Dae-Wi Han

Mo-Ri Jin

Mi-Ra Yu

Ju-Gok Jeon

Je-Gal Taek

Il-Pyo Park

Mu-Jin Park

Man-Suk Kang

Commissioner P

Announcer T

Commissioner O

Commissioner R

Commissioner Q

Mi-Sun Ma

Seung-Chul Baek

Gam-Do Go

Su-Mi Yu

Sung-Jin Oh

Jang-Mi Jang

Drake McDonald

Axley

Saturn

Tae-Jin Jin

Seung-Ah Park

Man-Duk Sang

It all began as a fighting tournament to seek out for the best fighter among all high school students in Korea. Mori Jin, a Taekwondo specialist and a high school student, soon learns that there is something much greater beneath the stage of the tournament.<br><br>(Source: WEBTOONS)

God of Highschool, another action anime that has fallen flat on its face. In this review I will go in depth on why God of Highschool did not live up to our expectations. 

Pacing issues played a huge role in the decline of the show as a whole. Trying to cram in multiple chapters was one of many mistakes MAPPA made while making GOH. Not only does this make it feel rushed it also feels as connections between characters are rushed. As an example it takes many chapters for Jin, Mira, and Dawei to form a bond while in the anime it took one episode making it feel rushed and unnatural.  Everything just moves very very quickly jumping from one thing to the next which brings me to our next point.

 Other than pacing issues the plot also was the biggest factor for me on rating GOH. In the webtoon everything gets explained in a organized manor. The first 3 chapters are about Jin, Mira, and Dawei and their motives for  fighting in the tournament. We get none of that in the anime along with that we get little to know backstory on them at all. The main plot is a complete mess jumping around cramming as many chapters as they can in 23 minutes. As of now most of our questions 12 episodes in mind you have not been answered making the anime extremely confusing. At this point most of us are not even watching for the plot anymore just for the animation, and "cool fights". Like I've said it moves very quickly with little to no explanation jumping from one confusing plot point to the next. There was no plot to be found in this show which was very disappointing GOH had a lot  of potential.



There are a few good things I can say about GOH that is  the  animation, and soundtrack. The soundtrack fits particularly well some may argue about the OP, but the OP for GOH is not terrible. The animation is stunning to me it is perfect for the show. Animation reaches its peak during fights making the show just a little more bearable for me. That's about all I can say that is good about GOH.



 In conclusion, should you watch this anime? Only if you really wanted too I recommended the Webtoon for this particular series. The webtoon pacing, and plot actually make sense. What I found to work reading and watching at the same time it will make GOH more understandable and enjoyable. To me this show had a lot of potential it was one of those shows you want to like but just can't. 



MAPPA defiantly should have sticked to it's source material. Although I do believe Crunchyroll had a role in how the show was going to be panned out MAPPA isn't all to blame. They should have slowed down so consumers could understand the main concepts instead of skipping right over them. I feel GOH should have been at least 25 episodes instead of trying to cram over 100 chapters into 12 episodes. However I also do feel MAPPA, and Crunchyroll made this anime a pointless action anime which is sad to see as the story is much deeper in the webtoon.

# __~~~MiNiSoTaN'sThe God of High School Review~~~__

~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/IwMO2MP.jpg)~~~

~~~__Introduction:__~~~Hello. My name is Neill or "MiNi." This will be my in depth review of the anime adaptation of Yongje Park's Webtoon Series: The God of High School . With all my reviews I will score the anime discussed based upon 5 categories that include: Story, Characters, Art, Music, and Personal Enjoyment. Each category will be given a score between 0 and 10. The ending score will be what I determine the show deserves overall. Keep in mind I will be talking about spoilers that occurred during the anime along with possible spoilers of the manga. Now, without further ado, let's get into this.

~~~ __STORY (6/10):__~~~

~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/4soXFgy.png)~~~

The God of High School's story starts simple enough. We follow our main cast as they set out to compete in a combat tournament aimed at high school students. Before we even see this happen however we are met with a scene of criminals being flattened by a giant hand supposedly sent out by a shady individual. From the very beginning we know that some sort of super natural presence is known within the show. We don't know what it is or how to control it, but we know it's a real entity which will most likely play a pivotal role throughout the show, and it does.

The main hype around The God of High School is the action and the fights and honestly this is where it is at its best. The absolute beautiful animation coupled with amazing choreography makes for some of the best action in modern anime. Hand to hand combat is something pretty difficult to master without it seeming stale or repetitive but the God of High School defies these odds and keeps each fight unique and to be anticipated. 

Alas, this is really the only strength of The God of High School. There are some underlying sub plots, the main one being this strange cult trying to interfere with the God of High School tournament. Which in all honestly is a very lame concept for a main arc villain. Cults are just really borrowing to watch because there's never any exposition of them, they're just always there and always have been. There is never a face or a name to put onto the villain which gives no motivation into wanting to continue the story. Several times I felt very fatigued watching this show because I didn't exactly know what I was watching it for. What was the point? I started watching to try and see the goals of these characters achieved, but as the show expanded and try to develop it got so inflated I didn't exactly know what was going on.

Daewi Han goes from trying to get money for his dying friend, to know just competing for the heck of it because his friend died but he didn't want to let his other friends down. Mira Yoo goes from wanting to find a husband to help her obtain the family sword to obtaining it on her own yet still competing to not let her friends down. Mori Jin is the only one with a goal that doesn't end within the first few episodes because he wants to find his grandpa.

Another big plot point of the series is the use of charyeok which is essentially harnessing the power of a god to fight in battle. Think of it like your quirk from My Hero Academia. The problem is that we never really learn what this is or how to obtain it. You apparently not everyone can obtain it, but some people need years of training where as others just have a feeling for it. This is extremely lazy writing. Take for example nen in HunterXHunter. There is basically a whole episode dedicated to how it works, the different types, how to obtain it etc. From that point on we have actual knowledge of it. Compare that to The God of High School. There is no explanation or justification to its use. Sure it looks cool, but the plot armor is so thick that we are never exposed to its inner workings. This could be due to the fact that the season is only allotted 16 episodes, which is understandable, but again it must be judged for what it can do in that amount of time.

There's also an alarming amount of unnecessary side plots and characters in the show including but not limited to Mira Yoo's wedding and the back stories of every single fighting opponent. My answer is the same to all of them. I really just don't care. I'm barely invested enough as it is with the main character's plot, but trying to introduce me to more characters with more backstories just to write them over a few minutes later continues to rub me the wrong way. Too much attention to serviced to other aspects to the show that were left too weak to stand on.

Overall The God of High School's story left a lot to be desired. It continued to try and push the envelope and enlarge itself as something much larger than it actually was. With proper focus on the main story along with a more compelling villain and better lore exposition, it would have been a much more convincing attempt.  

~~~ __Characters (5/10):__~~~

~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/qFZM8IA.jpg)~~~

__Mori Jin__ Although childish at heart, Mori is a likeable character for his lackadaisical nature yet powerful demeaner. There's no doubt he is destined for something greater within the show. Although we don't know exactly what his purpose is, he's shown to be the most compelling character within the cast. His goals are simple to get stronger and to find his grandpa. Throughout the show he doesn't necessarily mature much from his youthful nature, but rather matures in his style of fighting. Mori is an overall solid main character you can't help but root for. 

__Daewi Han__ The most adult-like of the main trio, Daewi has the typical "cool guy" attitude. He likes to avoid conflict and focus on himself in order to keep his focus. His main goal was to win the tournament to help his friend that was dying. Unfortunetly he died before the tournament completed, now he's kind of just there. I think Daewi had a lot of potential to be a better written character than he actually was, but unfortunately he doesn't have anything moving him forward besides the plot. I think he's an excellent character who deserves more within the story.

__Mira Yoo__ Mira is the only character of the main cast who I'm indifferent too. I think it's nice they have a female fighting alongside her mostly male counter parts, but her story isn't really one I'm all that invested in. She wants to unlock her family sword, but how that happens is kind of just left up in there air, but never receive a definite answer. It doesn't really matter since she still gets it from just determination during a fight later in the series. Mira's story is the only that most people, myself included didn't much care for in the series.

__Ilpyo Park__ This is the "main" side character within the season. His main purpose being that he knew Mori's grandfather and he inherited he nine tailed fox's power, yet he still lost to Mori somehow. I didn't really understand his character or why he was so focused on when he didn't play that prominent of a role.

The characters within The God of High School were not one of its strong suits. Most were one dimensional that already served their purposes midway through the season. I was hoping for a lot more but was met with an underwhelming performance across the whole cast.

