The God of High School

The "God of High School" tournament has begun, seeking out the greatest fighter among Korean high school students! All martial arts styles, weapons, means, and methods of attaining victory are permitted. The prize? One wish for anything desired by the winner.

Taekwondo expert Jin Mo-Ri is invited to participate in the competition. There he befriends karate specialist Han Dae-Wi and swordswoman Yu Mi-Ra, who both have entered for their own personal reasons. Mo-Ri knows that no opponent will be the same and that the matches will be the most ruthless he has ever fought in his life. But instead of being worried, this prospect excites him beyond belief.

A secret lies beneath the facade of a transparent test of combat prowess the tournament claims to be—one that has Korean political candidate Park Mu-Jin watching every fight with expectant, hungry eyes. Mo-Ri, Dae-Wi, and Mi-Ra are about to discover what it really means to become the God of High School.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Jin, Mo-Ri Main

Tachibana, Tatsumaru Japanese

Han, Dae-Wi Main

Kumagai, Kentarou Japanese

Yu, Mi-Ra Main

Ohashi, Ayaka Japanese

Commissioner Q Supporting

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Park, Il-Pyo Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Park, Mu-Jin Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Commissioner R Supporting

Kobayashi, Chikahiro Japanese

Jegal, Taek Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Jin, Tae-Jin Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Commissioner O Supporting

Kaida, Yuki Japanese

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Tannawa, Yuusuke Producer

Simone, Jamie Producer

Song, Sae-ho Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2020

Dukino

Recommended

The second webtoon anime comes to a close. Definitely say I liked this one better than the previous. God of High School does have some problems no doubt but I enjoyed this anime so damn much. Didn't quite know what was coming with this show other than a big tournament and some cool looking fights. Well we got that in spades and then some! This show didn't let up off the throttle for even a half second! Kept going and going and going jumping the shark at every turn and I loved for doing that. Where we started and where we ended were completely different ... places in such a short amount of time but that didn't bother me so much, least not as much as I'm sure it did others.

The way I value and rare anime is absolutely themes then characters then story then visuals. That being said I think this show is one of the rare exceptions for me. Because the themes and story aren't quite there imo but holy hell are the visuals amazing to look at constantly and the characters are a lot of fun. There's tropes out the woodwork with this but it didn't seem to bother me. The story kinda shoots itself in the foot multiple times but skimming past things that should probably be explained. This is definitely one that would benefit from being 23 to 26 episodes opposed to just the 13 we got. But not gonna judge something by what it didn't give us since that's dumb. Better to just look at what were got and judge that.

So I'll say the characters are awesome and easy to root for. Our main trio of Mori, Daewi, and Mira are all badass who I love to see on screen. They all get great moments to shine throughout the show. Even with Mori being centerpiece the other two still get highlights. The supporting cast with Ilpyo being my favorite of those and the other tournament competitors being pretty cool especially early on. Park Mujin was always a mysterious dude who seemed to be up to his own thing but I liked his style and how he helped the trio out more towards the end. His squad with the commissioners and SIX were cool. Nox as a main antagonist group were kinda meh since they didn't do a whole lot. Jegal however I really liked the more we saw him. An easy villain to despise and want to see the heroes beat. His powers were cool too.

Of course I'd be dumb to not rave and gush over the incredible animation. Mappa basically outdid themselves and keep putting out quality work over and over again. Can always trust them to make a show look great with its fights and this amps me up even more to see Jujutsu Kaisen animated later this week! Overall I'd say this is a fun kinda just enjoy the fights type anime with some good characters and a middling plot that coulda just used some more time to flesh out. But I thoroughly enjoyed this show for what it gave us. 85 out of 100.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Dukino (50)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 28, 2020

Snapshot426

Mixed Feelings

Well there’s no stopping this train, Crunchyroll are going full steam ahead into adapting webtoons. With this, last season’s Tower of God and next season’s Noblesse, things might be looking up for webtoon adaptations right? Weeellll...not exactly. Tower of God is good show that’s HEAVILY relying on a sequel season to make it all worth it (which if I’m aware, hasn’t been announced at the time of this review), Noblesse is a wait and see at the moment and this show has been a truly mixed bag. There are some stuff that this show get right and there are some stuff that this show gets ... wrong, badly at times. But this show has become the epitome of a phrase that I go by when grading a show. “High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.”


Sit back, relax, grasp your own power within you and summon your Perso...i mean Charyeok as I present to you the anime review for the The God of High School. Let’s begin.


Story: 2.5/10

The God of High School tournament has begun and high school students all over Korea flock to prove their worth as the strongest fighter. This includes our three main proagonists Jin Mo-Ri, Han, Dae-Wi and Yu Mi-Ra, each with their own fighting styles and techniques. However, with the commissioner, Park Mu-Jin, looking for something and a shady group working in the shadows, they will soon learn that there is something more than meets the eye to this tournament.

