This is my first time writing a review about a Chinese drama. The King's Avatar is the second Chinese drama that I have finished watching. Yang Yang is actually the main reason why I started watching it because of Love O2O. Yes, I'm a bit biased with Yang Yang because visually speaking, looking good would be an understatement.
The reason why I barely watch Chinese dramas is because there are a lot of episodes. I do not have a lot of time since I am currently on my internship and I still have some outside works. But since I had a short break before my last term in the university starts, I decided to watch it.
About The King's Avatar
Title: The King's Avatar (全职高手)Episodes: 40 episodes (around 35-45 minutes per episode)
Airing Period: July 24, 2019 - August 30, 2019
Characters:
Since there are a lot of characters from this series, I will just be sharing to you the protagonists - Team Happy (from left to right).
Mo Fan played by Yang Tingdong
An Wen Yi played by Li Junchen
Qiao Yi Fan played by Fan Jinwei
Tang Rou played by Li Yujie
Chen Guo played by Jiang Shuying
Ye Xiu played by Yang Yang
Su Mucheng played by Lai Yumeng
Bao Rongxing played by Lai Yi
Luo Ji played by Sun Ning
Wei Chen played by Bai Xiang
Wu Chen played by Song Hanyu
Plot: Ye Xiu, who was better known as Ye Qiu in the Glory world, is a well known player who has an intriguing personality since he always covers half of his face whenever they have a competition. Although he is famous, he barely brings profits to the team since he doesn't accept any advertisements. With that, he was forced to quit his team. He started working on an Internet Cafe, just across his old building. Since his love for Glory remains, he continued to start again from the bottom.
Facts: The King's Avatar was actually an online Chinese web novel. Because of it's popularity, it was adapted into an anime. Just last 2019, The King's Avatar became a live-action TV series with Yang Yang as the main character.
Things I liked about The King’s Avatar
The Characters
Like what I have mentioned earlier, the main reason why I watched this series is because of Yang Yang. Yang Yang may not be the best Chinese actor out there but for me, at least his acting somehow improved here. I saw another side of Yang Yang that I couldn’t see during Love O2O.
Yang Yang’s acting during the twin scenes were fun to watch. I was able to distinguish who’s who. Meaning, Yang Yang portrayed those two characters well. Although he still needs some improvement especially in showing more emotions, I was still satisfied with his acting here.
As the story progresses, more and more characters were added. And it only means, more characters to love. Aside from Yang Yang, I also liked these following characters.
Han Wenqing played by Gu Youming. He is the captain of Tyranny.
Wang Jiexi played by Gu Yufeng. He is the captain of Tiny Herb.
Yu Wenzhou played by Gao Hanyu. He is the captain of Blue Rain.
Although they are all considered as Ye Xiu's competitor in the Glory world, they still treat each other as friends especially when the heads of the competition wanted Ye Xiu to be suspended. They may fight each other during the online battles but they are good friends.
They may have fewer scenes in the series but they have gained a place in my heart. I'm still hoping to see them in the second season of The King's Avatar.
Not only the team captains, but these young ones has also captured my attention.
Mo Fan played by Yang Tingdong. He is one of the recruits of Ye Xiu. He barely talks in the series. The reason why he got my attention was because he looks like a combination of Lee Hangyul and Jun.K.
Huang Shaotian played by Jiang Long. He is one of the members of Blue Rain and is really close with Ye Xiu. I first noticed him because he has a very wide smile. And then, he is very funny in the series because he is talkative.
Qui Fei played by Di Zilu. He is part of the Excellent Era (Ye Xiu's former team) and was actually Ye Xiu's apprentice. He actually caught my attention because he really looks good. I'm still looking forward for an escalation of his character.
The Amazing 3d Animations
As a Multimedia Artist who hates doing 3D models and animation, I am very much impressed with this series. The character models were different from each other. Meaning, you can clearly recognize whose avatar’s this is. Their avatars were the perfect representation of the characters.
Regarding the animation, I really enjoyed watching the fight scenes. It made me feel like I was really playing the game also. The movements were smooth, yet you can still feel the vibe that it is from an online game.
This is probably one of the main reasons why I continued watching this series. The models and animation were so good that even a non-gamer can actually appreciate games.
The Series itself has an Anime Vibes
Before the live-action started, it became an anime first. Although it has an anime adaptation, the live action was able to do well. It has an anime vibes because the characters really do act like they are an anime character. Not only that, I also started to reminisce some of the animes that I have watched before like Prince of Tennis.
Things I somehow dislike with The King’s Avatar
They cut episodes while one is speaking
I know that cliff hanging is a strategy so that the viewers will really look forward for the next episode. Yes, it was effective on my part, but I got irritated because they cut it when one is not yet done speaking. They could have cut it at the end of the scene. But no, they cut it in the middle of the scene which made me a little irritated.Well, not all the episodes. But most of them.
Lack of Character Build Up
I believe the webtoon of this series is really good that’s why it became famous. Unfortunately, everything seemed to be on a fast pacing game that I did not see how the characters grow. I was expecting a lot from Sun Xiang’s transformation. It was good how he suddenly understood how to play the game as a team in the end of the drama but the progress were not that okay. Like, he found a new rival and suddenly he changed. I don’t think it’s that easy.Not only that, the characters from the Happy Team also lacks progress. They may have taken a huge screen time but I did not feel their characters improved. I needed a deeper building up on these characters. If only they were able to build it up well, then probably the series would be better.
Many episodes yet lacks content
There were a lot of episodes. From my common 16 episodes from Korean dramas, this series was doubled. Imagine watching 40 episodes with at least 35-45 minutes each. It will really take a lot of time. So I was expecting that because this has a lot of episodes, the contents will be stretched out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t balanced.Some scenes could have lesser screen time while others could have longer ones. They were not able to balance it making it looks like it lacks content.
Conclusion and Lessons
Although it wasn’t a series that I would recommend to all, I still enjoyed watching it. Actually, it somehow gave me somehow like a “separation anxiety” since I no longer know what to do after watching it. It took a lot of time from me but deep inside I was still hoping that there will be more episodes because I want to see more of them especially Yang Yang.Not only that, I also wanted to see more progress from the characters’ personal lives and how they will achieve things.
This series taught me a lot of lessons. First, it taught me that no matter what happens, I can start over again. Seeing how Ye Xiu retired and decided to come back to Glory made me realize that I can also come back doing the things I love like singing, writing, drawing, etc.
Second, the series taught me that we need to work smartly. In our lives, people always tell us to work hard. Yes, working really hard can bring you success but working smartly will bring you success and happiness. In Yi Fan's part, he was really working hard to prove himself. Although he showed some progress, he still needed more. When the right mentor came and taught him how to work smartly, he improved a lot.
Third, there are a lot of paths. I always thought that in order to achieve this dream, this is the only path that I should take. But I was wrong. There are a lot of paths. In this series, Ye Xiu really loved playing Glory. But when he was thrown away from his team, he looked for other ways to continue playing. Instead of stopping, he continued to search for a new way and eventually helped other people too.
Overall, I still enjoyed watching this series (main reason is Yang Yang) and I can’t wait for the next season. According to some sources, they have confirmed that there will be The King’s Avatar will be returning with season 2. I saw that the target date is the end of 2020. Although they will be having a season 2, the casts are not yet confirmed. I am still hoping that they will have the same casts with new faces of course. I’m still hoping that Yang Yang will still play the role of Ye Xiu. I heard in some cases, they sometimes change the actors.