~~~__ART (9/10)__~~~

~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/je6v3Cf.jpg)~~~

The animation quality is nothing to scoff at. The God of High School reaches the pinnacle of modern animation throughout its 13 episode run. Motion capture was even used for some of the fights which was super cool to see. The amount of colors in motion throughout the fights was incredible to see. There was so much going on throughout the fights yet it all was fluid and easy to follow. As stated previously, the God of High School is at its best during the fights and for good reason, they're amazing to look it. It fills you with a a small dose of adrenaline watching the characters fight each other. I hope to see other shonen anime follow the style MAPPA did with this one, exceptionally brilliant. 


~~~__MUSIC (7/10)__~~~

~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/K0heTGy.jpg)~~~

The God of High School's soundtrack isn't particularly one I loved. It was fine, nothing besides the opening and closing themes stood out to me. The opening theme was actually one of the cuts that did surprise me. KSUKE - Contradiction (ft. Tyler Carter) was a super interesting take on a shonen anime opening. Normally you think of something on the side of anthemic or metal when it comes to shonen, having a electronic dub-step club banger great you was a welcomed surprised. Its closing theme WIN by CIX also followed this root albeit to a much more melodic tone. The sound quality throughout this season met expectations well. 

~~~__PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (6/10)__~~~

~~~img320(https://i.imgur.com/Co68zab.jpg)~~~

I was pretty excited for this anime leading up to the summer 2020 season. Unfortunetly I was disappointed with this season overall. I will admit I have not yet read the webtoon, which I will try to do before the second season airs. I felt there was a lot left to be desired all around the board from character motivations, to major plot points, but about everything fell flat for me. My enjoyment came strictly through watching the action, and as a shonen, that's basically your job which I think The God of High School succeeded in. It's issue comes when trying to throw all these sides plots, characters and lore and me without explaining anything. I hope there is an improvement in season 2 because this show does have potential. 

~~~ __Final Thoughts and Score:__~~~
Thank you all for reading, make sure to follow my page for more anime reviews!

__Favorite Episodes__

Episode 1 "Set up/Stand up"
Episode 2 "Renewal/Soul"
Episode 5 "Ronde/Hound"
Episode 12 "Fox/God"

__Official Scores__
Story: (6/10)
Characters: (5/10)
Art: (9/10)
Music: (7/10)
Personal Enjoyment: (6/10)

# __~~~FINAL SCORE: (6/10) OK~~~__

@MiNiSoTaN

~~~Did you really read the review, or are you just looking at the score?~~~

The God of High School is a mediocre attempt at creating a new mainstream shonen anime

If I were to attempt to encapsulate the idea of GoHS within few words, as the brevity the digital age would have you require, I'd simply say: Battle Shounen on steroids. The more I ruminate on it, the more comfortable I feel at the phraseology of my likening. For indeed, the show exhibits nothing but a gross accentuation of the attributes idiosyncratic to the genre, while consistently outright ignoring the literary conventions for forming and maintaining an engaging narrative, much to the dismay of everyone who has the *ridiculously unreasonable* bar of expecting more in a story than mere mindless clash of swords/fists. The rule of cool permeates the very fabric of this adaptation; it is comparable to allocating one's skill points solely to one attribute. What should be a mere experience enhancer is mistaken for the main dish and is thence expected for one to stomach a plate filled with naught but condiments and spices. Needless to say it doesn't make for a particularly hearty (nor tasty for that matter) meal. Vague conceptions and aphorisms aside, I shall get on with the meat of the discussion.

As far as any work that features action compounding with fantastical elements go, what is paramount above all else is establishing what exactly those elements ARE, how it ties into the world and its mechanics, as well as the capabilities of the characters relevant to the story. And GoH has NOTHING, and by that I mean not even a SEMBLANCE of this very rudimentary understanding of how stories work in its arsenal. Gigantic swords are conjured from the sky, otherworldly creatures resembling Stands are summoned, anything ranging from elemental magic, cathode ray guns, regeneration, and even teleporting whole cities goes in this story with no apparent explanation to what even is the source of this arbitrary and inconsistent litany of distinct skillsets. Eventually, in episode 7, they chalk all of it up to a mystical power that transcends human knowledge borrowed from the Gods. This helps absolutely nothing; it's still impossible to gauge what our heroes/heroine are capable of, thereby obscuring the level of danger they face at any particular time. It's unimmersive as it is anticlimactic, why should you care about a battle that you cannot make anything out of? Anyone can survive anything, some random god can decide on a whim to bestow you powers. It successfully kills off any excitement one can have over analysing how the tides of battle can potentially change in either combatant's favour. Shows that aren't too keen on building the combat system from scratch tend to instead use internal monologues to give us a sense of the state of battle. This, while not being nearly as satisfying as deducing so yourself by extrapolating from visual cues, works absolutely fine. Too bad they decided not to do that either. As audience, you're but a detached onlooker, witnessing an alien occurrence play out, furrowing your eyebrows at the inexplicability of it all.

The cast is a reskin of the stock characters you've seen a couple hundred times by now. You got the hot-headed and bubbly mc who just loves fighting for the sake of fighting, the stoic and taciturn kick-ass going at great lengths for the people he values, and lastly the uptight and more ordinary tritagonist who mostly assumes the role of the Straight Man in the comical scenes that ensue. On the supporting cast too, the trends naturally follow, but with the added handicap of not being explored at all, unlike the mc's, whose motivations we at least were allowed some minimal disclosure of. There's the enigmatic rich businessman whom we have as much insight on in the end of episode 13 as we do in the beginning of episode 1, some deranged cult leader who just wants to see the world burn, an antagonist who wants to crush people and have as much power as possible because... uhh, you know what forget it, they're stock characters, perhaps better suited for theatre. Though it should be mentioned, my remarks here oughtn't be construed as claiming a uniquely realized cast is a prerequisite for a successful anime, that is not necessarily the case. If the narrative is gripping by itself, inoffensive and simplistic surrogates may very well suffice. But when it's already nothing to be proud of on those respects, this could only be seen as an aggravating factor in inducing head scratches.

There are two subplots seemingly interconnected with the motivations behind the tournament and the fate of the heroes of our story, but it is too unbaked to the point where even addressing it feels like giving it more than its due. "There is a cult-like organization discontent with the usage of charyeok?" Okay... "Mori's grandpa is constantly moving because baddies want him, also he has something to do with NK?" Sure... "Park Meijin and the commissioners have a plan involving the GoH to awaken the key?" What it is, what it is for, how GoH helps it manifest, why everyone and their mother is vying for it, these are all great questions; but well, how about more flashy animation instead? It's all a bunch of vagueries in an attempt to hold in place a series of action sequences, they could be more accurately described as passing remarks than plot points, given that they're mentioned once and never elaborated on again until they're literally at your doorstep. In the unlikely instance where you do get some expository direction, it'll be by means of brief info dumps that are unrelated to the scene in question. I legitimately had to look up the episode synopses in order to remind myself of these plot elements, not because the storytelling is too dense to take in, to the contrary, because there is so little info to go on when interpreting what the hell just transpired that it isn't a feasible nor a worthwhile endeavour.

In short, this is a well-animated fighting compilation that would work perfectly fine as a long-winded trailer for a fighting game. As a full-fledged narrative building up on itself it is an absolute joke.

*Edit (1 Oct 2020): The final score of the review has been edited from 3.2 to 2.5 to better reflect the content of the critique. Additionally, some typos are amended.*

GoHS is a series of action sequences held together loosely by what amounts to the literary counterpart of duct-tape.

# ~~~ There are few things that get us weebs on our feet like some good action. ~~~

~~~ img100%(https://media.giphy.com/media/j52HUkPQXfCfeJLwaN/giphy.gif) ~~~

High energy. That’s what propelled *God of High School* (GoHS) off to the races from the get-go. Everything from the early-2010s dubstep of a bombastic OP to the cast of manic martial-artists were engineered to deliver fist-pumping fun. Oh, and the action was spectacular too. For some audiences, such hype was all that they could ever ask for in a show. But for others, the train goes by oh-so-fast with far too little room to breathe. One has to ask if the ride was worth all that much to begin with. __Mild spoilers ahead__ regarding the premise of GoHS, so feel free to skip ahead to my __Tl;Dr__ if you’d prefer to go in blind.

