Team building, preparing resources, and a whole lot more; The Kings Avatar Season 2 had brought us so much fun and excitement in 2020 as one of the biggest and most anticipated Chinese anime of the year. It’s preparation and declaration of war for Ye Xiu as he pushes forward for his goal of coming back in the Glory’s professional arena and his imminent clash against his former team, Excellent Era – the fallen powerhouse.
In this post, I would like to share my review of The Kings Avatar Season 2 and my personal opinion on what transpired in its story this time. As a reader of the novel, I have so much to say about this donghua and there’s just so many things that got me excited and it even left me craving for more and looking forward to The Kings Avatar Season 3 no matter how long it may take for it to arrive.
I have also listed the donghua as one of the best Chinese anime series in 2020 my year-end review and recommendation: 16 of the Best Chinese Anime from 2020
The Kings Avatar Season 2 Review
Let’s take a look at some of the things that happened and were delivered by the second season of the donghua adaptation of The Kings Avatar e-sports web novel by Butterfly Blue.
Animation & Graphics
Here’s a key aspect that I believed many had noticed and some had complaints while others appreciate it even more. There’s a big difference in the animation quality of the first season of the donghua and the second season.
The Kings Avatar Season 1 was animated by BCMAY Pictures and has the sharp and vibrant fight scenes that we all loved. However, The Kings Avatar Season 2 was animated by Colored-Pencil Animation Design, the same studio that also worked on the 2018’s OVA of the series and its prequel movie, The Kings Avatar: For the Glory in 2019.
Here’s one of the highlight fights from The Kings Avatar Season 2 – the fight between Lord Grim and Troubling Rain:
You can check the animation sequence of season 1 in our post: The Best Fight Scenes from The Kings Avatar Season 1
I did enjoy the color dynamics that we had this time, it’s even more radiant and pleasing in the eyes, however, some scenes were quite dull and definitely still needs some improvement. The fight scenes were fast-paced and short, albeit shounen fans of the series want to see more.
Character Designs
Another big factor that had changed between the two seasons of The Kings Avatar is the character designs. This time, they look younger than their previous designs from the first season. I can’t complain about this one as this looks better for me and reflects the characters who are only in their early and mid-20s. I love the new designs for Ye Xiu and Chen Guo who look younger, as well as for the other members of Team Happy such as Wei Chen, An Wenyi, and Bao Rongxing.
For their in-game characters, we have some major changes on the designs of Lord Grim and his silver weapon, I actually prefer the old design but it is fine. Wow, Soft Mist’s new design is smoking hot, while Steamed Bun Invasion looks dazzling yet confusing as ever.
Music & Soundtrack
Alright, I personally prefer the music from The Kings Avatar Season 1, there’s something special and epic from it that I can’t find in the new season. However, The Kings Avatar Season 2 had offered us an upbeat and visually stunning animation and song for the opening and ending theme of the donghua, and that is something I will never complain about.
Opening Theme: Dawning Glory / “Rongyao Poxiao” by NZBZ
Ending Theme: “Our Glory Road” by Mario
Plot and Story
The entirety of The Kings Avatar Season 2 had revolved on Ye Xiu’s effort to gather members of his new team which is Happy with the help of Chen Guo (who seems to be in there only for comic relief). Nevertheless, she is still our best big sister. It also shows the fall from the glory of the Excellent Era all thanks to Sun Xiang’s arrogance and the mismanagement that happened behind the curtain. So, the once powerhouse team had fallen and eventually relegated from the alliance.
It seems that The Kings Avatar Season 2 had only set things in motion in preparation for the bigger things that are about to unfold in its upcoming sequel. Now, with Ye Xiu’s new team and Excellent Era’s fall from grace, this set the two opposing forces facing against each other in the Challengers League as both teams are vying to fight for their ticket to the professional arena. One is headed by an old general who treated Glory like an old friend, and one is a big team with experience and support but thwarted by the personal goals of its team members.
Highlights of The Kings Avatar Season 2
Here, I have listed some of the highlights of the story that took place from The Kings Avatar Season 2 and why it matters:
Ye Xiu Meets Heavenly Sword Team
Heavenly Sword might be on a different team but they are among the allies that Ye Xiu had during the early days of Team Happy. Together with smaller guilds supported by professional teams, they thwarted the efforts and plans by bigger guilds in the in-game world of Glory such as boss hunting, dungeon and record-setting, and various special events in the game.
