User Reviews

This series is really one of a kind, no love lines, no violence or fantasy elements, just telling ordinary stories of ordinary people, but the message is delivered in such a powerful and dedicated way. Cinematography is surprisingly good. Stunning CG. Fresh and lively cast acting.

As a reader of the original novel (still in the process of watching the Anime & Donghua) I must start by saying there were parts of this film that I found pretty off-putting. For example, I was disgruntled that Liu Hao (such a key antagonist, IMO) was written out of the story. And don't even get me started on Chen Guo's character! I deducted a whole star just because of her. :( Don't get me wrong, the actress who played her was fine, but I hated the fact that her personality was made so weirdly clingy and airheaded. It was impossible to relate her to the original Chen Guo at all. I also thought the interior of Happy Internet Cafe was completely unrealistic (honestly, who could game properly with all that ambient light glaring off the screens?)

That being said, if I had watched this series before reading the novel, I probably would have loved it. Even with all my nit-picks, it was still great. The cast, script, CG and soundtrack were pretty darn near perfect. Even the added content was surprisingly solid. For example, the flashbacks with Muqiu, and those little philosophical object lessons Ye Xiu used to explain things to people. And I was grateful that the added/altered parts with Ye Xiu's family brought some much needed emotional depth and humanity to the story and Ye Xiu himself (the novel really didn't provide much character development for him as a person).

I will also say that I'm SO glad the writers didn't try to add any romance, and kept the interpersonal dynamics ambiguous, just like in the book. I really hope they'll make a season 2, because there's still tons of story left. I would absolutely watch it in an instant!

I got completly addicted to it over summer. Now I'm watching it again (more slowly) on netflix. Netflix subs are better than those from WeTV. Not radically different (maybe they reviewed the originals?) But better.

I've recomended this tv series to anyone I thought could like it. Now that is in a well known platform even more.

This particular TV series has done total justice to the anime. Loved the cast acting and cinematography of the series. The series story is little different from the anime/web-novel but it's not totally off. Some cases have been re-written so that its easier to create.

The series use UE4 to demonstrate real-time, full-body motion capture, and get realistic facial expressions by 3D scan in real time. which is better to show the game world. Almost 3A games could not achieve it. It includes more than 300 minutes CG in the total series. It is more creative and amazing than I imagine.

Completely stunned by the gaming scenes! Some of the best mocap combined with CG rendering. In my view even better than some Hollywood productions. The story is fascinating and extremely well told, completed by equally amazing editing and background music. The crown jewel is hands down the lead actor Yang Yang, who convincingly starred the once-famous esports player and effortlessly portrayed his inspiring comeback story. And his face, oh his face! A young Cruise/Reeves!

Online gaming competition, by far, is my favorite genre. Combine that with Yang Yang's excetional performance and you have an absolutely fabulous series! Outstanding video graphics, fantastic world building, and wonderful narrative! Brilliant!

The upside and downside of this series is that it is 40 episodes. Anything of that length is likely to have its ups and downs. King's Avatar is no exception. To its credit-- and the reason I give it 9 stars instead of 8-- is that the large percentage of its episodes are very good, with lesser episodes countable on one hand. Even the poorest of its episodes are still pretty good.

In this case, the downsides first: First the #1 peeve: English captioning. The worst part of the series is the English captioning, which is very poorly done. The captioning is tied to actual spoken timing rather than readabiity, which doesn't give viewers near enough time to read what is said. Very often the captions merely flash on and off the screen. I found myself constantly keeping my finger on the pause button and was regularly forced to rewind just to see what the blazes they just said. Not the worst captioning I've ever seen, but pretty close to it. I didn't discount the series because of it, but if I did I'd have given this 4 stars based on that alone. The captioning is that bad.

