The "God of High School" tournament has begun, seeking out the greatest fighter among Korean high school students! All martial arts styles, weapons, means, and methods of attaining victory are permitted. The prize? One wish for anything desired by the winner.
Taekwondo expert Jin Mo-Ri is invited to participate in the competition. There he befriends karate specialist Han Dae-Wi and swordswoman Yu Mi-Ra, who both have entered for their own personal reasons. Mo-Ri knows that no opponent will be the same and that the matches will be the most ruthless he has ever fought in his life. But instead of being worried, this prospect excites him beyond belief.
A secret lies beneath the facade of a transparent test of combat prowess the tournament claims to be—one that has Korean political candidate Park Mu-Jin watching every fight with expectant, hungry eyes. Mo-Ri, Dae-Wi, and Mi-Ra are about to discover what it really means to become the God of High School.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Stark700
No, my eyes aren’t deceiving me. I finished today, what I see as one of the most overhyped, yet underwhelming show of the year. The God of High School represents the type of show that is forced down our throats like the next big thing. Advertised as a Crunchyroll original, this anime has convinced me that there’s little hope for a decent manhwa adaptation in the future. Don’t let your eyes deceive you by the flashy animation and aesthetics. The God of High School is a show I wouldn't dream of recommending. As I sat here wondering what went wrong, my initial impression of the animewas actually hopeful. The first episode bought out the talents of director Seong-Hu Park as he’s able to craft together some lavishly animated scenes. In fact, it’s easy to say the first episode is an eye catcher of animation with the amount of ass kicking and fast moving action. We are introduced to 17 year old Mo-Ri Jin, a martial arts from the country of South Korea. The free spirited young man has the ambition of a fighter, and seeking out powerful opponents to test his abilities. This is where we are introduced to the God of High School Martials Arts Tournament, a place for fighters all over the world to showcase their skills.
Despite being the main protagonist, the story also introduces Mi-Ra Yu and Dae-Wi Han. Both characters also possesses talent in martial arts with their unique fighting styles. It’s why both are also invited to the GoHS tournament although they have different motives. For instance, Han participates in the fight to help his friend while Mira seeks to find a suitable marriage partner. No matter what the reason, it seems GoHS loves pushing the characters’ personalities at every chance it gets. The most prominent examples are when Jin gets excited at fighting a powerful opponent or when he is motivated. Other times, it’s when Jin finds a reason to fight, such as crashing a wedding and helping Mira. It’s motivations like this that sets off an early impression of the show. But with every progressing episode, the show degenerates into a chaotic mess.
It seems the more and more I watched the show, the less I feel motivated myself to understand the main purpose of the story. What is it even trying to get us to understand? The main characters? The tournament arc? Or perhaps some sort of reason for God of High School to even exist? The meat of the show remains with the tournament and different fights that occurs throughout the main story. It also seems these fights often feels rushed and lacking importance. Even Han, a selfless man, who fights for the sake of others becomes a chore to watch. How many times do we have to hear his unenthusiastic dialogues? Every one of his fight feels similar and furthermore, it’s easy to say he is the most boring character to watch in the entire series. As the story ventures forward, we are thrown into more chaotic storytelling involving supernatural forces such as the Nine Tailed Guardian, God incarnates, and plot to kill certain divine beings. When you try to make a show spin out of control in such way, it sets off a ticking time bomb of chaos.
Outside of the main cast, don’t expect much character development from the other characters. This is advertised as a 13-episode one cour series. To make the story flow, we are introduced to some significant side cast such as IIpyo Park. Serving as a more logical member of the cast, IIpyo is observant and not often the one to rush into battle head on. He appears to be one of the more mysterious member of the cast but unfortunately, the anime doesn’t get the chance to explore the full side of his character. This seems to fall in line with the majority of named characters, including one of the main antagonists, Mujin Park. As being the head in charge of the tournament, you can expect him to be the master pulling the strings. Being manipulative and calculating, Mujin represents the anti-thesis of Jin and the main cast. And to add on to the rogue gallery, there’s Taek Jegal, a major threat who treats almost everyone as worthless. His power hungry personality fees on his ego to the point where he cares for no one but himself. It’s the type of stereotypical antagonist you can come up in less than 5 seconds in any type of anime. Taek’s main rival appears to be Iipyo, but from a storyline perspective, he represents nothing more than a generic villain. With all said and done, background storytelling even falls short with info dumps about the cults, Gods, and other divine powers. Because let’s face it, this anime serves as little more than being an advertisement for a glorified fight show.
Well, if there’s one selling point of the anime, it’s the animation. In fact, I can say The God of High School is more about showing than telling. From the first major fight and every other forward, it looks like the anime pushes the boundaries of animation. It’s stylistic and dynamic with fast paced motion. The comic-like art quality also makes the important fights feel like major attractions. When the anime settles for a lighthearted tone, it bounces back into comedic scenery of cartoonish character expressions. Even the music accompanied with the action sequences makes the fights more dynamic. If you wanted to see a visual action flick, The God of High School will be a hell of a ride.
Don’t let those flashy animation fool you. This show wanted to be something special and indeed, it some ways managed to do that. But beyond the typical main trio cast and the ass kicking scenes, this is no more than a mediocre story trying its best to sell its product to you. Even with the sufficient funding, The God of High School reminds me to always, and always keep expectations in check for manhwa adaptations.
Dukino
The second webtoon anime comes to a close. Definitely say I liked this one better than the previous. God of High School does have some problems no doubt but I enjoyed this anime so damn much. Didn't quite know what was coming with this show other than a big tournament and some cool looking fights. Well we got that in spades and then some! This show didn't let up off the throttle for even a half second! Kept going and going and going jumping the shark at every turn and I loved for doing that. Where we started and where we ended were completely differentplaces in such a short amount of time but that didn't bother me so much, least not as much as I'm sure it did others.
The way I value and rare anime is absolutely themes then characters then story then visuals. That being said I think this show is one of the rare exceptions for me. Because the themes and story aren't quite there imo but holy hell are the visuals amazing to look at constantly and the characters are a lot of fun. There's tropes out the woodwork with this but it didn't seem to bother me. The story kinda shoots itself in the foot multiple times but skimming past things that should probably be explained. This is definitely one that would benefit from being 23 to 26 episodes opposed to just the 13 we got. But not gonna judge something by what it didn't give us since that's dumb. Better to just look at what were got and judge that.
So I'll say the characters are awesome and easy to root for. Our main trio of Mori, Daewi, and Mira are all badass who I love to see on screen. They all get great moments to shine throughout the show. Even with Mori being centerpiece the other two still get highlights. The supporting cast with Ilpyo being my favorite of those and the other tournament competitors being pretty cool especially early on. Park Mujin was always a mysterious dude who seemed to be up to his own thing but I liked his style and how he helped the trio out more towards the end. His squad with the commissioners and SIX were cool. Nox as a main antagonist group were kinda meh since they didn't do a whole lot. Jegal however I really liked the more we saw him. An easy villain to despise and want to see the heroes beat. His powers were cool too.
Of course I'd be dumb to not rave and gush over the incredible animation. Mappa basically outdid themselves and keep putting out quality work over and over again. Can always trust them to make a show look great with its fights and this amps me up even more to see Jujutsu Kaisen animated later this week! Overall I'd say this is a fun kinda just enjoy the fights type anime with some good characters and a middling plot that coulda just used some more time to flesh out. But I thoroughly enjoyed this show for what it gave us. 85 out of 100.
TakaCode
It has become apparent now that webtoon anime has become a failed experiment. The concept of adapting these highly praise webtoon series was amazing as we viewers get to see South Korea based anime. It was frankly a breath of fresh air as the webtoon catalogue is filled with various genres that were produced by passionate authors that cared about their works even if the works vary in quality. Unfortunately, the overall execution has been bad, really, really bad. Tower Of God was released in the Spring 20 anime season in an awful and unfinished state filled with non-existent worldbuilding, laughable power system, empty characters, outstandingawful production values and horrendous writing. It was a series that I deeply despise to the core it made me wonder if the source material was bad but, I have been told that Webtoon itself was good and the anime was an utter bastardization to the source material. Honestly, if Crunchyroll did not hamfist the living crap of the show right down my throat on social media then I wouldn't have hated it all that much. Sure I still would have heavily disliked, but I wouldn't have it in my top 30 worst anime I've ever completed list.
One season later The God Of High School was released, and it sucked. It like Crunchyroll never learned their lesson with Tower Of God and decided to crank up to 11 and that is sad as I really wanted to like it as I love my shounen animes like this.
Before I go over all the problems about The God Of High School I will be talking about the good as there's a quite a bit of good in it that prevents it from being in my worst anime list.
What The God Of High School Does Right.
The art and animation by Studio MAPPA are fantastic as always. Character designs and colourful and distinctive from each other.
There were some rough scenes every now especially towards the end with the jarring use of CGI but the show still remains consistent with its art style and animation. This is one of Mappa finest works when it comes to art and animation.
The fights scenes are excellent and really gives the fights series justice that they deserve.
Special mention goes to the Jin and Hau fight in episode 5 that's filled with a lot of cool sakuga that resembles a comic book.
