Reviews for Tower of God

First of all, this story is of the Epic Fantasy genre. It is imperative to understand what this story is trying to be, so you don't end up judging it for what it's not trying to be. In summary, some main characteristics of Epic Fantasy stories are: - huge worldbuilding - focus is on the scale of the conflict - a large cast of characters - magic a key part of plot/story/character abilities - features a good vs evil story (usually, but can be shades of gray in modern epic fantasy) - relies on many sub plots help advance the story - stories are very long (500-1000 chapters)"Epics are stories that stood as central pillars to the cultures that created them. They are massively long and complex, and although they do have heroes, battles and dramatic adventure, their role is more than merely to entertain. They describe a world in which the mysterious, the mythic, and the divine were made. They help explain the nature of the world.

Further, they show how it changed. In all of the traditional epics, the narrative of events takes place on what historians call “a world historical scale.” This means that deeds of the main actors, the struggles and journeys that the epics recount, have an effect on the very nature of the world. They permanently change history. For better or worse, something is different at the end.

Turning back to modern fantasy, it is easy to see why epic fantasy series become so long. If an epic is a story about how a world changes, it has to be able to give a sense of the entire world in which it is set. Epic fantasy novels must have a grand scale. Their plots are often complex and multi-stranded, with a cast of thousands, a host of different narrators, and plot arc that can take years, if not generations It is the question of scale which makes the quality known as “world building” so important to epic fantasy.

Ultimately, when we try to settle the question of what counts as epic fantasy, we shouldn’t ask how long the story is, or whether or not it describes heroes joined in massive battles. But rather, in the spirit of the epic tradition, how significant is the change it marks on its world? How big is the scope of its conflict, and how significant the power of its eventual resolution?"

Epic Fantasy has also undergone changes since it was made popular (by Tolkien etc) 50 years ago. Today's modern epic fantasies focus more on complex characters that are morally ambiguous, and situations that cannot exactly be cast as entirely black and white. The villains are often very human, complex characters with real motivations to their supposed evil, rather than just being inanimate objects of evil

In short, Epic fantasy is more about the scale of the conflict, and the affects on the greater world at large. While High Fantasy is more about the setting - the time period, the way the world works, the way the characters interact, with a focus on the more persona change within the characters, rather than the global conflict at large.

As with every single series that received a lot of attention, it is going to attract people who trash it and call it "overhyped", when most of them don't usually watch or prefer shows of similar genres to make a fair comparison. It's like a rom-com gang trashing a high fantasy series for not having enough funny character interactions, or not being "realistic" enough, when that's not the focus of the story, nor what the series is trying to be in the first place?

Tower of God is a very specific genre with its own method of presentation, that undoubtedly enamoured some, but alienated others. Hype is based on other's preferences, only you can judge what you like. Please keep that in mind, as we delve into what makes people like and dislike this series.

Top 4 reasons to dislike this show:

1. If you hate being baited by info and having to "think", this show is not for you.

Tower of God is a story where you discover a world with the main character, who also knows nothing about the world he ventured into. You are thrown into the deep end with very little context, as answers gradually reveal itself throughout the episodes. Many who disliked the confusion in ep 1 eventually fell in love with the exposition and explanation in ep 2 onwards. Especially the Hunter x Hunter - like themes of tests, tournaments, characters and worldbuilding, that reminds many of what they love about Hunter x Hunter.

To like this series, you need to keep track of the information that is gradually revealed, and keep in mind the questions raised from the hints that are dropped. I've seen people who are absolutely smitten by this, and people who just want to be spoon-fed and call this "bad writing" or "plot-hole". I've seen people who completely misunderstand the purpose of the actions, because they were too busy judging the series to pick up the hints dropped by characters. If you just want to kick back and relax, this show is not for you.

2. If you don't like a long-running series, this show is not for you.

Too often I see people complain about the "plot", when at episode 4, the anime haven't even adapted 3% of the published chapters so far. If you don't want to invest into another One Piece for the next 10 years, then perhaps you can safely drop this series, or come back when there's more episodes. People today are too spoiled by short animes that end in a few seasons, that they expect a masterpiece, action and engagement straight from the get-go.

Some don't like the premise of a fantasy series with "repetitive tropes", when this story was published 10 years ago, way before most of these tropes became popular today. I've seen too many people trying to "predict" where the story will end up at, with terribly wrong predictions they are totally convinced of, because "I have watched enough anime to know where this will head to". Try again. This series didn't get 4.5 billion views from a niche webcomic source due to "predictable plot".

Tower of God is a slow-burn series, where the questions you raise in ep 1 might not even be answered for many years down the road, but it will be relevant and revealed when you least expect it to surprise you. It is similar to One Piece in this aspect, where the author planned a very big universe with its own governance, politics, corruption, wars, history, legendary figures, tragedies, power systems, and lore for more than 10 years in advance, and gradually reveals it bit by bit in canon. For this reason you can safely assume that the show will not start having fillers, or run out of direction anytime soon. Within the first 4 episodes, we already have hints and mysteries about how the world works, but if that doesn't engage you, then this story is not for you.

3. If you want a story heavily focused on character interactions, this show is not for you.

Tower of God is an epic fantasy series, not a high school drama. Epic fantasies often feature a wide cast of characters, with relatively little focus on them outside of their role in the plot and universe. The show does have beloved side characters with their own personality, backstory, and comedic interactions, but again this is not a high school drama. I've seen people criticise the character interactions for being 'boring', when their favourite lists are full of harem shows. I've also seen people who thoroughly enjoyed the variety and depth of the character cast, and became very invested in their favourites within 4 episodes. This is really down to personal preference.

The main character is a blank sheet because of his background, and does take a while to get used to. If you want an overpowered, cool MC from the get go, then this series is not for you. It takes years of growth for the MC to reach that point, and the MC is not a perfect person "who can do no wrong" just to satisfy the watcher. There will be challenges and there will be setbacks. If you just want an MC that serves to please and entertain you, this series is not for you.

4. If you want a mainstream art, music and animation style, this show is not for you.

The studio made an interesting choice to pay homage to the original artstyle of the webcomic, which undoubtedly wasn't the best at the beginning. However they did have great colours, thick, rough line art that sets it aside from others, and a decent animation, with more actions picking up in ep 3 and 4. It might be jarring to some, but it did grow on me, and there are many who do fell in love with this unconventional art style. The source material art does improve tremendously (imgur.com/gallery/fxbQdYW), so perhaps that can be something to look forward in the future.

The OST is also a banger, Kevin Penkin really brings out the best mood with a wide variety of unconventional music, instruments, and different genres, that is really unique and unheard of in other series. I finally understood why he had so many fans after hearing the OST in the first ep, it is really one of a kind.

If you just want something that you're used to, then this show is not for you.

Top 3 reasons to love this show:

1. If you are looking for something to follow in the long run, this show might be for you.

The story may reach its 20 year mark before ending, and none of the fans are complaining. The story, plot twists, worldbuilding, characters that make up the history and society of the story, the history and mysteries that led to things that happened today, all these are fulfilling and you won't be getting "fillers" anytime soon. If you're sick of stories that had a great start but turn into shit, then this series might not disappoint you.

2. If you like thinking about possibilities, this show might be for you.

The mysteries are one of the strongest point in this series, where there is just limitless possibilities of development from what they reveal episode by episode. Most of the enjoyment will come from theorising what could be from the hints, and discussing it with others on reddit (r/anime or r/towerofgod), discord, or even reaction videos on Youtube. There's so much to talk about, you can go on for the entire week just finding out and discussing with others about it. This is the primary reason why the series has such an active fanbase.

3. If you like dark fantasy, fatalism, and moral ambiguity, this show might be for you.

The entire premise of the story is different from the typical shonen, where "the good person will win", "the MC can do no wrong", and "if you work hard you will definitely succeed". In this story, the cutthroat environment of the tower means that the fittest, not the "morally purest", survive, and that leads to many heart-wrenching moments amongst the bittersweet victories. The line between the "hero" and the "villain" is often unclear, alliances change all the time for self-interest, and the "bad guys" don't justify their actions with "sob stories". The villains are not insane unreasonable people created just to incite drama. This, along with the almost non-existent female sexualisation, is what I like best about this series.

Judge for yourself whether you like it or not. From the reactions, many anime-only still find the charm in the series, and love the excitement the pacing brings them. Others say that this series is worth every bit of the hype for how different it is, and how it brings back the weekly anticipation they have not felt for the long time. Only you can decide whether you're one of them.

Kami no Tou, a praised series that surprised many fans. The plot is so fantastic that Shakespeare will look like an amateur. Unfortunately, the reality is a different thing, it's just another series without good storytelling and plot progression. A mediocre series, after four episodes, they do not explain anything about the plot and do not have good pacing. In a small shell, the plot is very simple. A boy, Bam, is found in a cave by Rachel. She educates and cares for him to the point that he believes he is her property. One day she said she wanted to see the stars and beginsclimbing the "tower of God." The caveman decided to follow her, so he begins climbing the tower too. At the door, he is very lucky that someone lends him a mighty sword. We don't understand why they are fighting at all, the only idea we have is "yes, they must want to climb the tower." We do not understand who is irregular or regular. We don't know how big the tower is. We don't understand why there are silly tests and how many groups are taking them (there must be hundreds). We don't understand why Bam is so overpowered or lucky(?) that even the princess gave him her sword, and most the most hilarious, the sword lends its power to Bam, something that never happened to the princess. The author continues to feature characters without background, and they never grow. Until now, the characters are bad because we know little information about them, they are like a blank sheet. We need a little character progression, please.

About the characters, they are very average. I have seen many characters and no good progression. Perhaps, we need to wait a bit before appreciating them, but after four episodes, all the characters are the same: A fighter or a caveman.

Art and sound are acceptable. The initial scenes captivated me, but then I noticed that the animation is normal, and the design can be average.

On the other hand, several followers will tell me that the best part is after the second arc. I want to remind you that a good series will give you a great impression in the first episodes. More importantly, you will not need to read or know the source material. So far, my perception of this series is very average. You must know the source material to understand the series and follow the concept of the tower. Even if the source material is very popular, the adaptation lacks a good narrative, good character progression. An adaptation demands equilibrium and expects to carry the watcher through the story without the need to read the source material. This adaptation failed to do that. We need to accept it. For example, four episodes, and we do not know who Rachel is. She is only a girl who picked Bam in a cave and educated him, then she leaves. However, in the source material, other details appeared and were not explained in the adaptation. The casual viewers are not magicians; they cannot guess what was explained in the source material.

Finally, it is too early to bury this series, but so far, the impression is poor.

The anime adaption of Tower of God was met with a lot of hype, both from the fans of the webtoon as well as a good portion of the anime community in general. It was the first real adaption of a Korean manhwa (disregarding the couple OVAs Noblesse got. It’s getting a proper anime adaption later this year too) and its success could likely open the floodgates to a world of new content that’s ready to be adapted from manhwa. So, did the adaption of Tower of God live up to the hype? I would honestly say it did not. In fact, it falls way short.It’s nowhere near how good it could’ve and should’ve been considering the content that was to be adapted. Most of the reception to the anime as a whole has been fairly positive over the internet, but for someone who’s been a fan of the webtoon, it turned out to be a massive disappointment. When I first read the webtoon, I was sucked in by the dark environment, intriguing character motives, the ruthlessness of the world and the massive and unexplored world that was the tower. One of the selling points of the webtoon is the mystery surrounding everything and the fact that details and lore are revealed bit by bit in a complex manner without any sort of spoonfeeding to the audience.

The anime lost most of this and more.