***

~~~ webm(https://i.imgur.com/FRPTi2r.mp4) ~~~

# ~~~ Welcome to Korea, home to the biggest mixed martial arts tournament the world has ever seen. ~~~
Fighters from all over the country stake their lives in the ring, all for the prestigious title of "God of High School." Not that it’s actually affiliated with a school or anything, I’m not sure what academic institution would sign off on having minors battle in a no-holds barred cage fight. And these fights really don’t hold back; competitors are pushed beyond their human limits thanks to nanobots that act as augmented “hitpoints,” repairing the body mid-combat and ensuring that brawls leave fans on the edge of their seats. This was essentially an underground fighting ring getting the widespan attention of a major sports championship. Sounds looney as all hell – and I was all for it.

~~~ img100%(https://i.ibb.co/SKNS9YQ/Horrible-Subs-The-God-of-High-School-09-1080p-mkv-2020-09-28-23-28-16-281.jpg) ~~~

The first episode strode with confidence, with a pilot putting ass-kicking adrenaline action on full display. Lesser studios would kill to pull off this level of *sakuga* just once in a season; MAPPA staged those setpieces every odd week. A lot of those scenes weren’t all style and no substance either; creative visual storytelling choices, expressive key frames, and even motion-capture techniques were incorporated to deliver scenes that got audiences hyped and talking. Sure, there were definitely concessions made in giving backgrounds or in-between frames the same degree of attention, and secondary characters were written like those of the fighter video game campaigns GoHS took inspiration from – one-note, deranged, and ready to jump into battle faster than you can say “Fatality.” But hey, I like awesome animation as much as the next weeb. I won’t complain if the show asks me to turn my brain off and revel in the chaos. Unfortunately, as engaging as the action was, that’s not exactly what the show’s going for.

Maybe I started this off wrong, let me try again.

~~~ img100%(https://media2.giphy.com/media/Kb56efP7IUDbHbSsTg/giphy.gif) ~~~

# ~~~ GoHS follows the story of Jin Mori, ~~~

a scrappy *taekwando* pro eager to prove his strength and reunite with his long-lost grandfather. He meets a couple of friends in the tournament: Mira, a martial arts student hoping to breathe new life into her antiquated fighting style, and Han, a bare-fist brawler participating to keep his friend alive. Perhaps this Korean WebToon was well-suited to get the traditional anime treatment after all. It’s your classic *shounen* – the show is literally built around a tournament arc, for Pete’s sake. I’ve been meaning to find a *shounen* title I could get invested in, and it seems like I could do a lot worse than GoHS. Our main trio were gonna be the underdogs, training hard to be the very best and learning the importance of friendship along the way. We see shades of this in what is probably the series' high-point, Episode 5. Han and Jin's duel was a great blend of character growth and epic action. It's a little more serious than I previously expected, sounds good to me.

Except… that’s not what the show is going for either. An entire tournament arc that could have taken place across the entire cour was rushed out in the span of 5 episodes. How? By having little-to-no meaningful buildup or development take place outside of the fighting. It really is just fight after fight back-to-back. The show throws countless punches, but none of those blows carry weight behind them. There’s no time to show our cast struggle from the very bottom as they work their way to the top. No training montages or hard-earned lessons against tough opponents. 

~~~ img100%(https://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/the-god-of-high-school-e1594037876221.jpg) ~~~

# ~~~ As the ED goes: “All we do is just win,” and it’s incessantly boring. ~~~

The show also does the core relationship between Jin, Han and Mira no favors. While GoHS preaches the importance of friendship, the close "bond" chosen to represent this ideal boils down to our trio travelling to the stadium and threatening to beat the shit out of each other every 10 minutes. Sure, somewhere in those death threats is an endearing interpretation of this competitiveness, as they urge each other to overcome their hurdles. And I’d be inclined to agree, if these characters could demonstrate their connection in any other way. The writers are rarely capable of showing this “friendship” outside the context of sweaty combat. Every helping hand offered always comes with a caveat that reads: “The only one who beats you in a fight will be me!” Their connection in the anime is two-dimensional and repetitive. It’d be too much of a stretch to deem this relationship as negative or toxic^, that implies some risks taken in portraying our three stooges. 

~~~ img100%(https://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/God-of-High-School-Mira-episode-3-header.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=960&h=500&dpr=1.5) ~~~

Oh, and all three of them are immediately the best fighters of the preliminary rounds, diffusing most of the tension for a good half of the season. The author threw in a magic power system into the mix, one that only 4 of the "martial arts" preliminary's competitors tapped into. Guess who three of those fighters are. I actually laughed when Mira, having been disarmed, won the fight by slicing the air as a ranged attack, leaving a flesh wound (this happens multiple times in GoHS.) 
Wait, this magic system is part of the lore… of course! So *that’s* the point of the show.

Ok, I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Third time’s the charm?

~~~ img100%(https://media1.giphy.com/media/lLFX3HyiNSn50VvDG3/giphy.gif) ~~~

# ~~~ Things really heat up in the second half of GoHS as it pulls back the curtain to reveal a more complex setting than one would have initially imagined. ~~~
A world defined by a massive power struggle – a battle of godly proportions. Two factions are deeply rooted in conflict over a mythical Key that possesses power to rival that of deities themselves. These factions tap into a magic system known as “*Charyeok*” for their uncanny abilities. The God of High School tournament is really a front to handpick *Charyeok* users and hopefully trigger the awakening of the Key. It sounds overwhelming and way more complicated than what I signed up for, but we’ve seen this storytelling work before. Calling GoHS “the next Evangelion” would be a stretch, but there are parallels between the two. A charismatic leader (Park Mujin) goes up against a shady organization (the cult) in taking control of a mysterious force through taking advantage of mentally unstable teenagers. Heck, it’s even got some complicated worldbuilding of its own. Surely this has to be what GoHS is going for?

~~~ img100%(https://i2.wp.com/wp-corp.qoo-app.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/04/20042808045998.jpg?resize=700%2C393) ~~~

Nope, really missed the mark on that one. Normally alongside this large chaos in the background, you’d get a more focused character conflict in the foreground. GoHS does attempt to maintain this balance but fails to derive anything meaningful from its convoluted context. This show is so hell-bent on one-upping itself in its lunacy because it barely gives the audience any reason to care about the characters experiencing these events. What then occurs is a perpetuating cycle where the crazy plot has to compensate for its shallow character interactions by going all-in on its silly ideas, further sidelining the cast and making their appearances on-screen comedically asinine. They didn’t even make this magic system a new hurdle for our already-OP heroes to overcome; each of them master their abilities roughly two episodes after these powers were formally introduced. Jin grows so quickly capable that he can perfectly replicate new combat moves after seeing them performed once. None of this makes sense to me, nor do I have any incentive to care. In Episode 9 Han’s entire arc was to get anxious over the missing Jin, getting ready to leave the stadium in search of him, getting jumped in the bathroom by a crazy competitor who picks a fight, getting kissed by that same lunatic, and forgetting why he was about to leave the stadium in the first place. The main cast’s importance to the story is cut-down to the point where most attempts to give them screen time are plain stupid. I made a comparison with Eva earlier, and that’s a story that knew how to balance its “macro” lore with its “micro” internal conflict. There was a thematic and symbolic interplay between these ideas, making them important in the grand scheme of things. May I ask how introducing “*Charyeok*,” Jojo Stands/Personas, ancient relics, a stereotypical cult, clones à la *The Matrix,* the *Sharknado* villain, a *Naruto* Nine-Tailed Fox, CGI Buddha & King Kong falling out of the sky, and teddy-bear-laser-guns are important or meaningful in any way?

