Reviews for The God of High School

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*** Two words: MASTER-PIECE When you thought that your favourite anime had come to your top to stay for a long time, when you conceived that your life would not be enlightened again by an artwork of such caliber, God of Highschool soon came knocking on everyone’s door, what am I saying knocking!, breaking down the door and establishing themselves as the best anime ever. Where should I start? Its pacing and story-telling? Marvelous. Who else doesn’t love when things are so rushed that after 13 episodes you don’t have any idea of what is the main goal of the series...or even the main goalof its characters? Is it world destruction? God supremacy? Supporting the case of why taekwondo should continue being at the Olympics? No determination whatsoever!

As a matter of fact, us members of society can recall that WE ALL LOVE pointless fights without any meaning nor backstory; why wouldn’t we, if I may ask? Devices such as plot twists, showcasing character motivations, displaying impactful moments or executing contrasts properly in order to build up/shift momentum, change characters status quo, conveying emotions through the screen, or just for the sake of having an interesting, meaningful action scene are things that GoH NEVER contemplated, which, in my humble opinion, sets the tone on how things must be done on any anime which places value in providing quality content to its viewers. Greatness.

Speaking about greatness, we must ask ourselves about the integrity of the “plot”. It had been awhile since the last time I’ve watched a show which had such an organised, perspicuous and easy to follow plot, with no plot holes or unexplained sudden events whatsoever. For example: Seoul's population looks doomed because the good guys seem incapable of dealing with <<Nox>>? No worries, Alchemist-san saves the day transporting the whole city to a cliff out of nowhere. Already not convinced? What about if I told you that the show has a mysterious aura around it (however I have not been able to grasp it yet)?

And don't get me started with this show's coherence -one of its strengths-, like for instance, when the show it's stuck in a cul-de-sac, as they display their marvelous scripting techniques to solve the sticking point masterfully (e.g. kyuubi-power recovery from Ilpyo despite the key being detached from him)

And what about the GoH universe itself and its mechanics? Nothing notorious, just a normal society with its ups and downs, a little bit corrupted and all...oh, did I forgot to tell you that it's based on Ancient Rome? Such an elegiac tone! I mean, it’s pretty obvious when you notice how people love to rock the dome to see how high school students martial-fight to death...where the lions at? Oh, before I forget! Did you think this was a martial arts-esque show? Nothing further from the truth! By episode 8 you realise that EVERYONE has something known as “Charyeok” -kind of a borrowed power from an ancient God who had appeared twice in previous episodes- and that they are going to fight with it pretty much for the entire time. Greatness.

Nevertheless, I personally have to say that the major asset of this series is its originality. A mysterious organization stages a tournament in order to find the strongest high school student in Korea, but apparently it's all staged, being their “main goal” to find a “key” (which, apparently, is well-known that has to be inside a highschool student) that will help them fight a more mysterious and darker organization (as you must infer, because it’s never said due to the complexity of the plot and how they play mind games with us) who wants to destroy the world as we know. It is not my role to discern for you, but allow me to say that I had never heard of anything like this. NEVER EVER.

And let’s not forget about the originality of our characters! Whether it's our MC Mo-Ri, an oblivious, food-lover, meathead, “don’t you dare touch my friends” who just wants to live life fighting strong people, for the sake of becoming stronger; Mi-Ra and her pursue of power to prevent the ostracism of her family’s hallmark or even our s1 antagonist, a guy who wanted to feel relevant by any costs and rejected his personality and liveliness for the likes of a third party. Amazingly unique, isn’t it?

Speaking about this, highlight the ability of the writers in God of Highschool to avoid breathing life into their fictional characters. Motivations, backstories, RELATABILITY...the writers could had made the mistake of believing that these would have helped them develop a marvelous, compelling story which made the audience empathise with the cast on a personal level, laughing/suffering/crying with them as different events took place during the show, but, fortunately, they were quick-thinkers enough to avoid using these devices.

Backtracking a little bit, talking about the artistic component of the show, it’s obvious that MAPPA made sure that the quality of the animation in God of High School was good enough to support their OFF THE CHARTS job in the plot and characters counterpart. Fluidity and choreography looked, for the most part, good enough -especially during fight scenes-, sakuga animation was carried out surprisingly well, backgrounds were depicted nicely, characters were designed properly...art and animation was quite good, with the only complaint on how camera rotations and 3D movements were often overused, making it, on those specific moments, something really hazy to watch.

By the same token, music has had a leading role in the “success” of this season. Good job enhancing the different emotions that were on display during different moments, whether it was hyping up the moment when a fight was taking place, intensifying the sense of urgency, ...yet I really missed a banger as OP. Voice actors did a notable job, felt like it had to be said.

So, at the end of the day, I guess that if you've reached the end of this review you'll have the same opinion as myself: GoH is a great piece of rubbish.

"There's a resistance for people to talk about things that make them feel guilty. When natural disasters happen, it's easier not to feel guilty about it."

To summarize the whole show: Generic Side Characters, Generic Protagonist, and Generic Mindless Fighting. Slight spoilers for the first four episodes ahead - This is solely based on the current 4 episodes of the anime and not the original Webtoon (I have not read it). Story: 1 There is no plot to be found. To start, a tournament is held to crown the strongest high school student in Korea. The people that join have extremely typical anime character abilities. The prize is that one wish will be granted to the winner. We soon learn that the competition is held by an ominous organization with seemingly malevolent intentions (Wow! Socreative!). Nothing happens after this. People just fight, and the characters are not expanded on. If you like pointless fights with no plot, this show is for you. Some of the fans may say that the story gets better, but there's no explanation for not progressing the plot barely in 4 episodes.

Characters: 1

Truly terrible characters. Our protagonist Jin Mori is not interesting at all. He has no traits that set himself apart from Son Goku from the popular Dragon Ball series. Jin seems to be the strongest high school student, loves food, is notably oblivious in many situations, and tries to protect his friends. The author just stole all of Goku's personality and changed how the character looked. Just as with Jin, side characters are not unique. They are basic characters that have no personality aside from a single defining trait. Character development is completely void from the show. In addition, their motivations for entering the tournament are nothing special. Everyone has seen these typical reasons before.

Sound 8:

Sound effects and music are well done. Nothing much to say

Animation: 10

Some of the best animation I have seen. Mappa did extremely well with this and made the fight scenes fluid and amazing to watch.

Character Design: 5

Basic and average. Not unique or special.

Final Rating: 2

Overall, the appalling writing and characters can not be redeemed by the near flawless animation. This show seems to have been made with the focus on the story in the backseat. After watching the whole series, I intend to make an update to this review. I hope that The God of High School will be able to change my opinion.

Edit: It was too painful to finish this show, so I can't make an update.

No, my eyes aren’t deceiving me. I finished today, what I see as one of the most overhyped, yet underwhelming show of the year. The God of High School represents the type of show that is forced down our throats like the next big thing. Advertised as a Crunchyroll original, this anime has convinced me that there’s little hope for a decent manhwa adaptation in the future. Don’t let your eyes deceive you by the flashy animation and aesthetics. The God of High School is a show I wouldn't dream of recommending. As I sat here wondering what went wrong, my initial impression of the animewas actually hopeful. The first episode bought out the talents of director Seong-Hu Park as he’s able to craft together some lavishly animated scenes. In fact, it’s easy to say the first episode is an eye catcher of animation with the amount of ass kicking and fast moving action. We are introduced to 17 year old Mo-Ri Jin, a martial arts from the country of South Korea. The free spirited young man has the ambition of a fighter, and seeking out powerful opponents to test his abilities. This is where we are introduced to the God of High School Martials Arts Tournament, a place for fighters all over the world to showcase their skills.

