[Story: 2/10 , Characters: 2/10, Art: 8/10, Sound: 5/10, Enjoyment: 4/10]
Quan Zhi Gaou Shoul or The King's Avatar hypes itself up as this hardcore e-sports anime that will have fans of online multiplayer games watching just to get a glimpse of the life of an e-sports player. However, does it really deliver at the end? Not really. Not even close to it at all. Though this anime is based on the award winning Chinese LN written by Butterfly Blue, the adaptors really let the author down. Just read on and you will know why.
The premise of the story is interesting. Ye Xie (Battle God) was once a pro in Glory but now no longer in form so he is conned and forced to retire. How will he climb his way back? Sounds interesting right? Well, it wasn't. The story just moves along linearly with him creating a smurf account and playing against noobs in this internet café he works at. Every now and then you will see him carry out raids and beat the high score because he is smurfing. It's not really surprising is it? Of course he will beat noobs, he is smurfing. Eventually pros figure out this person is a smurf and all gang up to take him down. Hype it up as much as you want but after a few fights, the repetition in the attacks and strategy just made the fights mundane. Honestly, there really wasn't any complexity with the plot and it was too simple to even have plot holes. So overall, meh.
If the story didn't fail the viewers, the characters did since they barely stood out. Besides the all mighty MC and the guy who talks too much, everyone else seemed like placeholders. They just existed because they needed to be. They didn't have any purpose. They were just glorified pawns for the MC to obliterate and look cool doing it. Massive credits should be given to the seiyuus in this show. They really tried but a lack of substantial plot foiled their efforts.
The best thing about this anime was its animation. Though this anime is created by a Chinese studio the animation was on par with studios like Ufotable and Wit Studio. Outstanding work with their cinematography, world building and fight sequence animations. It was crisp, detailed and the CGI blended really well. The OST and the OP/ED were good as well. It fit the anime and gave it a soul that the story lacked.
Overall, the anime just didn't live up to the hype it portrayed in its trailer. It was fun to watch the fight sequences and some form of intelligence the pros displayed. However, you can only watch so many episodes of a smurf player manhandling noobs in a game. The characters became stale and story became too linear to the point where viewers might just want it to end. Who knows, knowing a second season is declared to come out maybe they will fix the obvious flaws. One can only hope. Anyways, give it a watch and let me know later how you like it.
P.S. Thank you for reading. I hope you found this short and supaishi review helpful!