Reviewing the show itself: At times it can be a bit slow and emo-bound. On rare occasions the plot leaves the viewer wondering what just happened. Although strings are mostly tied up and revealed later on, sometimes the timing is poor, creating a weak story line. This was rare, but confusing when it happened. (No details on that: spoilers.) For the most part though, the story held together.

On the plus side: just about everything. Excellent sets, interesting characters without cliche, and top-notch game-emulation animation. They did go a bit overboard sometimes in that area, putting player emotions into the game character's actions (such as the game character sighing when the player was unhappy) but we can cut them some slack for dramatic license.

The general plot and story was interesting, if perhaps a little sappy toward the end. The series retains its momentum. One thing I did like about it is that the featured game team was not invincible; as would be the case in real life, they had their wins and losses. That bit of realism added to the show. People sometimes complain about the "unbeatable heroes". No worry on that score here.

The individual characters, acquired on the team person-by-person, gave viewers time to become acquainted with each and to be involved in their singular stories and personalities. We could feel the concept of team-building and the difficulty in overcoming obstacles... as well as individuals making blundering mistakes. This kept the viewer a bit off-balance so we didn't take anything for granted... and added to the drama.

It wasn't a perfect presentation; thus the general ratings of 8-9 stars. But for a series of this magnitude and length, 8 to 9 stars is a sure win. I binge-watched the whole thing on Netflix in just a few days, and pretty much enjoyed the whole thing.

I would have enjoyed seeing a more imaginative ending, which is why I didn't give it 10 stars. Would have given it 8 for "needing a more creative final episode"... but it was good enough up to that point to deserve the extra credit of well-done overall.

The King's Avatar has a rather unique presentation and story line. As a bonus, it presents (or so I imagine) a decent inside look at professional eGaming, even if a bit of drama-com was thrown in. Good series, well worth watching.

Fans of the original novel, the donghua (animation) or the manhua (comic/manga) may at first be irritated with some of the changes to characters and story lines, as well as some of the deliberately skipped over bits that developed those characters.

(I know I was at first.)

HOWEVER:

After you get past that and treat it on it's own it's an engaging story and about as good an adaption as you're going to get. (Not to say it's great, but the bar has been set pretty low for live action adaptations of manga/anime) There were some obvious errors in the game side animation in competitions (3 battle mages together, but the icons on the mini-map show 2 battle mages and someone with a gun icon for example) but you can pretty much brush that off. The actors well well chosen and performed their roles well, Story wise a several events that occur later in the story were brought forward, but I am assuming that's because there may not be a 2nd season. (1st season is 40 episodes). On the actor side as I mentioned they matched actors to roles rather well, though I was personally irritated by them writing Chen Guo as a different type of personality in several parts, the actor who was playing her did well. As a westerner watching it was somewhat weird however to see many of the actors in the Live Action actually had their voices dubbed over by the voice actors of the Donghua. (Everyone's favourite mouthy Blade-Master is a good example).

Another change from the originals is the game being in a timed format. I am not sure this was a good choice as I feel it cut them off from some potential options game-side if they go further. They also over-explain some areas and just brush past others, so there are moments when you have to just take a leap of faith on what's happening.

Over-all I'd rate it a good watch, (provided you are taking it as itself, and not an adaptation of the source material) the only real downside. And it's a majour one, is that the official English subtitles are .. well .. complete crap. They are inconsistent, there are actual typos and spelling mistakes throughout. (As in a basic spell-check would have flagged them). They also read, word choice wise, like they were done by Google Translate. I am hoping they re-release it with a better calibre of subtitle. (Having a single native English speaker read through the script once, and run press F7 in word would fix 75% of it) The subtitles were obviously done by someone with English as a distant second language, and no knowledge of the gaming terminology he's translating in parts. My suggestion is either develop some thick skin when watching, wait for a re-release, or find some good fan-subs out there.

As an aside, the music is fantastic, a little over-used of the same music, but it's still beautiful. My hats off to composer/performer.

Hope this helps.

Usually Im not a fan of drama series...but i try to watch this because the anime...

