Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

Picking up where the previous episode left off, Jin Mori went off on his own to rescue his grandfather Jin Taejin from his kidnappers. However, this put his team at a serious disadvantage for their next round. Since Han Daewi is suspended for the next couple fights, it’s up to Yoo Mira to hold off her opponent—and win—to give Jin Mori enough time to make it back in time. The next opponents are wearing the same robes as the main villains Nox, so the stakes are even higher to win this round.

The fight scenes in this episode were marvelous for Yoo Mira and Jin Mori. Han Daewi had a brief action scene too in the bathroom, and was sexually assaulted—kissing against consent—by a member of Jegal Taek’s team. Around here is where I noticed some uncomfortable stuff happening in the episode, specifically the Yoo Mira versus Marin Lee match.

Marin Lee is a dark-skinned character because of his tanning oils. This was definitely some Anti-Blackness shit—while toned down compared to the Webtoon’s depiction—that I didn’t appreciate. Considering what’s happening with the Black Lives Matter Movement 2020—and everything else that happened to Black people in the last 400 years—this was a reminder that Black masculinity stereotypes are still being used in today’s anime. Hopefully, The God of High School will be more careful moving forward.

Moving onto the rest of the review now that I aired out my grievances, Jin Mori went berserk in this episode! While Yoo Mira gaining her Cheryeok and sword back from the Nox people who took it in episode 4 was also another highlight, Jin Mori ending the episode with that multicolor Webtoon style Triple Kick and the Twin Blue Dragon Kick in that beautiful action sequence was incredible. I was blown away by how awesome that all went down. The Triple Kick looked even faster and more precise compared to the ones we saw in the first season’s first half.

If it weren’t for the Anti-Blackness shown in the episode, I would’ve said this was a perfect episode due to the Jin Mori Original badassery. Like I said earlier though, The God of High School—everything media-related in general—needs to be careful with how they portray darker-skinned characters. Toonami made a commercial recently about Black Lives Matter in regards to anime, so hopefully that’s a wakeup call for some people.

Thanks for reading my episode review, everyone! I really appreciate it. Also, let’s keep reminding ourselves that Black Lives Matter.

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