The God of High School is the second Korean manhwa to have an anime series adaptation after Tower of God. It follows the teenage trio of Jin Mori, who is proficient in Renewal Taekwondo; Han Daewi, an expert in Full-Contact Karate; and Yoo Mira, a master of the geom beop (Korean swordsmanship) discipline called Moonlight Sword, as they take part in “The God of High School”, a martial arts tournament for high schoolers wherein the winner will get his or her wish granted by the shady corporation sponsoring it.
As the friends advance deeper into the tournament, they discover that they aren’t only contending with opponents practicing different fighting styles, but also mysterious abilities called charyeok – the borrowing of power from gods, demons, mystical creatures, or other mythical figures. Thus, during the course of the tournament, they must not only keep on training to become stronger in their respective martial arts, but to learn their own charyeokas well. Moreover, they also become entangled in a conflict involving cults and secret organizations which are vying for more power.
The God of High School was initially my favorite new anime of summer 2020. With its “high school martial artists” premise, it reminded me a bit of Tenjho Tenge, an anime which I extremely enjoyed when it first ran (not so much during re-watch and after reading the hyper-sexualized manga). Its high-octane storytelling and hyped fight scenes completely won me over; I thought it was going to be something special. It easily had one of the strongest anime pilots in recent memory, and it looked like during its first couple of episodes that I was going to like it more than Tower of God.
However, by the time it got to its middle episodes, the sense of excitement wanes as it looks more and more to be a generic shonen. Moreover, the fast pacing, which has served the opening episodes well, proves to more detrimental than advantageous as the narrative gets to its meat. This adaptation tries to pack as much of the story to its 13-episode debut season. And to do so, the narrative flows so rapidly that it doesn’t flow smoothly. As a result, the storyline is messy, its links don’t connect sturdily together, and plot points get undercooked.
On top of that, the worldbuilding suffers, and the lore gets confusing and unimpressive. It doesn’t take enough time to explain and show its conventions in an intelligible, striking manner. I had to occasionally Google stuff in order to clear up the story’s mythology for myself. And based on the information I got, the manhwa actually seems to have some potentially interesting ideas. However, the anime isn’t able to expound them in a thoroughly engrossing way.
The power system that it has in place with charyeok is solid. However, it’s not entirely original. The concept of “borrowing powers from spirits” is already done in Shaman King. And Shaman King does it better as the “spirits” in it are their own characters. The “spirits” in The God of High School, on the other hand, have no personalities (so far), and basically just serve as power sources.
However, the kind of power system that The God of High School has caters to this thrilling twist about Jin Mori’s real identity. Unfortunately, even this doesn’t end up being as fantastic as it could have been. For, again, the “let’s get as much of this out there and as quickly as we can” approach of execution makes it unlikely for its biggest beats and twists-and-turns to marinate well and produce a desirable, optimum effect.
In the end, The God of High School isn’t bad. It entertains decently, and it boasts some pretty outstanding moments, as there are amazing action and cool characters here and there. Nonetheless, when everything is summed up, the overall product lacks satisfying polish and pleasing singularity. And while enjoyable, it doesn’t quite make the case for itself that it’s beyond derivative.
Here’s to hoping for season two to do a better job.
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