REVIEW: ‘The Daily Life of the Immortal King,’ Episode 19 — “How to Forge a Spritual Sword”

The Daily Life of the Immortal King is a school life/ fantasy donghua (Chinese animation) produced by Bilibili. After last week’s reveals, this week sees life return to normal for the Elite Class of Faction 60. With their class focus shifting to spiritual sword maintenance the students set out to a local forge to make sure their swords are ready. But when they arrive there they make some discoveries about one of their newest classmate in The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 19.

When our favorite quartet of students arrive at the sword forge to get their blades maintained they discover that classmate Lin Xiaoyu works at the forge to make ends meet. This combined with the revelation from the last episode that she’s currently living in a backroom of the school paints a hard picture of Lin’s life. While she works, Lin divulges details of her life to her classmates. Learning of all the struggles Lin has gone through in her life, her classmates decide to do something nice for her and set out to forge a spiritual sword for Lin, since it is revealed she hasn’t been able to acquire one. A shortcoming that could greatly hamper her studies.

The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 19 comes into its best moments as the new sword is forged and tested in the back half of the episode. As is usually the case with our protagonists, their hearts are in the right place, but planning and execution get a little dicey in spots as the group stumble through the process of sword forging. And as always, Ling manages to bring some unexpected power to the sword’s crafting.

While the sword’s forging provides a lot of the episode’s humor, the heart of the episode comes from the group’s confrontation with their old antagonist Birdie Two. The leader of the opposing team at last season’s inter-school tournament, Birdie appears just in time to mock and ridicule Lin’s situation as the group learns of it. Waving around his money and privilege, Birdie forces Lin to work long hours to meet his order. The group’s response to Birdie’s snobbish attitude is wonderful. This is especially true when the privileged Birdie is put into direct contrast with the kind-hearted Sun. As she also comes from the same wealthy background as Birdie, Sun’s kindness and compassion shine all the brighter as she doesn’t allow her status to place her above others.

Overall, the visual presentation of The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 19 continues to deliver the over-the-top laughs and heart of the show wonderfully. There is only one brief spot where the episode fails visually. This comes when, after realizing an extra bit of kindness done by Ling for their classmate, we get a look at him as Sun sees him. Or at least that’s what I assume is supposed to be happening. The art style of this moment is so different and unexpected that it succeeds at little aside from jarring the viewer out of the moment.

When all is said and one, The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 19 continues to bring all the laughs and warmth that have become the show’s trademarks. With a disturbing post-credit scene wrapping up the episode, I am eagerly awaiting next week’s entry in the series to learn what happens next.

The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 19 is streaming on Funimation.