The God of High School is the second Korean WebToon to be adapted by Crunchyroll into anime, and quickly caught everyone’s attention due to its crisp art-style and interesting premise. The animation is handled by the well-known MAPPA and that’s the icing on the cake since they’re known to do justice to every adaption they work on.
The premise of The God of High School is simple – humans, demons, and gods exist in three different realms, with humans being the weakest of the bunch. Since humans are the weakest of the three, they are granted the ability to ‘borrow’ power from other supernatural entities and it allows them to have enhanced strength among other abilities.
This takes us to the present day, where the main protagonist Jin Mo-Ri is invited to a Martial Arts tournament called ‘The God of High School’ by a shady corporation, and the winner can have one wish of theirs granted with no questions asked. He is among many other students who are being invited from all over South Korea and many different high schools. Once he is a part of the tournament, he comes across many other martial artists with different types of skills and witnesses various ‘borrowed’ powers.
Thus, begins Mo-Ri’s journey in hopes of winning the tournament, and this is where the fun begins!
The first thing that comes to your mind once you have the context of the story is that it focuses more on the present time than anything else, as the lore is not very obvious from the get-go and the mysteries of the corporation hosting the tournament are not revealed immediately. But there is beauty in the simplicity, as you get to be invested more in the events of the main story and its characters instead of the world around them.
Speaking of the characters, establishing them and fleshing them out is something that the show jumps into very fast, which is evident in even just the first episode of the show. While the characters indeed serve different tropes common in the Shonen genre, GOH has a take fresh enough to justify their existence. The focus on the characters’ personalities, interactions, and how the main characters are quickly brought together in a bond that will last in the future episodes to come – is something that has been done beautifully. Story, pacing, characters, and how it’s all mixed together is done cleverly, and that brings us to how the anime fares out visually.
The animation of GOH is one of the best that 2020 has to offer, featuring a crisp art-style that complements the lively nature of the story. There’s a lot of creativity in the environment, with even the backgrounds having detail that leaves nothing empty for the eyes to see. And the characters themselves are very detailed and well animated, as every frame feels like something fresh and the beauty of how it’s all crafted feels like a dream.
The fight-sequences are what we’re all here for, and you’d be happy to hear that MAPPA has delivered! Even in just the first episode, you are introduced to martial arts at their finest, and seeing the fighting so beautifully animated without being edgy or the frames repeating is a treat for any fan of anime or the fighting genre. After every fight you are left craving more, and the anime does not shy away from giving you what you want.
Lastly, the sound design of the anime is also done well and goes well with the overall theme of the anime. There’s some decent music here and there although not particularly memorable, it does the job and that’s good enough. The sound effects are crisp, and anything less would have been an insult to the great fight sequences that we see. All in all, it works.
Overall, The God of High School is off to a great start, and if it keeps the consistency of this quality up, it will earn its name in the ranks of the best anime you can watch in recent times! It’s lighthearted, it’s fun, it’s a visual treat and it features some of the best Martial Arts sequences in anime.
It’s an easy 8 out of 10 and recommended for anyone looking for some beautifully animated action-sequences and a story that does not take itself too seriously.
