Oops! Episodes 3 & 4 posted very close together and possibly out of order, which I did not catch until watching episode 5 today. This means last week’s review should be read for episode 4 and this review retcons for episode 3.
What did I miss? The real episode 3 introduces Xiao Tang as a naturally APM-talented friend of Boss Guoguo, who Guoguo considers her ‘personal cheat code.’ However, Tang is not a Glory player, because she finds the game too simplistic…until she loses a string of PvPs against Ye Xiu.
While this setup is only a small portion of the episode, seeing Tang as a competitive player with social connections to the cafe, changes her relationship with Xiu a bit. Her interest in his play style being sincere thirst for self-improvement and revenge than casual interest of a layperson who’s been swept into the game through Xiu’s recent pop culture impact.
This doesn’t really change my review of episode 4, other than explaining where Xiu got money to buy everyone McDonalds food, and why he shares it with Xiu (it’s her money, which Xiu won through wagering on games and he’s giving it back to her as food, in a way of softening his harsh critique of her ability). However, it makes Tang’s participation in episode 5 more believable.
What Else? The episode also introduces the frozen forest stage and Xiu’s first speed clearing of it as a player for hire. Again, this doesn’t change anything in episode 4, except to make the alert at the end of the episode about a specific event, and not that competitors are generally catching up ti Xiu, but there’s that. Also, like Tang, the frozen forest plot is a major component of episode 5. Regardless, it’s not necessary for understanding that plot…
In some regards, it actually weakens episode 5 because its just one more example of Xiu smugly beating everyone’s expectations with ease. More importantly, episode 5’s raid on frozen forest reuses animations from episode 3…
Verdict: Graphically, King’s Avatar’s use of CGI for figures can be distracting, the action is often tightly framed and difficult to follow, reused animations are disappointing, and I can’t help but laugh at the crystal-clear sky it presents above China. Overall, its clunky, smug, soft nationalist propaganda full of McDonalds advertisements…but that’s what its been from the beginning?
As before (and after) QZGS remains watchable, weird, and by definition ‘different’ as does not quite follow Japanese or Western conventions. Tang x Xiu has potential to be an interesting relationship and Glory, as an arbitrary item for them to compete over, is serviceable. Nothing else to say about it ;)
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No worries. It’s just human to make mistakes.
Anyways, this episode, just like the others, is exactly as you say: basically Ye Xiu showing off. I’m even thinking whether his behaviour is intentional or not. Can’t really understand how arrogant he can be, when actually no one should know him. Also the misteries of his OPness are revealed to be: he actually didn’t start from the beginning, but just converted his character, keeping the weapons (and maybe the skills). This info was provided by a post of a kind reader of the original source who uses MAL, which I boldly “shared” on my blog.
Heh, McDonald is everywhere. And the fact that they re-use the animations, is quite obvious. I think I’ve seen the rape-face (you get it? If not, it’s the one on the opening, when facing forward with head towards us) in every single episode until now.
It’s supposed to get better though, or at least, there will be more team-working and strategy. Although this heavily depends on the producer/studio I think. This always from the kind MAL user.
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Yeah I’d caught the explanation that he’d stayed an adventurer class and that such a move was considered outdated by other players… but I’m not normally going to talk about the mechanics of Glory in my reviews. Game world stuff doesn’t appear to have any deeper meanings as it relates to culture and character development. (its just aping mmos) Since Glory isn’t a real thing, and we dont naturally know its rules (beyond what it apes of real world mmos) the explanations don’t provide much to talk about.
Really, everything on Glory relating to Xiu can be summed up as ‘he chooses unexpected and unconsidered solutions’ or ‘he is unique.’ That, broadly speaking, is probably worth talking about as it relates to modern Chinese culture but I haven’t wrapped my head around the academics yet. I’m still working out my response to his contradictory response to women.
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Umu. I was costantly wondering how the heck Glory worked, as I’ve never really seen such a game. But then again, this isn’t fair, as it IS fiction. Still, I would have preferred an explanation, like VR or something like that. In my limited experience of MMO, i’ve never actually been so, huh…, intensively active(?). I mean, I don’t know if games such as this truly exists, but from my experience it was mostly “click a button” -> “skill/spell” -> “wait”. Sure, there were some commands for normal attacks that didn’t need loading, but to never really had that freedom of manoeuvre.
Oh, well. Doesn’t really matter, as after few episodes one just get used to it. Like Keijo. After some first moment, where I almost hurt my jaw from opening too much from surprise and amazement, I just got used to it. Hm, maybe a more famous example would be Kill la Kill? After being hit by the immense fan-service, you just get used to it, until someone comes into your room and ask what hell you’ve been watching.
Returning to QZGS, not sure if this is good or bad, but Ye Xiu reminds me of a smugger version of Kirito. More arrogant because he actually doesn’t really explain (for now), but just gives direction expecting everyone to listen to him (who should appear as a newbie).
But I believe in the future (not really), and can only hope that it will get better.
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I plan on watching it all the way through, and reviewing it all the way through, which is actually a high mark in my book. Many RABUJOI readers know me as the chronic ‘start with 30 / end with 1’ reviewer.
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Hou. Well, as a no-drop masochist I will just try to do that too. Though I won’t write only if it was really boring or something.
But it’s nice to see and read others reactions/review. So, I hope you will continue (unless QZGS doesn’t turn intor garbage… I sincerely hope not, for every anime, not only this)
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