dude like Ye Xiu, the best player in the history of the game, still live like he's any normal gamer. Shao Tang, a talented girl with a hunger to win.... It makes the experiences watching this anime very enjoyable.
The animation is a strong point of The King's avatars. Everything is very well animated especially the fighting scenes in the game. The character's designs are rather realistic and because this is a chinese anime so it looks rather refreshing. Though it changed alot in the ova, I don't really like the changes since I barely recognize the characters, hope they changed back in season 2. The music to me is not too spectacular, I don't like the EDM type of music they used in the fight scene, they're too loud and not encouraging. I would prefer something more traditional to be honest.
Overall, The King's avatar is something unique and worth watching. Even better, the second season is coming out right now so you can watch the continuation of the story. What are you waiting for?