Post — Aaron Ngo

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

The God of High School’s “World Training Arc”, also known as Volume 4: World Competition, was an interesting binge-read. I started and finished the arc on May 18, 2020 during my day-off. For those who had read my Webtoon Review on the “Second Great War Arc”, I have some answers for you regarding Jin Mo-Ri’s disappearance. He’s alive, but he doesn’t have a major role in this arc. This bothered me for a good chunk of the arc, but his clone—going by the name Hui Mo-Ri—wasn’t that bad of a replacement protagonist given the theme being presented in the arc: Clones and their need for identity.

Hui Mo-Ri went through an identity crisis throughout the arc, wondering if he’d vanish when the original eventually returned or if he even was a “person”. This was the theme of the arc as Yoo Mi-Ra and Han Dae-Wi went through a similar identity crisis in terms of how strong they were. Yoo Mi-Ra was still behaving like a useless Sakura and needing to be stronger in order to protect Hui Mo-Ri and Han Dae-Wi. Han Dae-Wi was struggling to fight opponents after he lost an eye fighting King in the previous arc.

While the main characters’ individual stories weren’t structured the best, the plot did become smaller—back to basics—with the consolation match for The God of High School Word Tournament. The first two teams to survive the battle royale will advance onward.

There was also a minor sub-plot involving Park II-Pyo and Baek Seung-Chul and their search for the real Jin Mo-Ri, but that story was put on the backburner until the end of the “World Training Arc”, where it was revealed Jin Mo-Ri was alive somewhere in the remains of the Sage Realm. Baek Seung-Chul and his relationship with King Uma was also really cute and somewhat romantic in episode 174.

Nox’s goals and intentions with Borrowed Powers were made super clear throughout the “World Training Arc”. They worshipped the Gods and believed the others who used the Borrowed Powers weren’t worthy. Nox wished to use the bio-energy from Borrowed Powers to become immortal, and they wanted to wipe out the unworthy when the time was right. This made the plot much clearer to understand. A reread of the series might be needed in the near future.

King had a more prominent role in this arc, and he crafted an interesting relationship with Han Dae-Wi over their casual games of Korean Chess. King’s characterization—powerful and ruthless old man antagonist with perverted tendencies—was definitely unexpected. His army of son clones was a pretty messed-up concept. The theme of clones.

However, I wished the author would just give Han Dae-Wi the love he deserved. Han Dae-Wi was made weaker during this arc because he was blinded in one eye, and he lost access to his Borrowed Power. This made him question his place on the team, and how he might never be able to fight effectively again.

As a result, Yoo Mi-Ra’s character development improved as she stepped up to protect her friends from the enemies targeting them during the consolation match, but it shouldn’t have to come at the cost of Han Dae-Wi’s character growth.

Speaking of protecting Han Dae-Wi, there was a prophecy—introduced by the Japanese Team—that indicated he would die at some point during The God of High School World Tournament. Luckily, he didn’t perish during the consolation match, but if he dies later… I will riot and unleash Wave of Blue Dragon on the author.

Overall, the “Word Training Arc” did return to The God of High School’s roots while delivering a solid consolation match that was on par with the previous God of High School tournaments. Although Volume 4: World Competition was table setting for Volume 5: Ragnarök, I was still enjoying it a lot more than Volume 3: Adventure. The random “the main characters are high schoolers” and their soccer game filler was pretty hilarious though. I was just frustrated with the character work being done on our three main characters. I also really miss Jin Mo-Ri. Hopefully, Volume 5: Ragnarök will not disappoint.

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