The God of High School: Volume 1: A Match With Gods: "Introduction Arc" (Episodes 1 through 4) Webtoon Review
Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon review. Please read with caution.
The God of High School is my first Webtoon experience. Until I started doing research for a friend’s writing, I didn’t even know the Webtoon genre existed. I was also hunting for new material to absorb and heard this series was similar to Dragon Ball Z, so that was enough to convince me. After reading the first arc, which consisted of four episodes, I have decided to invest and have not regretted it. I’m currently on the “Tournament Preliminaries Arc”, so I’ll keep y’all posted on these reviews.
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. Crunchyroll will be making an anime adaptation that will come in July 2020. Hopefully, that’s still the plan. Coronavirus pandemic…
The first four episodes are centered around the main characters’ background stories and how they are invited to the God of High School, a world martial arts tournament sponsored by a bunch of men in suits. The winner will have any wish they want granted, no questions asked. All the characters’ motives for entering the God of High School are also established in the first four episodes. The main characters are listed below:
1. Jin Mo-Ri – Taekwondo
2. Yu Mi-Ra – Swordsmanship
3. Han Dae-Wi – Karate
The fight scenes were structured very interesting, but I grew to love the execution of how they were drawn and illustrated. The God of High School’s fight scenes have a greater focus on the martial arts style rather than the impact itself, giving the reader a much better understanding on how the attacks are being delivered. This concept is built further beyond this arc, giving the fighters power levels and HP as well to make it seem like we’re watching a video game, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Onto the negatives—particularly episode 4 when everyone met each other on the way to the God of High School. There were inconsistencies in the illustration; and the tone of the series shifted abruptly when self-awareness was being used to drive the story without any real explanation other than “it’s cliché but needed for the story”, which was literally inserted into the dialogue. However, I still enjoyed the story beyond episode 4 so it’s not a complete turn-off.
Overall, I’m enjoying The God of High School more than I should. I would recommend this series if you’re looking for new material to read and love DBZ-level stuff. Like I said earlier, I’ll keep y’all posted on my reading progress and my thoughts on the upcoming arcs. Thanks for reading!