The soundtrack is generally good all around and fits the tone of the series.
The opening and ending themes are okay I guess, and they decently fit the tone of the series.
Also, both the sub and dub are amazing.
That's pretty much it really.
What The God Of High School does wrong.
Where do I even begin with The God Of High School maybe with the characters?
The main 3 characters look very promising and appealing on the surface however the moment, they started talking, my positive expectations went down the drain.
I grandly feel bad for both the Seiyuus and the English Dub for wasting their amazing talents voicing these shells of characters.
Jin is basically Goku 2.0 who loves fighting. Other than his generic dad backstory, there's nothing special about him, and his character design reflects that.
Yu is your typical tsundere glasses action girl that wants to find a suitable husband to carry on the school bloodline.
Han is the typical quiet hard-working third well of the trio who wants to save a friend life.
On paper, the trio had the potential to be fascinating and charming characters but the horrible pacing and especially later on the writing don't give these characters justice, as a result, these main trios feel empty and half baked. I wanted to see these three go past their character traits so I could love them but they sadly don't. This is what happens when you have crappy pacing that moves at a rapid pace where you don't have time to develop your characters.
As for the story itself well it has no story to speak off. It's just a bunch of one-dimensional character entering The God Of High School tournament because self insert cliché … backstories
There's nothing more beyond that. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if the characters were fun or at the very least interesting but their not. As I stated before Jin, Hau and Yu bland characters but the side characters are the worst in fact calling them characters would be a massive insult as their actually like robots that are specially programmed to fight while ditching spit out they self insert backstories by inserting robot voice clip. They are that empty. Due to the characters being empty shells the show becomes a depressing slog filled with abysmal writing. Non-existent worldbuilding, a messy power system that goes out of control half way in, endless meaningless flashbacks that only exist to break the pacing of the fights that are happening, unfunny chibi comedy, annoying tonal that are on par with Your Lie in April, consent asspulls, cheap power-ups, lack of overall stakes, tired shounen tropes and cliches up the ass I could go on.
Here's a perfect example of this empty writing is how the main three grow a bond with each other. Jin meets Yu by accident during a chase of the thief. Yu yells at Jin for breaking her glasses, A couple of minutes later in the case Hau stops bag thief, and they're all introduced themselves before the qualifiers started in the waiting room. After the qualifiers the main three argue with each other yet again then Jin accidentally throws Yu family sword in the river causing Yu to get pissed off at Jin telling him to back off. Then Jin comes to help find Yu looking for her sword in the river giving her light to make it easier to find it then moments later Hau joins in the search to find Yu's sword by bringing in a big light that brightens the rivers in a large scale.
This is on paper is great having our main leads look for the sword as well reconciling with each other through inspiring dialogue that builds an eventually creating unbreakable bond and to its credit the show did that in the beginning but the moment when Hau shows up it that intriguing character-driven scene breaks. Instead of the show actually showcasing the trio finding the sword as spending some decent time to get know each other like most character-driven narratives it transitions into a tournament scene in the waiting acting they are best buds.
This is where The God High School School true intentions start to rear its ugly head that simply does not care about substance.
I really wanted to like these characters as they appeal to me more than anyone of Tower of God especially Yu and Jin but due to terrible directing the anime totally disregards their character writing in favour of fights and, as a result, the story becomes a tedious slog and the characters become empty shells.
When the show decides to have a story at the very end after a series of soulless fights, you find out it's so contrived and convoluted you will wonder if a show was written by a 7-year old that has no understanding of writing and pacing.
Speaking of the pacing my god it's a disaster. The show moves way too fast to a point where it became hard to comprehend what is even happening.
Keep in mind the target audience for The God Of High School are teenagers who are into shounen's yet they can't do that correctly as this show is that empty that's devoid of passion, effort, and creativity.
The final insult of The God Of High School is the hamfisted advertisements. For some reason, Crunchyroll thought it will be a smart idea to splatter their and webtoon logos all over the show especially in fighting arenas. I absolutely hated this every time I saw as it felt I was watching an ad and a lazy one on that. This is immersion breaking at it's finest and it already made the already terrible series even worst.
The word empty perfectly to describe The God Of High School. It is a show that has nothing going for it other than showcasing fights that barely has any meaning or substance behind it.
Sure the anime had decent moments but they ultimately don't save the anime from being terrible. Even though I ended up kinda hating The God Of High School I actually prefer it over Tower Of God. Least the anime despite having a lot of empty moments thanks to horrible pacing least wasn't completed bored or insulted by it.
Crunchyroll please just end this failed experiment. If you're not going to properly adapt your source material then why even bother doing it. You're just making the source material and yourselves look bad.
Have some pride of and admit defeat
SingleH
If the title, “The God of High School,” sounds lit af, dude, then this shit’ll be poggers, dude, deadass. However, if you cringe at the thought of a self-serious television show which seeks to actually entertain you whilst unabashedly pandering such an embarrassing name emblematic of all the little it has to offer, feigning such a shallow pulse of engagement with such radically unbalanced production values for those physical and mental children whom its cacophonies somehow excite, then you will cringe at the reality of this product all the same, because I promise you this can of worms is everything it advertises on the tin andmore. The battle-high comeback The Asterisk War wishes it could’ve lived to see.
Please don’t make this review out to be hatful or any more negative than it actually is. All this review is saying is the content of the show is so vacuous, you can tell whether or not you will enjoy it based on your emotional reaction to the title alone. Any review offering a greater discussion of its template plot or cardboard characters is likely leading you on with the idea there is more to this show than what I’ve stated here. I’m sorry; there isn’t.
Thank you for reading, and you’re welcome for making it easy on you.
Snapshot426
Well there’s no stopping this train, Crunchyroll are going full steam ahead into adapting webtoons. With this, last season’s Tower of God and next season’s Noblesse, things might be looking up for webtoon adaptations right? Weeellll...not exactly. Tower of God is good show that’s HEAVILY relying on a sequel season to make it all worth it (which if I’m aware, hasn’t been announced at the time of this review), Noblesse is a wait and see at the moment and this show has been a truly mixed bag. There are some stuff that this show get right and there are some stuff that this show getswrong, badly at times. But this show has become the epitome of a phrase that I go by when grading a show. “High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.”
Sit back, relax, grasp your own power within you and summon your Perso...i mean Charyeok as I present to you the anime review for the The God of High School. Let’s begin.
Story: 2.5/10
The God of High School tournament has begun and high school students all over Korea flock to prove their worth as the strongest fighter. This includes our three main proagonists Jin Mo-Ri, Han, Dae-Wi and Yu Mi-Ra, each with their own fighting styles and techniques. However, with the commissioner, Park Mu-Jin, looking for something and a shady group working in the shadows, they will soon learn that there is something more than meets the eye to this tournament.
So there you go, a simple tournament with something more going on in the bigger picture. Simple and solid stuff right? Yes, but the execution of this is certainly one to behold because the pacing of this series is utter dogs**t as it is all over the place. It started out nicely in the beginning to set the premise, setting and establishing the bonds between our main leads, but then it blitzes through to get to the big picture. And that is what honestly killed the story for me. This show wanted to get to the big picture as quickly as possible instead of developing what we already got in front of us. It’s almost as if it was obsessed to tell you that there is more to this story than meets the eye, but doing that sacrifices context and some much needed context at that. When the show does explain some things though, it’s kind of blink and you will miss it because good luck trying to understand if you did miss it.
But ultimately, it trying to get to the big picture leaves to a lot of, “what the f**k is going on?” moments. We get introduced to this villainous group that believe in god, abilities that can only be described as Personas or Stands for you Jojo nutters and a “key” that holds great significance. This stuff happens with little to no build-up or context to it so it just happens and you are probably left confused. It changes your attitude towards the fights and honestly makes them less enjoyable at the end because you are trying to wrap your head around as to what is going on instead of just enjoying the spectacle.
Characters: 4/10
There isn’t anything inherently hateful with the main trio as they do a fair job of being characters I can rally behind and they do get some character development. Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra definitely do get some time dedicated to them to get invested into them. But it feels like they get tossed aside by the end and their importance to the plot is dwindled as the show goes on. More focus is placed on Mo-Ri as time goes on as he is the true main protagonist but in my opinion, he isn’t as interesting as Dae-Wi or Mi-Ra in terms of motivation or backstory. He is under the class of Gerenivutus Shounenanatus (aka. Generic shounen protagonist). He likes fighting and getting stronger just so he can fight stronger opponents and get even stronger himself. A tried and true formula sure, but one that has become tiresome and it is no different here. His motivations aren’t really compelling compared to the cast around him and his growth isn’t really as noticeable where it feels like his strength just gets stronger just because at times.
That actually kind of relates to the majority of characters at times because they get stronger just because most of the time. This is another side effect of the lack of context and consistent pacing in this show. The lack of natural growth when it comes to getting stronger is obvious when characters do acts that they have shown no signs of before. I think the lack of training montages kind of hurts this show.