Despite being the main protagonist, the story also introduces Mi-Ra Yu and Dae-Wi Han. Both characters also possesses talent in martial arts with their unique fighting styles. It’s why both are also invited to the GoHS tournament although they have different motives. For instance, Han participates in the fight to help his friend while Mira seeks to find a suitable marriage partner. No matter what the reason, it seems GoHS loves pushing the characters’ personalities at every chance it gets. The most prominent examples are when Jin gets excited at fighting a powerful opponent or when he is motivated. Other times, it’s when Jin finds a reason to fight, such as crashing a wedding and helping Mira. It’s motivations like this that sets off an early impression of the show. But with every progressing episode, the show degenerates into a chaotic mess.

It seems the more and more I watched the show, the less I feel motivated myself to understand the main purpose of the story. What is it even trying to get us to understand? The main characters? The tournament arc? Or perhaps some sort of reason for God of High School to even exist? The meat of the show remains with the tournament and different fights that occurs throughout the main story. It also seems these fights often feels rushed and lacking importance. Even Han, a selfless man, who fights for the sake of others becomes a chore to watch. How many times do we have to hear his unenthusiastic dialogues? Every one of his fight feels similar and furthermore, it’s easy to say he is the most boring character to watch in the entire series. As the story ventures forward, we are thrown into more chaotic storytelling involving supernatural forces such as the Nine Tailed Guardian, God incarnates, and plot to kill certain divine beings. When you try to make a show spin out of control in such way, it sets off a ticking time bomb of chaos.

Outside of the main cast, don’t expect much character development from the other characters. This is advertised as a 13-episode one cour series. To make the story flow, we are introduced to some significant side cast such as IIpyo Park. Serving as a more logical member of the cast, IIpyo is observant and not often the one to rush into battle head on. He appears to be one of the more mysterious member of the cast but unfortunately, the anime doesn’t get the chance to explore the full side of his character. This seems to fall in line with the majority of named characters, including one of the main antagonists, Mujin Park. As being the head in charge of the tournament, you can expect him to be the master pulling the strings. Being manipulative and calculating, Mujin represents the anti-thesis of Jin and the main cast. And to add on to the rogue gallery, there’s Taek Jegal, a major threat who treats almost everyone as worthless. His power hungry personality fees on his ego to the point where he cares for no one but himself. It’s the type of stereotypical antagonist you can come up in less than 5 seconds in any type of anime. Taek’s main rival appears to be Iipyo, but from a storyline perspective, he represents nothing more than a generic villain. With all said and done, background storytelling even falls short with info dumps about the cults, Gods, and other divine powers. Because let’s face it, this anime serves as little more than being an advertisement for a glorified fight show.

Well, if there’s one selling point of the anime, it’s the animation. In fact, I can say The God of High School is more about showing than telling. From the first major fight and every other forward, it looks like the anime pushes the boundaries of animation. It’s stylistic and dynamic with fast paced motion. The comic-like art quality also makes the important fights feel like major attractions. When the anime settles for a lighthearted tone, it bounces back into comedic scenery of cartoonish character expressions. Even the music accompanied with the action sequences makes the fights more dynamic. If you wanted to see a visual action flick, The God of High School will be a hell of a ride.

Don’t let those flashy animation fool you. This show wanted to be something special and indeed, it some ways managed to do that. But beyond the typical main trio cast and the ass kicking scenes, this is no more than a mediocre story trying its best to sell its product to you. Even with the sufficient funding, The God of High School reminds me to always, and always keep expectations in check for manhwa adaptations.

Do I recommend this anime? No, unless you really want to watch it. Over the past few years, there have been quite a few shonen/action anime. Some of these shonen/action show flopped and became dreadfully bad, no plot, no reason to fight, and mostly just poorly done. The God of High School is yet another plotless action anime. When it comes to action animes like these there are always fans who will always call it a masterpiece. Story - 2/10 Absolutely zero plot. Just fighting. They try adding mysteries and some plot but it's not done properly. Which makes the show even worse. They threw ina plot to make it better...

Art - 7/10

I can't get over the fact that they have red noses and red ears. It makes them look drunk slightly and its also giving me OCD. Either way, the art was good, the animation had a little too much motion blur, but overall it was really well done. In my opinion, they also changed the art style for a few seconds for humor too many times.

Sound - 4/10

I'm going to be 100% honest. I hate the intro and the animation that goes with the intro. The sound effects are a little overdone but honestly, I don't care about that part as long as it isn't cringe.

Character - 2/10

They overreact on everything. They contribute nothing to the plot. They have no background. They are too shallow. I could keep going on and on, but I'm going to try finding good parts... At least they aren't annoying?

Enjoyment - 4/10

I enjoyed the mindless fighting. Besides that I hated it.

Overall - 3/10

I wouldn't be watching this if this season's pick were so bad. It was poor. It was just generic.

Story: 1 Story? What story? There is no story and that’s what this anime prides itself on, no story and all fighting, just the way everyone likes it… Not. Behold a grand tournament in a universe where Korean high school students look like 20-30 year olds and everyone is just suddenly okay with watching a bunch of “teens” fight to the death. I didn’t know we went back to ancient Rome with the gladiator pit. Jin Mori, a typical generic shonen maincha- I mean typical student who just happens to be very good at fighting. With his power up flashbacks and insane moves he will climbthe ranks and move up in the tournament to be the God of High School. And.. That’s it. That’s literally all you need to know. I’m pretty sure the only plot in this show is the animation, which makes no sense but for some reason fits God of High School perfectly.

Art: 8

It would be criminal to say the animation of this is not superb. The quality of MAPPA is indeed very appealing and I expect to see this fluent animation throughout the show.

Sound: 6

The sounds are fine however the dubstep take they play throughout the series is pretty bad. The opening and ending is hard to sit through and unless you are a hardcore techno fan, then you wouldn’t like it.

Characters: 3

Typical boring cliche troupes of characters that you have seen so many times before. You have the tsundere who I’ll bet you the mortgage on my house falls in love with Jin eventually. You have the typical quiet badass that literally does nothing. You have the typical loud meathead shonen MC who is always hungry and wants to fight. I’m not even gonna say how many times that has been re-done. And… That’s it. Those are the only characters you really need to pay attention to. The rest of the characters are just gonna be there for plot convenience so it’s not worth going over them. Can these types of shows really not think beyond these basic troupes that have been recycled and re-used dozens of times. It’s not interesting or cool anymore, it’s eye rolling and boring.

Enjoyment: 6

Despite me lashing out on this series, besides having to prematurely turn off your brain before hand, it is quite entertaining. The fight scenes are awesome and the animation to par. If you only care about thrill factor and just want a good watch, go for it. However, if you actually want a compelling and fleshed out series, I’d look somewhere else. Like I said, this anime seems to pride itself on being just action so if that’s what you want, hey go for it.

Overall: 2

I’ve said what I wanted and I hope this anime can create some type of foundation cause that’s what it’s gonna need if it wants me to stick around.

Edit: may contain mild spoilers With another shounen WEBTOON adaptation comes yet another disaster. Colour me surprised. While the source material isn't the greatest narrative to work from and leaves much to be desired, to go even further and butcher already subpar material to the point of being irredeemable is quite an achievement. One of the most admirable and compelling qualities of a skilled writer is the ability to breathe life into a fictional character. Backstories, motivations, exposition, relatability; there are various tools that are paramount for establishing a connection between a viewer and a character, and that connection is the very factor that spurs acompelling story. The ability to compel an audience to relate with a cast on a personal level, to revel its triumphs and suffer from its downfalls, to laugh or cry with nothing more than a mere figment of their imagination is what separates mediocre writing from great writing. But unfortunately, to even call God of Highschool 'mediocre' would be dishonest.