Even after complaining so much, why have I given it a rating of 7? Well, even though I am extremely let down by the adaption, it still is a pretty decent anime. Yes, it’s not nearly as good as it could’ve been but it still entertains for the most part, and if I look at it from the eyes of someone who hadn’t read the manhwa beforehand, it’d be a very enjoyable show.

The story starts off with Rachel wanting to go up the tower to see the stars that she’d always dreamed about and Bam following her like a dog follows his master. But I can understand why Bam does this. Rachel is such an amazing person: tender, selfless, compassionate, kind and to top it off, she’s pretty cute in the anime too. Why wouldn’t anyone not want to follow this Goddess?

On a more serious note though, she’s the only person Bam has known his entire life so when she enters the tower wanting to fulfil her dreams, he follows after her. Simp is a word that’s been associated a lot with Bam these past 3 months. Tell me, do you call a child who’s crying for her mother and only smiles when he sees her close by, a simp? If you do, then I think you have more important things that you need to get sorted first. Anyways, Bam is that child whose mother has left him, and he’s trying to go after her. An understandable objective I believe.

Once Bam enters the tower in pursuit of Rachel, we’re introduced to the rules and workings of the tower along with Bam. The floors, the tests that are supposed to be passed in order to climb them, the hierarchy of the tower and the motivations of the characters wanting to climb this dangerous tower are revealed little by little. As Bam learns more and more about the tower, so does the audience. But this is also where one of the major problems with the anime begins to surface. Some of the explanations about the concepts and functionality of the tower are either cut-short or in some cases, completely omitted. This leaves a viewer who hasn’t read the webtoon and doesn’t have a clear idea about these things, confused. The webtoon explained these things in a much more comprehensible manner. Oh, and I’m not talking about the mysterious lore here. I’ve heard a few complaints about people saying answers are not provided immediately. Well, those are important mystery elements that are answered bit by bit as we move further along in the story and something that I consider one of the charms of the series. So, don’t expect every secret of the tower to be just told to you right then and there.

Even though the anime does sacrifice the dark atmosphere of the first season of the webtoon, I felt that they still did a fairly good job of creating tense situations, especially in the first half of the season. They retained the ruthless vibe of the tower during the first few tests and even though there were elements that were left open to criticism, they did a good job of it by and large, for the first half, bar the first episode of course. The first episode was a mess. The pacing was all over the place and the less I talk about the directing, the better. After the first 6 episodes, I was feeling hopeful that this would turn out to be a pretty good adaption because episodes 2-6 had been pretty good and almost every episode was turning out to be an improvement over the last. However, this all changed in the following episodes. There were some very important character interactions that were left out, some that were replaced by anime-only scenes which served no purpose but to enrage the source readers, and one of the most hyped and compelling tests in the webtoon to date, was but a mere shadow of what was expected and what it should’ve been. It was plagued with all the issues that I have with the anime all at once: bad pacing, important dialogues being cut and changes made to some of the best parts of the test that were uncalled for.

When it was first announced that the first season was only going to be 13 episodes, doubts had already begun to surface in the minds of most of the readers. The first season of the webtoon had 78 chapters and there was no other stopping point except the end of the season. So, everyone knew that there was going to be content that was going to be removed. And that would’ve been acceptable. Not many would’ve complained if they only cut some of the less relevant content and dialogues, but they didn’t only do this, they also removed some of the best and most important scenes that play a major part in the development/decisions of the characters, not only in the first season itself, but also later in the further seasons. To add to this, they put in some anime only things that enhance nothing in the anime at all. If anything, some of the anime only scenes contradict the personalities of the characters. This is purely bad directing and there’s no excuse for this. Cutting some parts in order to fit the season in the limited number of episodes? Absolutely understandable. Removing important moments while adding in some irrelevant and stupid scenes? I’m sorry, Telecom Animation, but that’s not gonna cut it.

Yeah, the anime as a whole suffers from pacing issues, but I genuinely feel that there was a much better way of handling it. Some things being sacrificed was inevitable given that they were adapting 78 full length chapters into 13 episodes, but this is where intelligent directing was required. Alas, good directing was asking for too much, I guess.

Yes, Bam is a blank-slate MC and he doesn’t really have a personality. I won’t even argue if you say that he’s bland to begin with. But then again, what do you expect from someone who’s only known a single person his entire life and has been living in a cave which has nothing. His personality is shaped with the experiences he has in the tower, and it changes over time into something that turns out to be relatable. Yes, his naivety is annoying at times, but it’s very understandable why he acts the way he does. He’s just a genuinely nice guy who doesn’t know any of the evil in the world. He doesn’t even understand his own actions. He’s seen as the odd one because of how kind-hearted he is, and is the source of self-reflection for some of the people around him. That innocence is what leads to him being so pivotal in shaping the characters and influencing their decisions.

And the first person with whom that happens is Khun Aguero Agnis: the star of the first season of Tower of God. The genius from one of the most prominent families in the tower who was abandoned because of an incident in which he betrayed someone close to him, only to be betrayed by the person whom he gave up everything for. His backstory reveal in the anime is honestly one of the very few things that I thought that the anime actually enhanced from the webtoon. It’s what’s eats up at him and what influences a lot of his early season decisions. He’s the most interesting character in the season. His intellectual brilliance paired with unshakeable confidence (apart from a couple moments) and the change in his mental state from lacking trust in others to having faith in certain individuals around him, make him a delight to watch.

“What? Is it his mating season? Bring him here! I’ll pull out his banana!”

Who else could say this but Rak Wrathraiser or Alligator/Crocodile as Khun likes to call him. A ruthless, proud hunter who picks Bam as his ultimate prey. But on the inside, he’s a big softie and is likely the second most “innocent” character in the season next to Bam. His eyes see everyone as a turtle and his love for chocobars has no end. He’s one of the primary sources of humour in the first season and while they changed some of his gags in the anime, it still didn’t stop him from being hilariously entertaining. I will say though, some of his most humorous moments were cut short or changed. Unfortunately, that quote I’ve mentioned above is from the webtoon and was removed from the anime.

Shibisu, the other comedian, Hatz the chivalric swordsman, stupidly powerful lizard girl Anak, the cold-hearted yet beautiful Endorsi, round off the rest of the main cast. They all have goals that they wish to achieve by climbing the top of the tower and some of them are prepared to do so no matter what kind of cruel or underhanded tactics they might need to use. All of them had their characters explored through the season. To an extent, at least. But for Endorsi, some of the defining scenes that fleshed out her character even more in the webtoon, were once again, cut. I will never understand why because they play such a major part in season 2. Another thing that I disliked later in the season was some friendship crap that was pulled. The webtoon is mostly devoid of the power of friendship shit. Though it can be a good addition at times in anime, the use of it towards the fag end of the show was not just pointless, it actually contrasted the personalities of those characters, in the anime season as well as what we have in the source. It was pulled out of nowhere and I imagine it was done to appeal to the younger audience more. And they couldn’t have handled it any worse if they’d tried.

I hated the changes in character interactions that they made and that’s one thing that happened mostly throughout the season. I was more forgiving and willing to overlook these in the beginning, but as the season went on, the changes became more and more apparent, and a lot of them were absolutely cringeworthy.

The artstyle at the beginning of the season had mixed reception, with some people loving the different feel as compared to other anime while some just couldn’t get used to the change. I, for one, liked that they stuck with the original artstyle of the webtoon. It could have been more polished at times but it wasn’t too bad. The animation doesn’t leave much to speak of. It was solid without being spectacular. If I was to put in on a level, it would be on a higher level than most anime that come out every season yet wasn’t at the level of things that I’d call had great animation.

One thing that stood out all through the season regardless of how the other things were handled, was the OST. Kevin Penkin just keeps enhancing his reputation. Whether it be during the intense fight sequences or the emotional moments, the soundtrack simply kept delivering without fail. If I was to be critical though, it would be about the use of the OST. Sometimes, the tracks used didn’t fit the scenes, but that’s more to do with the sound directing. And the overall directing of the anime was subpar. As for the OP and ED, both of them are fabulous to listen to. Helps that one of the best K-pop bands, Stray Kids, provided them. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of the ED “Slump” but it kept growing on me until I began to dig it.

I’ve tried to be as unbiased as possible while writing this review. Because if I compare the anime to the first season of the webtoon, I can’t help but wince at how badly they’ve adapted it. Make no mistake, as an adaption, Tower of God is a failure. The oversimplification of some of the concepts and character interactions as well as motivations makes it a watered-down version of the source. While the changes they made might not always look like a problem when looked at individually, the amalgamation of all of them deviate from what made Tower of God great in the first place. Minute details like the addition of single line or scene which contradict what a character is about can make a huge difference to the overall experience.

That’s the reason that I said that the anime as a standalone isn’t bad for someone who hasn’t read the source and isn’t aware of what the changes mean. In fact, I’d say the anime would be a pretty good watch. Most of the people that watched it for the first time are of the opinion that it’s a good anime. But that says more about the quality of the source than the adaption itself. That even an adaption as weak as this one can be called good should be a compliment to the webtoon.

Anyways, I hope that the staff take note of the criticisms people have had of the anime and improve in the second season. Because if they adapt it well, it’s gonna be a banger! I will say though that if they continue to do it in the same way as they did with season 1, I don't have much hope left as a source reader.

This is the a train wreck on fire diving straight off a cliff. And we all watch it because its interesting to see things fall so hard. Tower of god, heavily promoted and even more praised for the only fact that it is a webtoon. I went in with high hopes but its not just disappointment that brought me to a score of 4. The only redeeming point is that the opening and ending is kinda catchy. ••••• ART ••••• This looks like more paper drawn art style, close to the webtoon. I think this was a bad choice because the animation looks lazy by the lackof movement, action and detail. The art felt underwhelming and rather boring. It didn’t make the characters pop out or made the Shinshu (their magic?) enchanted. I would say it is easy to look at because the calm colors and easy going detailing.

The lighting of this is subjected to this low detailing. It either feels to bright or to dark. Characters don’t have much shadows, the shadows feel muddy or it is simply to bright. At one of the tests the whole thing in general was to dark to see clearly. To actually make an almost black scene and giving the impression of being dark are different things. In terms of lighting it fails to make the surrounding more appealing and thus lacks depth.

••••• SOUND •••••

Well this was terribly hyped up by the fact that Kevin Penkin composed it. The soundtrack is indeed fitting and feels warm. The soundtracks are well coordinated and fits the timing of actions. It creates an relaxed/calmed sphere where all the characters act al happy and friendly. And that is exactly the downside to it. The tower, presented as a heavy task to climb, didn’t make me tense or hype me up for anything. It really misses a theme song or upbeat mix to make you sit closer to the screen.

••••• STORY •••••

I would say that the story is one of the two main factors why this anime was such a dumpster fire. The pacing is so off, even as a non-manhwa reader I feel that it is wrong. The beginning starts without any explanation of the situation or world. While this may seem as “explore the world with MC-kun” it left an awful after taste in my mouth, because we didn’t explore anything at all. Bam (mc) just pop in a new environment and is told to “climb” in order to find his lost girl Rachel. He doesn’t question it, prepare for it or anything an OP isekai mc would do. But Tower of God is not comparable to isekai so I’ll leave that out. In the end after 13 episodes I’m still puzzled by most of the things that happened so quickly in episode 1-3 without explanation.