Going back to the cast of characters, there is one that I think would have made for a more interesting main protagonist. Park Il-pyo is much more compelling than Mo-Ri as he has a much more legitimate and interesting motivation while also having similar generic shounen elements. Probably because he gets the most attention out of the cast of characters in terms of backstory. Sure, it is rather cliched but at least is has depth unlike the majority of the more important characters in this show. The rest of the cast is rather meh. They fall under their roles to do their part of the story but I will say that the main antagonists, Nox, are pretty weak as villains go. Not including Taek Jegal who is decent as an ultimate main rival. But Nox is as uninteresting as shadowy groups get. Their main leader is a literal who and their motivation to summon god into the world to destroy it is as generic as bad guy goals get.
In fact, the majority of the cast falls under the cliched shounen troupe and while some do expand on it like Il-pyo, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra, the rest kind of just fall in line, honestly making the cast shallow in the process.
Animation: 9.5/10
Is this the best work MAAPA has ever done to date? Probably. There’s no denying that the animation for The God of High School is fantastic. Fights are fluid and pack quite the punch with it oozing with sakuga everywhere to make the fights themselves fun to watch. But it’s not just how it animates, how the show frames the fights with dynamic angles and shots to give it a different feel each time. Watching from a distance as a guy with a straight jacket runs in fast to kick guys in the head, or it zooming out of Dae-Wi as he turns around and blows people away with his fist. It makes the fights themselves that fun to watch and are easily the highlight of the show for me.
Art style and character design wise, it’s solid, although I don’t know why everyone have such a red nose. It’s like they all have the sniffles or something, I don’t know. It’s something that particularly bothered me, it’s just something that just looks kind of weird. Each character have their own unique look that translate well into the fights so it doesn’t become a hindrance and they are rather distinct from one another and the art style translates well into the action. So overall amazing job by MAPPA.
Sound: 8/10
Honestly, the ost really matches the pacing and emotion of the fights to make them that extra enjoyable from a pure spectacle standpoint. It does what it needs to when you got action like this and enchance a scene that you are most likely engrossed in to keep up with the tone of the scene. The sound effects as well have a nice punch to it to make you feel the force with each hit, knowing that it’s going to hurt.
The opening, "Contradiction feat. Tyler Carter" by KSUKE, is interesting. I like how it builds up the opening and then flurry it out with action and how the opening is styled, with it starting like it’s an intro to the tournament and the neon filter when it shows off the action. The song is give or take. I’m not the biggest fan of techno music but I do like how it builds up with the visuals on screen. BUT, the opening does lose points for the action being just scenes taken directly from the episodes instead of showing off it’s own action to make the opening more independent from the rest of the show. The ending I like as well. "WIN" by CIX, is a nice way to show off the growing bond between Mo-Ri, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra and is a nice way to calm down after the relentless action. Just a nice solid ending.
Conclusion:
“High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.” It’s a line I came up with when I did my review of Sirus the Jaeger back in 2018 and it’s always stuck with me when it comes to shows like this. No matter how good your animation and sound is, if your story and characters don’t do as well, then your show will just be a hollow shell of a technical masterpiece. The God of High School is a show had a lot of promise. If it was able to make sure that the story and characters match the quality of it’s animation and sound it would easily been one of the best anime of the year. But it didn’t. If anything, it bought into its own hype and tried to prove that this show was more than it meets the eye but without establishing why. What’s left is a show that feels very shallow and honestly a waste of MAPPA’s best work to date. Poor pacing and context to the story, underdeveloped and shunted characters, a rather boring protagonist and very weak villains leaves a show that feels half full. While the fights on their own are very good, without a good narrative to back it up, it leaves the fights feeling very hollow.
I do believe this is a case of 12 episode syndrome where they tried to cram it into 12 episodes to save time and budget and move on to the next. But this show badly needed at least a 24 episode run time to help establish key plot elements and character growth. But it didn’t (probably due to budget) and there’s no changing it now. What we are left with is what we got and what we got is honestly, a show that I am disappointed with.
My Personal enjoyment: 4.5/10
Overall score: 5.7/10 Recommendation: Consider it (VERY, VERY BARELY, Consider watching it for the action for the first 3-4 episodes and see where you go from there.)
HellLyter
To those who think this anime is good... I'LL BE YOUR CONTRADICTION! Take notes everyone! God of Highschool is a perfect example of how to NOT execute a tournament arc. It introduces this vague organization full of weird looking suits who probably do bad things. Very evil. The tournament itself is as basic as it gets with no originality behind the set up and some of the most bland participants you've ever seen. Very uninspired. The show feels rushed and the story tries to have unique bits complete with a bunch of hocus pocus shenanigans and lore, but it all fails due to horrible explanation and poorpacing. It's like the author just wanted to make some cool fights but forgot that he needed to make an actual narrative around it. Very smol brain.
The three protagonists are some of the worst I've seen in awhile. One just yells constantly and likes to fight...that's it. The other two are entirely reliant on their backstories for half of the show. The girl's emotions are completely dependent on her Moon sword thingy. The dude's mental state is completely dependent on his sick buddy. When things are going well with their sole purposes in life they're happy. When things are going poorly they're sad. This isn't how you write characters. Also, these three randomly become the best of friends out of nowhere and have some of the worst chemistry I've ever seen. Very unbelievable.
Just to have some positives, the animation is pretty darn good during fights that are actually shown in full. The episode 5 fight especially was the highlight of the anime for me and would have been great if the build up wasn't so awful. Unfortunately, I don't like the art. Everyone looks like they have a cold with their pink noses and ears and some people are just drawn strangely. Also, the Crunchyroll advertisement on the stage burned my eyes, so there's that. Very shallow. The music is full of rave tracks, which I actually liked. The voice acting was full of ear splitting screams, which I didn't like. Very painful.
If you read my other reviews, you'll notice that I like to ramble on a lot since there's always a good amount to say. Not with this show, unless you just want to hear me reiterate why the anime is so bland and poorly conceived. When thinking about this show, My mind is as empty as this anime's plot and characters. If you can enjoy this anime, then great! But for me, there's just two words that come to mind when thinking about God of Highschool.
Very bad
Marinate1016
If the 2010s were the decade of isekai, the 2020s could be the era of manhwa adaptations. Last season gave us Tower of God, this season God of High School and Fall 2020 will see a Noblesse adaptation. As usual, with this adaptation there are source readers who are upset about pacing, skipped scenes, etc. Then there are people like me who are satisfied because of cool fights, world building, insane power scaling, cool characters and mindless entertainment. If you are like me, you will find God of High School to be a good show. If you're someone who looks for masterfully crafted stories, youmay be disappointed. The Korean DBZ is here, and it is not without its flaws.
To be frank, God of High School is the ultimate meathead series. It doesn't try to hide from that fact either. It openly embraces it. While I've been told the story gets much better later on in the webtoon, all I can comment on for this review is the anime, which was pretty meh story wise. I feel like a lot of interesting concepts and ideas were teased, but we never really got to see any of them play-out due to the length of the series. A 24 episode runtime would have been ideal for introducing people to GoH.
Plot aside, as we've come to expect from MAPPA, the animation, art and choreography are all top notch. The highlight of this show are the fight scenes. MAPPA knew that and embraced it, seemingly pouring all of their effort into that department. Honestly, I don't blame them. It's an easy way to hook people and get them into reading the webtoon. It worked on me, I'm sure many other people as well.
Overall, for me God of High School is a really good show as I am not here for the story, although I did find it to be decent enough even in 12 episodes to interest me. I'm here to see people throwing planets, buildings and other incomprehensible abilities at each other, cool animation and to turn my brain off for 25 minutes. In that respect, God of High School succeeded. I give it 8 carrot noses out of 10.
Raiden01
Tournaments, Fillers and everything nice; these were the ingredients chosen to make the perfect little Shonen. However when professor Utonium accidentally added the extra ingredient in the concoction known as Chemical P for plagiarism, this anime quickly tanked in quality. I can not begin to fathom how horrendous this anime truly is. Many reviewers are quick to jump on the fact that the story is rushed and is appealing to the Manwa readers however as an anime only, I do not want to go through a 100 chapter manwa to "get" the obtuse story. With every episode I gradually realized that not only is thepacing rushed in a insulting way to the manwa, but the wow factors of each episode heavily rely on things I've already seen in other Shonin anime. I don't mean concepts but literally animated frames that you could play next to other shonin and see a sad resemblance.
Some of the other Anime this "master piece" has ripped off of include but are not limited to:
NARUTO: Aside from the 9taled fox lore and religion which I can give a slide on there was a scene when Jin starts running which closely resembles how Madara ran at the ninja army. Or the last episode where Jin straight up pulled a Sasuke and dropped lightning from the sky on budget Aizen from bleech. There is more but I will not give this anime any more of my time with this review than it really needs.
Dragon ball: Its sad to see how hard they are trying to make the Characters seem original but anyone with more than 2 braincells can tell the similarities of Jin as budget Goku with an appetite to match and a brain as small.
Nekomonogatari: At the very least try? please? fox boy was animated just like a character who lost their way in to a bar fight and ended up in God? of Highschool.
Don't let the rating of this anime fool you, most people who gave it a high rank, did so in the beginning on episode 1 when the shiny and fast paced anime allowed for plotless nonsense. As someone who followed the rating of this show over the airing time, seeing a dip from 7.9s to a 7.3 told me that I'm not the only one out there barfing at the patchy animation and comically convoluted story.