~~~ img100%(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EejEQaEVoAIl-PK.png) ~~~

# ~~~ If the idiom warns against “having your cake and eating it too,” GoHS buys out the whole damn bakery and goes just about bankrupt in its self-indulgence. ~~~
It simultaneously wants to be a goofy action anime and a more serious show. It wants to tell you how powerful friendship can be without putting in the legwork to making that relationship look remotely convincing. It tries to be this overstuffed blockbuster while falling comically short of having its disparate elements say anything. This whole review I’ve asked what the point of GoHS is, and the only answer I’m satisfied with is that it’s a glorified commercial. A soulless adaptation speedrunning through the highlights of its source material. This series feels about as haphazardly paced as the live-action anime remakes we as a community have come to detest. Both give off the impression that they’re checking off corporate boxes, well-aware that none of what you’re seeing makes any semblance of sense unless you read the manhwa. This approach to storytelling means that even the few strong moments in the series are tainted by the suspicion that what you’re watching is just another “item on the list.” These are quite heated accusations to lob at the show, but all signs point to this mismanagement of story. Why else would this single-cour attempt to adapt more chapters (roughly 100) than most 23-episode seasons, when just the first arc alone could have been enough for viewers to get invested for the long-term?

What a mess.

~~~ img100%(https://media1.giphy.com/media/ehzBscFVvfNl7GMElT/giphy.gif) ~~~

# ~~~ **Tl;Dr**: ~~~

*God of High School* is an action-packed extravaganza. If you’re willing to invest your time under those grounds alone, go for it; but don’t expect the show to do anything else. GoHS got the “live-action anime remake” treatment; with its horrible pacing, laughable drama and two-dimensional characters. As much as GoHS puts in admirable effort into making its fight scenes some of the best you’ll witness all-year, the team behind the project can’t quite erase the fact that it has “READ THE MANHWA” written all over it in bright bold letters. There is reason to believe that this was a corporate cash-grab, but with an abysmal second half the show fails at being a commercial too. Because having sat through this painfully stupid experience, I’m now even less likely to give the WebToon a read. **3/10**~

# ~~~ STRAY RAMBLINGS (**SPOILERS**): ~~~

-- ^Actually, I take that back. Han actually DOES beat the shit out of Mira in Ep 4, leaving her heavily injured and unconscious. While this story choice does lead to the only good arc in the show, I find it uncomfortable how quickly the three swept this under the rug and moved on. No one in the group ever acknowledges the fact that one of them almost murdered another. I guess whatever happens in the ring, stays in the ring? Yikes.

-- The *BIGBANG* segment is the Korean knockoff of *Big Shot* from Cowboy Bebop.

~~~ img53%(https://i.ibb.co/mq9j3cy/Horrible-Subs-The-God-of-High-School-04-1080p-mkv-2020-09-28-23-43-17-992.jpg) img40%(https://noobsubs.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/noobsubs-cowboy-bebop-02-1080p-blu-ray-8bit-ac3.jpg) ~~~

-- I’ve heard a lot of people saying that GoHS was pulling a “Tower of God,” and I don’t think that comparison is fair. Whilst ToG could be pretty hard to follow, it handled its worldbuilding far better than GoHS ever did. Having seen both WebToon adaptations so far fall below expectations is something to worry about though, so here’s hoping Crunchyroll keeps its act together for *Noblesse.*

> “How you do drama or how you create tension… it’s very different in anime versus manga… so how do we make it so that people won’t get confused when they get into it? And how do we not lose certain aspects of the story that really mattered?” 
- Joseph Chou, producer of GoHS

--12 episodes in and I don’t think either of us have the answer.

