Review of The King's Avatar
A magician does a trick for you and when you don't know how it works, it is super intriguing. But if he explains how it works, it is usually a lot less amazing. It might even be that when you know how it works, you feel like he is more a con-man/fake than an actual magician. The protagonist in this Anime is a bit of a magician. Although he doesn't boast much, he always smirks like he knows more than he shows or says. And when he does something, we only know that it's amazing and out of the ordinary, because the side characters tell usit is. And this is only because they don't explain much about the game itself. We just have to wait until the MC does the nice "trick". I noticed after a while that I was mostly surprised by his "tricks", because I could not see them coming. But I did not see it coming, because I was not given the tools and info to figure it out.
In 1929 Roland Knox codified the rules for most of the classic detective stories. This became known as "Knox's Decalogue" or "Knox's Ten Commandments". Basically they were rules to make a good detective story, because if you followed them, people would always have the opportunity to solve the mystery, WITHOUT the nowadays called "plot-conveniences". If it was done correctly, you could even read it again and notice the clues and sometimes you could solve the mystery before the main character explained it! And I know you are probably bored right now, so let's tie this in with our Anime:
I enjoyed myself very much while watching Quanzhi Gaoshou (season 1)(although the pretty graphic certainly helped of course), but I couldn't help but feel that the MC, around whom the entire Anime evolves, was kind of a con-man. That he wasn't as good as they said he was. I felt that way, because the Anime didn't show me proof of anything. How would one do that in an Anime, you say? Well, give the viewers all the tools and info to let them discover for themselves that the MC is very smart and show them that he figured shit out before we do! Like in the detective rules; don't just let a random unknown character be the reason for entire plot-twists. Don't tell the viewer that something is the solution/truth of a mystery "magic-trick"(like a powerful move or a special weapon) , show them what they need to see and let them figure it out, help them understand... or at least... give some lead-up to it. Explaining how the game works would help! Don't assume we will just assume that that's how the game works.
I did not however say I dropped it, nor did I say I even dislike it. It was certainly amusing and the action-scenes, flashy art and animations were a pleasure to watch. I think apart from the art and animation(which is obviously not that hard to achieve with the amount of sponsorship openly visible), the comedy might have been one of the best things about it. I feel that might be due to that the character interaction felt really smooth most of the time. The premise is pretty unique. We already have plenty versions of gaming themed Anime, but this is pretty much the first Anime about gaming from a professional standpoint. I just wish that they put more effort into the earlier mentioned flaws.
- - TL;DR / Conclusion - -
If you can suspend your disbelieve in a show that does not explain or give lead-up to actions by the Main Character to proof how bad-ass and good he is in the game... I suspect you will have a good time watching this show. If you have a soft spot for flashy/pretty graphics/animation... you might have a great time too.
Have fun watching everyone!
[Source for "Knox's Ten Commandments/Decalogue": search "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" on Wikipedia.]