Then again, going in totally blind, I don’t know the amount of test and how the test will be more difficult each time. So some test pass by, mostly battle royal with (forced) teamwork. Most people who take the test are called regulars. Someone who isn’t born from the tower is called an irregular. So it is understandable that Bam doesn’t know anything at all, but it seems so weird to see that the regulars aren’t that knowledgeable of their world. Test may differ, but if you know that you have to get violent, learn to estimate people’s power and get some killer moves. Sadly enough the real combat prowess was left at exactly 5 people for comic relief. Waisted potential and not world immerging.

As far as world building goes, it is almost non-existent. The commentary alone is not enough, the mc doesn’t discover things on his own and there is basically no explanation how anything works at all. The feeling of world discovery is killed off by some humor and that makes the world feel underwhelming. The anime show several times the image of a tower, practically reaching heaven, as an image of the tower but how the areas are set up simply doesn’t add up. The commentary and sloppy flashbacks don’t add anything either. At the end of the whole 13 episodes you’ve to accept that “oh there is a world and they happen to be in a (test) space”.

The introduction of “whatever you desire is at the top of the tower” makes me think that the test should be hard and the participants even harder. Oh boy, never did it let me down deeper after I had my hopes high.

Oh and there are some powerful weapons. No explanation what so ever. They simply exist. Good to know. Except that the “regulars” are a bit ignorant of this.

The fights feel rather boring to watch. The outcome is 110% predictable. I guess I don’t have to say who continuously pass the tests after you’ve seen 4 episodes. I expected a lot from the second test. It was supposed to be a bloody battle royal. Alas we get to see boring anti-climatic encounters. This scene feels underwhelming because the defeated are only announced, thus missing 99% of the real action. ToG is consistent, because the rest of the fights feel exactly the same. Underwhelming, disappointing and tensionless. It feels disappointing because the other regulars are so unbelievable weak. The fall pit of ToG is that it wanted to show how strong the main characters are by making the rest unrealistic weak. This does not only feel bland, but takes away all risk and tension. You don’t start to question IF Bam would succeed his test, but with what ass-pull. The tags action and adventure are heavily abused.

There are multiple hints of a vast amount of lore for ToG. It acts like the backbone for most explanations and surprises. This includes the rankers, the princesses of Jahad and shinshu. And again, all explained to little about. These topics leaves to much questions open. While these concepts should be very familiar with the “regulars”, surprisingly it isn’t. Shinshu is said to be a building block of the tower, yet it remains unused and to mysterious. It would have done a great service if at least the commentary about it gave a bit of information about it.

In the end it feels like Bam is wearing full heavy armor suit. Plot armor. Anything and everything he does, he pulls off somehow. While it is the intention that Bam would successfully climb the tower, it doesn’t feel believable or realistic in anyway. You get all the events shoved up your throat and you have to swallow it all, believing it is the “natural” route.

The subtle hints towards his great hidden power to his comrades till death are simply not satisfying to watch. There is no hardship to overcome. It feels like nothing is at stake. The connections between the characters feel as flimsy as the line “I want to see them all smile”. To contribute to this, all characters are very willingly to go with this madness.

In short, Tower of God fails miserably to present an appealing, dangerous and adventurers world. The concept of the tower feels like a lame excuse to keep the characters going. ToG doesn’t give me the slightest feeling of world immersion.

••••• CHARACTES •••••

The second main factor why this animated webtoon flopped hard. The cast was so weirdly put together. I can see the good intention of adding bold, goofy, sleepy, silent, loud and tsundere characters, but that is exactly the problem here. All the main characters can be summed up in few words. The wacky flashbacks don’t really add to character bonding for the viewer. It simply shows something sad and then blatantly moves on. There is no edgy to the seemingly mysterious characters nor is there a really funny moment with the clowns. The way characters react to each other is often being surprised or angry (in a comedic way). I would ask myself, are there no normal reactions?

Another weak point is the incredible bad character development. All characters feels simply not serious or really interesting. Khun may be a bit interesting, but that is mainly because almost anything relevant is left out.

BAM – pronounce it as yohru. he is the most boring mc I’ve seen. No grit, no courage (stupidity doesn’t count) and no likeable or relatable character traits. Seeing Bam on the level of a caveman is pretty sad. He has no way to actually fight. He has no strength nor the knowledge of wielding a weapon. That’s why it feels like extra thick plot armor to have the best shinshu output.

In short, he is the quiet ever-smiling and optimist mc who magically knows how to bind everyone together. Bam also feels very passive and way to relaxed about climbing.

RACHEL – pronounce it as raah-hel. If I have one fully loaded gun and I sat in a room with Myne of Shield Hero and Rachel, I would shoot the whole clip in Rachel. For some reason Bam yearns for Rachel. I don’t understand why, again because his relationship with Rachel is so weakly explained.

Whenever Rachel showed up, it was in one way or another plan annoying. Just seeing her being passive aggressive against Bam is irritating. Her selfish excuses don’t really back this up or rather is so badly presented, it doesn’t feel like a legit reason.

RAK – so he is supposed to be a hunter. I don’t see him as anything else than a clown. He doesn’t make jokes, his character is a joke. We see him exactly 2 times in action, other than that I think he is only there to be there. He adds a bit of balance in the party without being a character himself.

KHUN – a more mysterious character. Set up as a mastermind and schemer, he acts like the smart guy of the group. He might be an interesting character. He has a sad back story and now he is back on his feet for I think revenge. He looks like a half decent character.

LERO-RO – the only likeable character in the anime. Unlike any other character we get to see some of his thoughts and opinions. He is seemingly the only one who question things which aren’t clear and tries to do his job. Its sad that we don’t get to see more of his character or his character traits.

••••• AFTER WORD •••••

This feels like the worst anime of 2020. I went in with high hopes of spectacular battles, teeth gritting scenes or get some chills. Tower of God lacks in interesting character bonding and world building. I think the amount of praise and love for this is to much for something of this “quality”. I won’t recommend this to anyone. You’re better of picking up anything else like Children of the Whales or Dorohedoro which does everything better.

This review may contain vague spoilers but it is mostly spoiler free. Scenario: You need to write an extra test to give to the main character Bam. What would you think is the best test to give to him? A: Give him a trial to do only by himself, thus strengthening his character and showing what he is capable of without others helping him? B: Give him a trial to do mainly by himself, thus still showing what he can do and at the same time rounding out other characters? C: Give him a trial to do nothing, where his only job is to stand still and havehis friends protect him?

If your answer is C, then you might not mind some of the others problems in the show, but if A, B, or another option, you might have a rough time making it through the series without many questions about things that don't completely make sense (yes, I know that the test was done that way for a spoiler reason, but I am talking about the writer needing to at some point develop the main character).

Tower of God is the new adaptation of a Korean Manhwa by the same name (which I haven't read) animated by Telecom Animation Film (a subsidiary of TMS Entertainment previously called Tokyo Movie Shinsha) well known for the anime Orange and for its recent dive into the Lupin III franchise (Lupin has always been attached to the studio but this newer sub-studio took over some of the projects).

They generally do a decent job. However...

The directing for this series is lackluster, thus causing the show to feel lackluster. The director, Sano Takashi had almost no prior experience in full series directing before this (he has only directed one full series and the majority of one other, neither of which you have probably heard of), so it is a mystery as to why he would be chosen to direct a property as popular and complex as this one. The storytelling is unfocused and the narrative is choppy. The decision (probably from the production committee) to pack so much into 13 episode definitely didn't help either.

Another possible detrimental component is the music/OST. While normally a soundtrack by the legendary Kevin Penkin would be a welcomed addition, it doesn't matter how good a soundtrack is if it isn't integrated properly into the right scenes. To be fair, this probably wasn't his fault, but more likely that of the sound director Yamaguchi Takayuki, the same person responsible for the infamously bad Index III sound effects. While I can't say for certain who messed it up, I wouldn't be shocked if they told Kevin Penkin to read the source material and make an epic soundtrack, then it was just placed wherever the sound director wanted. The soundtrack features some amazing epic soundtracks similar to Lord of the Rings, but are used in such random scenes that it is almost comical. Some scenes like the silent atmospheric ones work, but then the same ones are used for action sequences and those just really don't work at all.

The OP and ED are both average. Nothing special and even a little lazy. Having a quarter of the OP being a sporadic black screen with credits seems like an odd directing decision. Though a few shots are gorgeously animated. The songs get better after a few listens but neither of them are that great.

One really neat thing about Tower of God is that they focus a lot on the side characters, giving them unique personalities and plenty of development...if only it did the same to the main character, Bam. Of course, you wouldn't know he was the main character if the series didn't make it obvious from the start since Bam has less screen time than many of the side characters and is so boring and flat that he really shouldn't be the main lead. The show would be much better and have a lot more focus if they removed him and made Khun or one of the Princesses of Jahad the main character. Most of the side characters are likable enough and detailed enough to have their own side series, which is a good thing for any series. Of course, I am sure that later on, he will have more screen time and be more important, but for this season alone Bam is very underwhelming and an annoyance whenever he is on screen...which thankfully isn't a lot.

This could have been another great example of Baccano, Durarara, or Fate/Zero where there are many main characters and there isn't one obvious one to rally behind, thus making the stakes more thrilling, but when Bam is the obvious main character, it slightly lessens the impact and importance of the other characters backstories, which shouldn't be the case of a show that is so determined to flesh out as many of them as possible. In the end it seems to go the Hunter X Hunter route of having a lot interesting side characters, but at least Gon wasn't a bland character like Bam is and Gon has plenty of screen time.The characters would have been a perfect category if Bam had been more developed this season.

Returning to the opening paragraph, even the tests seem to take for granted that Bam shouldn't do anything to stand out as the main character. The narrative of the show thus far, and even the scene itself, made it seem like Bam would finally have a crucial role in a test, setting up a perfect chance for his character to grow, even if just a little. Instead of that however, they just give him the luxurious role of doing nothing while being protected by his friends. Of course, maybe that was the intention of another character, but it would have been better if used as an opportunity to do at least something with his character. Even earlier, when that character gets injured by another character, he isn't even angry, which he should be. He is just like "why did you do that?". There should definitely be more of a reaction there.

The Japanese dub does a good job voicing the characters, except for Bam of course, which is where the saving grace Johnny Yong Bosch steps in for the English dub to give Bam more personality from the line deliveries alone. He conveys way more emotion and charisma than the original dubs voice work for Bam. Of course, that might have been the idea, to make him sound like a lost puppy, since he is, but the blandness of a voice can still make a character seem too boring, which is never good for a main character.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I really like the art and animation for this series. Of course, if it looks like Lupin (come on, the close up shoe shot in the OP is straight out of a Lupin scene) then of course I would, but I think that it is a unique enough art style to set itself apart from its shounen peers. The series has colorful characters and backgrounds and the animation, while not always consistent, never looks too lazy. There are some nice looking fights in the crown game and a few other spread throughout. While it isn't top tier shounen fight material, the animation delivers a solid showing and definitely isn't the weak link.

The weakest link would belong to the pacing of the story and the effect that it caused to the story itself. This season is really similar to the hunters exam arc from Hunter X Hunter, but while that arc was able to effortlessly glide through the tests at an even pace, thus making the tests themselves fun, many of the towers tests are so rushed that not only do you not fully understand the rules, the tests themselves with the exception of the crown game aren't enjoyable to watch.

The rushed story is also all over the place and many things are unclear, from character motivations to tower mechanics/explanations. Some episodes compete to see which one can jump around to the highest number of scenes the most amount of times. There will be an epic fight scene, just to randomly cut to a boring scene, to randomly cut to a random not important fight scene, done multiple times within one episode using the same musical piece. While a good director might be able to pull off those transitions with competence, it just didn't work out well here.

