Review of The King's Avatar

Sword Art Online: The Chinese Years LA had been REALLY skeptical with China getting into the fray with anime, with such anime like Bloodivores, but this anime by all means gave LA a bit of leverage in showing that China can produce anime AND well at that. Quanzhi Gaoshou though LA joked that it's like Sword Art Online, well not really, it's not even looking at the daily lives of e-sports which gave itself off in the first episode. No this follows an e-sports player by the name of Ye Xiu voiced by Zhang Jie who is to retire, be it from his manager...he does BUThe gathers a rag tag random players in a new server and to hone their skills BUT to also troll the professional teams he retired from.

So that's the setting and on the outset, it is intriguing, let alone an anime that actually looks at MMORPG both in PVP and PVE as well as the professional circuit of such an MMO. Quanzhi Gaoshou does come with a few caveats, good and bad though.

So let's get to that.

On the good, well it's mainly towards the characters, be it protagonists, allies or antagonists and how they work in the MMO of "Glory". Ye Xiu the main protagonist is the trolling retired pro player but he has this stoic charm to him and sometimes his goals is disguised very well before the antagonists realized..."that they f***ed up". Next is Tang Rou voiced by Qiao Shiyu who is an aggressive gamer and loves competitions and because of Ye Xiu beating her, she begins playing the game and is something of a newbie look into the game and to be honest was LA's favourite character in the anime because of it. Su Mucheng voiced by Tong Xinzhu is a pro player like Ye Xiu and is something of a childhood friend as they both started playing Glory during beta and inadvertently is the reason why Ye Xiu retired (not maliciously of course) and she's might as well be the Asuna to Ye Xiu's Kirito, she however becomes a satellite character for a good chunk of the anime. The antagonists are the expected assholes and narcissistic players wanting to get an edge on Ye Xiu and will try to destroy him, such like Liu Hao voiced by Zhao Yi being the worst of it, while Wang Jiexi voiced by Wei Chao just wants to know whats up with Ye Xiu's latest avatar. he thing is alot of the professional teams underlings becomes students to Ye Xiu so they can get better in the game EVEN THOUGH THEIR PRO'S!. As much as the characters "development" are mainly focused on the character's players avatar and bettering themselves in the game, it's still development, be it from Tang Rou's being the newbie but even rivaling a pro in APM, just her needing to hone her timing and skills to Huang Shaotian voiced by Ye Qing being a very good player as the "Sword Saint" but he's an annoying trash talker and Qiao Yifan voiced by Su Shangqing a reserve player using an assassin class but Ye Xiu gives him advice in thinking of changing his class to better help his playstyle.

Quanzhi Gaoshou does make some good focus on the game as the game is really where the anime is set in (as well as the internet cafe Ye Xiu works at but same difference) and as a result the game does make it feel like an MMORPG with both PVP and PVE elements to it, sure the slang of MMO's are there and thrown out there but aside from Ye Xiu's OP combos yeah the game makes it look like an MMO in anime form.

And the bad, well LA mentioned it but the enjoyment of the anime mostly hinges towards how you feel about Ye Xiu and his almost superpowered ability in playing the game, yes the anime DOES try to explain it off, like his crazy godly combos as since he's an unspecialized class with his class able to do tons of combo potential but all somewhat weak, but Ye Xiu ale to pull his flaw into a strength as he uses his weak combos by chaining those combos continuously and his own self made weapon able to save his glass cannon combo-ing status at that, but yeah...if that didn't help explain it, Ye Xiu might as well as be Kirito from Sword Art Online with God Mode attached, though to counterpoint this statement, Ye Xiu though OP, he allows his teammates to function together alongside him (be it if their low level or unskilled or not) and his beliefs seems to veer to his playstyle unlike Season 1 Kirito. The only other thing is that most of the characters who has beef with Ye Xiu (mainly the professional leaders) are base "antagonist" bad, this especially from Liu Hao and Sun Xiang. Lastly is that...Quanzhi Gaoshou does feel a bit rushed in many ways, mainly in the pacing and the pacing the majority of the anime being FAST as one thing happens the another with many of the plotlines finishing in one episode that focused on one character (this excludes anything to do with Ye Xiu and his trolling of the professional team that made him retire as that's more of an ongoing plotline throughout the anime).

Now the animation done by G.CMay Animation & Film is actually quite well handled in all respects, from the decent character designs in both real life character and Glory counterparts though some of the characters designs did look similar and LA nearly mistook one character for another. The battles are nicely animated much like the pacing of the anime, is pretty fast yet fluid in all respects. Finally the backgrounding was gorgeous at times this especially inside the game and yes the battles counts. G.CMay Animation & Film did a damn fine job in the animation department and it CLEARLY shows.

So uhhh if LA listing the characters with Chinese voice actors didn't tip you off, yeah Quanzhi Gaoshou is ALL Chinese, now LA COULD complain because "it not Japanese!??!!" but LA found this to be a new experience but LA won't complain, Instead LA will say that much like LA's Elsword anime review about Korean voice acting , well the Chinese sounds alot more aggressive and the hardest thing to keep up with...is that they talk too damn fast for LA to keep up with the subtitles. But in a way makes the characters voice acting to sound..LA doesn't know.."local" as Chinese DO sound aggressive when they don't but also speak fast as hell. As such Korean voice actors seem to pander towards the kids in their "kid show" vocals, The Chinese try to sound local by being aggressive and quick in their cadences and Japanese voice acting seem to be in on the other side of the spectrum of the Koreans, being professional about it with a wide variety of cadences with some silliness here and there BUT their cadences isn't how Japanese "talk like"...this has been LA in Voice acting cadences in China, Korea and Japan and this was LA's TedTalk. But long and short of Quanzhi Gaoshou's voice cast, yeah decent, but LA can't say much as this was a new experience in watching a Chinese dub.

Quanzhi Gaoshou was something of a breathe of fresh air in Chinese anime media, as LA been watching bad, sometimes nonsensical animes from them *cough* Bloodivores *cough*, yes Ye Xiu as a character is the clutch on whether you're gonna like the anime due to his OP powers and almost always winning along with the overall fast pacing and LA's hardest thing to get used to..the Chinese audio BUT even then, Quanzhi Gaoshou was a nice take on an MMORPG anime but blending both PVP and PVE and given focus on it through it's character players as well as a glimpse into the e-sports in the eyes of China's MMORPG fans, not to mention how the anime likes to develop it's minor characters oddly enough and Quanzhi Gaoshou was quite the fast yet decent ride with a few bumps here and there but still made it all the way to the finish line without LA getting annoyed.

Onwards to Glory's summit Ye Xiu!.....through his trolling!