We be bloggin'

Hello all my weeby people and welcome back to otaku thursday! Today I’m going to jump right into talking about what we all know I’m going to talk about (re: the title of this post). Let’s talk about The God of High School. Which just to preface–I’m only about two episodes into and know nothing of the crunch. AKA I never read the webtoon but yes it is is based off a webtoon. So, let’s get into what I thought of it.

So. The God of High School. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Oh wait–NO not that elephant. No I really meant let’s talk about the overly blatant sponsor (or should I say studio) placement in the show. Yeah I laughed so hard when I saw the webtoons and crunchyroll logos for the first time in this show. I honestly was like wow this is worse than that scene in Wayne’s World. But hey, if it weren’t for crunchyroll and webtoons, I wouldn’t be watching this anime so I’ll let the blatant sponsor logos in the arena slide. But I do kind of find it funny that they have been present in both episodes so far. Something tells me there will always be one lurking in the back–y’know like not so hidden mickeys. Crunchyroll didn’t have the opportunity to have their logo hidden in Tower of God because of the setting of the show, but they sure made up for it in The God of High School.

Anyway, to move on to my actual thoughts on the show–it’s actually better than I thought it’d be. Like, don’t get me wrong–the trailer looked interesting. But it also looked kind of like a typical tournament anime which it TOTALLY is so far, but I honestly thought it’d be lacking in the action department like Tower of God. But no–this excels in action. Truly. The first two episodes feel more like constant fights than any actual plot. And the fighting animation? Stunning and unique–truly. In the first episode there is a battle royale (which just to say I fully expected there to be since it’s a trope of almost all fighting tournament anime I’ve ever seen) and the way that they choreographed it to showcase all the different fighting styles was pure cinematic magic. That might be laying it on a little thick but it really was quite good. It’s funny because the beginning of the show had some weird animation moments that made me iffy but then everything smoothed out the moment the action started and I came to really quickly appreciate the fighting animations. Which it’s good that I liked it because SO much of the show so far has been fighting. Like at least 80% of it had to be action. I’d almost say too much of it was fighting to be honest. No actually I will say that it was too much fighting–which is my biggest complaint about this show so far.

See, I’m used to the first few episodes of a show being sort of slow. The God of High School doesn’t have this problem, which seems like a plus but actually isn’t. See, the reason why I’m used to slow starts to shows is because I expect some background–just a little bit. You know, some information on our main characters, the world, or even the plot. The God of High School doesn’t do that. Instead it opts for a few minor moments that glimpse at character motivations and then spends the rest of the time fighting. To make it super clear, I AM OFFENDED at this. Now, I’m sure they dropped some of those short flashbacks as like teaser for –hey this is a backstory to look forward to later in the anime. Which I’m fine with. I love that. It’s good–it’s nice–I approve. HOWEVER, we don’t love when our MC says something such as “I want a rematch with the blonde guy” (who seems to be a proctor of the tournament not a participant) and then I read in the comments that apparently there’s a whole part of the introduction that was omitted that apparently showed why our MC Jin first got invited into this tournament. So again–don’t love that such precious story was taken out, but also maybe they will elaborate this in the next few eps. I hope that’s the truth because right now we are REALLY lacking in the story department. BUT that means that all they have to go is up and a few eps from now and the story could be amazing.

Then there’s the characters. The characters are…yeah. I don’t hate them. I think I like them? But there’s also nothing particularly interesting about any of them so far. Jin in particular feels very generic–he reminded me of Galo at first. Kamina second. A little bit of Yusuke. But then he just felt like a typical dumb protag that I’ve seen a million times but I also don’t hate him. Like the aforementioned characters, he’s actually likeable…but it’s more because there’s nothing particularly dislikable about him and he has some major hero qualities. The other two main characters are equally generic but also equally likeable simply because of that. But still, in terms of main cast I would say that right now there is no reason to love any of the characters. Oh! And is it just me or do the side characters feel very trope-y? As they were fighting in the battle Royale I was instantly likening then to other characters. But hey, I’m two episodes. It could get better in terms of story and character, and at least until then the action is on point.

Lastly I just have a weird thought…what is with webtoons and wishes? Like keep with me, but last season we had Tower of God where you get granted your desires or something if you get to the top of the tower and here we have The God of High School where the winner of the tournament gets a wish granted. See any similarities in the grand scheme of things? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but it’s super interesting that crunchyroll picked up both of the series, and that these are some of the most popular webtoons out there. I don’t really have anything philosophical or grand to say about this I just wanted to point it out because it was the first thing I noticed about the description of this show. I know there’s another webtoon anime coming out next season so I’m curious if it’ll have similarities or be something totally different.

Overall, the first two episodes of The God of High School were fun…but that was kind of it? Like it feels like I don’t have a ton to unpack from it because there was so much action…and I feel no particular fondness or interest in any of the characters yet. Which both makes sense because I’m only two eps in, but it also disappoints me because by now in many other shows I’d have a fondness for at least one. Or be able to say more about the plot or interesting things but The God of High just…isn’t there yet. Tower of God also had a similar problem, but that grew on me so I’m hoping this one will too. I’d really hate for it to have this ensemble cast without utilizing some deep backstory’s and motivations and only keep the action. Because I have a feeling there are going to be some REALLY good character backstory’s coming up. And I only want to believe that because so far we only know what the tournament end goal is. So would I recommend watching it? Yes. It has a lot of potential and I do like it so far so I would say you should definitely look into it.

Anyway, thanks for reading this week’s Otaku Thursday! Til next time~

Stay weebtastic,

xoxo

Luna

P.S. I am living for Jin’s choice of headgear–I thought it was goggles at first but it’s a fucking sleep mask. GOALS.