And this is magnificent... its better than anime... i love the cast really bound with the character... cinematography also good...

I will do anaything to watch the 2nd season

I really wanted to like this show and I did give it six stars, but so many flaws and missed opportunities makes it disappointing. Watching any series to the end means an automatic five stars from me.

All about different people trying to come together as a team, but many of the motivations and actions don't make a lot of sense. More troubling are the strange happenings. There are booths that each team goes into when playing and yet, someone dressed in black like a ninja can spy on a player, from outside the closed booth, and wirelessly report that player's position to the opposing player? The network/server room is unlocked so someone can go into in and unplug the network? There are no video cameras in the arena, booth or server room? The captain of a team can be detained by the "esports police" just as the team is getting ready to play a match? And, the reason isn't given until the final ruling (punishment) is given?

There isn't much suspense in the gaming. I greatly enjoyed the gaming portion of Love 020, which was more about jealousy, revenge, relationships, growth, etc. than it was about the game. In this show gaming takes a bigger stage, but we can't relate as well as to a game we aren't playing as we do to human emotions. There are people who cheat, hate, seek revenge, and try to blacklist other players and teams, but not much growth or self-reflection except for the players on the main team. Overall I found the gaming boring with a few interesting moments. And, just to be clear I've been gaming on computers since the 1980s.

A side plot is the aging of gamers, which makes them old in their late 20s. Just made me laugh, seems the pain of repetitive strain is seen as an age thing, not something that can be treated or prevented.

Good stories are all about conflict and often resolution, yet artificial conflict where someone cheats and lies against you then you instantly invite them to join your team?

The main team does learn that it is easy to like each other when things are going well, but much more difficult when faced with adversity.

While I don't dislike the lack of romance, in this case it might have helped make the show less boring. The show is slightly better than your average Asian series, but not in the league of the best ones. If you like gaming, can suspend disbelief, live without romance, put up with plot holes and illogical decisions then this show is for you.

HAAAA;

A series that wants to be cool while being about esport. Things I have noticed: 1-Characters look into the distance when speaking to each other. 2-The amount of control in the game is not realistic. 3-There is one scene that made me want to write this. The protagonist wants to stop his friend from existing from the door so he presses the emergency push button to stop her from leaving the building.

Regards;

Loved this show. It captivated me from episode one! Be excited for heart pounding action!

Up to Season 2 The King's Avatar vs Internasional, cool drama

I just finished watching this on Netflix last night - I don't play online video games but this drama makes me start doing so!! I love the storyline, the cast, the graphics - everything!! But I must say that what touched me the most about this drama is the morals that it conveys to its viewers about eSports, and the passion of playing. Not to mention eventhough rivalry and competence is highly regarded in such industry, the captain and the players of each team displayed an outstanding sportsmanship to each other which makes the entirety of it fascinating!

I like the views, the gaming was really well done and it is pretty entertaining, in contrast when I see animes like one piece, for example (boring 3 month long fights) I even like how the women dress, like in the eighties.. But I don't like th m to step away from the manwha. Typical shonen (the "o" goes with a macron, but IMDb didn't want them, so I leave it at that), when there is the young protagonist that has the potential, excel to perfection, it is a good friend that lead the group to be better. It is a must watch!!!

KA has many problems, which is why I can't understand myself.

Not all viewers care about sets, but highly visual people do. KA's sets feel sanitized. There isn't a speck of dirt anywhere in 40 entire episodes. The sets either made my ❤ race from the savvy style, or I blanched at the suppressed sterility. Many of the sets have an over-exposed whiteness to them. If they were going for real-life to appear dreamlike & Glory to look more real, it would be brilliant. Let's choose the doubt's upside & deem it by design, or a breakthrough of subconscious genius. In fairness, team HQs are very🆒 & the Shanghai cityscapes are impressive, w/ stunning architecture lit in a dazzling display.