The God of Highschool cast is, in a word, completely uninspired. Because like most shounen, the anime is far more interested in constructing one dimensional characters that are effectively the same chaotic conglomeration of incessantly rehashed shounen tropes we're forced to witness every single cour than meaningful, relatable characters. Jin Mori, or rather budget Son Goku, fills the role of your typical happy-go-lucky shounen protagonist, Han Daewi has quite literally no discernible personality, and Mira Yu is, unsurprisingly, the token hotheaded female sidekick that effectively serves nothing more than the role of a third wheel. As far as characters go, God of Highschool spares not even a shred of creativity or originality. It has nothing to call its own and provides nothing notably meaningful or interesting in the slightest.

Not only are the bases of the cast uninspired enough, but to add insult to injury, any sort of exposition regarding character motivations and backstory are either glossed over or completely omitted, throwing us right into a chaotic disgrace of a tournament arc right from episode one. After all, God forbid MAPPA actually makes an attempt to provide a meaningful and cohesive story, rather than adapting a whopping eleven chapters an episode, glossing over important concepts and providing a half-assed adaptation all for the sake of cramming an extra content that is not even remotely worth watching into a one cour adaptation. There is no attempt to establish and explain Han Daewi's relationship with his ill companion. No attempt to shed light on Yu Mira's actual disposition, her motivations and her struggles regarding her family situation. And ultimately, no attempt to actually provide a suitable foundation that would allow the events of arc 1 to have any meaningful emotional impact. Is this really worth losing for the sake of extra content?

Funnily enough, God of Highschool seems to be revered for its quality of animation, enough that it's effectively considered the selling point of the show. While there are particularly significant highlights showcasing great camerawork and choreography, there are far more than enough poorly handled fights to counterbalance the positives. The rotating camera effect is overused and an absolute eyesore. Characters are often just lazily, slowly tweened from place to place, making various fights feel irritatingly slow paced and carelessly executed. A lack of impact frames means many attacks feel like they have absolutely no weight behind them. And the "single-stroke battle" trope being used not once, but three times in the Baek Sungcheul fight was laughably bad. GoH animation is nothing admirable, and its occasional highlights and the fact that it's able to display slightly more effort than your run of the mill shounen are all it has going for it.

Ultimately, God of Highschool provides neither anything of its own nor anything of worth. Rather than the simple but compelling and flashy demeanor it intends to give off, it showcases neither substance nor flavour and is an utter waste of time. If you're looking for great animation and choreography, watch Katanagatari. If you're looking for a compelling and deep story, watch SnL. If you're looking for a great cast, watch Run With the Wind. Because God of Highschool proved itself a complete and utter failure when it came to showcasing any such factors at a particularly commendable level of quality.

This is a review based on the first 4 chapters. It is worth mentioning that I have not read the manhwa of this anime. I hope it helps you to understand all the points of this anime and be encouraged to see it. Remember, all anime / manga can be enjoyed without problems, do not get carried away by bad comments and in case of comparing with another work that is not in order to devalue a job. Story / Plot: 8/10 At first glance, history is not the most innovative, but it does not mean that great things cannot be achieved. A tournament full of arts and fightingstyles of all kinds, where the winner will have whatever wishes they have. The goal of the tournament is to find the best fighter in all of Korea.

The tournament is sponsored by a mysterious organization and full of strong people, surely more groups will appear

At the moment little else can be said, it is clear that the story will be complicated and will have more aggregates, but for the moment it can be summarized by saying, in this world there are unusual things and people with superhuman abilities.

Characters / Personalities: 8/10

The protagonist, Jin, Mo-Ri, is the typical student with a very happy character and who conveys that. He is a very strong person who enjoys fighting against others and at all times is looking for someone powerful to face, yes, how Goku. Regarding his past, we know that he was very close to his grandfather and was a person with few friends.

Han Dae-Wi is a calm and confident looking boy. As can be seen in fights, it has enormous strength and resistance and uses it to fight, its main attacks being simple fists, but with a lot of power. Not much is known about him from his past, we only know that he participates in the tournament to get money and help a close friend who is hospitalized.

Yu Mi-Ra, the waifu from the anime, is a nice and strong girl, who participates in the tournament with the aim of reviving her dojo. As with other people, not much is known about her past, only that her sword is the only thing she has left to remember her father.

Animation / Setting: 10/10

The studio in charge of bringing us this anime is MAPPA, which we all know in installments like: Kakegurui, Dorohedoro and soon for Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season.

The anime is set in a modern and impeccable city, in which the technology is a little more advanced than the current one, at least in medical terms, what it looks like to heal the protagonist's broken neck in a matter of seconds using "nanomachines", which are found in the bodies of each participant.

The animation stays well at all times, from when the protagonist walks to the moment when he confronts someone. Sometimes it seems that they ignore the laws of physics, it can be seen when they perform certain movements where, being in the air they move a lot from their initial position, but this is understandable when remembering that superhuman movements are possible in this world.

The physical appearance and clothing of the characters is quite good and is not very far from reality, most characters dress in typical clothing, although in some cases it is observed that certain people dress according to their fighting style.

There are also funny details like how most characters, if not all, have red nose tips and even ear tips, which is quite funny, but after all you get used to it. After all, it's not a big deal, but it can serve as a way to recognize anime.

Sound: 10/10

This section stands out a lot in this anime since it has a more than acceptable performance and brings with it two magnificent songs.

The opening theme, "Contradiction," is mostly electronic, quite catchy, and blends in perfectly with the anime, as stated in a nutshell it's chilling and entertaining enough to keep you in your seat and not ignore it. It is also important to mention that it is very well done, for example, when it reaches the climax it feels "explosive" which combines with the theme of fighting in the anime.

In the same way, the ending theme is mainly electronic, contrary to the opening theme, this at all times remains "constant" and "calm", it serves to appease after almost being absorbed by your seat and how excited the chapter was, But it does not make you lose that emotion, it makes you have your feet on the ground and your body relaxed, it creates an atmosphere of satisfaction and tranquility.

In terms of setting in all types of scene, the sounds and / or music are according to the situation, it is a perfect way to make you get even more into the story and share what the characters feel. Likewise, in the fight scenes the music used and the expected sounds are adequate. It is worth mentioning that they adequately handle momentary ups and downs of tones at specific times.

Enjoy: 10/10

This anime is undoubtedly a show that anyone can see without needing to be a lover of anime or a specific genre. Age doesn't matter either.

It may be your first or 156 anime seen but you will surely entertain yourself and give it a good score. As I mentioned earlier in the different sections of the anime, it does not disappoint in any, it is quite complete and has a lot of quality in between.

The anime so far is not exceeded in any sense and / or aspect so you should not fear that it deviates from its main plot or there is much inappropriate content, in every sense. There is almost no presence of NSFW content intended to "wake up" the public, or gore or something similar in battles. So far only bruises or light bleeding are seen, which is consistent with the confrontations and blows received by the participants, we must remember that their resistance is superhuman and that means receiving blows strong enough to break walls as if nothing.

Seeing this anime I assure you epic moments, fluid and detailed animation, perfect sound at all times and a story and characters that will progress and will result in a more complex story and characters with a lot of background.

Thanks for using some minutes of your busy day and reading my review, I hope you liked it and cheer you up to watch the anime.

If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to write me, I will respond after an hour or so.

