My Initial Thoughts on 'The King's Avatar,' and The Continued Annoyance Towards Netflix

I was browsing through the latest releases in preparation for the next season of anime. Naturally, as a result, I perused the listings on MAL and livechart for the shows to come. Within the fall line up I saw that the second season of The King's Avatar is scheduled to come out. Granted, it has been delayed multiple times already and that was no surprise. I then go on to Netflix, because why would they put out a release schedule, and if they do put one out, I am yet to find it. No, I do not consider their irregular tweet every six months on their high profile line up, a schedule.

I was browsing through the various anime on offer on Netflix, and on one page I scrolled through to the related shows 'til something caught my eye, a Chinese drama. The title was The King's Avatar. This live action telling of the story has been something I have been looking forward to for three years. If not three, very nearly three. I loved the first season of the anime, I loved the four part OVA that came out following it, and I love the web novel by Butterfly Blue, of which I am over the 1,200 mark in terms of chapters read. In short, I am a huge fan of the story, the characters, and the setting.

The reason why I wrote two paragraphs before getting to the point is because I am reaching the breaking point towards Netflix, and their refusal to put out a proper schedule. A website with a country to select accompanied by a list of upcoming content is all that is needed, along with a selection of tags so that you can customize the list to each person's preference. Then we can get an idea as to what is coming out when, and we can keep track of the release so that we not constantly taken by surprise when a show you have been looking forward to watching for years has already been dropped on the site months ago. It feels like they are actually allergic to letting people know what is coming to the site, which is a real shame because I really like Netflix as a service, its ease of use, what they have on offer, and the sheer amount of content that is on it. This is the third time this year I have gone off ranting about the dismal standard to which they let people know what is on offer, and I suspect this will not be the last time.

Now then, the actual show.

In short, despite only being five episodes into things at the time of this writing, five forty minute long episodes I watched in a single day after I found it, which is rare for me, I find myself really enjoying myself. The first thing that stood out to me is just how beautiful the show looks. Whenever we are shown a shot of the cityscape, whether it be during the day or during the night, I find myself in awe at the sheer beauty of the city. The night segments in particular has me wishing I lived in that city.

Beyond that, there is a very clean look to the show, as if everything is a stage, it feels antiseptic in a lot of ways, pristine, as if nothing of where the characters are has ever been used before. Every scene with the characters are brightly lit with not a shadow in place, and this look further emphasises the television feel of the show. Finally, there is so much white in every scene, from the walls to the furniture. What this does is that when there is colour in the scene it stands out that much more, and this makes the shot interesting to look at.

There are two aspects to the show, the live action segment, and the 3D segment that takes place in the game. The 3D segments look as if there were actual graphics from inside a game that would come out today, and I mean a current day AAA game. The fact that this is a MMORPG, with this standard of graphical detail, gameplay, and fidelity makes me think that this is taking place several years in the future when servers are able to handle the quality of the game and the simultaneous player count. Moving on to the actual HUD of the game, it is quite typical of an MMORPG in my experience playing them, it is well laid out and is quite familiar for even single player game players to understand.

Now would I actually play the game? No. There are two reasons why, the first being I am not a fan of MMORPG's, and I have tried a few. The second is that if the game plays as it is shown to be playing on the screens of the characters, I would get so annoyed I would flip the table. The reason is because there are so many instances where the camera moves to different angles in rapid succession, this would make orientation an absolute impossibility, your environmental awareness would be all over the place and the fact that is switches from first person to third person at the flip of a coin would only infuriate me further.

Granted, this is a TV show and so there needs to be something exciting going on on the players screens so I can let it slide. Unlike the abomination that is Sword Art Online. One last thing regarding the game is that we are shown the mechanics of the players, and how fast they move their hands while playing the game. For the type of game they are playing, while reactions and precise hand movement is important, it is usually not to the ridiculous degree that is depicted in the show. If you pay attention, there are times when it seems as if the actors are simply button mashing around the WASD as opposed to actually playing. Once again, something I am willing to let slide as these segments of intense movement are enjoyable to watch.

