The God of High School Episode 2 “Renewal / Soul” Anime Review
Major Spoilers are included in this anime review. Please read with caution.
Synopsis: 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. Similar to the first episode, the second episode was broken into two parts dedicated to character and plot. For my review on episode 1 “Set Up / Stand Up”, the link is here.
Seeing Mori and Gang Manseok fight each other—at the end of episode 1—was a dream come true, given that I read the Webtoon first back in May 2020. Let’s talk about that cliffhanger and how that lead to Mori, Daewi, and Mira becoming friends in this episode. We learned why they entered God of High School and their motives for winning. Daewi wanted money, Mira wanted to restart her family dojo, and Mori wanted to get stronger. Mori acts similar to Goku for a particular reason, but we won’t go there just yet.
The first half of the episode was dedicated to building the trio as the main protagonist team moving forward, while the second half focused on the actual tournament aspect. The brutal fight scene between Gang Manseok and Tai Chi fighter Go Gamdo helped show more specific fighting styles that each participant used without outright telling us.
Show, don’t tell.
The fast movement in this anime is a typical anime tactic to show amazing fight scenes at the cost of seeing the actual fighters (“they move too quick for my eyes” side-character excuse in lame terms), but this series made sure to prioritize the visualization of everyone’s fighting styles. In my “Tournaments Preliminaries Arc” Webtoon Review, I discussed how “[t]his development and focus on their fighting styles helped build the main characters’ backgrounds and motives”, which we’re already seeing with Yoo Mira’s flashback and Jin Mori interfering in the fight between Gang and Go. Seeing Renewal Taekwondo “Triple Kick” epically animated made me geek out so bad—I battle-cried it out with Jin Mori like I was still reading the Webtoon out loud.
The one critique I had was the Crunchyroll and Webtoon logos being on God of High School’s tournament ring. This might be The God of High School trying to insert their self-awareness in other ways. I didn’t enjoy the self-aware moments in the Webtoon, but the anime is making an effort to phase it out in the dialogue at least. At worst, seeing the product placement logos was an awkward distraction, but it didn’t make or break the series for me, similar to how I felt when I read the “Introduction Arc”.
The OST music—in addition to the opening and closing songs—are too hyped-up, which I love so much. Listening to “Contradiction” made me so excited and ready for episode 2. I added the songs to my D&D playlist, since all my players are currently watching this anime too. The anime is still drawing on the Webtoon, but shifting certain aspects—I won’t say for those only watching the anime—in a more beneficial way. Overall, the anime series is doing better with laying out the groundwork for our characters, particularly Park Mujin. Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll see you next week!