The muted voice track at times sounds like a dub over, & at others like they are talking in the bathroom. Many characters' voices are two short steps removed from toneless & emotionless.

What about 💘? No couples form? C'mon, how hilarious would it be if 🗡Shaotin made a pass at Lil🔱Tang? Forget that; nobody even seems /interested. Clearly, Glory suppresses hormones. It's almost as if these people are in 2D. Wei🔮Chen is the only male protag that displays any moxie. Lil🔱Tang is next😜. This isn't to say that characters should be snogging in every corner; it shouldn't be the centerpiece, by any means. As is, it's strange to see the Young-Beautifuls hanging out together without checking out eachother.

Maybe they're too saintly. KA has some fantastic players, thankfully. They provide a little cover for its issue w/ 😇s. The many saintly characters, including ones that grow from odious to 😇like, are a prevalent flaw. Like G. O. T. Author, GRRM, states: There's only 1 thing worth writing about, and that's the human 💔 in conflict with itself. As we need flesh-&-blood characters w/ whom to identify, there's no room for "saints" in good drama (unless it's a plot device). Please tell me it's not sending a message about the glorious collective in order to mollify the 🇨🇳 censorship machine. I hope not: Hearing the paper editor lecturing the intern reporter on remaining impartial, to only report the facts, is a little too ironic. Be that as it may, propaganda machines are 🌏 now, not just in closed off countries.

Not far removed from the above, are weird moments where Glory is portrayed religiously, & Ye🌂Qiu as its prophet. Mercifully, it's only scattered instances.

Moving on, players that had great reluctance to join the team, & other characters that were infested with hate or anger, came around too easily. In 40 episodes, they have time for more of an arc, to allow progression to unfold gradually. They could have been recruiting more than 1 at a time, for instance. This would allow space for the more difficult cases to have a credibly phased growth process.

The cast is keek, but couldn't they have a couple chubby players? (Ok. Perhaps the reporter w/ the 'Elmer The Elephant" jacket fits that. He's sorta cute, though, like a 🐼). China has a vast populace consisting of the colors of the human 🌈, yet there's only a couple token medium skin-toned actors, w/ nary a dark skin tone. In fairness(ha!), many media outlets are guilty of the above. Being beautiful & light-skinned doesn't guarantee success, but it can certainly fill in any potholes for a smoother ride. It's something that we should all be aware of & fight against in ourselves.

The most significant flaw is the soundtrack. Don't underestimate this. It almost ruins 30% of the show. Forget a sec that were talking about a whopping %, the ruined portions are the flashbacks & sentimental moments. Not only did the sound kill them, but there's waaay too many of them to begin with! Those scenes, many of which would have transformed w/ more energetic 🎵&🔊, are 😶. Their attempt to mfr emotions failed. Tragically, when KA is not snappy teammate repartee-filled interplay, or Glory drama-filled conquer mode, it's too often sentimentally simplified. Obviously, that has no place in such a show. Infused sparingly, fine, but there are too many sappy scenes w/ sappy music. Information-wise some are useful...except when they are__ DUPLICATES⁉ I started to ⏩ through them. It gets even worse at the end. Most of Ep40 is a sap fest w/ painful 🎶. Thee pain is from "over-sapuration" of sappiness. It hurts. Thankfully, the action🎵 is catchy & seamlessly bolsters gameplay.

Finally, I don't even play computer games except for the occasional trip to Freecell. So, help me out: Why do I ♥ this show so much?

🕹1st, KA is fun to watch!

Ep1-40 (45min ea) go fast. Nothing felt like useless stuffing (sans f/backs); the series usually flows. I'm shocked that I enjoyed watching an actual game as part of a show. The competitive atmosphere is exciting. It's like an anime tucked into a live-action feature.

