REVIEW: ‘The Daily Life of the Immortal King,’ Episode 22 – “The Foolish Old Man’s Spirit in the Sun Family”

The Daily Life of the Immortal King is a school life/ fantasy donghua (Chinese animation) produced by Bilibili. Having saved Chen from his internet addiction, everything seems to have calmed down for our high school heroes. That is till a sudden misfortune plunges Sun’s family business into near bankruptcy. But what can be done to turn around the company’s sudden problems in The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 22?

They say getting there is half the fun. That the journey is often as important as the final destination you reach, while this is certainly true, if the final destination is more or less a given, it does make the journey that much harder to impress. This is the only major struggle with this week’s episode of The Daily Life of the Immortal King. While spending a bit of time with Ling, Sun, and the rest of the gang is an enjoyable experience, the feeling of inevitability with how the story would ultimately end does hamper the journey slightly.

As The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 22 opens, we learn that the Rong family business is in dire straights. Due to the dip in Earth’s spiritual energy, their business is failing. The shock hits Sun hard as this opening scene sees her father being served a liquidation notice for their company.

Jump ahead, and the story picks back up with our protagonists arriving at the ancestral home of the Rong family. It seems bankruptcy hits the rich harder in this world than ours, as the Rong’s have been set back to live like humanity’s cave-dwelling ancestors. Despite their current financial woes, the family seems to be in good spirits and determined to get themselves set back on the path to prosperity. But something seems off with the Rong’s sudden financial collapse. And the appearance of the Tang family and our heroes’ old rival Tang Birdie 2 all but confirms something more is going on.

While this episode delivers the charm and warmth that has been synonymous with The Daily Life of the Immortal King‘s wonderful main cast, it doesn’t manage any of the comedic highs of many previous episodes. Couple that with little action to speak of and the aforementioned sense of foreknowledge as to what the episode’s ultimate end will be, and you have a solid, if not groundbreaking, entry into this series.

The other thing that hurts The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 22 is its throw-away nature. Every other episode in this season’s story has had some connection to the season’s larger story or significantly developed a character. Due to how this episode wraps up, it feels like you could skip it entirely and be none the worse off when continuing with the series.

The visuals in this week’s episode do a good job with what the story requires. As one of the tamer entries in the series, there are only a couple of moments where the art can flex its muscles. Happily, it does take advantage of these brief moments and utilizes them to bring some unique style to the episode.

When all is said and done, The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 22 is an enjoyable entry into the series that never manages to reach any of the highs of previous episodes.

The Daily Life of the Immortal King Episode 21 is streaming on Funimation.