Moving on to the gamer aesthetic of the show, it is pretty obvious that HP, and Samsung must have spent a pretty penny when it comes to product placement. Throughout Happy internet cafe, there are only HP monitors, and HP Omens as far as the eye could see. It is understandable why, when running an internet cafe it is best to buy in bulk, and to have standard specs so that the rigs are all consistent. It still stood out like a sore thumb which is why I mention it here.

That being said, some of the gaming rigs, gaming rooms, gaming paraphernalia, and the sheer amount of RGB present in every episode is a sight to behold. There are so many references in the show to the likes of Overwatch, Final Fantasy, and even Star Wars Battlefront. What's even more exciting to see is that Excellent Era's main building looks like a gaming hotel. The IHotel in Taiwan to be specific, complete with a room for the athletes and a capsule bed. As far as the gaming aesthetic goes, it is hard to say that they missed the mark in this show.

When it comes to the Esports event itself the stadiums and the projection technology depicted is a sight to behold. It shows an accurate representation of the scale of Esports and how it is growing. For instance when League of Legends hosted it's final at Wembley Stadium in London, the tickets were sold out. As far as the projection technology is concerned, we are not too far off, considering we have already had live performances on stage from Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid. What is quite incredible about the show is how it gets the setting of Esports, and the technology that is available accurate to the technology available today and where it is logically heading towards.

We have talked a lot about the look of the show and how well it acts as a depiction of gaming and Esports culture. So let's talk about the actual story itself. For the most part it follows the narrative of the original web novel, with some adaptation taking place. As far as the contents of the first episode goes, the events taking place are elongated quite a bit. In fact this could be said of all five episodes so far. There are also plot points, and characters that were introduced far later in the narrative being introduced at the start without wasting any time. As a result there is a lot of flashbacks involved, and while it is nice to have context to things, ultimately I do feel as if the flow of the narrative almost always comes to a screeching halt when the flashbacks start, even if they are adorable.

The show also makes interesting changes towards Tao Xuan, and Sun Xiang. While in the original web novel and the anime, they are depicted in a very selfish and arrogant manner at the start, the live action show brings them a certain level of depth that was reserved to the mid part of the narrative in the web novel. This I found was a welcome change as it made them seem like people as opposed to moustache twirling villains. The relationship between Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng is downright adorable, while that of Ye Xiu and Chen Guo is hilarious due to their comedic dynamic.

Something that I like the show for doing is taking its time with the pace of the story, not so much to the point that it feels as if it is travelling at a snail's pace, thankfully. While it does take its time, it does not feel as if it is for no reason at all, instead it feels as if we are getting to know these characters, their personalities, and their relationships to each other that much better. One of my favourites so far has to be Tang Rou by default, because it is Tang Rou, and surprisingly Blue River from Blue Brook Guild, who is a delight to watch whenever he is on screen and interacting with the rest of his team.

While I love this incarnation of Ye Xiu, I must say one small gripe I have with this version, and by small I really do mean small, it is that he does not smoke. Granted, it is a good message to have, however having read as much as I have of The King’s Avatar, it feels like an integral part of the character, and the fact that he does not smoke now makes him feel like he is in fact someone else.

There are instances when the show becomes almost slap stick in its approach to character interactions, which, from the films and shows that I have watched from China is a staple, though at no point does it become distracting. In an odd way it seems to fit well with the show as a whole. The show is able to shift gears when it needs to, and does so in a very efficient manner. It is humorous when it needs to be, it is dramatic when it needs to be, and it is emotional when it needs to be.

As far as the first five episodes are concerned it feels as if the show is incredibly earnest about the way they are presenting themselves, and it is an earnestness that I find captivating to watch and enjoy quite a bit. I was actually surprised to find just how excited I was during the show, especially when they were introducing characters that I loved such as Huang Shaotian, and when the leaders of the three big guilds were bickering amongst themselves during the first boss battle.

As far as the first five episodes are concerned I find myself thoroughly entertained, and I am looking forward to finishing the rest of the series.