-- **BEST GIRL**: Maybe Seungah. A lot of the secondary characters felt like clones really, but she seemed pretty wholesome.

~~~ img100%(https://i.ibb.co/4g03XQr/Horrible-Subs-The-God-of-High-School-11-1080p-mkv-2020-09-28-23-48-53-007-2.jpg) ~~~

***

-- That’s it from me! This review was admittedly more harsh than others I’ve shared so far. But I hope that, unlike the show, the points came across clearly. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other [reviews](https://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews) for seasons past and present, peace~

Countless Punches, With No Weight Behind Them.

God of High School might be the least sensical anime I have watched to date, and I watched Himegoto. Where it succeeds in super cool fight scenes and largely slick animation, calling its story a flop would be something of an understatement.

-------------------

__Premise: 4/5__

If you've seen my profile, you'll know that I love a good tournament arc. That's the main reason I picked this show up: I wanted a show with fast-paced fights that I got cucked out of watching Naruto. No matter what you say, it delivers on this, with a wide variety of styles and fighters. I wasn't expecting the special moves (or charyeoks), and I feel like it could have done without them, but I guess they add a little flavour to what would otherwise be a Taekwondo demonstration with people cheering in the background.

__Story: 1/5__

If I'm honest, I would have given this a far higher score if the show had stuck to the whole high-schooler fighting tournament thing. I even would have been open to the charyeoks if they had been explained well and integrated smoothly. But The God of High School has a major storytelling problem.

Within an episode, it went from a fighting tournament to some kind of Bird Person-ass shirtless man flying around the city and claiming to be a god, without any explanation as to what happened. The whole marriage thing was completely out of left field, and resolved far too quickly. Even the staff that Jin pulled out in the final fight against the aforementioned Bird Person wasn't at all explained.

Throughout, I felt a little lied to; I started watching because of the enticing tournament arc, but the whole thing was just a bait-and-switch in favour of some kind of grand magic-style arc that was, in my opinion, unneeded.

Honestly, the story felt like a first draft; it had all the major plot points, but the segues between them were nonexistent, and the whole thing was just sloppy. I don't want to say that it's because it was based on a Webtoon - I'm sure that the Webtoon was far better and that this was caused by time and budget constraints - but I will say that it is something of a confirmation for my previous biases of Webtoon authors.

As for character development, there is almost none to speak of. Particularly the protagonist, Jin Mori, remains pretty much the same through the series, with the occasional teasing glimpse into what could be an interesting backstory and motivation that are not nearly well expanded upon. I guess Han Daewi gets some character development, with him going from wanting to win God Of High School to save his dying friend to wanting to help Jin Mori in his quest to... do whatever he's doing, it's not very well explained.

__Music: 4/5__

The opening song is an absolute banger, and it's one of those animes that I actually sit through the OP just to hear that song. The ending is OK; it's unexpectedly chill, but it's a decent wind-down for such a high-octane show.

The OST is pretty good; it's generic in places, and some parts don't really fit what's being shown on screen, but it largely adds to the show without encroaching on it.

__Execution: 3/5__

The art style takes a little getting used to, and there's the odd 'background face' here and there, but I think it looks pretty good. Nothing outstanding, just good.

Again, the voice acting is good. It's nothing to write home about, but it's pretty solid throughout.

The script is meh. It isn't that _bad_, it's just a little awkward. I feel like there's a little too much 'Engrish' which detracts from the seriousness of certain scenes, but it probably can't be helped. I don't know too much about script-writing or Japanese.

__Overall Rating: 12/20__

--------------------------------------

To be honest, I don't really have a favourite quote. Nothing that was said really stuck with me, maybe because I was too busy trying to figure out the story.

---------------------------------------

There really isn't much more to be said about the series. I do want to talk a little about the whole Webtoon thing that I mentioned before, though.

Obviously, anyone who is able to put so much dedication and talent into a piece of work deserves commendation; I would struggle to draw an anime eye, let alone a full fight scene with detailed backgrounds and accurate lighting. But for some reason, I decided to lower my expectations for this series because it was based on a Webtoon. Maybe it's because I've read a couple of pretty weird Webtoons, but I often equate them to doujins or fan fictions.

Most of the faults of this series are probably due to timing stuff: I don't know how many Webtoon chapters were adapted into the anime, but I've heard that it was a lot, and I learned from the Toaru series that, no matter how good the source material is, studios will prioritise budget and timing over quality of the adaptation if the material is long. To be frank, I'm not willing to read the Webtoon, as I have far too much stuff on my hands to do so, but I've heard that it's better.

But I doubt reading it would change my disappointment after expecting a simple tournament arc and getting some kind of BDSM cult, God power, Japanese presidential candidate story.

Altogether, I feel like this series could have been really good. Throughout its course, I've wanted it to be good, and I was constantly waiting for it to get good, but the good part never came. I hold out hope for some kind of sequel where things a) make sense, and b) are more interesting. But until then, my view of The God of High School remains utterly mediocre.

GoHS is a show that consistently misses out on being good by prioritising cool fights over storytelling and sense

Primeiro queria dizer que fiquei muito feliz com a repercussão do meu primeiro review nesse site. Achei que receberia muito hate mas muitas pessoas concordaram comigo e me mandaram mensagens no instagram e aqui mesmo hahaha. 

Mas enfim, vamos para The God of High School: Quando terminou o ultimo episódio eu fiquei bem triste. Quem me conhece sabe que eu amo os tais "animes de lutinha" e é meu gênero favorito de anime. Eu não conhecia o manhwa então quando anunciaram esse anime e vi o trailer eu fiquei bem hypada e tinha certeza de que seria meu anime favorito da temporada. Esperei ter pelo menos 10 episódios porque eu não gosto de assistir anime semanalmente. Os primeiros dois episódios foram bem legais e eram o que eu esperava, mas a partir daí eu comecei a me incomodar com o que a galera chama de "rush", quando eles aceleram os acontecimentos. Já estava eu lá no quinto episódio e eu ainda não tinha me apegado a nenhum personagem da obra. O trio principal até que é legal mas não dá tempo de desenvolver os personagens e nem você se apegar a eles com esse ritmo acelerado que eles colocaram, tanto que nas lutas eu nem me importava se eles iriam ganhar ou não.

No episódio do casamento eu achei que finalmente iriam desenvolver mais a Mira, mas foi decepcionante, tanto pro desenvolvimento dela quanto pras informações importantes sobre a espada e o culto. Tenho certeza que algumas coisas eu até deixei passar, principalmente quando o Jin come a fruta, desmaia e não acontece nada relevante pra isso, eu fiquei tipo ???? Meus amigos já me contaram que no manhwa essa parte é bem diferente, mas enfim, não tem problema mudar no anime desde que faça sentido pelo menos. 

O episódio 10 foi o melhor do anime pra mim, desenvolveram o background do menino da raposa minimamente (sou péssima em lembrar nomes coreanos, dos personagens de solo leveling eu não sei até hoje kkkkk), inclusive ele é até agora o único personagem que eu consegui me apegar. Depois disso "tentaram" fazer um desenvolvimentozinho pro cara do tubarão e um tipo de redenção, se eu posso chamar aqui de redenção, mas foi péssimo. O culto também foda-se, só aparece pra fazer com que tenha uma batalha legal e muito bem produzida, e some tão do nada quanto apareceu. E depois o final acontece tudo que tem que acontecer de forma chutada e você já sabendo qual vai ser o resultado da luta.

Eu sei que vai vim gente falar "Ah Bia mas o anime é de luta, você só tem que preocupar com a luta, a história não importa". Beleza, a coreografia das lutas e a animação são impecáveis, os golpes muito legais também. Mas pra que você assiste uma luta sem torcer pra alguém? O desenvolvimento dos personagens é importante pra luta também, e não tô pedindo um desenvolvimento foda e detalhado de anime seinen, só queria o mínimo. 

Algumas lutas pra mim ficaram muito corridas também e não deu tempo de apreciar os movimentos. É como se fosse um teatro, todo conteúdo audiovisual tem que ter um timing pra você ver o que tá acontecendo, entender e criar uma expectativa em cima do que vai acontecer. The God of High School quase não tem timing, e minhas expectativas nos episódios finais eram quase zero.

Não é um anime ruim, longe disso pra mim que gosto da temática, mas seja lá quais foram os motivos de eles acelerarem assim fez com que desvalorizasse muito o anime. Por isso fiquei triste e gostaria que tivesse sido diferente. Espero que as próximas temporadas sejam melhores e com certeza quando eu tiver tempo lerei o manhwa.

# The Pros :-
The __Animation__ is very nice. The art style is unique enough that it does stand out from the other seasonal anime out at the same time as this. The fight scenes looks great with hand to hand combat and power being in the mix. The starting 3 mins before the __Intro__ will definitely hook you in and then the __Intro__ starts and oh my, it's really nice, like really nice. Let's say the first 10 mins of the first episode will __HYPE__ you up that you expect something truly great.

# Then the Reality Sets in:-
The Animation and Art Style looks great but when you really dissect it, it's definitely not the best in the industry. There are better Anime out there with more detailed and stylized hand to hand combat and unlike this one, those actually have a story behind them to elevate the fights more.
I started watching it because of the __Hype__ around it. Turns out to be one of the worse Anime I have watched in a long time. Dropped it after the first 3 episodes. The series doesn't know what it wants to be - 
__A Tournament Arc Anime / Hand to Hand Fighting of Different styles / Power Based Fighting, etc.__

# Plot points are being thrown towards you like it's a cheap buffet.
I have read Manga before where the whole story is just a __Tournament Arc__ from start and it's not that the concept itself turns me off. I can't remember the name but there's already a Tournament Arc style Manga where __Historically Famous Mortal Men__ are fighting against pantheon __GODS__ for the future of all Mankind. It's a great read where Hype of the fight itself is enormous and then the fight themselves and the backstories of the Men and Gods that go along with it. It's truly a pinnacle of how Tournament Arc should be in stories and this whole story is only that and yet it delivers as a whole. 
As you can tell that in fact having a full tournament arc can work great but this Anime ain't it.

~!A Small Summary / Spoiler without character names or details of the first 3 episodes :-
Our main hero of the series is basically 'Goku' with the whole intriguing back story of having some 'Godly power' hidden. The tournament starts off immediately and some goofy sh*t happens with a robbery and we are introduced to the 3 main leads. The childish simple minded Protagonist, the brooding mysterious maybe future bf/rival and a Girl with a wooden sword with glasses. All 3 of them somehow hit it off and end up conversing like they are all soulmates. Then Tournament happens. Our main Guy ends up crashing another fight cause one of the fighters is being too brutal and then punished and gets some power and then comes back and shows the guy who is the 'Tournament Organizer' that he has potential and that's it. That's basically 3 episodes and I just couldn't anymore torture myself.!~

The points I gave is purely because of it's good looking art style and animation. With no story to this,
my partying words that can summarize this whole anime or at least the first 3 episodes would be- 
~~~__All Style, No Substance__~~~