Don't watch this anime if:
You're looking for good animation : yeah I said it, its average at best.
You're looking for good story: virtually non
You're looking for good Music: generic action
You're looking for character development: from punching to flying in 2 mins...
in short just watch another Shonin, at least then the story wouldn't leave you empty and unloved like this "master piece".
Teluman
I was honestly here for the fight scenes and the animation. It was just a pleasure to watch but not much else to be honest. Storyline is giving very cultish vibes and is just not really interesting and there doesn't seem to be much growth both in characters and fighting skills. Any level up is just something they are born with and unlock and I really hate when people don't really earn what they have. If that is the case they should at least have to work hard to master it. Show had nice animation and hype but no substance.
LordSozin
“What...Just Happened?” - Jin, Mo-Ri (Episode 12, The God of Highschool.) I vividly remember months before the premiere of Tower of God, and what would eventually be the premiere of The God of Highschool, people in the anime community--especially some of the prominent anitubers--were hyping this two anime nonstop. They touted these two as the anime that would change the landscape of the anime industry and would bring in a “new era” of content. Those were some big claims, even outrageous. For me, the one show that I immediately think back to whenever there’re claims like these is Attack on Titan. Mainlybecause Attack on Titan delivered what people claimed it would do back then. It succeeded to usher in not only new anime fans but also changed the landscape of Anime.
These two, however, failed miserably.
Not only did these two fail to deliver big impacts, but it also failed narratively. But out of these two, the painfully clear one was The God of Highschool. This show hangs on the backbone of animation and fights. Not storytelling, plot, characters, or world-building. And as you can guess, this show was inevitably going to crash and burn before it even got off the runway.
Before we get into the “story” of this show, if there’s any, I want to touch upon the pacing and the structure of this show. My gosh, for the first time in a while that I have felt a show’s pacing is this bad. I mean it’s abysmal how they handled the pacing. 90% of this show is constructed in a sequence of fights. The majority of the episodes consist of back-to-back fast-paced nonstop martial art fights, and that’s it. That’s all it offers. It’s a show that gets you hooked then kicks you out the door in an instant. Not giving you much room to breathe and take it all in. And this repeats over and over until you’re just tired of this shit. Funny enough, the fights worked at the beginning of this show because it was invigorating, but after you’re done watching 4-5 episodes of this shit, you’ll be drained. To confuse you even more and add plot holes, the show introduces some of the most overpowered and unexplained power system: Charyeok. This ability is bestowed upon a person when he or she makes a contact with a supernatural entity--at least that was what this show said it would be before going off and randomly granting this power to every single character of this show. This power can be used and shaped by the will of its possessor. Because of how rushed this show is, you’ll just have to accept the fact that they can unlock these powers with no buildups.
Now, the plot. If you were going into this show expecting a coherent story, then you’re in the wrong show. This pile of dogshit knows that it lacks plot points, so to try and deceive you from the lack of plot is by feeding you fights after fights. At the time I’m writing this, it was reported that the producers at MAPPA crammed 130 and counting chapters into 13 episodes. A manhwa’s first 130 chapters worth of story and developments were being glossed over in favor of fights. Jesus Christ. The producers and the director must have lost their minds for thinking that they can form a coherent story with this. In anyhow, the story can be summarized in one sentence: Three high school students that were on steroids came together to participate in a tournament and a religious cult is after them because they’re evil. That’s it. No build-ups, no clarification of their motivations, no world-building, no explanations for the power system, no developments for the main casts, and the list goes on and on. Initially, I was going to accept that there won’t be any plot developments and this garbage would end with the main trio moving on to the next stage of the tournament. An okay ending for what this show has presented thus far. But out of nowhere, the last few episodes turned into a clusterfuck. To simplify, the last few episodes turned into Humans vs God. You read that right.
Apparently, the evil cult got the ability to summon a horribly CG animated golden statue from the sky that was going to crash on to the tournament dorm. This ugly statue is what they call “God”. Before you get the chance to grasp what was going on, you’re thrown into large scale battles. Everyone just suddenly started brawling at each other and initiating chaos within a city. As you watch, you see people being slaughtered left and right, you see a group of lunatics chanting battle cry, you see the buildings on fire, you see the city being blown up, you see the main trio battling against an underdeveloped main villain, and you probably will see a couple having sex in the middle of this chaos and wondering what the fuck is going on.
The character writing of this show painfully displays its old generation of shounen. And I don’t mean your Narutos, Luffies, or Ichigos. I meant the worst aspect of the main characters of the old generation of shounen: characters that drive on fighting. Jin displays the character traits of early Gokus. They have no other motivations or personalities besides their love for combat. That’s why they don’t influence the story and their environments much. Characters like Luffy, for example, are the main component that pushes the story forward. Or characters like Naruto that have a clear motivation and they’re the story. The story and everything else revolves around them.
What’s Jin? If he’s taken out of the story, nothing changes. He could easily be replaced by a nobody, and the story would remain the same. That being the main character participating in a tournament and meets a couple of friends, and they fight together. He doesn’t influence the story because the plot has been set for him. That being the tournament. He doesn’t even have much of an impact on characters around him.
Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra’s motivation to participate in the GoH tournament ended way too early. After Dae-Wi’s friend died, he lost his purpose in the show. The only reason he still participated in the tournament in the first place was that he’s part of the main trio. And the same problem applies to Mi-Ra. As the series progressed, it lost its characters’ purpose. What once was a mildly interesting trio turned into a one-dimensional lunatics that love punching and kicking.
The only thing that kept me from giving this garbage a score of 1 is the animation. The fights, choreography, details in character designs, lighting effects, and the smoothness of the animations were great. There’s clear evidence that the animators worked their asses off for delivering the fights in this show, unlike the staff who worked on Tower of God. The camera movements were smart and helped to deliver the impacts of these fights. The color effects of the background and stage were reflective, the smooth animation of hand to hand combat was mind-blowing at times, and the overall animation style makes the show feel alive. Unlike the paint animation of Tower of God. It at least showed that the animators cared about what they were animating even if they knew this show was doomed to fail. But that still won’t excuse this show’s overall problems.
At last, I want to end this review by saying that I wanted The God of Highschool to succeed. I wanted Tower of God to succeed. Just like I stated in my ToG review. I genuinely believe that Webtoons can be turned into a major adaptation field for future anime projects because I believe Webtoons can bring something new and fresh. But, the adaptation of The God of Highschool and Tower of God proves that there needs to be a big commitment put into these adaptations. Because clearly, the anime industry doesn’t know how to adapt Manhwas, yet.
Score: 2/10
ThatAnimeSnobRE
PROLOGUE The God of Highschool is the second Korean adaptation after Tower of God that is unlike anything we’ve seen before, because it’s from Korea. It really stands out from all other anime that came out so far by being exactly like every other anime that came out so far... Seriously now, anyone who thought we entered a new era for anime, because manhwa will be the new fad after isekai, was an idiot. There is nothing that sets this anime apart from Baki the Grappler, or Kengan Ashura, or any other show that is just about teenagers fighting each other. ARTWORK AND ANIMATION It is well animatedand if pretty colors are all you want, you will get them in spades. Just shut off your brain and watch stuff exploding on screen. You will like it that way. But in case you cannot do that, because you have a functional brain and you are not enjoying eating shit by forcefully losing your sense of smell and taste, then don’t bother.
CHARACTERS
The characters are one note, have very shallow motivations, and are apes in level of intelligence.
-They can wish for anything they like, and the best things they can think of are some money to save their dojo, or a reverse harem.
-They realize superpowers exist only when they see many contestants using them. It’s something they should have known since all previous tournaments were airing on television and were very popular. They weren’t hidden from the public, they were broadcasted worldwide, therefore they should have known about the superpowers.
-The protagonist says he doesn’t want to borrow powers from others and wants to instead get stronger on his own. And then proceeds to get a cheap power up by eating a devil fruit and never points out his hypocrisy.
-Most land devastations by superpowers are covered up by the media and are labeled as invasions from the north. And by north, they mean North Korea. Which means every time a mountain blows up it’s just North Korea nuking the country. And that is enough for nobody to panic. What a great cover up.
-Contestants are constantly injuring their opponents outside the tournament, and yet nobody reports them so they can be disqualified. Not even the victims. Which means the tournament is so just you can win without having to follow any rules or play fair. I mean, why would they say they got attacked when it’s just going to be covered up as an invasion from the North Korea? No reason to panic.
PLOT
The reason the characters are so mentally challenged is because there is no logic in the plot. There is an evil cult that wastes a whole episode on a marriage that came out of nowhere and was over in 10 minutes. Then imposters replace the real fighters and take their form just for fighting someone on the arena when they could fight her is the middle of the street whenever they wanted and avoid doing all this nonsense. Every single scene is as dumb as that and it constantly makes you eye roll.
PACING
Even if the plot was a masterpiece with no plot holes or conveniences, the show would still be bad, since the geniuses at the storyboard decided to adapt 10 chapters per episode. As a result there is close to no build up for most of what is going on, and nothing feels rewarding because it’s over before you know it.