These types of shows are tough to rate, since while it is entertaining (if you like these type of shows) and I did get enjoyment from it, there are a lot of flaws to point at. I am already re-watching it in English and I will definitely watch season 2 when (if) it airs, but the apex example of a show for me is when I am not questioning the show but rather just enjoying the watch.

Overall, this show in entertaining but has many flaws. It has great side characters, mystery, and a intriguing world, but it's also poorly directed, has a bland main character, and stops at a weird spot.

Score 8: Good and had some great elements

(There is a possibility that I might bump it up to a 9 after the dub finishes airing, but I doubt it.)

My impressions so far as an avid webtoon reader. I am sorry, but this is gonna be a very stan moment for me. That's still cutting it short. This is literally my damn One Piece of the webtoon world, and my passion for Oda-sensei masterpiece work knows no bound. So I am about to burst from utter excitement as my body is unable to contain. I can't believe my favorite webtoon of all time is getting that much-needed and deserved anime treatment. This will be my first impressions as an avid webtoon reader who has experienced Tower of God inside and out, top to bottom, andso forth. I am not going to deny this might be very bias-y, but hear me out on this one. You should not be sleeping on ToG. If God forbid, the anime flops. You should pick up the webtoon, and most of you, I can confidently say won't regret it.

If you are looking for a highly complex epic fantasy tale that only gets better, polished, and more fleshed out as it goes on. Then I can without mulling wholeheartedly recommend Tower of God for you. It starts out very simple and straightforward. But most stories start out that way and gradually gets more engrossing and compelling as elements of the story get revealed over time. I can see many not liking, Bam, who is one of the many main characters. It's understandable but entirely explainable for why he seems to emotionless, naive. Bam had only Rachel when he was stuck inside that dark and gloomy cave and only knows what she thought him and nothing else. She is the light who took him out of the darkness.

Bam, as a result, is not aware of the outside world, the emotions a person feels. What's right and wrong and so forth. It's all the effects of being enclosed from the outside world for who knows how long. Bam does get a ton of development as he climbs the tower, but just like us, the audience who are unaware of the wonders of this mysterious place. Together with Bam, we will slowly discover new things and see this boy grow from this naive little boy into adulthood and get a ton of growth along the way. Did I forget to mention, it's a great thing he is flawed? It makes him feel more genuine, and all those heartwrenching, bittersweet victories and losses will make a much more significant impact on you.

Tower of God is not a story that will give Bam every damn thing on a silver platter. Sure, it seems that way now, but then again. You always have to give some big weapons to the main character to throw the world out of balance and plant the seeds for an extraordinary tale. It won't last, Bam will suffer both losses and victories, and SIU-sensei is not one to shy away from tragedies and scandals. This story is not your typical shounen, and if I could make some sense. I would say it's a mix of both shounen and seinen. SIU-sensei is not afraid to play around with many other demographics, and most of all, your feelings. This tells you that ToG will have all kinds of dark and gritty directions. Not everything will be rainbow and sunshine. There will be all kinds of nasty business and people in the world, like an organization that does human trafficking or manipulate the public to their own tune and so forth.

So don't drop the story if Bam is your problem as they are many other things you should be on the lookout for. Even while Bam slowly develops and experience all kinds of emotions climbing the tower. There is a huge cast following behind who get their own set of story and growth segments. Above everything else, there is this incredibly complex and ever-expanding world you can witness bloom into such a huge spectacle. Inside the tower there is also a unique and advanced power called Shinshoo. This is literally the heart and spirit of the tower and can be used for literally anything you can think about. More will get revealed as we climb the tower, but like most stories, there will always be some even bigger mystery of the world, which will be kept under wraps untill much-much later. In One Piece, one of those is devil fruits or the titan's origin in Attack on Titan to give an example.

When it comes to the anime adaptation so far from the episodes that have been released. It's been a truly outstanding ride for me, at least. I am not the first person to admit I have a bias. Being a webtoon reader and all. But honestly, Telecom is doing more than enough to make more people notice the wonderous of Tower of God and SIU-sensei incredibly brilliant mind. Let's talk about production value, which is quite solid and very unique. Telecom is paying homage to the author's original artistic art-style but managed to add their own flavors to truly make the experience more fulfilling in the anime. In the webtoon, the art-style is one of the few things that might turn you away from the story. It's not the best and is very rough around the edges and so forth. But you can tell SIU-sensei is putting in his best amount of effort with each panel. Why do I know and say that? It's obvious because the art-style improves at a rapid rate and gets incredible-looking.

If you have read Solo Leveling, then you know how gorgeous that it's one the most gorgeous art-style out there, colored top to bottom. The author knows how to create fight scenes where you can smoothly imagine how the events play out. The same goes for SIU-sensei. I swear some of the depictions of the action is out of this world, and it feels so natural when the scenes are playing seamlessly in my mind. That's right, Tower of God has seriously one of the best art-work periods and the biggest cherry on the top is the fact it's colored. I can't forget mentioning that SIU-sensei consistently at one point weekly gives out chapters with over 100+ pages of rich and tasty content. This has become the norm. Many even say it's only a matter of time before ToG standard for the page count for a chapter becomes 200. This just goes to show how SIU-sensei imagination runs wild all the time, and he can't stop pouring out new ideas left and right. One of the best authors for sure.

I got a bit sidetracked, so let's touch upon the animation for the anime. It's honestly has a touch quirky and uniqueness to it, and you won't see these kinds of visuals everwhere. Among others, in the fourth episode, the way some scenes where animated just felt so fresh and the love was pouring out from each and every single frame. If you have seen the fourth episode, you should know the way that weapon was moving was funny and very exciting at the same time. How about the comedic moments with a flexible art-style to get a bigger laugh out of you and make sure you are enjoying yourself? Of course, all these elements are subjective, but you must be blind if you call this poor in terms of production value. Telecom is seriously pulling out all stops and doing a great amount of justice to the source. There is more to an adaptation than just giving out 1:1 story, panel by panel. If they went that route, it could turn into a huge problem since ToG, as stated before, is rich in content and dialogue. So inevitably, there will be things that will be cut out to make places for materials that are necessary at that time.

This is not a bad thing either if you know what to do like Telecom has shown so far. Too much could overwhelm the anime onlies and make them lost track of what's happening. And we want none of that so Telecom did a solid by doing these changes for better or worse. Some of the details won't be more prominent before many episodes down the road or seasons later. So there is more than enough time to hint at those elements and close down the plot-holes before they even have a chance to become a noticeable problem. As far as anime adaptation with only 13-episodes. I think Telecom is doing the best they can do with what they have, and you can tell by the deep passion they have put here. They seem to care about every type of fan in this story. They are catering to not only the anime onlies but also webtoon readers and giving them a more fruitful experience by adding some original content and making it work damn well.

We can't forget about the simply amazing soundtrack composition of Kevin Perkins, which an absolute blessing to the ears. It's so unique, and it has all the right tunes to make it fit perfectly with Tower of God's deep atmosphere. I seriously love his work so much, and it's an honor to have him with us for one of my favorite stories ever told. Then there are all those absolute top-notch voice actors and actress alike who adds even more spice to everything. I don't think I have found one VA's so far out of place, and everyone seems to be more or less a perfect fit for their own respective characters. On top of all that, the background always looks so utterly stunning and artistic. Suffices to say, studio Telecom is doing an incredible job so far all-around. But my brain hurts trying to comprehend what people find terrible from this adaptation in the production value area. Some just want things to nitpick on that's, to be frank silly beyond belief.

I want each and every one of you who are going to judge a show based on the first few episodes. When it has literally not even begun, think a moment to realize all those other stories which start out slow but become more with each passing chapter or episode. Tower of God is a classic fantasy tale that never stops growing. I have implied before, it has tons of variables and not just one goal. It's not only driven by its cast of character but the world, politics, and so much more. Much of the story is hidden in mystery, and you will have to guess and predict the story and see if the conclusion you come to makes sense with what's already been established. For me, I personally love to predict and theorize, one of the reasons I love One Piece so much, which has a ton of lore, lots of myth, histories, and a limitless world you can speculate about without getting bored. That's why if you feel the same, you might enjoy Tower of God. It's an incredibly fun and massive emotional rollercoaster of a ride that never feels the same and is always evolving into much bigger and greater things.

Considering that I have been following the manhwa series for around 4-5 years I am really happy that I finally witnessed it being adapted into an anime and even though I adore the original material unfortunately I can’t recommend this to anyone who still has not read the original. Does it mean this is a bad adaptation? Hell no. In this “review” I will try to explain and adres some points within both the manhwa and anime. Tower of God follows the story of Bam, a young boy who practically lacks any kind of character there is to it, you can actually compare him to themost plain characters out there in all the isekai/game insert shonen protagonists and this is actually the point. He does not have any character to himself because he did not experience anything, he was trapped inside a cave for years, without having any interaction with anyone and this is when Rachel makes her appearance. As Bam was trying to climb into another level of the underground caves he met her, and she became everything for him. Rachel taught Bam how to read, speak and told him stories about the outer world and how her dream was to one day see the night sky and the stars. At this point in the story Bam has the mind of a 4 year old kid trapped inside the body of an teenager, he is naive, he does not question anything and this is why when Rachel decides to enter the Tower his whole world has fallen apart. His only friend and human interaction decided to leave him in pursuit of her dreams and he could not understand it. Thus this became his whole motivation to climb the Tower only to pursue Rachel, and nothing more, no flashy goal like wanting to be the number 1 ranker, or following some other philosophy and I honestly feel like there is nothing wrong with it. Still the future will be engulfed with conspiracies and idealistic clashes as Bam climbs the Tower.

The manhwa took a lot more time to try and make clear the relationship between Bam and Rachel, something that was not shown as much in the anime yet, that is why only anime viewers might be confused and find the beginning of the story to be quite cliched, and I do not blame them for this. Still the anime manages the tone of the premise for the following to come story and captures the mysteric atmosphere perfectly. One thing I am not quite fond of is the animation style and choice of colors, everything seems too vibrant and the contrast is a bit too high for a world as violent as the one inside the Tower. The rough edges around the characters is not really a good choice if we compare it to the manhwa style of the latest chapters, but I hope the overall animation will improve the same way it did in the original source.

The best thing the adaptation managed to produce so far is the soundtrack. I felt as if I really was inside the Tower and feeling all the tension when listening to the ost, and it comes with no surprise as the composer is Kevin Penkin who also wrote the score for Made in Abyss and Shield Hero. The scene in the second episode when Bam prepared to fight Rak was accompanied by a really nice melody which culminated when the Black March was dropped. Another really well done moment was in the third episode during the Crow Game when Anak was fighting where the music even compensated for not so well detailed of a fight scene. I really hope we will get to hear even better tracks for upcoming episodes.

To conclude I am glad that Tower of God finally received an adaptation even if it is one with some minor flaws but this is to be understood as it is from a studio which is not as experienced with battle shounens as Ufotable or Bones, and even the budget is not as high as to produce something of better value. The thing is, it was more of an experiment to see if something outside the japanese media is worth being adapted and if it proves to be successful then we are in for some really awesome future seasons.

Tower of God. Probably the biggest hype train to get derailed and combust into a fiery pit of dogshit and luck. I've dropped this show, mostly due to the bad show in itself but also due to the annoying superfans who's only argument is seemingly "Read the webtoon". Let's get into it, shall we? // Story // 2/10 Bam, no, Yoru, no Twenty Fifth Bam, whatever the hell his name is at this point is being pampered by some girl called rachel, and we learn that they get seperated and he wants to become the biggest simp of all and decides to climb the Tower of Godthat can supposedly grant any wish, his wish being to see the stars with said Rachel (rahel?). Already not a great start, not very original but maybe i'll stick through it. What do we get in the very first episode? A rushed first test and the MC getting an OP sword because "he's cute".