Have a nice day

The second webtoon anime comes to a close. Definitely say I liked this one better than the previous. God of High School does have some problems no doubt but I enjoyed this anime so damn much. Didn't quite know what was coming with this show other than a big tournament and some cool looking fights. Well we got that in spades and then some! This show didn't let up off the throttle for even a half second! Kept going and going and going jumping the shark at every turn and I loved for doing that. Where we started and where we ended were completely differentplaces in such a short amount of time but that didn't bother me so much, least not as much as I'm sure it did others.

The way I value and rare anime is absolutely themes then characters then story then visuals. That being said I think this show is one of the rare exceptions for me. Because the themes and story aren't quite there imo but holy hell are the visuals amazing to look at constantly and the characters are a lot of fun. There's tropes out the woodwork with this but it didn't seem to bother me. The story kinda shoots itself in the foot multiple times but skimming past things that should probably be explained. This is definitely one that would benefit from being 23 to 26 episodes opposed to just the 13 we got. But not gonna judge something by what it didn't give us since that's dumb. Better to just look at what were got and judge that.

So I'll say the characters are awesome and easy to root for. Our main trio of Mori, Daewi, and Mira are all badass who I love to see on screen. They all get great moments to shine throughout the show. Even with Mori being centerpiece the other two still get highlights. The supporting cast with Ilpyo being my favorite of those and the other tournament competitors being pretty cool especially early on. Park Mujin was always a mysterious dude who seemed to be up to his own thing but I liked his style and how he helped the trio out more towards the end. His squad with the commissioners and SIX were cool. Nox as a main antagonist group were kinda meh since they didn't do a whole lot. Jegal however I really liked the more we saw him. An easy villain to despise and want to see the heroes beat. His powers were cool too.

Of course I'd be dumb to not rave and gush over the incredible animation. Mappa basically outdid themselves and keep putting out quality work over and over again. Can always trust them to make a show look great with its fights and this amps me up even more to see Jujutsu Kaisen animated later this week! Overall I'd say this is a fun kinda just enjoy the fights type anime with some good characters and a middling plot that coulda just used some more time to flesh out. But I thoroughly enjoyed this show for what it gave us. 85 out of 100.

So, it’s finally here and man what a fantastic adaptation this is coming strong with fluid animation that allows you to nicely follow what’s happening in the fight scenes. And surprisingly I enjoying the comedy here even though I didn’t really love it in the webtoon, it seems they made to push the punchiness of the jokes and made sure to give them hilarious facial expressions, they come and go quick which is always nice. They also make sure to keep a lot of the visual gags like Q getting owned in episode 2 which I superbly loved. Story:9 As for the story, similar totower of god this is the first arc of a really long, epic of a manhwa which story becomes far bigger so though it might seem a little slow you should definitely keep with it as long as the concepts and action interest you. Think of it maybe like the first season of Bleach which is more comedy focused and not too much action, though GOH makes sure that there is more than enough action to go around since it starts with a fighting tournament. As it goes on, the comedy elements will be toned down in quantity so if they aren’t your cup of tea don’t worry too much.

Adaptation differences: 2 quick things I would like to note are that they haven’t changed much story aspects which is promising only changing one minor detail which honestly doesn’t make to much sense in the long run of the manhwa and a few story beats like how Mori gets the divine pellet or wrestler girl gets genuinely defeated. The one big difference is that they are making sure to hint at the super power aspect a lot more which is good since it becomes the central way of fighting later on.

I also like that they make sure that all these characters are somewhat superhuman in their actions with the quickness of the fights since initially that quality was sort of hard to notice in the webtoons.

Overall: 10 It’s a fantastic shounen action show that provides beautiful fight animation with a long, epic story with really lovable characters that I promise you won’t regret getting into especially if you’re looking for a good to scratch that action itch. Honestly this and TOG will probably become part of the next big three as long as their adaptation release schedules aren’t too spaced out.

Other quicky ratings

Art:10 Gorgeous fight animation with good in-between choreography making the fights more dynamic also loving the expressions and like that they took out most of the chibi comedy focusing on the big jokes.

Sound: 9 Love the impact sounds though think some of the explosions are a little over done also didn’t expect that opening theme.

Character:10 Loving that they are making sure to push the main trios friendship, making sure to not skip any beats and think they are doing the side characters well.

Enjoyment:10 I’m loving this baby

GoH so far has done a lot of things right in my book. The opening episode really draws you into the show, and really gets you hooked on the three main characters and who they are. For a show to do something like that, you know it's gonna be good, and worth your while. But what else does GoH have in store for the first few episodes? Let's see... As I touched upon with the characters, the first episode does a great job of building them and showing just who they are, and how fun, and interesting each can be. You'll find yourself cheering for thethree mains because of it, and only wanting the best for them. For a show to have great and entertaining characters, you know it's going to be good.

As for the story itself? Just think of your usual fighting game that you love, and how they run their tournaments. Each character having a motive and a story behind from, which stories can range depending on the character of course, and I cannot wait to learn more about them. Much like how they give off that interested factors towards those who are running this tournament in the first place. Well done there.

It's art style can be very flashy at points, but also fitting for more darker moments. For it to be done like that, it really is something. Much like the sound through out the show, when it's flashy, it's upbeat and good fun, and fits the tone of the show when needed. Both quality in my book, and will keep you throughout the show.

Overall so far GoH is a fun show, that can make you go through the emotions so far, and I cannot wait for more, and you should watch too!

3 episodes in and you realize this show is the epitome of "all flash, no substance." This is less an anime and more like a 20 minute anime fight scene compilation from YouTube. There's nothing to this series. It's soulless and boring. There is almost no plot to understand. 4 episodes and you learn nothing substantial of the main characters, why this fighting tournament exists and the other characters' motivations, especially the villain who behaves like a typical Korean drama evil business man but with super fighting powers. Seriously, I don't know how much harder I could come down on a show lmao. What a disappointment. The show triesto rely on mystery to keep you interested, but does it so poorly it's like dangling a carrot on a stick, but you forgot the carrot. Things just move as fast as possible and that speaks to its pacing. The anime is cutting things from an already shallow manhwa.

And what's worse is that, since this show has literally almost no plot 3 episodes in, you can just tell that the overall story is shallow and creatively bankrupt. And don't listen to people telling you to read the manhwa or webtoon. The source material is actually worse than the anime, and I just ripped the anime apart, so that should tell you something. The anime literally cut out chunks of plot just to jump from fight to fight in breakneck speeds, and you're just following along. You have no care for any of these fights because they're happening without any attachment from you as a viewer with the characters.

For comparison, My Hero Academia isn't anything special, but even people who dislike it could admit it has a passable story that follows Hook -> Line -> Cliffhanger (optional) -> Sinker. God of High School has no Hook, a small Line, and then the weakest Sinkers (if you can even call them that) because there was nothing to hook you into the show in the first place! You might be hooked by the flashy fights and the EDM music for the first episode in a half but then its novelty wears off and you're left wondering what the hell is the actual story. Oh, the villain is suddenly interested in the MC? Damn, I wish I was too. Seriously, in 3 episodes you couldn't have spent more time growing Jin Mori with the viewers rather than showing off as many matches as possible?

At least the fighting is flashy enough. At least it was until the show decided to crank up everyone's strength as fast as possible without warning and the way the story is paced, you can just tell there's no ceiling and characters will just get more and more powerful. On a visual level, they have characters summoning Shaman King JoJo stands, which may just be imagery for the viewers to show off the characters' power levels, but if you're gonna do that you can't not give the main character something similar and then have everyone claiming the MC's power is not human. The other guy just summoned a giant monster behind him and you're impressed by the MC throwing 3 kicks? Where's the visual consistency? You just gave the MC a power boost 7 minutes ago.