Two Old Generals in a Battle of Shamelessness
Ye Xiu, the former captain of Excellent Era had encountered Wei Chen, the previous captain of Team Blue Rain in a squabble in the in-game world of Glory. This has been one of the funniest scenes from the whole season and yes, this really proves that birds of the same feather flock together. Nevertheless, behind all the hilarious stuff here, both old veteran sure is having the same dream of the championship. What’s even more amazing is that Wei Chen had discovered interesting stuff that will change the Glory’s professional scene. It will help strengthen Team Happy and support their foothold considerably, and also the championship of Glory’s Professional League Season 8.
Lord Ye Xiu Giving Lessons to Arrogant Kids
Alright, another highlight that we all love and shows who is the real boss here is the battle between Ye Xiu and the people from the Excellent Era. This is where Ye Xiu had put Sun Xiang, Liu Hao, and the others in their rightful places but it ain’t over yet as this is only the beginning.
Our Dear Ninja Is a Cinnamon Roll
As a reader of The Kings Avatar novel, I have known all the troubles that Mo Fan had experienced at the hands of Ye Xiu and allies as well as from his enemies. Our ninja is a tsundere type and a cinnamon roll too, he is a precious character that we are looking forward to knowing better in The Kings Avatar Season 3. But for now, let’s just settle for some moments he had appeared along with Lord Ye Xiu.
Team Happy Guild Babysitter
Many fans might have not noticed this, but Blue River is one of the most precious characters from the series too. He is helping Ye Xiu indirectly in many ways throughout the earlier course of the story, and in the early days of Team Happy, he even assisted them in managing the guild. Wow, he is one of those people that I want to have as a friend.
1/2 of Blood and Blossoms
It seems that we had plenty of former gods from the professional arena appearing in the game and this time, we had Zhang Jiale. He is the first half of the former powerful duo of Blood and Blossoms from Team Hundred Blossoms, as well as the team’s former captain. He is known as the most unfortunate player in the alliance for being the runner-up for the championship thrice. Here, we had seen him in an exciting fight against Lord Ye who is posing as Unrivaled Super Hottie, the most boastful knight that ever glanced Glory.
In Search of a Cleric & the Unrivaled Super Hottie
From the first season of the donghua, I still remembered Lord Grim’s quote “We Don’t Need a Cleric”, that’s a line he directed to the boastful cleric from the Tyrannical Ambition guild. However, such is not the case this season. In his quest for a cleric that he can invite to his team, Lord Ye had infiltrated Tyrannical Ambition and pose as the knight Unrivaled Super Hottie and this is where he spotted a rough gem, a player who is clear-headed, rational, and good in decision-making. That is An Wenyi and he is also my favorite character from The Kings Avatar series.
Read more: The Best Quotes from The Kings Avatar
Excellent Era’s Fall From Grace
With its continued losses in their match even against those teams that weaker than them, Excellent Era sure has fallen. This might be karma or whatever we call it, but the individual strength of its players sure is good especially Sun Xiang and Su Mucheng. However, their losses have proven that their teamwork has gone haywire and there’s no saving left for them. With their fall, also comes the rise of team Samsara, a relatively new powerhouse.
The Gods Assemble
Alright, guys, this is not the Avengers Assemble (pun intended), but this is where almost all the professional players gathered at one point and invaded the in-game world of Glory to witness what? The humiliation of Huang Shaotian? Not really, but to witness the return of the king. They went online in the game to see if Lord Grim really is Ye Xiu. That’s where we had seen an exciting fight between Lord Ye and Huang Shaotian, and the rest is history.
To learn more about the Glory professional scene of The Kings Avatar, you may also check our post:
- The Best Captains from The Kings Avatar
- The Different Teams of Glory Professional League
- The Gods of Glory: Meet the Best Players from The Kings Avatar
Team Happy Assemble
They are not at their peak yet, but Team Happy had finally assembled. Just before The Kings Avatar Season 2 ended, we had seen the current members of Team Happy as they go on training and prepares for the upcoming war. Now, this only makes me excited and see what will happen next as some more people will join in their ranks such as Qiao Yifan and Mo Fan.
On Continuation: The Kings Avatar Season 3
While we don’t have an official announcement or confirmation yet for The Kings Avatar Season 3. Wen can conclude that the series is returning for another season after its finale. Furthermore, it is only natural to see this through the end after all the built-up and preparation that we had from The Kings Avatar Season 2 and the undisputed popularity of the entire series among the fans of Chinese anime.
Now, we just need to wait for updates from Tencent albeit we can speculate that The Kings Avatar Season 3 might be coming in 2022. Nevertheless, all of our questions and anticipations will be answer once Tencent Video Animation hold their event around the third or fourth quarter of the year for the lineup for the rest of 2021 and 2022.
References and images credit:
Last Updated on September 25, 2022 by Yu Alexius
[…] The Kings Avatar Season 2 Anime Review: The Preparation for War (Yu Alexius Anime Portal, @YuAlexius) […]