The God of High School Episode 1 “Set Up / Stand Up” Anime Review
Major Spoilers are included in this anime review. Please read with caution.
Alright. The God of High School anime is finally here! On July 6, 2020, I watched the first episode, which was an amazing introduction into the series. I have high hopes for the anime based on what I watched and how the first episode was already putting in the effort to fix the Webtoon’s initial mistakes from the beginning arc. If you’re interested in my first Webtoon review of The God of High School, the “Introduction Arc” is here.
This fighting-style—action-packed—series follows high schoolers Jin Mori and his friends (Han Daewi and Yoo Mira) participating in The God of High School, an all-styles martial arts tournament for high schoolers from all over the country of Korea. The victor of the tournament will have their wish fulfilled—no questions asked. Essentially, the first episode was broken into two parts dedicated to characters and plot.
The first part centered around Jin Mori making his way to The God of High School—the preliminary round for his region—on a regular bike. On the way, Jin Mori noticed a thief riding a motorcycle snatch an old lady’s purse. While trying to stop the purse snatcher in an amazingly animated chase sequence, Jin Mori meets Yoo Mira and Han Daewi. In my “Introduction Arc” Webtoon Review regarding the chase scene, I wrote how “self-awareness was being used to drive [it] without any real explanation” and I still stand by that critique for the Webtoon, however…
The anime simply discarded the self-awareness and beautifully animated the good parts instead. How Jin Mori ran into Yoo Mira did remind me of Misty and Ash’s first meeting in Pokemon, but their immediate team-up over the old lady’s sad background—she needed the money in her stolen purse for surgery—was cute. The chase scene was effective in giving us glimpses of our heroes’ personality traits rather than long-winded background stories. Don’t worry, new fans. The background stories on Jin Mori, Han Daewi, and Yoo Mira will be coming soon!
The second half of the episode utilized the tournament announcer—an important character later based on my bad memory—as a plot device to push the exposition of what The God of High School tournament is all about, and why all these fighters wanted to enter so bad. Then after he was done announcing, the action picked up immediately with a battle royale among the current participants.
The battle royale scene was truly magnificent and structured with “a greater focus on the martial arts style rather than the impact itself, giving the [viewer] a much better understanding on how attacks are being delivered” (Ngo, GOH “Introduction Arc” Webtoon Review). This was the best aspect of the entire series, so the fight scenes will be getting better—hopefully at least—moving forward. The God of High School’s episode 1 cliffhanger also set-up an action-driven episode 2, making the wait for next week very frustrating.
The OST was also well-crafted and selected, fitting the tone of the series perfectly. Honestly, the music was making me hyped for all the action that happened in this episode. Overall, bring on more The God of High School! Thanks for reading, everyone!!