The only good thing in this show was Mah Miseon 'cause she got abs and big anime tiddies.

WARNING: DO NOT READ FOR POTENTIAL OR IF YOU GET WORKED UP OVER OTHER'S PEOPLE'S OPINION Story: 1/10 - It's awful. Just another "Do this to make a wish" cliche. Also, it tries to look deep by including religious imagary but just fails everytime. And some of them can make their wish easily without going into the tournament. Art: 2/10 - It's so bad to look at. The designs suck. It had decent fight ceography I guess, but even then it steals the opening's animation and just use it in episodes.... oh wow. Sound: 1/10 - I had sound off but I know it'll sound bad. Characters: 1/10= They're paper thin and are cliche, I'm pretty sure the mc is mentally handicapped and still needs help using the bathroom despite him being in his teens. The second mc is rule 34 bait and the second guy is just a poor man's version of Leorio

Enjoyment: 1/10 - I had a headache watching it. I mean seriously.

Overall: 1/10 - Do NOT watch it, it's badly paced, has weird cuts and is a bad fever dream nightmare to watch through

If the title, “The God of High School,” sounds lit af, dude, then this shit’ll be poggers, dude, deadass. However, if you cringe at the thought of a self-serious television show which seeks to actually entertain you whilst unabashedly pandering such an embarrassing name emblematic of all the little it has to offer, feigning such a shallow pulse of engagement with such radically unbalanced production values for those physical and mental children whom its cacophonies somehow excite, then you will cringe at the reality of this product all the same, because I promise you this can of worms is everything it advertises on the tin andmore. The battle-high comeback The Asterisk War wishes it could’ve lived to see.

Please don’t make this review out to be hatful or any more negative than it actually is. All this review is saying is the content of the show is so vacuous, you can tell whether or not you will enjoy it based on your emotional reaction to the title alone. Any review offering a greater discussion of its template plot or cardboard characters is likely leading you on with the idea there is more to this show than what I’ve stated here. I’m sorry; there isn’t.

Thank you for reading, and you’re welcome for making it easy on you.

Well there’s no stopping this train, Crunchyroll are going full steam ahead into adapting webtoons. With this, last season’s Tower of God and next season’s Noblesse, things might be looking up for webtoon adaptations right? Weeellll...not exactly. Tower of God is good show that’s HEAVILY relying on a sequel season to make it all worth it (which if I’m aware, hasn’t been announced at the time of this review), Noblesse is a wait and see at the moment and this show has been a truly mixed bag. There are some stuff that this show get right and there are some stuff that this show getswrong, badly at times. But this show has become the epitome of a phrase that I go by when grading a show. “High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.”

Sit back, relax, grasp your own power within you and summon your Perso...i mean Charyeok as I present to you the anime review for the The God of High School. Let’s begin.

Story: 2.5/10

The God of High School tournament has begun and high school students all over Korea flock to prove their worth as the strongest fighter. This includes our three main proagonists Jin Mo-Ri, Han, Dae-Wi and Yu Mi-Ra, each with their own fighting styles and techniques. However, with the commissioner, Park Mu-Jin, looking for something and a shady group working in the shadows, they will soon learn that there is something more than meets the eye to this tournament.

So there you go, a simple tournament with something more going on in the bigger picture. Simple and solid stuff right? Yes, but the execution of this is certainly one to behold because the pacing of this series is utter dogs**t as it is all over the place. It started out nicely in the beginning to set the premise, setting and establishing the bonds between our main leads, but then it blitzes through to get to the big picture. And that is what honestly killed the story for me. This show wanted to get to the big picture as quickly as possible instead of developing what we already got in front of us. It’s almost as if it was obsessed to tell you that there is more to this story than meets the eye, but doing that sacrifices context and some much needed context at that. When the show does explain some things though, it’s kind of blink and you will miss it because good luck trying to understand if you did miss it.

But ultimately, it trying to get to the big picture leaves to a lot of, “what the f**k is going on?” moments. We get introduced to this villainous group that believe in god, abilities that can only be described as Personas or Stands for you Jojo nutters and a “key” that holds great significance. This stuff happens with little to no build-up or context to it so it just happens and you are probably left confused. It changes your attitude towards the fights and honestly makes them less enjoyable at the end because you are trying to wrap your head around as to what is going on instead of just enjoying the spectacle.

Characters: 4/10

There isn’t anything inherently hateful with the main trio as they do a fair job of being characters I can rally behind and they do get some character development. Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra definitely do get some time dedicated to them to get invested into them. But it feels like they get tossed aside by the end and their importance to the plot is dwindled as the show goes on. More focus is placed on Mo-Ri as time goes on as he is the true main protagonist but in my opinion, he isn’t as interesting as Dae-Wi or Mi-Ra in terms of motivation or backstory. He is under the class of Gerenivutus Shounenanatus (aka. Generic shounen protagonist). He likes fighting and getting stronger just so he can fight stronger opponents and get even stronger himself. A tried and true formula sure, but one that has become tiresome and it is no different here. His motivations aren’t really compelling compared to the cast around him and his growth isn’t really as noticeable where it feels like his strength just gets stronger just because at times.

That actually kind of relates to the majority of characters at times because they get stronger just because most of the time. This is another side effect of the lack of context and consistent pacing in this show. The lack of natural growth when it comes to getting stronger is obvious when characters do acts that they have shown no signs of before. I think the lack of training montages kind of hurts this show.

Going back to the cast of characters, there is one that I think would have made for a more interesting main protagonist. Park Il-pyo is much more compelling than Mo-Ri as he has a much more legitimate and interesting motivation while also having similar generic shounen elements. Probably because he gets the most attention out of the cast of characters in terms of backstory. Sure, it is rather cliched but at least is has depth unlike the majority of the more important characters in this show. The rest of the cast is rather meh. They fall under their roles to do their part of the story but I will say that the main antagonists, Nox, are pretty weak as villains go. Not including Taek Jegal who is decent as an ultimate main rival. But Nox is as uninteresting as shadowy groups get. Their main leader is a literal who and their motivation to summon god into the world to destroy it is as generic as bad guy goals get.

In fact, the majority of the cast falls under the cliched shounen troupe and while some do expand on it like Il-pyo, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra, the rest kind of just fall in line, honestly making the cast shallow in the process.

Animation: 9.5/10

Is this the best work MAAPA has ever done to date? Probably. There’s no denying that the animation for The God of High School is fantastic. Fights are fluid and pack quite the punch with it oozing with sakuga everywhere to make the fights themselves fun to watch. But it’s not just how it animates, how the show frames the fights with dynamic angles and shots to give it a different feel each time. Watching from a distance as a guy with a straight jacket runs in fast to kick guys in the head, or it zooming out of Dae-Wi as he turns around and blows people away with his fist. It makes the fights themselves that fun to watch and are easily the highlight of the show for me.

Art style and character design wise, it’s solid, although I don’t know why everyone have such a red nose. It’s like they all have the sniffles or something, I don’t know. It’s something that particularly bothered me, it’s just something that just looks kind of weird. Each character have their own unique look that translate well into the fights so it doesn’t become a hindrance and they are rather distinct from one another and the art style translates well into the action. So overall amazing job by MAPPA.

Sound: 8/10

Honestly, the ost really matches the pacing and emotion of the fights to make them that extra enjoyable from a pure spectacle standpoint. It does what it needs to when you got action like this and enchance a scene that you are most likely engrossed in to keep up with the tone of the scene. The sound effects as well have a nice punch to it to make you feel the force with each hit, knowing that it’s going to hurt.