-There is a grampa who is said to be undefeatable in battle, yet loses in the very first fight we see. So we feel nothing over his loss.
-One of the rivals has a haki-like aura that always causes his opponents to faint, yet fails in the very first fight we see it being used. So we feel nothing over its failure.
-The key of the gods is supposed to be powerful enough to destroy the world, yet it gets defeated in the very first fight it’s used. So we feel nothing over its failure.
ACTION
Even the action part, the highlight of the show, is far from the best thing ever.
-There is a power scouter of sorts that measures one’s endurance and battle power. Those numbers never play a role in the fights, because if they did there would be no point in the fighting. They would just declare the winner based on the bigger number. Thus the numbers are useless and every victory comes down to ‘because plot said so’.
-The way people obtain superpowers comes down to randomness. Some never get them no matter how much they train, and some get them without doing anything. Wonderful! It basically works however it suits the plot. Which is also why people get power ups in the middle of the fight without prior knowledge of what they gained.
-There is close to no teamwork in the battles, and even when there are numerous combatants it feels as though the strongest ones need no help because they can steamroll everything. The main character in specific is broken as shit. He’s constantly plot armored so that he is never punished for breaking the rules. He’s somehow durable enough to withstand super poisons and nuclear explosions. Gets stronger very fast. Can copy someone’s ability by just looking at it. Creates new special attacks with minimal training. Pulls out hidden powers that not even demigods stand a chance against. Manages to run faster than light and get to the tournament in a few seconds despite being tired and injured. There is literally nothing he can’t do and acts like a brat the whole time. He is annoying and ruins all the fun in the fights.
-Most battles don’t have meaningful tactics that would make them a bit more interesting through mind games. It’s just who fires the bigger energy blast or does the craziest shit. There is a scene where a guy turns nuclear missiles into a statue and teleports millions of people to safety in a few seconds. How did he do that?
-Most lesser fights are really short or are skipped entirely, which can be very annoying when they hype them up and then show nothing. And because of the brilliant idea of shoving 10 chapters in every episode, there are MANY fights per episode and they are all either short or skipped, therefore none of them is satisfactory.
-Injuries mean nothing since there is instant healing technology and wish-granting ladies. Basically, there are zero negative consequences when you lose a fight.
-There are constant interruptions that quickly become annoying. Many of them stop when someone jumps in the ring to interrupt the fighting before it gets brutal and ruins the fun. There is no tension, much less stakes.
-There is a lot of fake suspense regarding characters that seem like they can lose or die, but not really since they could do a lot of weird shit all along. For example, the family of the referee didn’t die because they created copies of them. What a great strategy. If only we had seen the fake family die, if only we had spend time with the real family for giving a shit, and if only the power to create copies had already been established earlier instead of coming out of nowhere.
-New special attacks come out of nowhere and you have to just accept that the characters were holding back the whole time. Even if there was no indication that they could do all that before using them for the first time.
-It can be very confusing to follow what is going on, since there is no narrator for explaining the superpowers. The viewer has to figure it out on his own. And even then, he won’t have a clue as to why did someone win in a fight. A guy for example summons a huge hammer out of nowhere, and as soon as it’s blocked he falls unconscious. What happened? From where did that hammer come from? How was it blocked? Why did he fall unconscious? Without explanations it’s just random bullshit.
-If the fighters are not jumping around with kicks and punches, they are standing still and summon Jojo stands that do all the work for them. What is the point of learning martial arts if they can stand still and let shit happen all around them?
EPILOGUE
So yeah, the show is a trainwreck. The only reason it got hyped up as part of the new era of anime was because many shills were paid to lie about it. You see, Crunchyroll wanted to sell subscriptions so it tricked a lot of casuals into consuming Korean products and being excited for more Korean products. Because, at the end of the day, isn’t that the meaning of life in this modern world we are living in?
GGPoH
Never watch this anime *if you are a snob that can't watch anything without nitpicking for the smallest flaws in something* Honestly? This anime made me feel like I was 12 again, watching the latest Naruto episode on Animax at 9'o clock while begging for my mom to let me finish it. It's your generic shonen. MC is overpowered, side characters are not cardboard cutouts but not amazingly developed either. And there are a LOT of side characters. I like that the MC also has this quest of finding his grandpa which was his only family since he was born, which gives him a satisfying motivation.Small spoiler for the end of the anime, we can't even predict if Mori will actually save him because of the last words we hear from his grandpa while he is chained up "I hope will be strong enough to defeat me".
The action scenes are 100/10. Most of the early fights were actually motion captured which makes them so much better. Later down the line, we get more DBZ style of fights while maintaining the initial weight of the hits in the beginning, so I don't really mind it.
Cons are the constant backstory in the middle of the fight that I didn't really mind THAT much, but it was noticeable and bugging me around episode 4-7. In the later episodes, I didn't get bothered that much so I am pretty sure they toned it down a bit.
Overall, 10/10 due to enjoyment. I usually rate anime based on more technical criteria but it simply wouldn't be fair for this one. I strongly recommend you watch it if you are a fan of shonen and you want some semi-mindless fun with a little nostalgia thrown in there (if you are like me).
Auron
If I were to attempt to encapsulate the idea of GoHS within few words, as the brevity the digital age would have you require, I'd simply say: Battle Shounen on steroids. The more I ruminate on it, the more comfortable I feel at the phraseology of my likening. For indeed, the show exhibits nothing but a gross accentuation of the attributes idiosyncratic to the genre, while consistently outright ignoring the literary conventions for forming and maintaining an engaging narrative, much to the dismay of everyone who has the *ridiculously unreasonable* bar of expecting more in a story than mere mindless clash of swords/fists. The ruleof cool permeates the very fabric of this adaptation; it is comparable to allocating one's skill points solely to one attribute. What should be a mere experience enhancer is mistaken for the main dish and is thence expected for one to stomach a plate filled with naught but condiments and spices. Needless to say it doesn't make for a particularly hearty (nor tasty for that matter) meal. Vague conceptions and aphorisms aside, I shall get on with the meat of the discussion.
As far as any work that features action compounding with fantastical elements go, what is paramount above all else is establishing what exactly those elements ARE, how it ties into the world and its mechanics, as well as the capabilities of the characters relevant to the story. And GoHS has NOTHING, and by that I mean not even a SEMBLANCE of this very rudimentary understanding of how stories work in its arsenal. Gigantic swords are conjured from the sky, otherworldly creatures resembling Stands are summoned, anything ranging from elemental magic, cathode ray guns, regeneration, and even teleporting whole cities goes in this story with no apparent explanation to what even is the source of this arbitrary and inconsistent litany of distinct skill sets. Eventually, in episode 7, they chalk all of it up to a mystical power that transcends human knowledge borrowed from the Gods. This helps absolutely nothing; it's still impossible to gauge what our heroes/heroine are capable of, thereby obscuring the level of danger they face at any particular time. It's unimmersive as it is anticlimactic, why should you care about a battle that you cannot make anything out of? Anyone can survive anything, some random god can decide on a whim to bestow you powers. It successfully kills off any excitement one can have over analysing how the tides of battle can potentially change in either combatant's favour. Shows that aren't too keen on building the combat system from scratch tend to instead use internal monologues to give us a sense of the state of battle. This, while not being nearly as satisfying as deducing so yourself by extrapolating from visual cues, works absolutely fine. Too bad they decided not to do that either. As audience, you're but a detached onlooker, witnessing an alien occurrence play out, furrowing your eyebrows at what you're supposed to feel.
The cast is a reskin of the stock characters you've seen a couple of hundred times by now. You got the hot-headed and bubbly mc who just loves fighting for the sake of fighting, the stoic and taciturn kick-ass going at great lengths for the people he values, and lastly the uptight and more ordinary tritagonist who mostly assumes the role of the Straight Man in the comical scenes that ensue. On the supporting cast too, the trends naturally follow, but with the added handicap of not being explored at all, unlike the mc's, whose motivations we at least were allowed some minimal disclosure of. There's the enigmatic rich businessman whom we have as much insight on in the end of episode 13 as we do in the beginning of episode 1, some deranged cult leader who just wants to see the world burn, an antagonist who wants to crush people and have as much power as possible because... uhh, you know what forget it, they're stock characters, perhaps better suited for theatre. Though it should be mentioned, my remarks here oughtn't be construed as claiming a uniquely realized cast is a prerequisite for a successful anime, that is not necessarily the case. If the narrative is gripping by itself, inoffensive and simplistic surrogates may very well suffice. But when it's already nothing to be proud of on those respects, this could only be seen as an aggravating factor in inducing head scratches.
There are two subplots seemingly interconnected with the motivations behind the tournament and the fate of the heroes of our story, but it is too unbaked to the point where even addressing it feels like giving it more than its due. "There is a cult-like organization discontent with the usage of charyeok?" Okay... "Mori's grandpa is constantly moving because baddies want him, also he has something to do with NK?" Sure... "Park Meijin and the commissioners have a plan involving the GoHS to awaken the key?" What it is, what it is for, how GoHS helps it manifest, why everyone and their mother is vying for it, these are all great questions; but well, how about more flashy animation instead? It's all a bunch of vagueries in an attempt to hold in place a series of action sequences, they could be more accurately described as passing remarks than plot points, given that they're mentioned once and never elaborated on again until they're literally at your doorstep. In the unlikely instance where you do get some expository direction, it'll be by means of brief info dumps that are unrelated to the scene in question. I legitimately had to look up the episode synopses in order to remind myself of these plot elements, not because the storytelling is too dense to take in, to the contrary, because there is so little info to go on when interpreting what the hell just transpired that it isn't a feasible nor a worthwhile endeavour.