But that has to be a slip up right? A one time deal right?

Wrong. Throughout the 4 episodes i've seen, luck/BS reasoning has found it's way into the situations at hand. The second test where he definitely would never had survived, given the fact that it was a battle royale where he was surrounded by bigger dudes with better weapons than him? He made it out by the skin of his teeth. The mini-test after that? He's somehow the only one to not get pushed back. The third test? Dino-Alligator-Crocodile guy opens a random door and guess what it's the right one! No, wait the entire point was to just open a single door.

Too much luck in this story so far, leaving a bad impression.

// Art // 1/10

The art style used wouldn't be so bad if they just stuck to that one style and didn't branch out to a bunch of other styles in the same episode, they go from the regular simplistic-fanartsy style to a chiibi style to another different style back to the original style in the span of 10 seconds...

The original style in itself is very criticizable, it looks like something that would come out of a Pixiv fanart account, the art is simple, but it contrasts too much with the thickness of the lines and the detail in the eyes.

Either you make it simple or you make it complex, but not both at the same time.

I'm also gonna talk about the animation, as it seems pretty unbalanced. While some episodes have respectable animation (for a seasonal), some episodes look choppy, almost as if they just threw the budget out the window for some scenes.

// Sound // 3/10

The voice acting isn't all that bad, but given the lack of good animation, it hinders the experience as it feels like the same as when a cheap english dub is placed over and the lip sync is completely off. The OP is a nightmare to sit through, i cannot stand kpop, and this just had to have an OP done by a kpop group for extra exposure towards kpop stans, not a good thing overall.

// Character // 2/10

Maybe i'm gonna be a bit harsh here, but man, fuck Bam/Yoru. He is the single most annoying MC i've seen in all of anime. He's a wimp that gets lucky, he's a child trying to play an adult's game. He clearly is not ready for the task of climbing the tower, but he throws himself into it anyways because plot armor, i guess. The only interesting characters i found to be noteworthy were dino guy, but he just kept getting ridiculed week in week out to the point that he isn't the beast he was made out to be at the end of episode 1/start of ep2, and Yuri, but we haven't seen much of her so far.

// Enjoyment // 1/10

These 4 episodes were a pain to sit through, i'm not going to lie. So why did i sit through them? why didn't i drop it one episode in? Because i actually thought that this could somehow get better. I get that a series doesn't instantly get better an episode to the next, but 4 consecutive bad episodes with the same exact problems is just too much for me, maybe it gets better later on, but i'm not willing to put myself through more problem -> luck -> solution.

// Overall // 1/10

The hype killed it for me, i came in expecting a top tier show, and i was disappointed. Had this not had the hype it did could i have enjoyed it? Probably. The fans built this up as a masterpiece in every respect, and so far i haven't seen anything worthy of more than a 5/10. This just isn't targeted at me i guess...

People have said that the Tower of God is the first major series to be adapted into an anime that is not coming out of Japan, in terms of source material wise. The anime adaptation could bring a “new era” of content into this industry. The amount of praise for Tower of God has shot through the roof ever since the announcement. Do I agree with the argument that this adaptation could bring something new and fresh from the Manhwa industry? Yes, I do. However, we cannot let this mindset blind us from judging this anime by itself. And if we wantto talk about bringing something new into anime, look no further than the manga industry. I would say that there are still piles upon piles of great series of stories that can be adapted into anime. Those don’t even need to be shounen. Just because the Tower of God is adapted from Manhwa doesn’t make this anime anymore special. In fact, this argument is pathetic. I would argue that if the TMS animation studio along with others that are working on this project bothered to adopt some hidden gems in the manga industry, then they could actually bring something new and fresh into anime and not another shounen series except it’s not originated from Japan. But then again, these companies adopt source materials for profit. In a logical sense, they would adopt the most popular manhwa first before exploring other areas.

Frankly, I don’t give a shit about Bam chasing after Rachel because it is just a plot device that is used to propel the story forward. Similarly, the action scenes and the tests within each level of the tower are just tools that are used to keep people from being bored to death. However, each of these tests serves in the progression of the story and characters. Yes, on the surface level, the action scenes are entertaining and sometimes even boring. But it is the aftermath of each test where the show truly shines. By the end of each arc, there is something new to be revealed about the story. The series then cultivates on these elements and builds itself into something more compelling and unique. If you are into this type of storytelling, you might enjoy this anime. The other aspect that Tower of God has kept me intrigued is the Tower itself. It is said, if anyone reaches the top of the tower, they would have an enormous amount of fame, wealth, and power. The anime has briefly hinted at this, but I would like to see the political structure, history, different noble families/houses, the magic system, and the structure of the tower. That’s it.

Bam is your conventional shounen “good guy” character. He checks all the necessary boxes as the main protagonist of this show. He acts innocent and cares for other players when they don’t give a shit about him, he is supportive and friendly, and so on. And this makes him extremely boring to watch and many times he appears austere, mundane, or just bland as hell. If there is one positive attribute that I can at least appreciate from him is that he’s not super obnoxious. As for Khun, he’s clever, chill, and is always ahead of his game. He’s the one in the group that conceives all sorts of clever plans and tricks to win each contest. As the story progresses, he slowly begins to open up to Bam and Rak and he does have a personality, unlike Bam. Rak, an enormous alligator, is designed to be a figure for intimidation to other players. And naturally, in this type of generic show, he’s always hostile towards others. However, despite his adversarial attitude, he does show care and sympathy for Bam and Khun later on. Again, he’s a character that you have seen a million times in this genre. He doesn’t offer anything new in this matter. In fact, none of these characters do.

With that being said, the character that I’m mostly interested in is Rachel. She’s by far the most intriguing character to watch in this show. From the beginning, her entire reason to leave Bam was that she wanted to escape the darkness and see the stars. After she went through the gate we don’t get to see her again until later in the anime. When she does appear, however. She always wraps herself in a brown cloak and only interacts with characters that she met off-screen. Thus, makes her more mysterious. To me, Rachel seems like she’s lurking behind the overall story, and there could be more to Rachel as a character. Possibility of being an antagonist of the story.

The most obvious aspect of the anime that will suffer the most upon first viewing is the lack of detailed art. Everything from the background, color, and character designs were all lackluster. Almost every frame that involved some sort of dark places had some fog looking colors sprayed over the dark areas or was just completely covered by a mist of color. During daylight, the background and the surroundings were just covered by some bright colors such as blue and orange that, honestly, makes the entire anime look childish. There was almost no effort put into character designs. All the characters look dull with no uniqueness besides a slap of some different hair colors and clothing to differentiate each of them. It further doesn’t help when there is no lighting to create some sort of depth in the character designs.

This anime is nothing special besides the fact that it is adapted from a popular manhwa. You might enjoy it or you might not. I take issue with people, or rather the ToG fandom, bullshitting that Tower of God would bring something “new” into anime when it doesn’t. And I don’t give a fuck if it is adapted from a popular manhwa because what I care about is the product. If you were not on the hype train and have kept your expectations low for this anime, then you’ll be just fine.

For a manhwa anime adaptation hyped up as the second coming of Jesus, the quality of the show so far has been anything but stellar. I can't even describe it as "good", it is instead painfully mediocre and often dreadful. Beginning with the story, I don't even know what it is other than being a clusterfuck. From episode 1 a million questions are thrusted upon the audience, and every episode more and more are raised. I understand that the intention behind this is to slowly reveal bits and pieces of the world and its characters in order to create tension and thus have the audience investedin the many mysteries behind everything. Yet the problem lies in the fact that nothing makes much sense and the essential plot direction and pacing amounts to "the characters do this and go here and then they have to do this thing and in the meantime some other random-ass characters (that the audience has yet to know or care about) have some mundane dialogue or random fighting scene out of nowhere."

Instead of learning more about the past of the protagonist, the world they lived in (some sort of underground cave?) and are currently in (a tower that is situated in who knows where), we instead get to have some bog-standard shonen fights. And tests. Lots of tests. People like to compare these "tests" to Hunter x Hunter's first arc, which I have to disagree with because unlike HxH, the tests the characters must undertake are poorly designed and their purpose quite literally feels like they are there to show who are the main characters (that get to survive) and who are not. They quite literally test only luck, which I have to give credit to the show for being so upfront about it. (episode 2) Then again, an episode later and there's another test, that has so many variables and uncertainties about it (such as the order of the people who take the test or the test maker being intentionally deceitful without much of a hint) that the overall message behind it to "trust others and yourself and not hesitate to make decisions" seems highly disingenuous.

As for the artstyle I can agree with consensus that it is "unique", but that does not make for good visuals which instead resemble cheap microsoft paint drawings. The character designs for the most part however are decent and distinguishable from one another, but there are questionable design options. Such as main companion Khun having a blue triangle stuck to his hair, which only further reinforces the perspective of the show being made with MS Paint.

Sound is decent, no complaints there other than it is wasted on such a poor show.

Characters are my chief complaint for the show and another reason as to why the story itself is abysmal. The main character himself: God Simp, is another generic plucky, innocent and earnest shonen mc, except some of his actions betray this facade. Such as being ready to kill someone else in episode 2, not out of self-defense but in order to pass one of the stupid tests, yet a couple episodes later and he's apologising for causing problems for the others. Neither is he particularly interesting nor sympathetic, literally starts off as a blank slate who upon being deserted by the girl who taught him everything, resolves to make it his life mission to find her again; despite her pleading him not to follow her. This premise is something I actually don't have a problem with inherently, the problem is there's no sign of development for the main characters. If I hear him say "Rachael" one more time (which is pronounced Ra-hel" I'll go mental. The other problem is, the only thing special about him is how "special" he is. By that I mean; he gets through all problems through luck, characters are driven to help him because he has a "cute face", passes through this magical water with pure ease (that other stronger characters struggled with) with not even an explanation of how.

As for the side characters, I can't honestly take them seriously. They are either "comic-relief", "cool badasses","random unfunny humans who think they are funny" or "characters to get hyped about." Khun is the only one who seems to be a bit more multi-sided, but even his character isn't something I haven't seen in numerous other shows.

Rachael ironically is the one character that has yet to be ruined, and in fact as of episode 4, holds the most potential for me. This is due in fact to her rather antagonistic personality contrary to Bam's high opinion of her; not very opposed to him being killed by one of her teammates. I am interested if her motives behind climbing the tower (to see the stars) are truly genuine or not, and am personally holding out hope for her to inspire a teachable moment for Bam, which is "have an actual personality other than being obsessed about me."

I think it's rather clear at this point that my enjoyment of this show is rather low. I don't necessarily find it boring (though it does have some boring features and moments), but find it instead interesting in that it is an awful train-wreck of wasted potential. I can't say I'd recommend this show, but it is highly popular for a reason, whatever that may be; so give it a shot. Will I continue watching it, yes; I am in it for the long haul. I believe there is still opportunity for the show to do a full 180 and actually present something above average.

The story is cheesy and generic that any amateur author can make a similar story o the same level-better than this. Bam is already joke of a character in this first episode alone. That first episode was bad, the set-up and worldbuilding is generic and poorly defined, at one point they're just throwing out jargon terminology that Bam just repeats because he's an empty husk of a character. Just being dropped in this empty hallway seemingly made only for Bam to do this thing, and then these two people come out of literally nowhere and just inject poorly disguised exposition making vague allusions to Bam'sbehaviour like it means anything to us. They really try their best to make Bam just standing there like an idiot seem like some dramatic brilliant gesture and they needed the guy to just say "there is something special about this boy" even though all he does is trip over himself and show no ability to think on his own.