The opening, "Contradiction feat. Tyler Carter" by KSUKE, is interesting. I like how it builds up the opening and then flurry it out with action and how the opening is styled, with it starting like it’s an intro to the tournament and the neon filter when it shows off the action. The song is give or take. I’m not the biggest fan of techno music but I do like how it builds up with the visuals on screen. BUT, the opening does lose points for the action being just scenes taken directly from the episodes instead of showing off it’s own action to make the opening more independent from the rest of the show. The ending I like as well. "WIN" by CIX, is a nice way to show off the growing bond between Mo-Ri, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra and is a nice way to calm down after the relentless action. Just a nice solid ending.

Conclusion:

“High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.” It’s a line I came up with when I did my review of Sirus the Jaeger back in 2018 and it’s always stuck with me when it comes to shows like this. No matter how good your animation and sound is, if your story and characters don’t do as well, then your show will just be a hollow shell of a technical masterpiece. The God of High School is a show had a lot of promise. If it was able to make sure that the story and characters match the quality of it’s animation and sound it would easily been one of the best anime of the year. But it didn’t. If anything, it bought into its own hype and tried to prove that this show was more than it meets the eye but without establishing why. What’s left is a show that feels very shallow and honestly a waste of MAPPA’s best work to date. Poor pacing and context to the story, underdeveloped and shunted characters, a rather boring protagonist and very weak villains leaves a show that feels half full. While the fights on their own are very good, without a good narrative to back it up, it leaves the fights feeling very hollow.

I do believe this is a case of 12 episode syndrome where they tried to cram it into 12 episodes to save time and budget and move on to the next. But this show badly needed at least a 24 episode run time to help establish key plot elements and character growth. But it didn’t (probably due to budget) and there’s no changing it now. What we are left with is what we got and what we got is honestly, a show that I am disappointed with.

My Personal enjoyment: 4.5/10

Overall score: 5.7/10 Recommendation: Consider it (VERY, VERY BARELY, Consider watching it for the action for the first 3-4 episodes and see where you go from there.)

I would describe The God of High School as the hentai of the action genre, you come to watch people fighting without caring about who is there and why are they doing it. The story seems a secondary priority, character introductions are non existent. Our main character is Jin, your typical shonen protagonist who is insanely strong, on his way he meets with Mira and Dawei becoming friends pretty fast. We start the first few episodes with people fighting and random superpowers everywhere. On the tournament we have people using martial arts, weapons and wide variety of superpowers that we have no knowledge of their origin. If I were tothink about the plot, nothing really makes sense.

It bothered me that a story this shallow would make it that far so I jumped onto the webtoon and I was pretty surprised.

The anime did its best to crop as much as possible from the characters backstory, it looks as if this anime was made so that people who previously read the story would enjoy some of its action come to life.

To its credit, the animation is better than anything that came out this season, the art style is beautiful and fighting scenes are great.

Sound, opening and ending were good.

Overall its not a bad anime, but it could be if the viewer cares about the story and had no previous knowledge of the webtoon.

Everyone knows that feeling when at the end of an anime they give you "F*** you go read the manga" type of ending, well GOH is not that kind of anime. GOH is one of the mont popular Webtoons today, and for a reason, it's damn entertaining, having really cool characters, really cool fights and moves, and all in all a text book type of SHONEN. Well this anime studio thought "ok so UNREALISTIC FIGHTING,COOL CHARACTERS,TOURNAMENT, ok we got it" and thats all they did. They just put in a tournament out of nowhere and managed to "adapt" 29 chapters in 4 EPISODES ! ! ! !They didnt bother with really non important stuff like character introductions,how they even ended up here, details about this tournament, NOTHING. Not only did they cut so many important stuff that happened in those 29 chapters but they even changed the story for no reason.Grandpa was only mentioned in the anime which literaly made people think that he was dead, but in the Webtoon, he makes couple of important appearances(even talks with the MC on the phone)....i can go on and on.

All in all, as i said in my opening, GOH is not that kind of an anime...

IT'S FAR WORSE!!

i advise all of you who are watching this and u are interested in the story to go read the Webtoon, because you really lose on a ton of information, events that transpire,literaly you need first 3 chapters to realise what kind of baffoonery they did in the anime and see that it's ONLY role was to advertise the Webtoon. I should have just said that it's worse than Tokyo Ghoul root A and re s2,instead of all this :D.

Hope this helps.

It has become apparent now that webtoon anime has become a failed experiment. The concept of adapting these highly praise webtoon series was amazing as we viewers get to see South Korea based anime. It was frankly a breath of fresh air as the webtoon catalogue is filled with various genres that were produced by passionate authors that cared about their works even if the works vary in quality. Unfortunately, the overall execution has been bad, really, really bad. Tower Of God was released in the Spring 20 anime season in an awful and unfinished state filled with non-existent worldbuilding, laughable power system, empty characters, outstandingawful production values and horrendous writing. It was a series that I deeply despise to the core it made me wonder if the source material was bad but, I have been told that Webtoon itself was good and the anime was an utter bastardization to the source material. Honestly, if Crunchyroll did not hamfist the living crap of the show right down my throat on social media then I wouldn't have hated it all that much. Sure I still would have heavily disliked, but I wouldn't have it in my top 30 worst anime I've ever completed list.

One season later The God Of High School was released, and it sucked. It like Crunchyroll never learned their lesson with Tower Of God and decided to crank up to 11 and that is sad as I really wanted to like it as I love my shounen animes like this.

Before I go over all the problems about The God Of High School I will be talking about the good as there's a quite a bit of good in it that prevents it from being in my worst anime list.

What The God Of High School Does Right.

The art and animation by Studio MAPPA are fantastic as always. Character designs and colourful and distinctive from each other.

There were some rough scenes every now especially towards the end with the jarring use of CGI but the show still remains consistent with its art style and animation. This is one of Mappa finest works when it comes to art and animation.

The fights scenes are excellent and really gives the fights series justice that they deserve.

Special mention goes to the Jin and Hau fight in episode 5 that's filled with a lot of cool sakuga that resembles a comic book.

The soundtrack is generally good all around and fits the tone of the series.

The opening and ending themes are okay I guess, and they decently fit the tone of the series.

Also, both the sub and dub are amazing.

That's pretty much it really.

What The God Of High School does wrong.

Where do I even begin with The God Of High School maybe with the characters?

The main 3 characters look very promising and appealing on the surface however the moment, they started talking, my positive expectations went down the drain.

I grandly feel bad for both the Seiyuus and the English Dub for wasting their amazing talents voicing these shells of characters.

Jin is basically Goku 2.0 who loves fighting. Other than his generic dad backstory, there's nothing special about him, and his character design reflects that.

Yu is your typical tsundere glasses action girl that wants to find a suitable husband to carry on the school bloodline.

Han is the typical quiet hard-working third well of the trio who wants to save a friend life.

On paper, the trio had the potential to be fascinating and charming characters but the horrible pacing and especially later on the writing don't give these characters justice, as a result, these main trios feel empty and half baked. I wanted to see these three go past their character traits so I could love them but they sadly don't. This is what happens when you have crappy pacing that moves at a rapid pace where you don't have time to develop your characters.

