REVIEW: ‘The Daily Life of the Immortal King’ is a Humor-Filled Story Of Friendship And Love

The Daily Life of the Immortal King Season 1 is a school life/ fantasy donghua (Chinese animation) produced by Bilibili. Ever since birth, Wang Ling has wielded power beyond anyone else on earth. His slightest wish could shatter mountains For this reason, his parents have taken steps to make sure Ling doesn’t lose control. So far things have gone pretty well. But now, it’s time for Ling to enter high school and all the new challenges that come with it.

By the end of the first episode, it feels like you understand what it is that The Daily Life of the Immortal King Season 1 is offering. And you’d be right. At least, till you aren’t. This series presents itself as a lighthearted story of an unusual boy trying to keep the secret of who he is safe as he navigates the pitfalls of his new magical high school. But doting this frequently laugh-out-loud story, are some truly emotional moments. I haven’t seen a comedic animation series hit me as hard in the feels as this one since I first watched Futurama’s finale episode. And I do not use that comparison lightly.  So how does The Daily Life of the Immortal King bring so many laughs and hit the feels so hard? Well, let me tell you about it.

To keep his incalculable power a secret, Ling has always kept his distance from others, and dampen his immense power whenever called upon to use it. These attempts to downplay himself both socially, as well as magically are the biggest sources of comedy throughout the series. Since, even though Ling has been doing this all his life, he continues to fail at both. And when he fails, he fails hard. But despite his many social failings, he quickly finds himself gathering a small group of friends around himself that come to be important to him. First among these is the beautiful Sun Rong.

When first introduced in The Daily Life of the Immortal King, Sun is everything Ling is not. She is outgoing, popular and wields her own power with confidence. Plus her confidence isn’t hurt by the fact that she is an heiress to one of the richest families on earth. She is literally as far from Ling on the social scale as you can get.

Now, you are probably figuring that the two characters will spend the first portion of this series butting heads, running afoul of each other until some emergency causes them to come together. Which, would be the predictable plot path for the duo. Happily, The Daily Life of the Immortal King doesn’t waste its time with this obvious story arc. Rather, it develops the two characters as friends from the get-go. This allows the story to focus on Ling’s experiences with Sun, and what she eventually comes to mean to him with a clearer focus. The final place that Sun’s arc takes Ling is something I never could’ve predicted, and quite frankly, delivered one of the most emotional finale’s of any season of television I have ever watched.

Beyond simply surviving their new magical high school, The Daily Life of the Immortal King sees its protagonists face assassination attempts, assaults on their school, and the classic inter-school competition with the rival school that outclasses them in every way, save their sense of morality. It is during this final storyline that the show has got its one major narrative complaint from me. Its decision to fat shame one of its characters.

Throughout the magical completion, the opposing team takes to referring to one of Ling’s friends as “fatty”. While this is always shone in a negative light, it’s still unnecessary. I understand that to portray a character as a jerk they must do things that will make them a jerk, but there are plenty of ways to do so without the usage of terms that many find so personally upsetting.

The only other area where this shows struggles a bit is with its captioning.  There was a significant number of times where the captions were difficult to read. This mostly occurs when the captions are placed over bright background colors that make the minimal outlining of the words insufficient to stand out. If you struggle with captions under idle situations there will definitely be scenes here that will be frustrating to keep up with.

With so much going on throughout The Daily Life of the Immortal King Season 1’s 15 episodes, it would be understandable if the art occasionally struggled to keep up. Happily, I never found anything in the show’s visual presentation to be wanting. The range of emotions on screen, from Ling’s subtle awkwardness to the far more expressive natures of his friends are all delivered well. Just as the emotions of the story are handled well, so too are the moments of combat that are scattered throughout the series.

While I would never call this series an action series by any stretch, when the fist, swords, and magic do start flying the animation makes sure that it impresses with its scale, power, and creativity. If you are a fan of the creative sort of fight sequences of series like Fire Force or Jujutsu Kaisen these combat sequences will be right up your alley.

So to sum it all up, The Daily Life of the Immortal King takes a wonderful blend of magical school life, comedy, and action that it manages to deliver with a strong level of polish while putting enough unique twists on its themes to give the story an air of freshness. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we see of this wonderful show.

The Daily Life of the Immortal King Season is streaming now on Netflix.