Chinese Title: Quanzhi Gaoshou
Related: The King’s Avatar Season 2 (TBR)
Similar: Log Horizon
No Game No Life
Watched in: Chinese
Length: 12 episodes
Positives:
- Good character designs.
- True to MMO vernacular and mannerisms.
Negatives:
- Low tension since protagonist never loses.
- Some shocking CG.
- Acting and audio placement is sub-par.
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Ye Xiu is a legend on the esports scene of the MMO game Glory. He’s a 10-year veteran, having contributed numerous guides to the game, pioneered gameplay techniques, and won several championships. However, his skills aren’t a match for the current crop and his organisation forces him to retire from the team and hand over his account.
Alone and on the street, he finds lodgings in a net café’s dusty backroom in exchange for work as a night manager, which is perfect as this gives him opportunity to hit the grind hard on Glory’s newest server. As the newly created Lord Grim, he uses his extensive knowledge and talents to achieve server first kills, soon drawing the attention of other hardcore players to the server.
If you haven’t heard or noticed already, The King’s Avatar is a Chinese anime (or “donghua”). I love MMOs and I love esports, so this is the perfect first anime for my foray into this burgeoning market.
Before I level my criticisms, I want to talk of the positives. First, the author knows his online RPGs. Unlike most isekai anime claiming to be in an MMO world, The King’s Avatar actually has the feel of a true MMO community. The social aspect is authentic from the way they talk to the rivalries that form over first dungeon kills and PvP skirmishes. I like the inclusion of competitive PvE, instead of taking the easy route of focusing only on duels. There’s good MMO humour as well, such as doing menial tasks no matter how great you are and on the overcrowding of server launches.
I also like the in game character designs. The gear looks great, though it is inaccurate for low-level armour to be so coherent, as any MMO player will tell you, but it’s understandable to make characters easily identifiable.
You will have to suspend your disbelief in how the gameplay translates to drama. The King’s Avatar places too much value on player skill at the expense of mathematical limitations found in an MMO. Because of stats, gear, and all the RPG mechanics of an MMO, skill can only get you so far. The best player in the world on a level 1 character isn’t going to solo a level 30 boss monster. The mechanics don’t allow it. It makes sense that a veteran would accomplish much on a new server, though not to such an extent. Take it as creative licencing.
Furthermore, they make a big deal about Grim’s high APM (actions per minute), which isn’t relevant to an action bar MMO since you only control one character limited by animations and cooldowns (reaction time matters more). In StarCraft, APM is of huge importance because it allows a player to micromanage every unit in their army simultaneously, while also managing economy and construction. None of that matters in an MMO. That said, it isn’t a big deal. There’s only so many ways one can “dramatise” gameplay.
Now for the real problems.
When Grim first starts on this new server, he’s just dunking on scrubs before other pros join. Sadly, they don’t bring a challenge. There is no tension after a few episodes once you realise he’s so much better than everyone else. It isn’t the Mary-Sue problem of “protagonist beats the supposedly unkillable enemy with a sneeze”. Rather, the best players aren’t on this server to challenge him. He’s like a League of Legends pro player smurfing on an alt account but still in Silver tier on his climb to Masters. It’s fine at first, but we never see it become more difficult. Some organised teams do join, though it isn’t clear how good they are meant to be – amateur is my impression. Even if later seasons escalate (I hope they do), it wouldn’t change how easy this season is and I would skip most episodes on a re-watch as a result. They should have made him someone fallen far from the throne determined to climb back up with tough opponents along the way. The first scene should have been him costing his team a tournament win.
The other notable problem is one found in Chinese cinema in general – poor overdubbing. Overdubbing happens when an actor’s dialogue isn’t clear, due to things like explosions in an action scene, which requires the actor the re-record the line in character during post-production. Most films need some overdubbing these days, though Hollywood has managed it so well that you can’t tell where it occurs. China, on the other hand, has to overdub so much of its dialogue, even in scenes that shouldn’t need it, and they do such a poor job that it’s not uncommon for voices to sound separate (and out of sync) from the actor on screen. The King’s Avatar doesn’t have it so bad, though you can see elements carry over. It has the feel of a janky production.
In all, The King’s Avatar didn’t give the greatest first impression of donghua. However, it was better than I expected and next week I’ll be looking at Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, which is shaping up to be far superior.
Art – Medium
The King’s Avatar is simultaneously beautiful and ugly. We have well-drawn characters, slick action, and dazzling atmospherics on one hand, yet we also have scenes with dozens of the worst CG characters tapping away on their CG keyboards in front of CG monitors in a CG net café. The environments are similar. We have gorgeous fantasy vistas mixed in with blocky CG building interiors.
Sound – Low
The acting isn’t quite refined to the level of Japan and the West when it comes to voice work for animation. Audio compression prevents the voices from following the characters. It’s as though you can hear the recording studio behind the screen.
Story – Low
A pro esports player forced to retire plots his return to the top on a new server for a fantasy MMO. The idea is an interesting one that could pay off in the end, but as far as this season goes, having an unbeatable protagonist makes for a tensionless story.
Overall Quality – Low
Recommendation: For MMO action fans. If you’re a fan of those numerous MMO anime, The King’s Avatar will please you. I just hope it gets more challenging. I’ll likely revisit this series in future. There is also a live action drama on the way, which looks to have more of an esports focus according to the trailer.
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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)
Positive: None
Negative: None
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