There's like an element where this one guy is like trying to give Bam some tips but the show also wants to manifacture tension so they cut him off, but then once he's in the middle of the challenge he can give us the full rundown, the entire reasoning for the scenario is thin. Which includes him just being given a sword by Yuri who isn't even supposed to be there?? It's such a contrived "trial" that depends on what-ifs and weakly justified character decisions. Even the reason he can use the legendary sword when "even Yuri couldn't do it" is stupid.

It's like, what am I supposed to get out of this? Oh "the tower" yes I will automatically care about this story because they say "the tower" a million times, even though the main character is a bumbling squeaky idiot with no personality or basic human cognition. It's soooo repetitive, over and over again they reiterate "You are the princess of Jahad", "I am the caretaker of this tower", "will you climb the tower", "I want to see Rachel again" and every action and scene is based on *one* simplistic trait or idea like this.

They also had a guy *tell them* the actual limit is 5 minutes so if anything it'll push them to think that's the actual limit so it's not even really testing their decisiveness at all. The answer was so predictable as a viewer I was begging they wouldn't be so stupid. What's the point of making such a simple thoughtless attempt at subversion when there wasn't even any proper set-up of the test for them to work around? This was literally the only way it could go because he thought through this premise halfway.

Tower of God is just another series that's over-hyped by fans that think one guy looking for a girl is cute and dramatic. No. It's. Not. She didn't want to meet him when they fought later on, silly enough, He was about to die for her. Yet she didn't even considered what he did.

Hello, first review here! Before starting, I do wanna say that I'm not an English native speaker, so there could be some mistakes over here and there, so do not be too harsh on me please! SPOILER FREE Kami no Tou is an adaptation of a famous Webtoon, manga-like stories famous in Korea, rather than Japan. That's the thing and it is why everyone is talking about this anime. It's a collaboration between Crunchyroll and Webtoon itself, but it is not the first time that a webtoon became an anime. First one that I can remember, was Noblesse. Great webtoon, decent anime. Back to the point, I amcurrently at Ep. 475 of Tower of God, so I know everything and how the story will go on.

So, I must say, I was very happy to discover this collaboration and I was pretty hyped, since the webtoon is a good shounen experience.

After the first episode, though, I immediatly knew how the anime community would have recieved Kami no Tou. A mediocre shounen experience, with no context or whatsoever. Overall boring. And they are right.

Yeah it's true that Kami no Tou IS a good webtoon shounen, however people who are rating this anime 9 or 8 are being just the ones who read (?) the entire plot.

No, the anime is not a good adaptation, it is boring. Characters are bland, Bam himself is bland (i know that he will change, but it does not matter), the art is terrible, the story is confusing, treating viewers like they should already know things. Besides that, I dont think that the dramatic end of Season 1 will have the same impact of the Webtoon. Let's be honest, you can already tell here what's gonna happen.

To me, a reader who just wants to see how someone who never read this before feels, this anime is bland, and I would just skip on it for now.

Nothing good, it seems the next Naruto or One Piece, with characters that empower up all the time and all this bs. (Khun at first episode or second "I will defend Bam smile COME ON DUDE LOL)

Note to remember: even if this collaboration between anime and webtoons will continue, A LOT of Webtoons are just shounens, isekais and bs like that. It's gonna come into a place where the market is already super full. However, i would like an adaptation of something like I Love Yuu, that would be awesome!

Hope this helped a bit, sorry for my English :)

Watching Tower of God unfold every episode is like reading a comic book. Starting from the first page, you read and flip each page to see what's new. From every one of those pages, you may find something that catches your eye, or something that gives you an underwhelming sigh. Tower of God unfolds its plot with principles that seemed intriguing at first. But as more and more pages are turned, the anime slowly dies and leaves me with little to get excited about. Helmed by Crunchyroll as one of the leading projects of the Summer lineup, this is not an anime that deserves suchamount of hype.

First, I do want to say that I am an anime original viewer so coming into this show is a fresh new experience. On my first viewing, Tower of God reminds me of the classic Hunter x Hunter as the protagonist is faced with challenges to overcome. It’s the sort of adventure that chronicles how much our characters can achieve or fail. We follow their journey to climb the mysterious Tower and the awards that await them at the top. From his journey, we meet protagonist Bam, who had been searching for his friend Rachel. The show pits him into a deadly challenge but promises the answers of his desire should he succeed. Now the question arises how much should we care about his desires or in fact, his journey to reach the very top.

Crunchyroll has been heavily promoting this show and I actually do praise them for the effort. It’s a Korean webtoon adaptation after all and this is one of the first full TV anime. Making an impression is important as more webtoon adaptations are coming in the future. Tower of God stands with a lot of genres that combines elements of fantasy, adventure, mystery, and action. While there’s also drama in the mix, I would say it falls short but I’ll get to that later. For now, understanding what Tower of God is important so you’ll have a reason to watch the show as the plot follows Bam and his adventures. Throughout this adventure, he encounters many new faces. Whether friends or foe, he responds to them cautiously to avoid consequences. Remember, this Tower contains mysterious properties almost no one understands and what awaits with each step to the top is a new challenge. From my initial impression, Bam seemed like an outsider that needs an immense amount of character development. He’s part of this world where no one knows who he is except his friend Rachel. And searching for his friend is used as a plot element rather than exploring more of his own character. At its base, Bam is a kind person but with little social skills. To put it simply, he is like a lost child that needs guidance, someone that needs a helping hand. He also has a distaste for loneliness and desires to be with Rachel.

Now of course Bam isn’t the only character carrying the show. Soon, we meet the intelligent Khun, a young man with a complex personality as compared to Bam. He is almost like his foil, a character who is independent and knows how to play his cards to get what he wants. Throughout the series, he uses his strategic mind to manipulate others and is someone difficult to read. No one knows his true endgame goal although he has a keen interest in Bam. Based on the author’s interview, he is perhaps the most human character we encounter as his actions are realistic and often methodically planned ahead. To me, watching Khun’s character role is far more intriguing to see what cards he’ll play. And of course, let’s not forget Rachel, the best friend of Bam and his source of motivation to climb the tower. After finding her, Bam vows to help her reach the top to fulfill her desire. With that desire, it’s clear that Bam treasures Rachel as a special friend. That’s to say, Tower of God tries its best to get us invested into its character relationships. It unifies their relationship as a character pair built on trust and friendship. But does it really work? On some levels, it has an emotional impact but from this season alone, it is not enough. Bam and Rachel’s relationship doesn’t undergo much change or development after the two are united. Despite being prominent characters of the story, I find myself more invested into other supporting characters such as Annak and Endorsi. In fact, the anime actually devotes efficient amount of storytelling on Anaak’s background story. Even Rak and Yuri are worth watching for their personalities. The lack of charismatic traits for both Bam and Rachel drags this show down and their relationship exemplifies mediocrity.

Let’s not forget the ultimatum of Tower of God. We have to always remember the story is an adventure and each step along the way is similar to a phase of a long test. From the beginning, our characters are being tested to see who is worthy. Bam, Khun, Annak, Endorsi, and Yuri are just a few examples. Questions emerge on how much these tests are worth watching and although the stakes are high, it’s not easy to always get invested into them. Let’s face it, most of the action in this show feels the weathered down and the studio (even with Crunchyroll backing up the production), didn’t fully capitalize on its choreography. The visual quality is subpar at best that looks similar to an animated comic book. It has sketchy visuals without much shading and the character designs looks less detailed than I had anticipated. This all comes down to preferences but Tower of God isn’t a show to praise for its art.

But for the soundtrack, I do give praise Kevin Penkin’s music composition. The OST is not just worth watching but does hype up various episodes and important moments in the show. Let’s not also forget the OP theme song with its lyrical tune and effective usage of its cinematography. However, it’s a shame the voice acting of the main characters can’t compare to the music composition. Even characters like Annak and Endorsi hardly sound appealing despite their more lively personalities.

Tower of God is one of the most talked about show of the Spring season but with 13 episodes, you know this isn’t the full story. What it tries to set up is a story of adventure, challenges, relationships, but none of them really justifies its hype.

Here's a terrible review, to people who cannot be arsed to read a wall i'll give you some good and some bad points, whichever you agree/disagree with is all up to you. Keep in mind this is only from watching 4 episodes, so not even halfway in so take everything i say with a grain of salt, Depending on what happens in the future i'll either update or delete this review. Pros - The music Massive world Quite the large cast of characters each with a decent amount of screen time "has the ability to be way more" Humor i can get behind, it helps carrying the series as of rightnow.

Taking their time, i like when an anime isn't rushed, its nice seeing the squad where they last left off-

Cons -

The most Naive and boring mc i think i've ever laid my eyes on

"yeah i get it 4 episodes, tons of space for character developement yet"

If you can get behind an mc who is basicly having his hand held throughout the series then all the power to you!

"Yeah source material is a thing" as mentioned earlier we're going purely off of what i've watched so far in the series.

The lack of explanation of where they are, what the "whole tower" is, the stars rachel wanted to see "the whole tower is but a part of the world" what is the outside world, when will we see it?

Background story, being 4 episodes in i reckon we'll get one around a week or two as then we'll be halfway through the series.

Most of the cons for me personally is overshadowed by the main character, its just one of those characters i cannot really get behind, he kinda reminds me of when i was 10.

P.S

Might've turned into a wall of text anyways

so tldr my opinion is shit and dont matter :)

Tower of God is a hideously ugly, embarrassingly incompetent, grossly corporatist shitstorm built upon a trite mess of an overhyped SAO fan-fiction which doesn’t even have the creativity or sensationalism to be outrageously offensive or unacceptable beyond its hysterically unfounded popularity. Having heard nothing but its alleged excellence over the years, I desperately sought out the manga in light of the anime’s shocking lack of any quality whatsoever only to be immediately nauseated by the exact same brain-numbingly amateur storytelling and vacant dialogue which the anime had just assaulted me with. Drowned in the confused vapidities of a writer who couldn’t possibly have escaped theclutches of puberty, supported by ESL internet stans lacking even the tiniest modicum of emotional maturity, and delivered by an understaffed and underfunded animation studio contracted by an American licensing company comprised of SJW marketeers and money-hungry *** ******* utterly unfamiliar with industry practices and deluded enough to think slapping a genius musician and a six figure advertising budget on a project is enough to make it worth anyone’s time, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Tower of Gaud.

This did not feel like a genuine story birthed of imagination or inspiration. Rather, it felt like the work of a moody teenager so frustrated at his own lack of talent, he just up and re-skinned his favorite fantasy isekai light novel in order to live in this illusory reverie wherein he actually created his favorite work of art, whether or not that work of art was actually worth imitation nor whether his rendition of it was actually fucking decent in any way, shape, or form. I welcome you to judge me for having read Fifty Shades of Grey, but I have, indeed, read that book, and of all the media I’ve ever consumed, it alone reminded me of Tower of God the most, and it’s the reason I began this review calling it a borderline SAO fan fiction. After all, Fifty Shades of Grey began as a Twilight fan fiction, and if you read the book with this in mind, it becomes abundantly clear. The characters in Tower of God are so empty in personality and motivation because they are so obviously caricatures of other characters from other stories, and the plot line is so undefined yet paradoxically derivative because it’s so obviously an emulation of another narrative, so at no point is the show really doing anything other than presenting you with cardboard cutouts atop a stage of papier-mâché and expecting you to care about anything they’re doing for any reason other than the fact both you and its braindead author are drooling fanboys of selfsame works who can get off on familiarity alone. Everything is just trying to be a plot; the characters just sit around and talk about the plot, yet never is there a sense of them being real people who are interesting or who I wish to see do anything. From where I’m standing, wholeheartedly caring about some plot when the lifeless drones lobotomizing me with it are archetypical, mass-marketable, self-insertable Barbie Dolls and Ken Dolls so mechanical and uninspired as to be existentially dreadful is simply daft.