In short, this is a well-animated fighting compilation that would work perfectly fine as a long-winded trailer for a fighting game. As a full-fledged narrative building up on itself it is an absolute joke.
Birze
I'm not a huge anime fan, I've watched like 10-15-20.. Therefore, this is not a weeb's review. You'll see people complaining about the story, about characters and so on and so forth. However, it would be a pity if you didn't watch it. I already recommended it to all my friends. I just loved it. It made me sit at the edge of my chair. I got goosebumps countless times. Such fluid and outstanding animation, such lovable characters and protagonist. Such badass abilities, super powers, new moves etc. Yes, the protagonist is invincible. But.. Aren't they all? I finished it in 1 sit. If youare looking for good fights, music, characters this is a go to.
RebelPanda
Do not watch this anime. Instead, go into your kitchen, put on some dubstep, and start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and imagine the most generic fighting anime possible. Well done. You have created an experience almost as horrible as The God of High School. Allegedly, this anime is about high school students fighting in a tournament to win a wish. After watching it, I do not think any part of the synopsis is correct. Everyone is supposedly in high school, but none of them show the slightest signs of brain activity. Only a few of the contestants are actually students. Thereis a bodybuilder, a 30-year-old construction worker, and an army sergeant, to name a few. It seems like the author forgot his own premise. Calling this show a tournament would also be a lie. The main character, Jin Mori, is wrapped so tightly in plot armor he is invincible. A bomb could explode right beside him, and he’d be unscathed. Amazing logic! His entire personality is limited to being loud, annoying, and comically overpowered. Occasionally he is drawn with chibi artwork to highlight just how obnoxious he is. Someone had the genius idea to add comic relief chibi-art at random times while people are fighting and killing each other. But who cares about tonal consistency when you have sakuga?
Jin breaks the tournament rules all the time, and nothing happens. Even though the angsty committee who run the show are supposed to be threatening, they rarely punish him. He doesn’t deserve his wins. Jin gets stronger incredibly fast with no training too. I can’t cheer for a protagonist who never struggled for his powers. Why would anyone root for a hero who is given everything? Jin had a one-minute training montage, now he can heal any wound by poking it with his finger. No joke, this really happens. Jin always holds back his powers because he has a secret plan. He reveals his cool new moves, but it’s not impressive. We’re never allowed to see his strategies, so there’s no build-up. It’s the same trite formula every fight. All we get is mindless back and forth of punches and kicks. It’s equivalent to removing a WWE commentator. In the manhwa, there were fighting style explanations. All of them were removed from the adaptation. There’s an announcer for the tournament who contributes nothing except enthusiastic introductions.
In the first episode, Jin met his friends Mira and Dae-wi. The first fight scene is one of the best in the show. The bike chase that began the episode was very well choreographed. The voice acting was frantic, and so was the music. Everyone fought together. The characters interacted with the environment in ways they never do again. The campy comedy felt sincere—afterward, it was nowhere to be seen. Mira and Dae-wi are the most powerful competitors, but somehow they’re more underwhelming than Jin. Mira is determined to be a worthy successor to her late father by carrying on her family’s sword and combat style. Other than a few scenes to herself, Mira gets virtually no time at all. Her fights are shorter, and sometimes all we see is the beginning and end. Dae-wi had one motivation in the whole show. His entire reason for being in the tournament became irrelevant, but he still stayed in. His backstory was interesting, but he became obsolete after a couple of episodes. The three of them have no chemistry at all. They only seemed like friends in the outro credits (Where they do friend stuff together). The opening provides some “character development,” too, but that’s if you can listen to it. Listening to the OP is like getting stabbed in the eardrums with rusty knives. Imagine mixing dubstep and the sound of nails scraping a chalkboard.
The only reason why I kept watching the God of High School was the fight scenes and sakuga. It really pissed me off when they gave people a backstory moments before they would lose. It’s pointless. With every passing episode, more characters were added. There were increasingly more plot-lines. The pacing became so fast it felt like a 50 episode anime was beaten with a shovel until it fit in 13 episodes. We were told that important fights happened without getting to see them. They’ll show us the beginning and end but skip everything else. They just show us the outcome. We’re told The God of High School tournament is broadcasted worldwide, but it’s never incorporated into the setting to build up the fights. Even the main characters lose track of the new powers their opponents are fighting with. This puts them at a disadvantage, but why should we care? They’re in a tournament, but they’re too stupid to watch their upcoming opponents on TV? How am I supposed to believe they are THIS dumb. I can’t enjoy God of High School if it makes no sense to me. What am I supposed to do? Stare at the sakuga with drool dripping down my face? Pass. Is this the future of anime? God, I hope not.
The characters move from one fight to the next without existing in the setting. They don’t know what’s happening beyond their red clown noses. The author churns out new characters like a cardboard cut-out printing press. People blow themselves up, summon spirit sharks and giant bazookas. It’s like Looney Tunes, except bloody and boring. The rules of this world don’t make any sense. The fights never affect the setting. They fight in public, damage property, and kill people, but it rarely explains how this affects actual citizens. The author could’ve avoided this gaping plothole with a simple solution. If the tournament took place in an alternate dimension, it would explain why the setting is empty. Even Hand Shakers, the infamously terrible anime from 2017, got this right. Somehow God of High School is even stupider than that shitshow. Calling GoH a shit show would be insulting to both shit and shows. At least after a shit, you feel better. After this, I just felt dead inside.
The fight choreography makes the fight scenes even less comprehensible. Jin grazes his opponent in one fight, but the sound effects are so impactful you could mistake it for a fistfight. The same punching sounds are repeated in rapid succession. It’s like One Punch Man 2 all over again. Did the sound editors even communicate with the director? God of High School’s animation gets a lot of praise, which is deserved for specific action sequences, but for two-thirds of the show, it looks very average. The visuals are spectacular… in a couple of scenes. Due to the clusterfuck of a script, the editing lacks continuity. We skip from one place to the next in less than thirty seconds. It’s difficult to follow any of the storylines. There are so many details lost between stories. Attempting to catch up with everything that has happened makes it impossible to just enjoy it.
Fights take place in the streets, and buildings are destroyed… but no one seems to care. Are there police officers? Military? Firefighters? DOES ANYONE EXIST IN THIS WORLD?! It doesn’t seem like it! I guess the author just didn’t finish that part! I have no idea why the author added magic to this show. They cut out every explanation of the magic when adapting the script. Magical circles are copied and pasted everywhere like you’d see in a generic isekai anime. Massive swords fall from the sky, and people literally have Jojo’s stands.
In other, better fantasy stories, the world would look much different from magic. It would advance technology, architecture, science, and change the media. God of High School didn’t bother. It is a lazy cash grab. Rather than being original, it regurgitates tired genre tropes and cliches. There is no artistic integrity in this script. The pacing flies at breakneck speed, making it hard to follow along. All I could do was try to make sense of what I was watching. If you want to understand what’s happening, you need to read the Wiki.
God of High School was filled with unnecessary advertising for Crunchyroll and Webtoon. Their intentions were obvious--to advertise the webtoons and convince people to buy them. It’s unclear if they will make sequels to these anime. I thought it was just an Easter Egg the first time. Anime studios often subtly integrate their name into their shows. Unlike artists, Crunchyroll does not care how obnoxious their logo is. Their advertisement is plastered on every side of the God of High School battle arena. Sponsored by Crunchyroll! Sponsored by Webtoon! They make sure you never forget who paid for what you’re watching. How ironic that they attached their name to the shittiest anime they’ve funded. How embarrassing. Even though this anime isn’t high art, it is slimy to put your company’s name all over the show. Does the anime take place in a world where Crunchyroll exists? No, they are just comprised of greedy investors who don’t give two shits about anime. Crunchyroll messed up this adaptation. They chose to adapt 118 chapters, that’s 9 chapters every episode. What we have here is a shitty 13 episode trailer for the webtoon. This is an embarrassment for MAPPA, a studio filled with passionate artists.
The God of High School is a burning dump truck stinking up the entire anime industry. This catastrophe can never happen again, but I know it will as long as they keep making money. This is a genuinely baffling piece of animation. They tried their hardest to entertain us but failed miserably. The saying, “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” explains this anime excellently.
It’s boring as hell, the story is a clusterfuck, the characters are walking cliches, the powers are unexplained, and it’s all riddled with plot holes wider than the Mariana Trench. MAPPA has a few extraordinary skills, including motion capture fight choreography. Once in a while, the visuals are godly. The advertisements take these fights out of context to claim it is amazing. For the rest of the show, the art is hideously mediocre. I’ve never seen an anime with a budget as high as The God of High School’s that can be compared to the worst action anime ever made.
debochca
I never wanted to make a review, but I tired my friends with my complains, so here I go. Sorry for my bad english Well, I think this is the perfect example of good idea and bad execution. I haven't read the manhwa, and that's why I don't criticize the story itself, but the adaptation. Story: 1 This is the worst pacing EVER, so rushed and incoherent. I'm not only talking about the story as such, i'm also referring to the tournament and all the fights. Everything happens in a matter of seconds, a lot of things and power-ups unexplained got out of nowhere. In the first episodes noone says that the story is placed in a "super powers world" or something like that, but suddenly they come up with all the charyeoks?