As for the story itself well it has no story to speak off. It's just a bunch of one-dimensional character entering The God Of High School tournament because self insert cliché … backstories

There's nothing more beyond that. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if the characters were fun or at the very least interesting but their not. As I stated before Jin, Hau and Yu bland characters but the side characters are the worst in fact calling them characters would be a massive insult as their actually like robots that are specially programmed to fight while ditching spit out they self insert backstories by inserting robot voice clip. They are that empty. Due to the characters being empty shells the show becomes a depressing slog filled with abysmal writing. Non-existent worldbuilding, a messy power system that goes out of control half way in, endless meaningless flashbacks that only exist to break the pacing of the fights that are happening, unfunny chibi comedy, annoying tonal that are on par with Your Lie in April, consent asspulls, cheap power-ups, lack of overall stakes, tired shounen tropes and cliches up the ass I could go on.

Here's a perfect example of this empty writing is how the main three grow a bond with each other. Jin meets Yu by accident during a chase of the thief. Yu yells at Jin for breaking her glasses, A couple of minutes later in the case Hau stops bag thief, and they're all introduced themselves before the qualifiers started in the waiting room. After the qualifiers the main three argue with each other yet again then Jin accidentally throws Yu family sword in the river causing Yu to get pissed off at Jin telling him to back off. Then Jin comes to help find Yu looking for her sword in the river giving her light to make it easier to find it then moments later Hau joins in the search to find Yu's sword by bringing in a big light that brightens the rivers in a large scale.

This is on paper is great having our main leads look for the sword as well reconciling with each other through inspiring dialogue that builds an eventually creating unbreakable bond and to its credit the show did that in the beginning but the moment when Hau shows up it that intriguing character-driven scene breaks. Instead of the show actually showcasing the trio finding the sword as spending some decent time to get know each other like most character-driven narratives it transitions into a tournament scene in the waiting acting they are best buds.

This is where The God High School School true intentions start to rear its ugly head that simply does not care about substance.

I really wanted to like these characters as they appeal to me more than anyone of Tower of God especially Yu and Jin but due to terrible directing the anime totally disregards their character writing in favour of fights and, as a result, the story becomes a tedious slog and the characters become empty shells.

When the show decides to have a story at the very end after a series of soulless fights, you find out it's so contrived and convoluted you will wonder if a show was written by a 7-year old that has no understanding of writing and pacing.

Speaking of the pacing my god it's a disaster. The show moves way too fast to a point where it became hard to comprehend what is even happening.

Keep in mind the target audience for The God Of High School are teenagers who are into shounen's yet they can't do that correctly as this show is that empty that's devoid of passion, effort, and creativity.

The final insult of The God Of High School is the hamfisted advertisements. For some reason, Crunchyroll thought it will be a smart idea to splatter their and webtoon logos all over the show especially in fighting arenas. I absolutely hated this every time I saw as it felt I was watching an ad and a lazy one on that. This is immersion breaking at it's finest and it already made the already terrible series even worst.

The word empty perfectly to describe The God Of High School. It is a show that has nothing going for it other than showcasing fights that barely has any meaning or substance behind it.

Sure the anime had decent moments but they ultimately don't save the anime from being terrible. Even though I ended up kinda hating The God Of High School I actually prefer it over Tower Of God. Least the anime despite having a lot of empty moments thanks to horrible pacing least wasn't completed bored or insulted by it.

Crunchyroll please just end this failed experiment. If you're not going to properly adapt your source material then why even bother doing it. You're just making the source material and yourselves look bad.

Have some pride of and admit defeat

In my eyes, the main glaring issue with The God of High School is its exhausting usage of lifeless tropes and played out, predictable scenarios, along with its lack of any real attempt to contribute meaningful depth to them. Tropes don't automatically make a show bad, but in this case, they're heavily relied on without adding anything of significant value, leading to flat characters, monotonous dialogue, and a tedious narrative that struggles to convince me it's worth getting invested in and caring about. To best get across where I'm coming from, I'm going to write this review in the format of a satirical “how-to” guide, with"instructions," on how you can quickly write up a similarly unimaginative story.

Disclaimer:

• Although I'll have watched 4 episodes at the time of posting this, I'm writing the entirety of the rest of the review after only having watched the first 2 episodes. I also have not read the original work.

• A telltale sign of a story with tired tropes and lackluster imagination is when after one or two episodes, you can more or less see where a show is heading in general, which is why I thought writing a "how-to write this" after watching the very beginning would get my point across well.

• The idea is that if the review and predictions hold up after watching episode 4, I'll post this (well obviously if you're reading), but if most of what I ramble about misses the mark, I'll scrap it instead, and might actually enjoy myself.

• If I post this, I'll leave some edits in sections that I felt I didn't do justice if they come up.

• In terms of why I haven't outright dropped it yet, I plan to continue to see if it improves (and to see if it plays out how I think it will), but as its start has proven to be quite underwhelming and packed with tiresome clichés, I probably won't get much farther.

• Given that I’ve only watched 2 episodes, this review is technically spoiler free (outside of the very beginning), but be aware that I do make educated guesses on how the story will end up playing out (very generally) based on the formulaic beginning, so read at your own risk of me potentially guessing correctly. My assumptions could be completely off, but I am fairly confident that my thousands of hours spent watching anime and entertainment in general won’t let me down (hurray for escapism).

• To preface; the animation, voice acting, etc. are perfectly fine, if not above average, but as a viewer, I tend to evaluate characters and narrative on a completely different playing field, where the former can only add real merit to a show if the latter follows through first.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with the wikiHow guide!

How to write the introductory episodes of The God of High School, or a similarly clichéd series:

(1) At the very beginning of the first episode, briefly show the (seemingly obvious) main antagonist-type character of the series, in order to highlight him as being super powerful and awe-inspiring to build up "anticipation." <-(sarcasm)

• Again, at the start of episode 2, portray him intimidating authority figures with the superiority-complex attitude of an egotistical teenager, to show how much influence/power he has, and more importantly, how cool he is.

• 99% sure this character will fit the “all according to plan” mastermind trope, but only time will tell.

(2) Introduce the protagonist as an always-bright, simple-minded type whose driving motivation is just wanting to fight and get stronger!

• Start off with a flashback from his childhood, where his endearing father-figure/master (who is obviously a badass because of the scars on his hand) is doting on him, and telling him to "make sure to go to school and make friends, because that's what's truly important." The kid of course cries and yells that he promises. And you can't have a scene where a character cries unless it's raining (perfect example: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, when Mustang is shown crying, it is very obviously RAINING).

• This father-figure is probably some amazing fighter or was some kind of legend, which makes the main character all that more special, having been trained or raised by him.

• Also, just want to emphasize that nobody would ever expect an exposition dump at the beginning of a show to be just the character's dream! And they broke their alarm clock, so they're late to an important narrative event?! Genius! Take notes writers!

• Exposition with news reports airing on the side of a building, random students on a train, and strangers at a knock-off starbucks? Couldn't think of a better way of portraying a setting to the viewer (on top of the dream!).

• I also can't give the studio enough credit for making him yell constantly, music to my ears.

• He is always pulling hilarious dim-witted stunts like driving his bike off a cliff because he is late for school, where we see him being lovingly scolded by a neighboring old lady, who he playfully waves to, showing us how he is known for being the lovable ditz everyone just adores (have never seen a shounen-esque protagonist with these traits, mind-blowing stuff).

• To contrast his usual lighthearted attitude, have him get dead serious when he sees some kind of injustice, or someone hurts his friend.

• Inexplicably strong, yet thin, agile, and young main characters, who are 20x stronger than people who have been bodybuilding for decades? Check!

(3) Introduce the second main character as a quirky type who can typically be found brutally assaulting the main character for comedic relief.

• Slap that character with the “must keep the family tradition/business alive” cliché motivation and call it a day.