Even if you are happy to slurp down the same generic mass of media sludge devoid of even a beating heart to pump the corporate oil through its veins, I still can’t see you investing in a show where NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS! The amount of episodes which passed over my dried, reddish eyes before someone actually SAID SOMETHING was so depressingly unbelievable I repressed it from memory. Now, I don’t mean to say this show is literally without speech. In fact, no one ever shuts the fuck up, but nobody ever says anything substantial. “Reach the top, and everything will be yours.” “I must reach the top, whatever it takes.” “At the top of the tower exists everything in this world, and all of it can be yours.” “The tower can give you all you desire.” Every single line of dialogue in this show takes the mocking irony of the word “chuunibyou,” accepts it with pride, and then attempts to become even more cringeworthy and intellectually worthless than the last, and each successive line of vagueness serves only as a shameless carrot on a stick leading anyone without the foresight to notice down a contextless rabbit hole where creativity and artistic innovation go to die deplorable, pitiful deaths. The nonexistent sense of time and place combined with the equally absent sense of mystery and intrigue makes said lack of contextual knowledge not only unengaging, but downright infuriating. You’re expected to give a single shit about wooden characters getting thrown in and out of contrivance after contrivance, episode after episode, fighting battle after battle with a totally undefined and nonsensical magic system until the show finally ends, the end goal is no less hazy, and you’re finally relived of your suffering. The tone is utterly nonexistent, cutting from people getting their brains blown out from a sniper bolt to some goofy looking monster twisting that very same sniper like a spoon and letting its rifleman run free in a cloud of dust like a scene out of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, or interspersing would-be intense battle sequences with chibi art comedy only to continue on as if nothing happened and assume the little tone initially there decided to stick around even after their kindergarten sense of humor had made its embarrassing appearance.

The show only bothers to hide its absolute technical incompetence under a veneer so thin, it inherently relies on the complete and total ignorance of the viewer to actually obfuscate any of the blatant cost-cutting at hand. It’s riddled with enough post-processing effects to make a ufotable show look cel animated, but whereas that studio will at least put in the time and effort to build a cohesive aesthetic around how abundantly digital their anime are, this show used these effects to merely get by. These digital crutches which this passionless cripple of an anime used to parade its garish color design and equally thoughtless slapdash character designs ultimately did little more than make the former even more blown-out and migraine inducing and the latter even more bizarre looking given the fact nothing about the character art is hand-drawn except for the linework itself. And if the designs weren’t outlandish enough on their own, the incessantly off-model frames and flatly shadeless facial gradients which I hesitate to even call art make every character look even more gawky and retarded than their non sequitur dialogue already does. The staff animates movement, I mean, because they have to, but they never dare animate propulsion. A character will brace for an impact, but the second they’re hit and launched airborne, the animation immediately stops dead in its tracks, and the most recent frame proceeds to be pathetically clicked-and-dragged across the pseudo-artful, harshly colored, Microsoft Paint looking background art as a still image. Even if you’re so new to the medium of animation and so blind to the technique behind its craft to actually think any among these meager scribbles to be presentable, I still can’t see anyone with legal vision standing in approval of the downright abrasive CGI and its unabashedly poor compositing which was vomited over any scene which required any level of intricate effort to draw. Hilariously begun with a Korean Linkin Park music video for an opening theme, every episode is just as horrific as the last, as there is simply no redeeming qualities to be found in this show’s visual presentation whatsoever, and if you were hoping Kevin Penkin’s soundtrack saved it, prepare yourself for the most inept sound direction in the history of television.

But first thing’s last. Can a corporation really buy your approval, and will you, Mister or Miss Cash Cow, continue your patronage upon the realization they tried to do so? This is the real question at the heart of Tower of God and the real reason I’m here seeking your attention. Many spheres of entertainment have had to ask this grim question in the past when they, too, became populous enough for corporations to see their fandom as healthy investments, but with Funimation now holding seats of influence on Japanese production committees, it’s time for us in the anime community to ask the same. Tower of God is a crushingly uninspired mess of trite ideas and vapid elements stacked atop one another so high, even its stature as a pile of artistic shit starts seeming impressive, but it feels it can get away with its countless offenses not out of a sense of confidence in itself, but out of a sense of confidence in you. Using your technical blindness and unshakable genre loyalty as insurance, it bets it can make a profit despite being awfully made, pointlessly directed, and vacantly written not because it thinks the critics will love it regardless, but because it knows you will buy it regardless. And as far as I can tell, it made the right call. This isn’t just, “Oh, look. A-1 Pictures is cheaply adapting another best selling light novel, Bones is cheaply adapting another hit in Weekly Shounen Jump, and both adaptations will be wildly successful despite all.” This is different. This is a foreign entity penetrating the industry and using their knowledge of your domestic consumer habits to pitch a feigned project at the lowest cost margin it can specifically manufactured to milk impressionable fans up to the highest profit margins it can, and they did it by gaining industry clout with a popular subscription service you pay for to support the anime you love, but which they use, instead, as a hedge fund for an American convention and their own original productions. Industry is a machine, and you are its fuel; this is okay, because capitalism and the free market are good things. But this isn’t about economy, this is about identity, and if you want to identify as an enabler of the creative death of your favorite form of entertainment, then by all means, go ahead. Crunchyroll Originals™ await you with open arms.

Thank you for reading.

Okay Crunchyroll, I’m watching it now. Can you please stop jamming it down my throat? So unless you have been living under a rock (or simply just don’t follow Crunchyroll on social media), you may have heard of this anime called Tower of God, a collaboration between Crunchyroll and Webtoons and is animated by Telecom Animation Film. It follows a boy named Bam who is trapped under a mysterious tower until he meets a kind girl by the name of Rachel. However, they are separated when Rachel opens the door to the tower. With no purpose in life, Bam must climb the tower to findRachel and reunite with her once again.

I mean he could have just gone Batman Begins on their assess and shout “WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS SHE? WHERE ARE YOU HIDING RACHEL?” Just saying. But in all seriousness, you know what this show so far reminds me of? It reminds me of the first arc of Hunter x Hunter, The Hunter Exam arc. The wide and colourful cast of characters, the difficult challenges, the elimination aspect of it and the big prize awaiting those who climb the tower. In this case, one wish of any desire you see fit. It is one of the main charms that makes Tower of God an enjoyable show so far. Seeing how one climbs the tower and how the characters perceive it. Bam doesn’t know anything about the Tower much like us. We learn as he learns about the Tower and how it runs. So there is that level of mystery to keep us edging on to the next episode to know more about the Tower and the inhabitants that run it.

But this leaves Bam as a character as, more or less, a placeholder for the viewer to fit in his shoes. He doesn’t really have a personal trait to him that makes him unique. He is meant to be us as we climb the tower and is carried by the cast around him. That includes Aguero Agnes Khun, a former noble and Rak Wraithraiser, a Lizardman who loves the thrill of the hunt and fight strong opponents. They both carry Bam due to their polar opposite personalties which does lead to some very good banter between the two. Then there is the supporting cast so far which has been underdeveloped so far but has inklings of potential. Except for Shibisu, he just has an entertaining personality who is just using two people to coast to the top of the tower. Plus, a terrific smug face (You know which one I’m talking about).

The animation looks interesting. The art style has plenty of colour to it and is vibrant but it looks intentionally rough. Yet it manages to pull it off well and makes it a good looking show due to that vibrant art style to make a surprisingly good combination. Same goes with animation quality as it animates well with emotional expression and badass fight scenes. Yet when it goes cartoonishly chibi for some of its comedic scenes, it just doesn’t look right with the art style. But that is my only complaint with the animation. Then there is the ost which is done by Kevin Penkin. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, then what if I told you he did the ost for the 2017 anime, Made in Abyss? Yeah. It’s fair to say that he has done a great job here as well with a healthy mix of atmospheric pieces (which is my favourite part of this ost) and pulse pounding action pieces with a good use of techno to help set the mood and make the world that extra cooler. Props also to the sound director as well. Love how his show sounds. The opening though...not so much. Too much cutting away to showcase the staff names that breaks the pacing of the opening as there really isn’t much that is going on. It just shows Bam in a roller-coaster of emotions. But it’s difficult to make sense of it all and I’m just going to skip it from now on. The ending sequence could have been better visually as it just shows Rachel sleeping but the song, love it.

So, is Tower of God worth checking out? So far, yes. While episode one was a bit of a slow grind, it has eventually picked itself up and it has been a good watch. The world, the premise, the animation and the ost have made it enjoyable to watch and listen to. Yet, it needs that extra something to make it truly spectacular. I feel like if Bam can grow as a character instead of being a placeholder for the viewer, then it could make this show truly special. There are signs that it could happen but I’m not sold on it so far at leat. Despite that, Tower of God is the kind of show that I want to know more. I want to know more about its world, it’s characters and why is there a tower that grants wishes to those who climb it? So for me at least, I’m going to keep watching it.

First Impression:

Story: 8/10

Plenty of mystery and intrigue so far to keep me hooked and guessing.

Characters: 6/10

Characters still need some more development and Bam is more of a placedholder protagonist than anything else. There is potential though and they do stand out from one another.

Animation: 8.5/10

The roughness could be off-putting for some as well as the more cartoonish bits but the art style and animation is rock solid

Sound: 8.5/10

love the sound direction and ost so far. Wish the opening and ending were just that better you know.

My Personal enjoyment: 7.5/10

This show has been solid so far for me at least and I’m definitely going to keep watching it so see what happens moving forward.

Overall score: 7.7/10 Recommendation: Watch it

So I won't go on with other point about why this show is so bland because I think other you have already rated it 5 or lower have done a good job expressing their points. But there is something I did want to address that hasn't been touched upon. THE BATTLES SUCK. For an anime that so far has been about beating different floor tests, where fights often occur, the fights are very problematic. Why? Because even if you have fancy animation and some neat scenes, this show is missing one fundamental part of any shounen. A power system. I'm not even talking about intricatesystems like those in other big shounens. We often don't get them until later in the series. I'm talking about just like a basis for whats possible in the universe. We have all these weird looking people, some don't even look human, with all these different abilities. But no way of knowing how to tell how powerful someone might be or what they are capable of. There's no rules.

In episodes 2 and 4 we see multiple characters use a myriad of abilities and equipment and just have to take at face value that those things are possible. With no background on what limits these people might have. There is the brief mention of shinsu but they don't do a very good job of explaining what it can do or who can manipulate it. Then in ep 4 we see blanket guy shoot a beam of shinsu at the fighters. Okay so it can do that? But was that only something he can do or can anyone learn to manipulate shinsu like that? Then theres the lady who has some type if shinsu based wand. One guy has some flaming fist attack but then it turns out to be lame. And Khun has a briefcase that can just absorb things? It seems like this show is doing things backwards. Were seeing these abilities first before any kind of groundwork for an ability system is layed down, which doesn't work. There needs to be rules before you start big fights in a show. Otherwise your battles just feel like every character has a deus ex machina up their sleeve. Because we have no rules the story teller can just make shit up to have the character they want to win, win. Watch any other battle shounen and you'll see rules are set before big fights or tests, or the characters learn about those rules as they fight. So far we've had multiple fights with zero regard for any kind of rules and it makes what could be some interesting fights really lame.

