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Thursday, October 8, 2020

GOD OF HIGHSCHOOL IS IT WORTH THE HYPE?

 



Avid fans have ardently followed GOD OF HIGHSCHOOL, a South Korean webtoon written and illustrated by Yongje Park since April 8th, 2010. On July 6th, a much-awaited anime adaption series made a grand debut through MAPPA. The seemingly popular webtoon had hoarded quite a lot of expectations by the viewers for the recent anime adaption. The webtoon itself was fun and engaging, although many would argue and say otherwise for its anime-compeer.

During the olden times, Gods, Demons, and Humans lived together. Demons were a threat to humans, so the Gods decided to lend their powers to humans creating the "borrow power" system. However, a time soon came when the Gods split the world into three different realms, the Demon, Human, and God realm. Since then, humans have been able to use these borrowed powers, but can never at any cost attack the Gods with it.

God of Highschool is your average action-shounen anime set in the usual and pervasive supernatural world.

Is the plot any different, though? Let's have a look.

 

PLOT

The plot centers around a 17-year-old high school student, with a very predictable motive, background, and story. "The God of Highschool" is a martial arts tournament arranged by a dubious organization suspected of evil intentions. They plan to bring high school students from across the country and make them fight each other to see who's the strongest. The winner as a prize gets to have a wish fulfilled by the hosting group, no matter what.

Mori, our protagonist, gets highly intrigued by the competition and, of course, decides to take part in it. There he comes across various fighters with unique styles of fighting. Participants not only use their skills at martial arts but also battle using their "borrowed powers." Lucky for Mori, he gets to be in a team with a bunch of incredibly powerful characters with whom he intends to taste victory.

The plot is pretty decent, although exceptionally slow-paced, predictable, and annoyingly repetitive. Many readers of the original webtoon also complain that several scenes were missed in the anime series, and it wasn't delivered well enough.

Nothing exciting here. Let us see what the anime's animation has to offer.

 


ANIMATION

Combined with an exquisite art style and fluid animation, God of high school successfully redeems itself in this department. Overall, the animation and the fight scenes are pretty generic; however, they are equally entertaining and occupying to watch as any other famous and typical shounen fights you'd find in the anime sphere. The creators made sure to stay loyal to the original webtoon art style, which served as a plus point. The direction also has been brilliantly done.

 

SOUNDTRACKS

Soundtracks might not be as crucial for an anime as other elements, but it definitely adds a little razzle-dazzle and amplifies the anime's greatness if it's good enough. God of high school's opening theme is a certified banger, created by a talented artist called Ksuke. The song was made for this anime, and its amazingness confirms that. Its unquestionably one of the best parts of the whole series.

 


CHARACTERS

With a limited list of a pretty nonexclusive bunch of characters, God of high school does not bring anything new to the table. However, each character having individual and impressive combat skills is a refreshing factor in this typical shounen trope. It's also hard to notice that every character has an individual motive behind why they want to win the tournament. It gives a little more background to them and helps us understand the character's nature. Here I will discuss only a few of the main characters.

 

JIN MORI

Mori, the protagonist, was raised by his grandfather, who also played a massive role in training Mori to become the undefeatable fighter that he is today. Eating, sleeping, and fighting are the only things he's good at. Besides that, his character reminds me of a walnut. His sole purpose in life is to be at a top. Mori is, as you can assume, already pretty dull and uninspiring for a shounen protagonist. Although he has a dorky personality, the major components of his character are pretty mainstream.

 

HAN DAEWI

Han Daewi is a fellow ex-combatant of a legendary duo called "MAD COWS" that had once complete control over the entire Gangnam area. He joined the GOH competition intending to save his ill friend, who he worked several part-time jobs for, to pay the medical bills before entering the competition. Daewi is known for his impressive fighting skills and incredible strength. His story shows that not only is he astonishingly very hardworking, but has a heart of gold as well.

 

YUU MIRA





Yuu Mira is a compelling character who pretends to be fragile but is secretly a badass. She had been training since childhood and is an excellent, skilled sword fighter. She deems strong, powerful men to be her type. Ever since she was a little girl, the fact that she needs to marry a strong man to resurrect the family's sword style was drilled into her mind. To look for the man of her dreams and to save the family's name, she enters GOH.

 

 


FINAL THOUGHTS

The artwork and the soundtracks are unmistakably among some of the most enjoyable parts of the series. The sporadic yet fluid fight scenes absolutely keep your eyes glued to the screen. The plot is very generic but still pretty entertaining. It has the inevitable element of generating curiosity and the eagerness to witness the mystery of "what's going to happen next?" unfold as each episode progresses, and that is sufficient enough for an anime to be included in your to-watch list. After going through each element of God of Highschool anime one by one, it is safe to give it an overall rating.

I am now coming to the most awaited part of the review.

 

THE FINAL RATING

The God of Highschool gets a rating of 7.5/10!

Even though a few factors were beyond constructive critique's reach, some flaws are still hard to not notice. Considering all the right things and the wrong things, this will be my rating. If you made it this far, I would like to add, give the series a try, and see if you think the same!

P.S Check out the podcast Amerime Junkies 

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