The King's Avatar

I'm so glad to have found this live action while looking up info on the next season of the anime. It took a long time to finish this as there were so many episodes, but I'm also impressed that the novel was adapted into such a high-quality, lengthy live action. Both the anime and live action are among the best fictional series about video games in the world, in my opinion. The live action was particularly impressive in its depiction of Glory, given that it is sometimes hard to differentiate between the MMO and real life in the anime, but the live action makes these distinctions clear while putting a lot of detail into making the game world look realistic yet as though it's still a game.

I cannot really say that this is a well-done show when I really struggled through the first part to understand what was going, what the stakes were, not to mention all the new characters that barely get an introduction. If you have zero prior knowledge of esports and gaming (like me), this does not give a good introduction. But man, I fell in love with these characters. I fell in love with their friendships, their rivalry, their love for the game. It feels like a lived in world that we are dropped into. The acting is great, I really enjoyed the game animations (they work more like cut scenes than an actual in-game experience, and the transltions between players and their accounts help to establish everyone) and it balances the overarching story with some well-placed, sweeter moments to sit with the teams when the stakes are not as high.