Tower of God anime is one that is full of build-ups and with no pay-off. Should the pay-off ever be realized, it’s going to take another dozens of (hypothetical) episodes to even start getting to that point. The story of Tower of God is not an interesting one, but it tries to hide this by posing as a sort of “saga”, spamming tons of characters, new concepts and “world building”, seemingly trying to do something similar to One Piece level of setting, but in the case of ToG it’s just a red herring serving to keep the audience from finding out that the story sucks. Forthose who might wonder if it’s even fair to compare this to One Piece, I’d say it’s a simple way to demonstrate the core failing of ToG. In One Piece, the world is vast and so is the cast and various powers. The difference is, the audience is on the journey of exploring this world together with the protagonists, so as the workings of the world is being explored by them, it is also explained to the audience this way. It also actually gives answers through the plot progression, not keeping all of them for later. Imagine if Devil Fruits were only explained 70 episodes in. Now, back to Tower of God. It does the exact opposite of that. We’re thrown in a world where everyone seems to already know how most of this shit works, leaving the audience confused about what is even going on, what are the rules here and why these people are doing what they are doing. Any sort of explanation is scarce and laconic. The only characters that is in the similar state of not knowing as is the audience is the protagonist – Bam. Now you would expect that it would be through his eyes and actions that we get to explore and understand this world. Nope. Bam isn’t here to explore, Bam isn’t here to have fun, Bam only cares about following this randomly picked girl that we are given no reason to care about. There is no adventurous drive in his motivation and consequentially there is no exploration of this new world. This isn’t how to keep the “mystery” going, it’s how to keep the boredom going. This isn’t a good worldbuilding, it’s just spamming random shit with seemingly no intention of explaining most of that.

As mentioned above, the protagonist is dull, uninteresting and unrelatable unless you relate to blindly chasing after a girl. What about rest of the cast then? Well, let’s say that unique design of the characters is the only thing interesting for most of them. With the exception of perhaps the froggo girl and maybe the resident “I am four parallel universes ahead of you” strategic genius (which would at least be a better protagonist than Bam) they are one-dimensional with like one character trait at most and completely forgettable. Should they have more regular designs I bet you’d forget most of them instantly.

Only 13 episodes in and the story is already getting repetitive. Enter a floor, attempt a test, somehow pass, repeat. It’s a tournament arc but if the tournament arc was the whole damn anime. And no, it does not get better in the webcomic. In fact, the story is so uninteresting and forgettable that when I was watching new episodes my video player played and older episode after it due to filename sorting. It took me over quarter of the episode to realize that “wait, I’ve already seen this one weeks ago”. That’s how much the episodes blend together and how little difference there is. And how much “random” and disorganised the plot is that this didn’t even seem out of place. It is also very hard to feel anything during the fights as there is no way to determine how high the stakes are. The power system isn’t explained and various characters just do random shit, so there is no way to determine the what the winning chances of those characters are. It’s like watching a chess match but at one point the opponent suddenly picks up the queen, hurls it at the other guy and the referee is like “yup you could have always done that”.

There is one major thing that the anime adaptation fixes though – the overall watchability. It’s still not great, but at least it’s not that painful. You see, the this part in the original webcomic looked like it was made in MS Paint and it was confusing to even guess what was going on before trying to guess why is it going on. If the anime wanted to be faithful to the original in this aspect it would need to be done as a bad flash animation. Thankfully at least this part was fixed, so while it leaves much to be desired regarding the script and characters, it is still technically more enjoyable then the original work. At least when comparing to the part this adapts. That said, it has one of the laziest openings I’ve seen in years. It’s more of a powerpoint presentation/clipshow than an opening.

Overall, it would seem that most of the praises this anime is getting stems from people being fans of the webcomic and attributing the (supposedly) good parts to the anime even though those parts are not present in the anime purely because this anime only adapts the very beginning of the comic. So don’t get tricked into thinking this is worth watching.

I remember it well. Back in 2011, when webtoons were starting to get popular, there were two names that echoed louder than the rest: 'Tower of God' and 'Noblesse'. The debate was real as everyone was arguing over which one is better. And here I stand, 9 years later, trying to decide which one is worse. Tower of God is essentially Korean Naruto with Bleach-swords. The entire first act is a fast paced exam-training-rescue arc hybrid, and that's pretty much how it differs from classic Japanese shonen, which take their sweet time doing each of these one at a time. The idea for the story canbe figured out by reading the title: Reach the top of the tower and you will become something of a God. The motivation for our main character to attempt this very thing is to rescue a girl. The means that allow him to do so are a different deal and that deal is rather lame.

This is how it goes: Certain princess is "feeling bored" so she gives our hero a sword, and this sword is actually alive - at least in some sense - and "it" happens to be kind of a shotacon so she (the sword) gives our main character undeterminated amount of power which he can now use in certain situations when the convenience is due. And all of this happens because he is "kinda handsome", at least according to the sword-shotacon-spirit. I guess kudos for the author for not even trying to hide the lameness that exist among this work. Of course, friends are also very important and just so happens to be, this exam side of the act forces our main character to form a team consisting of two other nakama (whom he has never seen before), so naturally, Sasuke-Kurapika edgy guy - who is also a walking keikaku doori with tragic past story - joins the team along this 3rd dude who is flamboyant, arrogant, GAR and very loud - and plays the role of a comedic gag guy. Together this powerful trio do some highly predestined stuff and thingies as we, the audience, are watching them advance while the not-so-great mystery unfolds.

To more thoroughly cover the character section: Yoru -our hero- has almost no presence and his resolve is pathetic when considering his reasoning, Khun is apparently super genius but all he does is succeed at everything and anything so effortlessly that it comes off as bullshit (excluding that one scene where he can't figure out a riddle and instead experiences random PTSD flashbacks because it wasn't his time to shine due to a joke the series wanted to deliver..), Rahk's entire existence is so comedic that he has no real value as a person, and Lahel (the girl that needs no saving but Yoru still wants to save) has no personality because she is essentially a mystery element who needs to be "kind of a cold bitch" and cannot ever make logical sense, rational decisions or explain herself because otherwise the story falls apart.

What the series does well are the side characters. By no means are they very strong and fascinating individuals from stand-alone perspective, but what the author does with the side casting is smart because they end up serving the entertainment factor of the show. Many side characters have gone through thorough planning to make them appear fascinating from the first glance. Their design and small tweaks in behavior give the series heart and personality to surprising extent. This is done in a manner that were you follow these characters for a long period of time in a long journey, you'd end up realizing they aren't amazing at all, but when they have insignifant roles in small parts of the story, they are right in their element.

The animation and art style is certainly the only thing those who consume shonen series have never seen before. Most of everything else varies from copy-pasted formula and overused trope to downright macro-filling as things such as originality and fresh, new ideas are absent entirely. Naturally, that's not to say that the series is doomed to fail and cannot be entertaining. The execution among the nu-art certainly make the series stand out from majority of classic shonen titles that have come out in the recent years, but that's exactly all the newness there is to experience. Other factors massively bottleneck its art style which impact isn't given in the first place. Personally, I enjoyed the art style and art directing a great deal - even in all of its simplicity - but those who do not approve of it will have much less anything to look forward to as the story and character factors have little no praise-worthiness in them, rather, they appear very flat and contain much fewer strong points to hang onto - entertainment wise.

Speaking of entertainment, the series seems to have been build with one single request in mind: "Whoever is watching this, just please try to have some fun with it." This is the message I got. Many things are entirely forgotten, such as the main characters actually forming bonds. It just happens for some reason and by the half way mark of episode 03, these guys are already prepared to take a bullet for each other. If you ask questions like how, why and when, be prepared to receive nothing but "yeah, iunno" *shrugs* as a reply. The series doesn't seem to think that such things are of importance. It isn't afraid to cut at any corner or cop-outs its way towards whatever it wants to do next. This serves the pacing and perhaps makes the show more easier to get into and digest, after all, it asks practically nothing from the audience and 0 efford is required as there isn't much substance to follow nor are there things you need to actually wait to get. On the downside, the series only aims to be mediocre and hopes you will enjoy it regardless. There is no great reward you can get by continue watching it onward, but it will consistently give you the same level of fun that it can.

By the way, when I imply it comes with good pacing, I specifically mean the flow of the individual episodes. One massively important thing to note is that there is hardly any plot progression or character development to be seen at any point in the series. Moreover, the series doesn't really try to build anything or foreshadow the next step it's going to take. Heck, it doesn't really even seem to fully plan the current step that it's already taking. If you look at it in that way, then the pace is quite horrid. Basically, the more you zoom out, the bigger the picture you look at is, the worse the series appears. Zoom in and you might as well find at least something worth your while.

One thing the series does quite well is use its comedy to paint scenes that would be entirely stupid if taken seriously, as comedic. I already mentioned the series doesn't try to hide its lameness, but it does hide its own immaturity rather well, if you will. For example, I don't really like riddles, but it took me about 7 seconds to figure out how to solve the beginning of this part of the exam. The raw idea for that scene was entirely idiotic, but at the same time, the actual conclusion end up being that only a total idiot could figure it out. This was a real hilarious 'ouch' moment for me as I figured it out and instantly claimed it idiotic. After that, the show tells me if you knew the answer, you're also an idiot, and I actually end up laughing at it and at myself. Alas, I can't agree with the statement, but that don't mean I can't enjoy its attempt at wit. :^)

To conclude the previously mentioned: The art style leaves more room for different interpretations whereas the story and characters come as they are and they really aren't much. It's common criticism to say that anyone could have written Tower of God's story, but to be more accurate here: many already have written it. The series is such a huge deja vu experience that watching it for the first time feels like rewatching. I guess it feeling familiar and welcoming are among its pros if you want to look it that way, but overall I wouldn't give it much credit for achieving something like that.

Overall, to make my point stand out even more: This series has very limited amount of good going on, but for me personally, its pros were enough to keep me entertained for most part and actually made me care for the series on some level. It's still pretty shitty tho, so be warned, but that don't mean it can't be fun for what it is. Do keep in mind that it's supposed to be brainless fun aimed for teenagers. All things considered, I conclude this series is not as good as average anime and therefore it's bad.

Story: Simple premise, there is a tower you climb it to get any desire to be granted such as becoming a god. A boy follows a girl into the tower and the story starts here. It is a vibrant world with many factions and abilities. Lots of things to discover if you like shonen or adventure you'll definitely like this anime. Art: Unique and recognizable style, takes getting used too but by episode 2 makes it really pleasant to watch. Sound: Kevin Penkin is one of the best people creating scores for anime in the industry and this series is no exception to his great work. Op and Ed songare catchy and opening visuals might not be action packed but its that way to keep mystery without spoilers.

Characters:

Bam the mc, is a boy who only has one firend in the world rachel who taught him everything he knows. He starts the story as kind of one note, but he is forced to grow up and learn while climbing the tower.

There is a huge cast of supporting characters who get spotlight and Im sure the community will fight over their faves.

Enjoyment:

pacing is fast, but episode 4 slowed it down a bit. However a upside of the fast pace is theres alot of action in the first four so you in for a ride. World building and dialogue will def come in the next few episodes as a person caught up with the manwha, so get ready to feast on a wealth of info.

Overall:

this being the virst adaptation for webtoon is huge and will open lots of series. From the first four episodes its evident the folks at crunchyroll and telecom made this anime with that in mind and it doesn't disappoint. Def check it out if your a shonen fan who likes deep characters and fantastical worlds.