Tower of God is groundbreaking by the mere virtue of existing. For it’s the very first anime series that’s based on a manhwa – the South Korean manga. Well, actually, other anime adaptations of manwha are slated for 2020. However, Tower of God was the first one to get released, technically giving it the honor of being considered the first.
The eponymous Tower is the setting of this anime. Gargantuan and mysterious, it houses an entire world containing a variety of unique races, nations, and environments within its walls. Each floor is as vast as a continent, and one can only move to the next floor if he or she passes a series of tests that are administered by those who have been put in charge of that floor. What floor one is situated in indicates his or her power and standing in life. That means that those who have managed to reach the top floors are the strongest individuals of the Tower, who have earned themselves premium living conditions, privileges, and social status.
The main protagonist of the story is a boy named Bam. He intends to climb the Tower to catch up to his friend (first love) Rachel, who desires to see the stars at the top of the Tower, and thus, left him behind for her dream. Except for the time he spent with Rachel, Bam has no memories of his enigmatic past. However, it’s regularly hinted that he’s someone special and will shake up the status quo of this world. During the course of his journey, he learns more of the Tower, and meets friends to climb the tower with.
Baam is an effective audience surrogate. Since he’s an amnesiac outsider and ignorant of what’s the deal with the Tower, the audience gets to learn more of it as he learns more of it. On the other hand, as the main character, he isn’t really compelling. While he’s shown to have tremendous potential, and will clearly be more competent down the line, he’s not at all strikingly badass, multifaceted, or smart, and has very little personality during this first season. In fact, I personally find most of his supporting cast – especially the master strategist Khun – more interesting than him. His naivety and obsessive infatuation with Rachel – her name is always on his lips – also make him annoying at times (to be fair, you do get to understand why he’s like that).
Nevertheless, Baam isn’t entirely unlikable since it’s also apparent that, for all his faults, he stills works as the heart of Tower of God. One of the things that I like the most about this anime is that it successfully captures and potently depicts one of anime’s most charming tropes – the sense of nakama. Baam’s innocence and fortitude endear him to many of the other test participants, who eventually become his teammates and friends, and they organically form into a nakamaensemble due to him.
Other than the character dynamics, what make Tower of Godriveting are the worldbuilding and the storytelling. It has fascinating, well-realized rules, mythology, and power systems in place, and you immediately get to buy into them for they’re presented with coherence and panache. Meanwhile, along the way, intriguing unknowns and connotations are well set up – there’s a splendid sense of mystery. All these are then interwoven with a dramatic, immersive narrative.
Overall, while it didn’t blow me away as I expected – there was a lot of hype prior to its debut – I totally enjoyed following the first season of Tower of God. It’s a generally fantastic show. And there’s good reason to be optimistic it’s only going to get better moving forward.
Next manhwa anime to be excited for: The God of High School. Debuting in July!
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