Yes, there's stereotyping:

¤The intrepid, all-wise, near perfect leader, who can 🌂kill all day in a game, yet still have a tender disposition. {Lo, he was brought down by capitalism. He's one that's too 😇like - nobody can relate. He should be humanized a tad more. As he never brags, it's not until the last competition, once he verbalizes his analytics, that we see how brilliant, how very 1-in-a-billion, he is.}

¤🔫The cheerleader onto whom h/h idol falls.

¤🚬The struggling player who needs the right coach.

¤⤵🕳The loaner

¤The 🤓geek, who is unparalleled in analytics + he happens to be hanging out precisely where they do. It's like Little Giants; I was waiting for "The Annexation Of Puerto Rico" play. When playing, the🤓 meets Chuck🤾Bricks in a hidey-hole. He's astounded. Analytically, it's nearly impossible for anyone to find that spot! In fairness, 🤾 actually fell in. He's not the team's genius, but he excels @ being lucky.}

¤🔮The once stellar, now washed up player w/ the surly attitude & gravely voice. He's akin to a Dennis Hooper type, so he should be a heavy drinker. Esporters don't drink, though. There's a hilarious bit when they go out after a win; most of them pass out before getting a full🍺/🥃/🍹down.

¤🛐There's even a scammer, however, for them to hire him w/o more analysis is odd.

🤾 & 🔱 are not stereotypical. As is, 🔱's a bada$$ in her own way & 🤾 just runs around & makes things happen. {Speaking of bada$$↪ Let's put Youming "Yummy" GU (captain of Team🥊Tyranny) on the short must😍watch list〰 Excuse me. Where was〰〰 /am I?}

It's difficult, at this stage in 📽/📺, to come up with completely original characters for a feature. Why should that even be a 🥅? People have so many commonalities; criticism for 'replay' types isn't so damaging, really. Is the journey fresh? That's what matters.

🎮2nd. This team & their journey works.

The characters are fun, & interesting, even in their incompletely molded states. The actors are solid; it appears any "narrow range" is due to the direction. The character who is most delightful is Shaotian, the Sword🗡Saint. Now ❇here's a saint with no flaws. Every moment he's on screen is a rare joy. His blithely indefatigable trash-talking character is perfect.

Though 🚬Yifan, 🔱, Bao🤾Zi, (GO Steamed Bun Invasion‼) Mo⤵🕳Fang, and Gou🔫Gou, (and that Team🥊Tyranny hunk) are all loveable, next for me, is the great trash talker & warlock, Wei🔮Chen. (Cheerful trash-talkers are the best). His feigned boredom is another asset. They squandered good screen time: He should have come to the team sooner. KA is stingy w/ his successful exploitation of every chance to rattle opponents (as well as Ye🌂 & 🔫 😅). Heck, he should have gotten farther w/🔫, the team manager! He was getting down to it during that Team outing, but he passed out 😪 mid-sentence. That's a flaw they need to rectify in S2↪They left us wanting more. That's not always a bad thing. Still.... More, please.

They did leave plenty of room for the team to grow, & for 💗 to 🌸 (I'd take a mere glint in somebody's eye). The show screams for a S2. From what I've read, covid caused the initial delay, & the next hurdle is scheduling the actors, who are all quite busy now. (I wonder what "Yummy"🥊GU's been in lately?) Reports that Shuying Jiang, who plays 🔫, cannot reconcile her schedule, so she's being replaced in S2, are disappointing. She is likable in her role; it's not her fault that they gave her too many of those Hallmarkie scenes.

🖱3rd. Technically, KA is superb. It is said to be the only show that depicts actors as both real-life & animated (it's double the work). The graphics are nothing short of outstanding. The game Glory is real, w/ a real professional league in 🇨🇳, where it is immensely popular. So, while they may not have made up the game's graphics & rules, they incorporated all of it in a way that viewers who know nothing of Glory can still 💖 to watch. Every time they played Glory I was into that action anime within the story. Each round was always exciting & often tense.