__~~~Histoire 8/10~~~ __
Effectivement je trouve que l’histoire est bonne elle me plait beaucoup, cependant on sait que les studios sont limités en terme d'épisode on peu faire que une coupure a la fin du combat final ici mais pas avant donc un problème va se créer : Le rush. Je n'ai pas lus le webtoon je ne vais pas m'avancer mais je pense que pas mal d’éléments ont été coupé et c'est bien dommage car cette anime a un gros potentiel en terme de ost animation personnage.. Mais bref l'histoire reste bien plaisant a voir, le fait de mettre des dieux est une bonne idée pour moi qui est amener assez rapidement et donc ne choque pas mais pour que l'anime décolle vraiment bien il faut attendre la moitié voir un peux plus pour comprendre ce qui se passe et comment l'histoire step up bel et bien. On retrouve des dieux des figures héroïques et je trouve ça très intéressante ~!surtout a la venu de Sun wukong ou on apprends que Mori est Wukong sérieux les frissons ! On pensait qu'il allais prendre un pouvoir comme tout le monde sauf qu'il est tout simplement un dieu et je trouve cela cool qu'on nous le dise que a la fin et pas depuis le début!~
La suite risque d’être incroyable il y a tout pour rendre cela bon.
__~~~Personnage 7/10~~~__
Alors le majeur problème est l'approfondissement faible des personnages du moins des personnages secondaires : on a eu bel et bien un devellopement de ___Mira_ __et ___Dae_ __qui est plutôt pas mal mais je pense qu'on peut mieux faire, ___Mori___ forcement on ne peut pas le faire a 100 pourcents.. Il reste le groupe déjà de Majin park ___le fameux comité___ qui peuvent être intéressant, le groupe des six composé de park qui sont vraiment mais alors vraiment cool surtout la fin, et bien entendu ___taejin___ le grand père de Mori qui doit receler des secrets mon pote !!! 
et pour finir le ___groupe Nox___ qui sont intriguant donc avec tout ce beau monde ils peuvent faire quelle que chose de très propre et rendre le webtoon encore meilleurs avec une adaptation propre. Neamoins le méchants ici ___Jegal___ étais assez basique : des motivations assez faible mais il ne se laissent pas forcement battre facilement il a lui aussi des power up mais bref peux etre dans le futur une explications sur lui ? 
__~~~Art 8.5/10~~~ __
Très belle anime on va pas se mentir le combo webtoon x crunchyroll porte merveilleusement ses fruits, je peux ajouter un grand point fort dans la diversité des combats car on ne voit pas toujours les même combos on change de coup ( n'est ce pas Dragon ball super ? ) plus on ajoute a cela le POV ( point of view) dans certains combats qui rajoutent de l'immersion c'est vraiment cool
__~~~Audio 8/10~~~__ 
Entre un très  bon opening et ending l'anime fais du bien au oreille, surtout pendant l'épisode 10 ou on a le combats de Han ryang contre la divinité invoqué par Man Duk avec les tambours derrières et les voir jouer corps et âme pendant le combat étais vraiment pas mal. Je peux ajouter le combat final qui est pas mal ouf mdrrr j'ai crier je ment pas on a eu de beau combat bien accompagnée
__~~~Enjoyement 8.5/10~~~__
J'ai prit mon pied : même si j'ai fais une pause a l'épisode 3 la suite est vraiment crescendo il faut je l'avoue s'accrocher mais c'est le problème des webtoon comme ToG. On a un comba final ouf avec une ouverture sur la suite qui risque d’être incroyable bref je peux que le recommander au personne fan de combat, mythologie 
~~~__Overall :__~~~

3 3 6.-  Que penser des Webtoon adaptée en animes ? 

_Light Spoilers if you're good at inferring. Mild Language._

Going in to this I didn't have super high expectations, since I not really a battle shounen kind of person. A lot of people were hyping it up as constant action with an acceptable story, and I honestly can't see the relation to what I watched. The story was honestly worse than Assassin's Pride, my current shit tier comparison, and while the fights were alright, they really had less meaning to them than Dragon Ball Z's. People pulled more power out of their ass in such an inconsistent way that I had no clue what was going on.

Visually it looked decent. The city and buildings were reasonably well done, the characters were unique and had detail, but I didn't care for the style. The fights on the other hand, were well choreographed with the characters having their own unique styles of fighting that were for the most part distinguishable from everyone else. On the other hand, I don't think flinging the camera around a CGI-d arena looked good, at all. That's ignoring that the visuals never really gave me an idea of how much power someone had. I understand that the show didn't use any sort of power system (at least, as far as I can understand), but sometimes the characters were able to destroy their environment and other times they just punched each other and I got nothing out of it. I never had any clue really what was going on.

Visuals aside, because I think they were overall good, one of the biggest places this show suffered was the story. Right out from the start the only thing I could understand was that this kid's dad was gone and there was some organization running a fight club to give someone a wish. Also there was something about gods? And some evil organization? Like what the hell was that all about. Even right up to the end I knew __NOTHING__. There was something about a key that could kill gods? What. They fed us scraps of information but never DID anything with it. You can't just have combat without a story, because all through the combat I kept trying to figure out where this stuff was coming from. At least Dragon Ball I could understand their will to win the fight gave them power. But these bitches were going cross dimension and I had no clue what was happening. Also hey, remember that wrist band with level and health? Me neither. It was the perfect opportunity to give a level of scale, and it never happened.

If you compare the story to the characters though, it could manage to make the terribly done characters look good. Aside from the chick, I had no idea what their motivations were. Hell some of the side characters managed to have better backgrounds than the mains. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they were thrown together so the overall story could have something other than fighting just 'cause. That's ignoring that they tried to shove friendship down my throat, without ever showing it. It reminded me of the terrible motivations between Gon and Kite in HxH, except worse. The only exception to this was the old dude, who was just trying to better himself. It showed him actually interacting with the people he was fighting with, and gave a heart warming background that I could understand, rather than giving bits and pieces and hoping I gaslight myself in filling in the rest.

At least it was a little enjoyable to watch for the first time, just to see where it was going to go next. If this wasn't an airing show I don't think I would've ever been able to finish it. Unlike Tower of God, the other webtoon show around the time this came out, this never had a point where it for the most part, all came together/shocked me. It was just suffering all the ways through, with a meaningless fights to try to cover up the dumpster fire in the background.

Also, the OP/ED are over-hyped.

A dumbster fire of a story covered with well choreographed, but badly animated fights. Not worth a watch.

REVIEW: ‘The God of High School’
? ? SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD? ?

The end is nigh for Crunchyroll Original The God of High School. The anime based on the WEBTOON of the same name by Yongje Park is at its season one end with The God of High School episode 13, “GOD/GOD.” In the last episode, the anime pushed to new heights with new charyeok materializing, a new god birthed from the Key, and of course, a lot of fighting. Truthfully, this series is very far from where it began. What started as a battle anime about three friends fighting in a competition to have their greatest wish granted is now a supernatural action series that has all manners of powers and beings involved in the story.

In The God of High School episode 13, the god that appeared over the arena has been shot down by Jaesan’s technique. Having been spirited away to the Holy Realm by a powerful member of The Six at the end of the last episode, Mori and the rest have fallen into a huge cave. There, they battle against Jegal, who has transformed into a god after absorbing the Key. Mori, Daewi, and Mira face him together, but their attacks don’t even reach him. But, in a turn of events, Daewi is severely wounded protecting Mori from Jegal’s vicious onslaught and leaves their fate in question. As the situation grows desperate, a memory that had remained dormant in Mori’s mind all this time reawakens and the series pulls off an open-ended conclusion by setting the stage for the story past season one.

Over the course of 13 episodes, audiences have gotten the chance to watch each character grow, and their charyeok is the embodiment of that. We’ve watched Mira choose to be the one who revives the Moon Light Sword techniques and embodies the ferocious warrior god. For Daewi, we saw the young man who has the power brutally wound develop a charyeok based that manifests as healing waters. And for our main hero, Mori, while we haven’t seen large amounts of growth into a new character, we have seen him learn about his hidden power in a way that brings together all elements of his personality.

That said, I want more from the characters. While Mira and Daewi have striking moments in battles that take center stage, there is more character work to be done. In truth, for a series that has done well to incorporate storytelling and character growth within its fight sequences, the quickness of the battles leaves me wanting so much more. Truthfully, this pattern of accelerated battles doesn’t end in The God of High School episode 13. “GOD/GOD” is split directly in half at the commercial break with the team fighting the now god-like Jegal in the beginning and what feels like an epilogue in the last half. While this isn’t a problem per se, the final battle, while beautifully animated and showcasing some of the best use of charyeok in the season, is anticlimactic. In comparison to Mira’s battle against Marin Lee and Daewi’s fight with Mori, this “final battle” doesn’t hold as much weight even with the big reveal rolled in.

Now, we don’t need a nine-episode battle out of Dragon Ball Z, but there isn’t time to breathe or see characters pushed in this final episode, at least not in a meaningful way. But, this has been my main issue with the series. And with The God of High School episode 13, I’m left with the solid feeling that it would have benefitted from either a longer season or one that just focused on the storylines up until the fight between Ilpyo and Mori which changes the focus of the series. That said, the latter half of this episode does a lot of work in setting up a season two for The God of High School, and while it hasn’t been confirmed, the amount of foundation laid during the closing OP is enough that we can hit the ground running if it does come to fruition.

While I would like to dive more into the content of this episode, some of its larger moments that are worthy of conversation are also huge spoilers, so the last element I can leave you with is this: MAPPA is s-tier. While every episode of season one has been beautiful and dynamic in both fight choreography and emotional moment of animation, the final fight in this episode is on another level. It’s faster than what we’ve seen, larger than what we’ve seen, and it utilizes every charyeok that has been unlocked within our core group in a way that showcases their power.

While this season has not been perfect, The God of High School has been entertaining and it’s the first time I’ve watched a series that began as one thing and finished as another with no qualms about where the journey has taken us. Through stunning animation from MAPPA and characters that do more than embody shonen tropes, this anime series is sure to turn into a favorite of the year for many fans, and The God of High School episode 13 is a finale that leaves you waiting and hoping for season two.

Whether or not that actually happens, however, is another question entirely.

In the second iteration of Korean Manhwa Adaptations, God of High School is supposed to be the returning king to bring Manhwa anime adaptations to the pedestal it belongs to. As a reader of the Manhwa myself, I was plenty excited to watch this anime to see the pretty visuals and fight scenes animated by MAPPA of all studios.

And what should I even say? It was very, very, very, very, very terrible. Even from a manhwa reader’s perspective who knows what’s going to happen, I was still plenty confused about what was going to happen. I got confused about why some arcs didn’t get adopted, why some backstories were covered and not others, and, more importantly, the age-old question of “can we fit 113 chapters into a 13 episode season?” The fact that MAPPA botched a decent and fun manhwa read into the car crash that is GOHS is beyond me.

How does it stand against my five pillars of anime rating? Oh, probably not very good.

Story (1/10): Oh god, were the stories and characters a train wreck. We were promised a tournament arc, a good tournament arc filled with plenty of backstories, fair fighting, and emotional moments packed with each punch. But no, all the fights were lackluster, no backstories were gone into, which might’ve been a good thing because when MAPPA did decide to go into a side character’s backstories, it just felt sickening that we got to see a potentially good character to disappear for the rest of the series. And as for the actual fights themselves, there were no “solid” fights. All the battles had no direction at all and just throwing punches and swinging swords with no thought into them at all besides the occasional power name scream. One of the most hyped fights I read in the Manhwa was over in like, what, 10 seconds? And the ones that don’t matter and take an entire episode of runtime with have no impact on the rest of the story or characters.

But the worst, the ABSOLUTE worst part of GOHS is that they shatter the first rule of making a compelling story, which is following your worldbuilding. It’s clear to see that everyone fights with superpowers with all the “power naming” shenanigans you see in typical fighting anime. But no, they deemed all of that NORMAL without explaining anything, and when they do introduce superpowers, it just feels so out of place and comes out of nowhere. To the point where the story no longer follows the tournament arc and just goes to random bullshit God fighting or whatever.

The story and worldbuilding is absolute dogshit. Nothing is believable, I don’t even know what the hell is going on half the time and even the fights

