Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon Review. Please read with caution.

The God of High School broke its power scaling—in fabulous DBZ fashion—during the “Nationals Arc”, also known as Volume 2: The National Competition. The world-building, the concept of GP (“God Power”), the Judges, The Six, and Jin Mo-Ri’s background / motives were explained and explored during this arc while introducing more characters with their own personal motivations for wanting to win The God of High School: a martial arts tournament that will grant the winner a wish, no questions asked. How the wish would be granted was also explained in this arc.

For my Webtoon reviews on Volume 1: A Match with Gods—the “Introduction Arc” and “Tournament Preliminaries Arc”—the links are here and here respectively.

The series is drawn and written by Park Yong-Je. The God of High School started in 2011 and it is still an ongoing series. Let’s break down what happened in the “Nationals Arc”, and the over-the-top craziness that went down. I’m officially invested in the Webtoon series. I cannot wait for the anime adaptation in July 2020.

The arc picked up a month after the conclusion of the “Tournament Preliminaries Arc”. Dae-Wi and Mi-Ri have trained rigorously over the past month for The National Competition, but Mo-Ri Jin didn’t train at all during the month. He read a book on how to do acupuncture instead. Oddly enough, this new skill would come in handy later.

There were many characters introduced in this arc as The National Competition was League format—so three-on-three matches—which meant more characters were being thrown into the mix. Whoever won The National Competition gets the wish.

The major characters introduced in this arc were Park II-Pyo and Taek Jae-Kal. They have a history with each other that is explored through flashbacks that also connect to their current motivations for wanting to win The God of High School. Park II-Pyo also shared a personal history with Jin Mo-Ri and his Grandfather, Tae-Jin. II-Pyo had an emotional character arc and a fun—only acting cold for his friends—personality that made me root for him. Also, II-Pyo’s borrowed power—the GP—was also purely Naruto.

Going off on that, the fight scenes were elevated to god-level tier battles. All the fights were amazingly drawn and still organized to show the blow-by-blow until full impact. The climatic fight between Jin Mo-Ri and Taek Jae-Kal—the main antagonist—at the end of this arc was spectacular, and the major highlight on why this Webtoon series really deserved an anime adaptation.

Dae-Wi, Mi-Ri, II-Pyo, and Judge Q—my favorite Judge and Dae-Wi’s mentor—also had epic fights throughout this arc, as they were revealed to have borrowed powers too. Jin Mo-Ri didn’t believe in using borrowed powers, classifying himself as a Genuine Fighter—someone who didn’t use the borrowed powers but their own strength instead.

During the “Nationals Arc”, Jin Mo-Ri established a legitimate motive for wanting to win The God of High School beyond proving he was the strongest. He declared he would use the wish to find his Grandpa and live with him forever. It rose the stakes considerably because Tae-Jin went missing at the end of Volume 1: A Match with Gods.

There were a few negatives I bumped into while reading Volume 2: The National Competition. While I basically followed what was happening throughout the arc, there were times when I lost myself trying to figure out the plot and the convolutedness of The Six and the other mysterious groups working in the shadows wanting “The Key”, which was connected to Park II-Pyo.

At some point, I naturally decided that not understanding everything was okay and focused on enjoying the characters and their fights instead. They were easier to follow, and the reason I stuck around. I personally love Han Dae-Wi and his fighting style. He’s my favorite character in the series.

Overall, Volume 2: The National Competition was vastly superior over Volume 1: A Match with Gods. After reading the first two volumes, I would highly recommend The God of High School for those interested in DBZ-like content. Trust me, your reading time won’t be wasted. Mine wasn’t.

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