• Give her an out-of-character scene where she snaps after briefly losing an item extremely important to her (make sure to slip in the family tradition motivation explanation here, as the sentimental value of the item is directly attached to her motivation). She gets serious about losing something tied to her motivation? Profound.

(4) Introduce the third main character as a down-to-earth type, and have him explain his driving motivation to be “for the money;” only being a half-truth, the scene is accompanied by “foreshadowing” visuals that imply something deeper behind that motivation. In general, this character acts much more like an actual human being than the bright eccentric and the quirky domestic abuser.

• My guess is that this character needs the money to pay the medical bills for a friend/family member who has some kind of illness that can only be cured for an insane amount of money, but that’s just a theory.

• As a note, I don’t believe this character is all that poorly crafted. Sure maybe a bit uninspired, but not necessarily bad. However, the fact that the show makes it blatantly obvious that the money motivation is tied to some kind of medical situation by showing flashbacks of a hospital hallway immediately destroys any intrigue that potential foreshadowing could have produced.

- Edit: At the end of the 4th episode, they throw in a bit of an unexpected chain of events dealing with this character, which I actually really liked, and improved my outlook/view of the show from like a 2 to a 3 so far. It's good, but it's the kind of good that stands out as the one thing that's impressed me, whereas honestly since writing this, everything else has turned out even worse than I expected. While the "guy finally snaps after loved one gets talked shit about enough" scenario is super common, I still consider this rendition to be interesting.

(5) Make all of the God of High School contestants extremely specific with their excessive quirks and fighting styles, to the point where it starts being comedic for all the wrong reasons.

• Perhaps include a hyper-intelligent kid (with glasses of course, how could someone smart not have glasses in anime?) who casually reads while beating people up in order to show the viewer just how composed and skilled he is.

• Throw in a barely clothed, hair-dyed, bubblegum-popping female fighter, because why not.

• The announcer character has to have a notably bizarre-looking character design, especially when it comes to the facial features. He has to be painfully over-the-top, and provide you with way too much exposition!

(6) Introduce an initial villainous character (who will eventually become inconsequential) as dark, edgy, and maniacal. Give him some kind of dangerous power he obtained from an evil organization in exchange for his sanity, in order to get stronger after some kind of awful humiliation, likely in the form of being wronged by the “system.”

• Another instance of potential intrigue being destroyed by “foreshadowing” flashbacks, which in reality, rather than vaguely hinting at something important soon to come, flat-out give you all of the information you need to figure out where the plot is headed.

(7) Introduce a character with the sole purpose of being cannon fodder to show how strong and fearsome the villainous character is.

• Make him out to be a warrior of justice itself, and a seemingly strong, calm, and collected one at that, such that when he starts fighting the villain, it initially seems like he has the upper hand. However, after an “unexpected” turn of events, the villainous character “surprisingly” overpowers him, proceeding to flaunt his fearsomeness by psychotically torturing the cannon fodder.

• Have the protagonist jump in when he sees this injustice and take on the villainous character, showing just how powerful and serious the supposedly carefree character can be when confronted with such a situation.

• Have this interference be “against the rules,” yet the protagonist does it without regrets anyways because of his strong sense of justice. The protagonist immediately proves how much more powerful than the cannon fodder he is, by contending with the villain on a level playing field. However, right as the protagonist seems to have won, the villain snaps and starts to bring out that mysterious dark power, and right as he is about to take the protagonist out with it, a much more powerful third party (likely with a high position in the “system”), prevents the fight from continuing, as the story can’t exactly continue with the protagonist dropping dead in the first 2 episodes.

(8) Whenever fighting, you absolutely must have one of the characters watching from the sidelines simultaneously explaining to the viewer exactly what is happening in the fight, what moves are being made by who, and for what purpose. Remember, this is the most exciting part of a fight scene.

I can only hope that I’m totally off the mark here, because believe it or not, I actually like when I enjoy the entertainment I consume. However, it doesn’t seem likely in this case unfortunately.

I believe the beginning of a show is one of the most important parts, and am not the type to deem a show worth “bearing through” the first sub-par episodes to get to “the good part,” but I'll probably watch at least a couple more episodes in the name of giving it a chance.

To those who think this anime is good... I'LL BE YOUR CONTRADICTION! Take notes everyone! God of Highschool is a perfect example of how to NOT execute a tournament arc. It introduces this vague organization full of weird looking suits who probably do bad things. Very evil. The tournament itself is as basic as it gets with no originality behind the set up and some of the most bland participants you've ever seen. Very uninspired. The show feels rushed and the story tries to have unique bits complete with a bunch of hocus pocus shenanigans and lore, but it all fails due to horrible explanation and poorpacing. It's like the author just wanted to make some cool fights but forgot that he needed to make an actual narrative around it. Very smol brain.

The three protagonists are some of the worst I've seen in awhile. One just yells constantly and likes to fight...that's it. The other two are entirely reliant on their backstories for half of the show. The girl's emotions are completely dependent on her Moon sword thingy. The dude's mental state is completely dependent on his sick buddy. When things are going well with their sole purposes in life they're happy. When things are going poorly they're sad. This isn't how you write characters. Also, these three randomly become the best of friends out of nowhere and have some of the worst chemistry I've ever seen. Very unbelievable.

Just to have some positives, the animation is pretty darn good during fights that are actually shown in full. The episode 5 fight especially was the highlight of the anime for me and would have been great if the build up wasn't so awful. Unfortunately, I don't like the art. Everyone looks like they have a cold with their pink noses and ears and some people are just drawn strangely. Also, the Crunchyroll advertisement on the stage burned my eyes, so there's that. Very shallow. The music is full of rave tracks, which I actually liked. The voice acting was full of ear splitting screams, which I didn't like. Very painful.

If you read my other reviews, you'll notice that I like to ramble on a lot since there's always a good amount to say. Not with this show, unless you just want to hear me reiterate why the anime is so bland and poorly conceived. When thinking about this show, My mind is as empty as this anime's plot and characters. If you can enjoy this anime, then great! But for me, there's just two words that come to mind when thinking about God of Highschool.

Very bad

If the 2010s were the decade of isekai, the 2020s could be the era of manhwa adaptations. Last season gave us Tower of God, this season God of High School and Fall 2020 will see a Noblesse adaptation. As usual, with this adaptation there are source readers who are upset about pacing, skipped scenes, etc. Then there are people like me who are satisfied because of cool fights, world building, insane power scaling, cool characters and mindless entertainment. If you are like me, you will find God of High School to be a good show. If you're someone who looks for masterfully crafted stories, youmay be disappointed. The Korean DBZ is here, and it is not without its flaws.

To be frank, God of High School is the ultimate meathead series. It doesn't try to hide from that fact either. It openly embraces it. While I've been told the story gets much better later on in the webtoon, all I can comment on for this review is the anime, which was pretty meh story wise. I feel like a lot of interesting concepts and ideas were teased, but we never really got to see any of them play-out due to the length of the series. A 24 episode runtime would have been ideal for introducing people to GoH.

Plot aside, as we've come to expect from MAPPA, the animation, art and choreography are all top notch. The highlight of this show are the fight scenes. MAPPA knew that and embraced it, seemingly pouring all of their effort into that department. Honestly, I don't blame them. It's an easy way to hook people and get them into reading the webtoon. It worked on me, I'm sure many other people as well.

Overall, for me God of High School is a really good show as I am not here for the story, although I did find it to be decent enough even in 12 episodes to interest me. I'm here to see people throwing planets, buildings and other incomprehensible abilities at each other, cool animation and to turn my brain off for 25 minutes. In that respect, God of High School succeeded. I give it 8 carrot noses out of 10.