The King's Avatar - Episodes 01-06
This isn't really anime, it's made in China by an entirely Chinese production staff, but the true hidden gem of this season is The King's Avatar. (Sorry Kado, I still love you.)
The King's Avatar follows Ye Xiu, the hyped but mysterious and reclusive star player of the game Glory for the now fading Excellent Era eSports team. Quitting the team, after being replaced and demoted to a training partner, he is forced to turn over his prized account. Worse still, unable to buy the rest of his contract out, he has no option but to publicly announce his retirement from the sport; a move which locks him out of professional teams for a year and, at his age, probably ends his career. Having spent all his money helping out friends who squandered theirs and being made homeless by his decision, he takes a job as a night manager at a nearby internet cafe. (The job is under his real name, so nobody at the internet cafe is aware of his eSporting identity.) On his first night, his new boss mentions the debut of a new and upgraded Glory, encouraging him to join. This sets in motion his attempt to rebuild his entire career from the ground up.
Although mostly a fun action series, The King's Avatar is willing to push it's characterisation forward in interesting ways. Ye Xiu is arrogant, abrasive, emotionally stunted and kind of a dick, but unlike other perhaps similar shows, the show has no interest in pretending that's not the case. He's regularly smug and insensitive, especially when news of his Glory retirement is made public and several patrons at the internet cafe enter a sort of mourning. Due to the skills, techniques and weaponry developed during his past life, he's also immensely successful and often rather smug about it. However, the show manages to pitch this well tonally, ensuring that he does not come across as nasty or inflammatory.
He is also not presented as infallible or omnipotent, as many series have fallen in the trap of doing, often destroying any tension or drama in the process. The series is very clear to establish that he can be beaten and will show him relying on rivals and other players, both supporting and opposing him for in-game assistance. Unfortunately, having read some of the webnovel from which the series is adapted, his motivations and feelings are unfortunately not always as clear in the anime. Though the not very talkative nature of the character does not necessarily lend itself to this. It also has perhaps toned down some weakness from the webnovel, as he described there as looking physically ill. He is also backed up by a wide range of well written and acted supporting characters from various different teams and the internet cafe where he now works.
Visually, whilst not being likely to win any awards, The King's Avatar is very solid, often using interesting framing and techniques such as 3DCG and seemingly live action inserts to supplant it's more traditional animation. Whilst this experimentation is welcome, it is not always successful. Some perspective 3DCG shots meant to illustrate walking have looking incredibly shonky and had they run longer, they could have potentially induced motion sickness. However, others have been great including a notable shot of a character sliding underneath a vaillain. It also often relies on video gaming terminology, which might not always be the most self-explanatory for those unfamiliar with the world. Though translation notes are used to explain the most egregious and narratively important examples.
I'm really enjoying this so far, and the lack of coverage and support is disappointing but understandable. Unfortunately, despite probably being the best Chinese animated production thus far, no major anime streaming service has acquired this series. It is however legally available to stream with English subtitles from
Tencent Video's YouTube channel. It would be an enormous shame for such a show to go so unnoticed, and I hope it will eventually be picked up on by more mainstream sites.
I know Aiz is a very quiet character but good god, the content is there to develop her character..use it.
