Post — Aaron Ngo

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

The God of High School had been an emotional rollercoaster so far. For those unaware, I had read volumes 1, 2, 2.5, and 3 all in one week’s time. I absorbed over a hundred episodes in seven days, and I thought I should say a few words on how the binge-reading went. So, let’s start there before I dive into my thoughts on “Second Great War Arc”, the ending to Volume 3: Adventure.

I absolutely loved the Webtoon series in the beginning during Volume 1: A Match with Gods, Volume 2: The National Competition, and Volume 2.5: Story of Tae-Jin. The characters, their well drawn-out fight scenes, and the borrowed powers—God Power—were incredible to watch. Honestly, it was addicting. It’s still addicting even when I started to feel like the series was leaning too heavily on their uneven power scaling. Refer to my Webtoon review on the “Sage Realm Arc” for more details here.

However, the “Second Great War Arc” seemed to have acknowledge the story’s flaws to an extent and made attempts to rectify by going back to the basics of what the series was truly about, which meant fighting styles mattered again. After the False Monkey King died heroically—in a rushed “Obito Uchiha” redemption arc—to protect his people at the end of the “Sage Realm Arc”, “Second Great War Arc” truly began.

The final antagonist from the “Sage Realm Arc”—First Crowned Prince—fought Jin Mo-Ri during episodes 153 through 156. This meant their fight wasn’t dragged through the whole arc, which was quite refreshing because after all planet-level attacks and shadow clones, Re-Taekwondo made a comeback to defeat the First Crowned Prince.

Second Crowned Prince and Third Crowned Prince were also swiftly handled by Baek Seung-Chul and Nine-Tails Park II-Pyo during episodes 157 and 158 respectively. I really enjoyed how Baek Seung-Chul—the smart guy from Volume 1: A Match with Gods—became such a powerhouse during Volume 3: Adventure. I definitely didn’t expect him to become an important supporting character either.

Then, episode 159 began to bring us back to the basic roots of what the series was originally about with the character Lee Soo-Jin, one of the puppet antagonists from the “Sage Realm Arc”. She was kind of annoying until we learned her backstory during episode 159. I actually liked Lee Soo-Jin’s backstory, and it justified her motives for wanting to kill Jin Mo-Ri even when they should’ve been working together against the First Crowned Prince.

The theme of Grandfathers came back into play as we learned Lee Soo-Jin’s Grandfather was connected to Tae-Jin and his creation of Re-Taekwondo. As a result, the emotional stakes were raised considerably when it came time for Lee Soo-Jin’s epic fight against Jin Mo-Ri. This fight was very similar to Goku versus Frieza on Planet Namek minus the insane power-ups. In fact, it was the opposite without the borrowed powers or Jin Mo-Ri’s Monkey King powers involved. Yes, The God of High School delivered a classic Re-Taekwondo versus Northern ITF Taekwondo match on a dying planet. Back to basics.

Everyone else evacuated the dying planet—goodbye, Sage Realm—through the dimensional gate, but Jin Mo-Ri and Lee Soo-Jin stayed behind to finish their fight. As a result, Jin Mo-Ri gave up the chance to save his Grandfather back in the Human World. However, he sent a clone to help his friends escape through the dimensional gate. Also, Yoo Mi-Ra and Han Dae-Wi promised Jin Mo-Ri that they’ll save Tae-Jin on his behalf. These two main characters need to become relevant—and stronger—again in the next arc. My boy Han Dae-Wi deserved more screen time, but he was screwed over. Yoo Mi-Ra might become a Sakura Haruno, and that’s definitely not okay.

After everyone made it through the dimensional gate, the series introduced the King—the leader of Nox—in episode 166. This was where the series became murky again as episode 166 also showed Jin Mo-Ri not making it to the other side of the portal and falling as he tossed Lee Soo-Jin through—imagine Goku screaming at the top of his lungs as Planet Namek exploded.

Episodes 167 through 172—the final five episodes—showed the aftermath of the arc and began to set-up the next God of High School Tournament. Also, Clone Jin Mo-Ri and Judge R sort-of settled the score from episode 1. The fate of the original Jin Mo-Ri was left unknown by the arc’s epilogue. My feelings for the series were starting to become mixed, but I think I’ll continue reading for the time being. Overall, The God of High School has potentially serious flaws if the original Jin Mo-Ri—our main protagonist—doesn’t return to the series for Volume 4: World Competition.

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