Characters: (2/10): Part two of the story building trainwreck that is GOHS. God of HS’s characters doesn’t make sense. Their powers don’t make sense and their actions don’t make sense. We see this especially later in the series where new characters come out of nowhere and all they act is the one-dimensional friend or villain to our protagonists. The only thing I do believe MAPPA did right were our protagonists’ backstories, fleshing them out and them acting accordingly and some even wrapping it up nicely throughout the story. But again, the amount of inconveniences and character holes that exist are so massive, I can’t even tell if they told this in space, or in the writer’s room.

Art: (6/10) I’m probably not going to be the first to say this, but the art is definitely very nice, since, well of course, MAPPA of all studios did it. HOWEVER, although the art did look very nice, it just didn’t feel anything special at the same time. MAPPA does follow the artstyle and the battles are very nicely animated, but it just didn’t feel up to the standard I expected from an anime like this.

Sound: (5/10): Yea the OPs and EDs were unique and maybe good? The rest of the soundtrack was typical fighting shounen battle sequence songs and also a lot of songs and sounds that were inappropriately placed. Sometimes a happy go-lucky song would be playing in fight scenes and sometimes the largest punches’ sounds made the fights as convincing as a 8-year olds fist-fighting.

Enjoyment (1/10): I think it’s clear to say that I didn’t enjoy this anime one bit. The story and characters are abysmal at best, and even the art and sound are pretty lackluster compared to the hype it got in the beginning of the season. Even though I haven’t kept up with the Manhwa in a while, I think I’ll keep at that instead of watching more of this hot burning garbage pile of anime. They even hinted at it at the last episode, but I really hope that it doesn’t go that far.

Should you watch it? Oh god no, go watch something else.

Put on some dubstep and bang kitchenware together. Congrats! You have created an experience almost as bad as GOHS.

Overall, I enjoyed the anime but the problems I had with it was that it was very rushed. The animation is absolutly amazing, as is the music (except maybe in the last fight scene, it's very rare that a pop (ish) song goes well with a dramatic fight scene), with it managing to actually get my heart racing a few times. Especially with (trying to avoid spoilers so I'll keep it vague) the fight scene at the end of episode ten. The mix of amazing animation, interesting concept and music made the scene, in my opinion, fantastic to watch. 

However, other than that God of High School tends to fall flat in other aspects. The character development feels a little rushed for some characters, with really good moments one episodes and in others it's entirely glossed over. I realise this is definitely the curse of trying to fit such a large bit of webtoon (which I have yet to finish reading) into a 13 episode anime, but still it's somewhat annoying to have huge moments of development followed by pretty much nothing. The pacing is also... horrible. It was okay at first as quite a few  animes rush into things to get it going, espiecally with 13/12 episode animes but the problem with GOH is that it's constant. Things happen, that thing is resolved and then often something escalates and then is easily dealt with - this doesn't help by some of the scenes and ideas being rather predictable. 

One thing I also kind of disliked that took me out of the ending (tho tbh the bloody music already took me out. I was really enjoying the kind of gospel/classical music they would play during the big fight scene, especially the drum type music they used for episode 10 - I don't know what kind of music you'd call that lol. But this pop song really took me out of and just kind of made me roll my eyes? It just felt really out of place and I know it's meant to go with the 'friendship!' thing they were going for but for the imagery and fighting they were using it didn't feel right. The ending song playing over the more light hearted stuff made sense though but I'm still not entirely sure what they were trying to achieve with this playing over the fight scene) was that it ended too quick? The fight was amazing and I really enjoyed the characters who's abilities as fighters develop throughout the show (though some of it was rushed) playing off eachother well but as a whole it just ended too quick for me.

I liked the characters, Mira is an intersting character I enjoyed seeing on screen and so is Mori. The character design also! It was really cool seeing such distinctive designs. The concept is also amazing and it's such a shame the anime doesn't seem to deliver on showing this concept off properly.

As a whole, I really enjoyed watching it as who doesn't like a well animated fight scene with good music? I really wished the show developed some of it's more interesting aspects, especially the abilities that the fighters have, as well as the actual God of High School itself because for some reason the entire tournament felt a little glossed over? But other than that it was a good watch and I'm giving it a solid 7.

fun fight scenes but doesn't deliver on much else

As the anime itself is concerned without taking into context how the Webtoon manhwa is, it's only OK. I personally believe MAPPA did a great job with the animation, character design, and overall presentation of GOH. There were a few points where I felt like some things just did not click or make sense to me at all, like some "for the sake of convenience" moments, completely contrived moments, and noticeably unexplained developments (e.g Daewi obtaining charyeok) which definitely made me feel like my experience wasn't all too great. But overall, not too bad but I personally felt like something was missing here.

Then you take into consideration the manhwa... and everything clicks. This adaptation is NOT good and to be honest, that's not really that surprising considering we're talking about an adaptation handled by Crunchyroll. This adaptation is not good because it suffers from what I'd like to call __"[Tokyo Ghoul](https://anilist.co/anime/20605/Tokyo-Ghoul/) adaptation syndrome"__, in short, this means that hundreds of chapters with possible unique plotlines and well-needed development for characters and story arcs are either shortened, cut out or tweaked for sake of making an anime fit 12/13 episodes. This is definitely the case with GOH's adaptation as most main manhwa plot points and exposition had been cut out from the anime and as a result, the pacing in this show is atrocious.

We don't even get to see most fights or how any of the characters improve with the exception of a few. On that note, the baffling nature of Jin with his "Goku like" mentality and LITERAL god-like plot armour definitely doesn't give Jin a sense of improvement and like he's not even gotten stronger at all, there's no impact here. I know it should be typical for MCs to not want to lose but really... what do you get extra from not losing a single match? (not true at all in the manhwa, Jin does lose matches in GOH I've heard). Also when you boil down to it, most characters including Daewi to an extent (main character mind you) just feel one-dimensional and have no other sort of motive or reason as to why they belong there. Even the villain of Part 2, Jegal, isn't safe from this. His only motive is to be a "winner" and above all others... that's pathetic.

The OP 'Contradiction' I don't mind, I like EDM but I don't feel like it fits an OP. The ED 'WIN' I feel the opposite way about in that it's "ehhhh" but does fit. And the ending episode is pretty decent too but not really satisfying for what I had to go through prior, not a drag but just a literal mess of a plot.

To summarise, GOH's anime is not good as an adaptation to the original material. But as a standalone anime, it does have the necessary foundation of a solid plot, but with quite a few noticeable flaws that can be picked apart.

Not good as an adaptation but serviceable as a standalone anime

Scattered Thoughts #1: _The God of High School_

####_A review series where I throw on a page some scattered thoughts that were too long for the notes section._

Some light spoilers throughout.

~~This one’s almost half a year late.~~

<hr>

Story: 3/10
Concept is simple but exciting, and I was pretty invested when the simple fighting tournament escalated into a larger conflict. While this overall idea was solid, the way it’s actually executed is lackluster. Pacing is poor throughout, mostly on the rushing side. The world building is also mediocre, with the concept of charyeok being badly integrated and developed. There is no apparent consistency in the charyeok system—everyone has a charyeok for some reason, and there is never any explanation for it other than “borrowing cool powers from some mythical or historical figure.” The powercreep is also ridiculous: one guy’s charyeok is literally a big hammer that gets shattered by a punch, and then a few episodes later someone gets power “that rivals god.” Upon which five seconds later a different someone beats it with an even stronger power. Is there any semblance of proper scaling? And one of my biggest questions: why does the public seem so unfazed by these fantastical abilities? Didn’t they sign up to watch a mixed martial arts tournament? Anyway, charyeok also brought other problems, like an overuse of deus ex machina-type plot devices and the fact that charyeok ended up detracting from the actual fighting, which is what I came to see. All this being said, however, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy at least a good chunk of it.
 
<hr>

Characters: 3/10
Characters were not great. For the entire run of the show, I could not get out of my head how similar the main trio was to early Naruto: the dopey main character, the quiet rival-turned-friend, and the female third that keeps the other two in check. There's plenty more similarities to list, but I think it should be fairly obvious to anyone who has watched Naruto. (Not limited to Naruto, of course, but it was the clearest comparison for me.) While these tropes are not inherently bad, the show unfortunately fails to make them particularly compelling. Same goes for almost all the other characters in the show: I just didn’t care very much. Which also made it hard to remember names.

<hr>

Visuals: 8/10
The saving grace of this show. The fights were solid, with many featuring fantastic fighting choreography and animation. Rather than whole fights, there were specific moments I would consider to be the highlights: the calligraphy-style sequence in episode 5 (18:22) is my personal favorite. MAPPA did a fine job. ~~Also product placement was amusing~~

<hr>

Audio: 6/10
The OP kinda slapped. The ED was decent. A few good soundscape moments. I don’t remember much else.

<hr>

Enjoyment: 6/10
I still quite enjoyed the show. I didn’t really go in expecting too impressive of a story, which I certainly didn’t get, but it was enough to interest me for a while. The fights, of course, are what I came for, and I did get a bit of what I wanted, so I’d say that I’m somewhat satisfied. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the show, however—maybe just stick to clips of some of the good fights.

# GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL
img220(https://s4.anilist.co/file/anilistcdn/media/anime/cover/large/bx116006-Wt8JSA1ZQxlM.png)

__Small Vague Introduction__
The anime, God of High School is about a boy named Mori Jin. He is 17 years old and a martial artist (taught by his grandfather). 
He receives an invitation the God of High School competition. This competition has different types of fighters from all over that will come together and the one who wins gets the title of “The God of High School”. 

# WEBTOON AND ANIME SPOILERS AHEAD READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Things I didn’t like:
I may not be the only one, but I thought that other than the fighting, characters and music, there was nothing too good about the anime. It had its moments, but the story was so full of plot holes. 

1.	In one episode, I had my first question. Why does Mori Jin seem to want to fight Commissioner R (the one with blonde hair) so badly? What did he do to him? 
Only after I read the webtoon did I find out. Commissioner R is the one who found and gave Mori Jin the invitation to the GOH. While giving the invitation, Jin Mori had challenged him to a fight and lost, which is why he was eager to fight him again. 
So, one thing was not mentioned, what’s the problem? There is more to come, don’t worry.

2.	In II-pyo and Mori’s fight, we see that II-pyo has met Mori’s grandfather before and had been told that his father worked under Mori’s grandfather. Which is why Mori’s grandfather had the letter and delivered it to II-pyo as a child. In the fight we see II-pyo trying to coach Mori without actually coaching him, to repay his debt to Mori’s grandfather. Now there was nothing particularly wrong here, although it would have been nice to see a flashback of II-pyo’s father and Mori’s grandfather to understand the story better. I had read the webtoon and understood their roles and past better when it was showed.

3.	In the webtoon, Mori had lost to II-pyo and Mira Yoo, one of Mori’s teammates had avenged him. I think this was a critical moment in Mori’s friendship with Daewi and Mira, showing that they trusted each other’s strength and believed that they wouldn’t lose. It was a really nice fight and we saw Mira’s development too, so I feel a little sad that it was left out and changed. 

Things I did like:
1. Again, MAPPA studios gave us such amazing, mouth gaping animation with God of High School. It may have been rushed but the animation for the fights was top notch and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and got lost in the hype. 

2. The music is something to mention as well. The opening was so different than regular ones and it was hype, it got me very excited and every opportunity I got I never skipped the opening! The ending is nothing to skip either, it was so pleasant and catchy and had fun pictures of Mori and his friends. 

3. The character design is what I liked more than anything. SO colorful, so different, so interesting! I adore the comical aspects of God of High School as well.

Final thoughts:
On it's own with no reference to the webtoon, this anime is very good even with a few plot holes. If you have no interest in going for the webtoon, I suggest this anime for you. 
Although the webtoon is absolutely amazing and answers every question you may have. BASICALLY NO PLOT HOLES. 
My rating for the anime is definitely around 5 or 6 just for the plot holes and how rushed it was. I personally prefer the webtoon.

Action packed with no story. Simplest way I can say it.