The first episode seems to be a little bit attractive with a basic humor, but the next 4 episodes are very disappointing, and after that it just gets worse. In episode four the main femenine character meets a guy in the first 15 seconds of the show, and by the middle of it they are getting married FOR A STUPID AND LOOSE REASON; of course, the reason is SO WEAK that by the end of the episode she realizes how ridiculous it is and changes her mind in half of a minute. Disastrous.
By the eigth or nineth episode we get to see kind of an organization OUT OF NOWHERE, AGAIN, that appears with no logical reasons to destroy everything. The first thing you wonder is WHY, HOW? Guess what, none of this response will get to you.
And after that, they step aside and you get leaded to the main villain, another pathetic character with a superiority complex and that is violent in excess. That's all. A lot of things around him are questionable. There's a mysterious "key" that everybody wants and that was inside a kyuubi guy, a character that has nothing to do and is quite similar to the MC, not to say that is the same cliche thing.
This is only the edge of the iceberg, but I think is enough to comprehend my point. And most important, a lot of plot holes, and A LOT of plot benefits. I can't recall how many of the fights in the anime are meant to end in a way, BUT GUESS WHAT, THE THREE LITTLE FRIENDS ALWAYS HAVE A TRICK UP THEIR SLEEVE THAT HAS NO PRECEDENTS NOR SENSE.
Art: 8
I think is the only positive thing about this anime. Mappa is a studio that I really love, and the animation is fantastic. The fights are the best 20 seconds in every lame episode, lol.
Such a shame that this is the only thing that I save and that prevented me from dropping this ridiculous anime.
Sound: well, 5.
I would say this is average to me. Not a big deal, not bad, not good.
Good VA, that I can say.
Character: 3
MEDIOCRE af. Every character is 2d, with just one or two motives to be where they are and to do what they do. They all are pretty forgettable and also the relationship between the 3 MC is soooo forced.
The main character is kind of likeable, but that's it. Typical shounen protagonist, and i'm not complaining on that specifically, because i'm really a shounen fan, but Jin Mori is only that. A likeable character that goes unnoticed and has no merit. All you can say about him is that is the stereotype of the good kid who defends the weak and doesn't allow unjustice. And, of course, PRETTY BUFFED WITH A LOT OF POWER UPS THAT NOT EVEN HE KNOWS HE HAS.
Daewi, the quiet friend, is the only thing I kind of liked here. His story is the only one that makes sense, at least a little bit. Is kind of likeable, a calm person with a gray past and that is quite powerful too. Even though he doesn't have much development, he is okay.
And the girl, Yu Mira, is an annoying character with double moral that has an objective and a flimsy determination to do it. Is the weakest of them, and all the battles she wins are completely stupid and unfair. No much to say, without her the show would have been less of a suffer.
Some of my complains here went to the plot part, so I'm gonna try to not expand on it.
90% of the characters get lost in the plot convenience and, even though they try to make them a fast backstory, they disappear with no trace, like them only function was to lose BY TRAP to the MCs.
As a I said, the villains have stupid arguments and nonsensical actions. Also, various characters are incosistent. At the end, the viewer never know whether they have good or bad intentions.
Enjoyment: 2
Dreadful.
I had a lot of expectations on this, and it failed all of them by far. I love art marcial animes an so, but this was a disaster.
I always watch an anime from the beggining to the end, I try so hard to not drop them, and so I did with GOH. I always tend to give it another chance to see if it can get any better, but this anime only made me suffer the episodes since the middle of the show.
Overall: 2
DON'T WATCH IT UNLESS YOU HAVE GOOD REASONS TO DO IT
An1meDweeb
MILD SPOILERS AHEAD FOR GOHS There are few things that get us weebs on our feet like some good action. High energy. That’s what propelled God of High School (GoHS) off to the races from the get-go. Everything from the early-2010s dubstep of a bombastic OP to the cast of manic martial-artists were engineered to deliver fist-pumping fun. Oh, and the action was spectacular too. For some audiences, such hype was all that they could ever ask for in a show. But for others, the train goes by oh-so-fast with far too little room to breathe. One has to ask if the ride was worth all thatmuch to begin with. Mild spoilers ahead regarding the premise of GoHS, so feel free to skip ahead to my Tl;Dr if you’d prefer to go in blind.
Welcome to Korea, home to the biggest mixed martial arts tournament the world has ever seen. Fighters from all over the country stake their lives in the ring, all for the prestigious title of God of High School. Not that it’s actually affiliated with a school or anything, I’m not sure what academic institution would sign off on having minors battle in a no-holds barred cage fight. And these fights really don’t hold back; competitors are pushed beyond their human limits thanks to nanobots that act as augmented “hitpoints,” repairing the body mid-combat and ensuring that brawls leave fans on the edge of their seats. This was essentially an underground fighting ring getting the widespan attention of a major sports championship. Sounds looney as all hell – and I was all for it.
The first episode strode with confidence, with a pilot putting ass-kicking adrenaline action on full display. Lesser studios would kill to pull off this level of “sakuga” just once in a season; MAPPA staged those setpieces every odd week. A lot of those scenes weren’t all style and no substance either; creative visual storytelling choices, expressive key frames, and even motion-capture techniques were incorporated to deliver scenes that got audiences hyped and talking. Sure, there were definitely concessions made in giving backgrounds or in-between frames the same degree of attention, and secondary characters were written like those of the fighter video game campaigns GoHS took inspiration from – one-note, deranged, and ready to jump into battle faster than you can say “Fatality.” But hey, I like awesome animation as much as the next weeb. I won’t complain if the show asks me to turn my brain off and revel in the chaos. Unfortunately, as engaging as the action was, that’s not exactly what the show’s going for.
Maybe I started this off wrong, let me try again.
GoHS follows the story of Jin Mori, a scrappy taekwando pro eager to prove his strength and reunite with his long-lost grandfather. He meets a couple of friends in the tournament: Mira, a martial arts student hoping to breathe new life into her antiquated fighting style, and Han, a bare-fist brawler participating to keep his friend alive. Perhaps this Korean WebToon was well-suited to get the traditional anime treatment after all. It’s your classic shounen – the show is literally built around a tournament arc, for Pete’s sake. I’ve been meaning to find a shounen title I could get invested in, and it seems like I could do a lot worse than GoHS. Our main trio were gonna be the underdogs, training hard to be the very best and learning the importance of friendship along the way. We see shades of this in what is probably the series' high-point, Episode 5. Han and Jin's duel was a great blend of character growth and epic action. It's a little more serious than I previously expected, sounds good to me.
Except… that’s not what the show is going for either. An entire tournament arc that could have taken place across the entire cour was rushed out in the span of 5 episodes. How? By having little-to-no meaningful buildup or development take place outside of the fighting. It really is just fight after fight back-to-back. The show throws countless punches, but none of those blows carry weight behind them. There’s no time to show our cast struggle from the very bottom as they work their way to the top. No training montages or hard-earned lessons against tough opponents. As the ED goes: “All we do is just win,” and it’s incessantly boring.
The show also does the core relationship between Jin, Han and Mira no favors. While GoHS preaches the importance of friendship, the close "bond" chosen to represent this ideal boils down to our trio travelling to the stadium and threatening to beat the shit out of each other every 10 minutes. Sure, somewhere in those death threats is an endearing interpretation of this competitiveness, as they urge each other to overcome their hurdles. And I’d be inclined to agree, if these characters could demonstrate their connection in any other way. The writers are rarely capable of showing this “friendship” outside the context of sweaty combat. Every helping hand offered always comes with a caveat that reads: “The only one who beats you in a fight will be me!” Their connection in the anime is two-dimensional and repetitive. It’d be too much of a stretch to deem this relationship as negative or toxic^, that implies some risks taken in portraying our three stooges.
Oh, and all three of them are immediately the best fighters of the preliminary rounds, diffusing most of the tension for a good half of the season. The author threw in a magic power system into the mix, one that only 4 of the "martial arts" preliminary's competitors tapped into. Guess who three of those fighters are. I actually laughed when Mira, having been disarmed, won the fight by slicing the air as a ranged attack, leaving a flesh wound (this happens multiple times in GoHS.)
Wait, this magic system is part of the lore… of course! So that’s the point of the show.
Ok, I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Third time’s the charm?
