Story
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Like with season 1, TKA season 2 is essentially a slice-of-life show that’s more driven by the characters than the plot. If you recall, season 1 began with the main character, Ye Xiu, being forced into retirement for a year. Season 2 takes place within that year, so he’s still in the process of building up his character and recruiting new players. This means the majority of the season is still focused on meeting new people, both potential teammates and future rivals.
Art & Animation
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The season is animated by the same company as the OVAs and movie, so there is quite the noticeable difference between this
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style and that of season 1. Where season 1 used more of a seinen art style, season 2’s styles is more bishounen. This results in the majority of characters appearing “prettier” which works for the younger characters and the few female players, but takes away the imperfections of some like Han Wenqing and Wang Jiexi who are supposed to look intimidating and have uneven eyes respectively; however, that’s a fairly consistent issue with the designs as they’ve always been drawn/cast that way dating back to the official art for the light novels all the way up to the live action adaptation.
As with season 1, the animation varies. Season 1 was known for reused animations and ugly CGI background characters. Although season 2 tones down both, it is now plagued by still frames and reused background character models. A lot of shows use still frames, but the way TKA2 does them really shows the studio’s inexperience with this genre. The background characters getting reused isn’t as in your face since they are just extras and don’t stay on-screen for long, but it gets awkward when they are using the same models for a crowd of famous professional players seconds after they used those same models for regular players. It isn’t all bad, though. The animation as a whole is largely serviceable, but the Wei Chen fight in episode 8 and Zhang Jiale fight in episode 10 in particular are some of my favorites in the entire series and they both take up good chunks of both episodes with noticeable improvements in animation. Again, this is the same company that did the OVAs and movie, so we know they can do great work. My guess as an outsider for what happened would be that they had to use most of their resources on the movie, leaving parts of the animation feeling rushed.
Sound & Music
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Like with the previous entries in the franchise, this season is dubbed in Chinese. It’s obviously going to be different from Japanese or English dubbed anime, but that isn’t really a negative. TKA features more subdued and calm performanced (with the exception of a few characters). This means it will be harder for some to pick up on things like emotional cues, but they’re definitely present. For example, toward the middle of the season, Ye Xiu has an argument with someone from his past (not really a spoiler since episode 1 starts with a flash forward which includes a glimpse at this scene) and despite both remaining rather calm, the scene carries an incredibly tense atmosphere and it’s hard not to agree with them both to some degree as the conversation goes from cordial to angry to disappointed. Again, I’m not saying this is better or worse than typical performances in anime; it’s just different.
The OP lacks the punch and impact of the season 1 OP, but it’s fine. I would consider it the weakest of the 3 we’ve gotten so far, trading rock for pop. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t something I could see them playing during a climactic fight like how the season 1 OP accompanied the final fight of that season. The ED is better, really suiting the upbeat feel of the season. The insert songs are fairly good as well, really punctuating many of the more emotional moments. Special mention goes to the insert song, Accompany Me to Forever, which they play in a couple of episodes.
Characters
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As I referenced before, TKA is basically a slice-of-life show meaning the main appeal will be seeing the characters and their interactions. As with the first season and OVAs, there are a huge amount of characters. Ye Xiu clearly remains the central protagonist, but the majority of his party from season 1 get a reduced role as he enters the post-game server of sorts. We get bits of Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, Yifan, and Concealed Light (technically, we get more of him than we got in the previous season), but after Ye Xiu’s big confrontation with the guilds in the first couple of episodes, they largely get replaced with Chen Guo becoming the main companion. Chen Guo could be a bit of a nuisance in the first season, but thanks to her knowing Ye Xiu’s identity after the OVAs, she now comes off less as oblivious and more as the audience viewpoint character that she was meant to be, often getting used to play off of the new characters as they get introduced. Also, beginning this season and continuing onward is her relationship with Ye Xiu growing from boss/employee and fan/celebrity to them being more on equal footing. Beyond that, new characters like Deception and Wei Chen are incredibly fun additions, each bringing their own distinct personality. Zhang Jiale showcases the emotional weight of the show’s premise. Excellent Era (not their guild, Excellent Dynasty) plays a much more prominent role as the antagonists this time, while also allowing insight into Ye Xiu’s actual thoughts on them and getting kicked out. And Ye Xiu, himself, is given more sass, both in the sense that he’s quicker to trash talk as opposed to how calculated he was previously and in that he takes more sass from other characters as we’re introduced to more players who see him as a peer rather than the master/idol that most season 1 characters saw him as.
This season also continues the largest conflict set forth by the OVAs between the older generation and the younger generation by introducing a couple more grizzled vets to play off of the established younger characters like Sun Xiang and Yu Wenzhou (not particularly young, but he’s a special case). While season 2 remains similar to season 1 in terms of being set up, they differ in that season 2 isn’t just introducing new characters, it also sets up the main dichotomy that should be used throughout the series.
Enjoyment
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Whether or not you’ll enjoy TKA2 will largely depend on whether or not you enjoyed the first season. If you enjoyed the character interaction and unique take on the idea of a video game anime that season 1 brought to the table, season 2 is more of the same despite the different animation studio. If you found season 1 boring or not to your taste, you probably aren’t considering watching season 2 anyway. And if you were fine with season 1, but were mostly waiting for them to get to the e-sports part, you might be disappointed to find that that won’t start until a potential season 3. Personally, I had a blast watching season 2. It isn’t anything ground breaking or something that’ll change the way you see the world, but it’s a solid show to watch to see some endearing characters bouncing off of each other with flourishes of action in between.
Dec 4, 2020
Quanzhi Gaoshou 2
(Anime)
add
Story
************* Like with season 1, TKA season 2 is essentially a slice-of-life show that’s more driven by the characters than the plot. If you recall, season 1 began with the main character, Ye Xiu, being forced into retirement for a year. Season 2 takes place within that year, so he’s still in the process of building up his character and recruiting new players. This means the majority of the season is still focused on meeting new people, both potential teammates and future rivals. Art & Animation ************* The season is animated by the same company as the OVAs and movie, so there is quite the noticeable difference between this ... |