~~~The God of High School Review
This anime is action, comedy, and supernatural. It airing during the summer season of 2020. This is a Crunchyroll original and adaptation of the popular Webtoon with the same name. Crunchyroll Original has done adaptations on other popular Webtoon like [Tower of God ](https://anilist.co/anime/115230/Tower-of-God/)(Average Score 75% ) and [Noblesse](https://anilist.co/anime/116005/Noblesse/)(Average Score 65% ). Every adaptation was released in the same year. It are hard to adapt a Webtoon when it is all about fighting. Maybe it is a problem to do a adaptation on Webtoon. I will discuss the problem with Webtoon adaptation and the problem with The God of High School. 

I watched The God of High School when it was airing and I rewatched the anime before writing the review. I have started to read the manhwa because I wanted more of The God of High School universe. And I wanted to see why people didn't like the adaptation. 

First I will tell you about the parts they did good, then I will tell you about the bad parts. Before I start telling you about the different parts I will tell you what The God of High School is about.

Story 
The story is about seeking out the best fighter among all the high school students in Korea. But they soon learn something much greater with the greater beneath the stage of the tournament. 

The animation 
The only good thing about The God of High School is the animation. Studio [MAPPA ](https://anilist.co/studio/569/MAPPA) did a great job on the animation. They are really good to make the fight scenes feel alive. You can feel the windsock from every attack from the characters. 
Studio [MAPPA ](https://anilist.co/studio/569/MAPPA) is really going to make a fight scene feel alive. They did a really good job on Jujutsu Kaiden. During my write on this review, the trailer for Chainsaw Man dropped and it looks amazing. 

The OP and ED
I like the OP and ED. When I listened to the opening I felt the energy run through my body. The ending gives me a calm feeling. Sometimes I can listen when it is raining.

The character 
The main character is okay. The big problem is with the side character. If the two selling points for The God of High are the character and the fight scenes. If the fight scenes are amazing they should be amazing right, right. The character is bland and the backstory of why they all joined The God Of High is short. To be clear, the main character's backstory is okay. But the side character's backstory is not so well explored.

I think this will be the only thing I will compare with the manhwa. The manhwa gives a hole chapter about the character's backstory and the reason why the side character joined the God of High School. 

The story 
The first time I watched the story it was interesting. It was why I started to read the manhwa. After rewatching it was two biggest problems were that it was too short and the many plot holes the anime left behind. I think if the anime was longer than 12 it should have time to explore the story and explore the character’s backstory and don’t leave so much plot.

One thing I didn’t like about it is how surreptitious advertising Crunchyroll did in the anime. After watching it I was thinking if I could get a free Crunchyroll prime. 

Conclusion 
Some Webtoon has over 500 chapters it is hard to make an adaptation. If you don't do it right and you get The God of High School.  If you don’t give every arke and the character with love. An anime doesn't become interesting if only you have good animation and good fights. It is the story and character that make it interesting. Don’t have big hopes for this anime adaptation getting a second season. If you like good fight scenes and don’t care maybe about the story this is the anime for you.~~~

The God of High School Series Watch Order

Season 1