Things really heat up in the second half of GoHS as it pulls back the curtain to reveal a more complex setting than one would have initially imagined. A world defined by a massive power struggle – a battle of godly proportions. Two factions are deeply rooted in conflict over a mythical Key that possesses power to rival that of deities themselves. These factions tap into a magic system known as “Charyeok” for their uncanny abilities. The God of High School tournament is really a front to handpick Charyeok users and hopefully trigger the awakening of the Key. It sounds overwhelming and way more complicated than what I signed up for, but we’ve seen this storytelling work before. Calling GoHS “the next Evangelion” would be a stretch, but there are parallels between the two. A charismatic leader (Park Mujin) goes up against a shady organization (the cult) in taking control of a mysterious force through taking advantage of mentally unstable teenagers. Heck, it’s even got some complicated worldbuilding of its own. Surely this has to be what GoHS is going for?
Nope, really missed the mark on that one. Normally alongside this large chaos in the background, you’d get a more focused character conflict in the foreground. GoHS does attempt to maintain this balance but fails to derive anything meaningful from its convoluted context. This show is so hell-bent on one-upping itself in its lunacy because it barely gives the audience any reason to care about the characters experiencing these events. What then occurs is a perpetuating cycle where the crazy plot has to compensate for its shallow character interactions by going all-in on its silly ideas, further sidelining the cast and making their appearances on-screen comedically asinine. They didn’t even make this magic system a new hurdle for our already-OP heroes to overcome; each of them master their abilities roughly two episodes after these powers were formally introduced. Jin grows so quickly capable that he can perfectly replicate new combat moves after seeing them performed once. None of this makes sense to me, nor do I have any incentive to care. In Episode 9 Han’s entire arc was to get anxious over the missing Jin, getting ready to leave the stadium in search of him, getting jumped in the bathroom by a crazy competitor who picks a fight, getting kissed by that same lunatic, and forgetting why he was about to leave the stadium in the first place. The main cast’s importance to the story is cut-down to the point where most attempts to give them screen time are plain stupid. I made a comparison with Eva earlier, and that’s a story that knew how to balance its “macro” lore with its “micro” internal conflict. There was a thematic and symbolic interplay between these ideas, making them important in the grand scheme of things. May I ask how introducing “Charyeok,” Jojo Stands/Personas, ancient relics, a stereotypical cult, clones a la “The Matrix,” the Sharknado villain, CGI Buddha & King Kong falling out of the sky, and teddy-bear-laser-guns are important or meaningful in any way?
If the idiom warns against “having your cake and eating it too,” GoHS buys out the whole damn bakery and goes just about bankrupt in its self-indulgence. It simultaneously wants to be a goofy action anime and a more serious show. It wants to tell you how powerful friendship can be without putting in the legwork to making that relationship look remotely convincing. It tries to be this overstuffed blockbuster while falling comically short of having its disparate elements say anything. This whole review I’ve asked what the point of GoHS is, and the only answer I’m satisfied with is that it’s a glorified commercial. A soulless adaptation speedrunning through the highlights of its source material. This series feels about as haphazardly paced as the live-action anime remakes we as a community have come to detest. Both give off the impression that they’re checking off corporate boxes, well-aware that none of what you’re seeing makes any semblance of sense unless you read the manhwa. This approach to storytelling means that even the few strong moments in the series are tainted by the suspicion that what you’re watching is just another “item on the list.” These are quite heated accusations to lob at the show, but all signs point to this mismanagement of story. Why else would this single-cour attempt to adapt more chapters (roughly 100) than most 23-episode seasons, when just the first arc alone could have been enough for viewers to get invested for the long-term?
Tl;Dr:
God of High School is an action-packed extravaganza. If you’re willing to invest your time under those grounds alone, go for it; but don’t expect the show to do anything else. GoHS got the “live-action anime remake” treatment; with its horrible pacing, laughable drama and two-dimensional characters. As much as GoHS puts in admirable effort into making its fight scenes some of the best you’ll witness all-year, the team behind the project can’t quite erase the fact that it has “READ THE MANHWA” written all over it in bright bold letters. There is reason to believe that this was a corporate cash-grab, but with an abysmal second half the show fails at being a commercial too. Because having sat through this painfully stupid anime, I’m now even less likely to give the WebToon a read. 4/10~
STRAY RAMBLINGS (SPOILERS):
-- ^Actually, I take that back. Han actually DOES beat the shit out of Mira in Ep 4, leaving her heavily injured and unconscious. While this story choice does lead to the only good arc in the show, I find it uncomfortable how quickly the three swept this under the rug and moved on. No one in the group ever acknowledges the fact that one of them almost murdered another. I guess whatever happens in the ring, stays in the ring? Yikes.
-- The BIGBANG segment is the Korean knockoff of "Big Shot" from Cowboy Bebop.
-- I’ve heard a lot of people saying that GoHS was pulling a “Tower of God,” and I don’t think that comparison is fair. Whilst ToG could be pretty hard to follow, it handled its worldbuilding far better than GoHS ever did. Having seen both WebToon adaptations so far fall below expectations is something to worry about, so here’s hoping Crunchyroll keeps its act together for Noblesse.
-- “How you do drama or how you create tension… it’s very different in anime versus manga… so how do we make it so that people won’t get confused when they get into it? And how do we not lose certain aspects of the story that really mattered?” Joseph Chou, producer of GoHS
12 episodes in and I don’t think either of us have the answer.
-- BEST GIRL: Maybe Seungah. A lot of the secondary characters felt like clones really, but she seemed pretty wholesome.
-- That’s it from me! This review was admittedly more harsh than others I’ve shared so far. But I hope that, unlike the show, the points came across clearly. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present, peace~
Luubie
Superficiality, lack of connection between the characters and the story, and above all, uninteresting. That was God of High School for me. This review will have some spoilers, but not that this is a hindrance, since the anime itself is a mess and exposing everything it has does not imply anything in the public's entertainment. I started to see the July season two months late, with Peter Grill and Gibiate. I soon had two disappointments, with works that missed more than they got right. I went through a "rest" time and came back just now. Still ... It was a wasteof time to see GOH.
However, let's start talking a little about the beginning, which was what held me most to finish the work. GOH tells the story of Jin Mori and his future friends, Mira and Han Dae-wi, who enter the most anticipated tournament in the world, The God of High School, which gives the anime its name. The proposal is interesting from the beginning: whoever wins will have any wish granted by the event leaders (Where have I seen this? Tower of God?).
I really felt a good taste to start the work. She seemed to be very entertaining and focused on high quality tournaments and matches, both strategic and lively. And here we have a giant problem in GOH. The animation works, it is well worked at all times, with few errors. But strategy is a factor that I want to pay special attention to.
GOH failed in its own powers, consequently failing in the way the struggles developed over time. In the beginning we have students, with acceptable and even well balanced powers. But when the work started to emit the powers in a more exaggerated way, I was feeling discomfort.
It's not like Kimetsu no Yaiba, who uses his breath for power, nor Hunter x Hunter, who has Nen as his main source of power. In both works we have a fanciful way of presenting the power of the world to the public, but that does not harm the plot itself, since there is a sense, a faithful understanding in most cases and that knows how to maintain its limits of creation.
However in GOH, we see a mess without proportions (I repeat, NO PROPORTIONS).
First, we have the introduction of stands, through the green-haired Commissioner, who fights with Jin Mori. At first I didn't criticize it, it seemed like an attractive and cool idea. But as the limits were broken, I gave up giving the anime a chance. Gods, Kitsunes, ancient cultural references, animals, weapons, fighting styles, apuncture, a key that unleashes even more powers, unexplained physical energy, among others. All of this mentioned above intensifies with the field of diversities regarding strength and its origins. In many cases, the characters don't even know the source of their powers. And yet, they evolve in a convenient way, during fights, as if that doesn't bother everyone.
Going back to the little bit of existing history, the second part of the anime focuses on a confrontation between the group called NOX and the leaders of the event. NOX plans to use their powers to annihilate those who idolize other gods and entities. Another serious problem: there is no rationale for what they really want. It is literally a boring and useless exposition of something that, instead of being created with the aim of following the story, made it less and less attractive.
I don't know if it was the way the anime was created, or if the problem already exists in the web manga, but I certainly had a deep sadness at having this incredible loss of potential created. An anime that came to start the legacy of the morning with Tower of God, was a disappointment, for not knowing how to handle even those who watch it.
And as if that were not enough, we have a mess in the city, where more Gods and Entities are shown. The ending actually got it right in showing the origins of Jin Mori's power, in addition to what really is the key (and its bearer), but all of that should have been better presented earlier. The protagonist's own search for his grandfather and his training with a wise man are cut short, turning the story that would keep the anime into widespread fights of unlimited powers.
Finally, GOH was a bad anime that I liked. I don't completely reject your experience, but you can't deny that this beginning was nothing more than promotional videos for a future that is yet to come. Let's see if the chaos will subside and if anything will be resolved. For now, my anger and a night's sleep is lost with this beautiful popular work of 2020.
SenpaiSkye
Brilliantly put together nonsense. This has everything, except a well developed plot. The visuals were stunning, the use of technology and futurism was really cool, and I loved the korean themes. The storyline seemed like it could be really awesome, but it just wasn't there. I felt like I was having a seizure sometimes because scenes would skip all around with almost no semblance of being tied together. I even had to watch the first episode three times before I could continue on with the series because I thought I was having a personal problem & was super confused, until I realized that was the intendedcadence.
Simply put, they tried to take too much content and shove it into a short time frame which was really damaging to what could have been a beautifully made anime.