🖲4th & final is the show's popularity. It set records for overseas markets & is rated highly by viewers, including moi.

Naturally, KA won't be for everyone. Don't retreat if you are thinking that you don't know enough about Glory to enjoy KA. That's just a backdrop. The real story is how a family forms. Some of the best 📽/📺 ever done are about people banding together & forming a family unit to face the odds together. I adopted them as family for 40 episodes, despite our differences. The fun I had watching makes me feel rewarded.

S2 would be even more rewarding...

QUOTES📢

¤ I don't think these ashes can ever be lit again

¤ Life gets easier when you're on the floor

¤Was this intentional, deliberate, or on purpose?

¤ Any skill is meaningful only when it is used at the right time. Otherwise, it will become a flaw.

¤ Isn't it satisfying to chuck bricks?

IMHO 〰🖍

▫🎬7.3 sans f/backs 🤔6 🎭7 ⚡8 🎵7 sans sap music 😅 7.5 💤6 (f/backs) 🔚 9 w/o those wretched f/backs▫

Age 12+

👁📺again? Yes✅ w/ ⏩handy

🍕

Ill give 6 at most... the thing is kings avatar actually started as a light novel<manhwa<anime<netflix. Now since this review is not netflix ... at times there there is extreme over attacking, but the main reason is the HUGE plot holes, one is worse than other. There are things missing or ignored THAT should naver have been. Plot holes in this will ur head scratching no matter what. Those plot bring this story down to straight up 6 or even 5 points. But the acting by main lead is so good.

Let me start off by saying that while I like gaming I'm not a HUGE gamer, I don't watch a lot of anime (this show has an anime version also), and I didn't read this book. In fact, I'd never heard of it until my mom of all people watched it, loved it, and told me about it.

Honestly, it's pretty darn good! I was surprised there are 40 episodes until I saw the book and how many pages it has, so much props for making this many episodes. At let me say they go fast! Aside from romance this show has it all. Happy, sad, frustrated, etc. Maybe it's because I don't speak Chinese and don't know if they're good or bad actors, but to me the acting was absolutely fantastic! Much props to the actors of Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Chen Guo, and the others, whom I loved their characters in this!

This really does deserve it's high rating in my opinion. It shows A LOT of gaming but it's sooo well done in this.

It's a cash money gamer plot, with some gamer morals but also normal good morals as well. The plot is confusing, to where you need characters to talk about the "big reveal" 3 times before you feel like they themselves actually know about the big reveal. The actor for Ye Xiu only knows how to be nonchalant, if he does anything else it feels forced and unreal, though this may be because of xiu's usually relaxed nature too. The CG looks good, they spent a lot of time on having different scenery but sometimes they give you a flat plane with some trees or somethin, and the characters in-game have absolutely no emotion, at first I hated it but it's grown on me. To be honest this sentence explains the entire show, I disliked it the first 10 episodes (the episodes felt so bad they were good) but after some time it grew on me so much I now want to keep watching and I love it Even though I feel like the show isn't that good I'm compelled to keep watching. The characters are annoyingly enticing, the plot is so cheesy it's enjoyable. The humor is so bad but after a while they all become funny for how flat they fall. There's also not necessarily a "bad guy" either, the show actually does really well to give everyone reasoning for being there and a reason for why they act the way they do

All in all, I was expecting this show to have like a 3/10 since that's how I feel critically about it, but it's so fun to watch and relax to I gotta give it like a 7 or something.

Ye Xiu (Yang Yang), a top professional gamer, is replaced as captain of team Excellent Era and leaves the team. He forms team Happy with mostly rookie players. The drama deals with how he recruits the members and the team's rise from obscurity to glory.

Although there is hardly any romance, which is the main draw of dramas for me, I still enjoyed the show immensely. The competitions are exciting, and the music composed by Roc Chen succeeds in establishing an emotional bond with the characters. I invariably have goosebumps whenever the song Standing on the Peak is played.