So there you go, a simple tournament with something more going on in the bigger picture. Simple and solid stuff right? Yes, but the execution of this is certainly one to behold because the pacing of this series is utter dogs**t as it is all over the place. It started out nicely in the beginning to set the premise, setting and establishing the bonds between our main leads, but then it blitzes through to get to the big picture. And that is what honestly killed the story for me. This show wanted to get to the big picture as quickly as possible instead of developing what we already got in front of us. It’s almost as if it was obsessed to tell you that there is more to this story than meets the eye, but doing that sacrifices context and some much needed context at that. When the show does explain some things though, it’s kind of blink and you will miss it because good luck trying to understand if you did miss it.

But ultimately, it trying to get to the big picture leaves to a lot of, “what the f**k is going on?” moments. We get introduced to this villainous group that believe in god, abilities that can only be described as Personas or Stands for you Jojo nutters and a “key” that holds great significance. This stuff happens with little to no build-up or context to it so it just happens and you are probably left confused. It changes your attitude towards the fights and honestly makes them less enjoyable at the end because you are trying to wrap your head around as to what is going on instead of just enjoying the spectacle.


Characters: 4/10

There isn’t anything inherently hateful with the main trio as they do a fair job of being characters I can rally behind and they do get some character development. Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra definitely do get some time dedicated to them to get invested into them. But it feels like they get tossed aside by the end and their importance to the plot is dwindled as the show goes on. More focus is placed on Mo-Ri as time goes on as he is the true main protagonist but in my opinion, he isn’t as interesting as Dae-Wi or Mi-Ra in terms of motivation or backstory. He is under the class of Gerenivutus Shounenanatus (aka. Generic shounen protagonist). He likes fighting and getting stronger just so he can fight stronger opponents and get even stronger himself. A tried and true formula sure, but one that has become tiresome and it is no different here. His motivations aren’t really compelling compared to the cast around him and his growth isn’t really as noticeable where it feels like his strength just gets stronger just because at times.

That actually kind of relates to the majority of characters at times because they get stronger just because most of the time. This is another side effect of the lack of context and consistent pacing in this show. The lack of natural growth when it comes to getting stronger is obvious when characters do acts that they have shown no signs of before. I think the lack of training montages kind of hurts this show.

Going back to the cast of characters, there is one that I think would have made for a more interesting main protagonist. Park Il-pyo is much more compelling than Mo-Ri as he has a much more legitimate and interesting motivation while also having similar generic shounen elements. Probably because he gets the most attention out of the cast of characters in terms of backstory. Sure, it is rather cliched but at least is has depth unlike the majority of the more important characters in this show. The rest of the cast is rather meh. They fall under their roles to do their part of the story but I will say that the main antagonists, Nox, are pretty weak as villains go. Not including Taek Jegal who is decent as an ultimate main rival. But Nox is as uninteresting as shadowy groups get. Their main leader is a literal who and their motivation to summon god into the world to destroy it is as generic as bad guy goals get.

In fact, the majority of the cast falls under the cliched shounen troupe and while some do expand on it like Il-pyo, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra, the rest kind of just fall in line, honestly making the cast shallow in the process.


Animation: 9.5/10

Is this the best work MAAPA has ever done to date? Probably. There’s no denying that the animation for The God of High School is fantastic. Fights are fluid and pack quite the punch with it oozing with sakuga everywhere to make the fights themselves fun to watch. But it’s not just how it animates, how the show frames the fights with dynamic angles and shots to give it a different feel each time. Watching from a distance as a guy with a straight jacket runs in fast to kick guys in the head, or it zooming out of Dae-Wi as he turns around and blows people away with his fist. It makes the fights themselves that fun to watch and are easily the highlight of the show for me.

Art style and character design wise, it’s solid, although I don’t know why everyone have such a red nose. It’s like they all have the sniffles or something, I don’t know. It’s something that particularly bothered me, it’s just something that just looks kind of weird. Each character have their own unique look that translate well into the fights so it doesn’t become a hindrance and they are rather distinct from one another and the art style translates well into the action. So overall amazing job by MAPPA.


Sound: 8/10

Honestly, the ost really matches the pacing and emotion of the fights to make them that extra enjoyable from a pure spectacle standpoint. It does what it needs to when you got action like this and enchance a scene that you are most likely engrossed in to keep up with the tone of the scene. The sound effects as well have a nice punch to it to make you feel the force with each hit, knowing that it’s going to hurt.

The opening, "Contradiction feat. Tyler Carter" by KSUKE, is interesting. I like how it builds up the opening and then flurry it out with action and how the opening is styled, with it starting like it’s an intro to the tournament and the neon filter when it shows off the action. The song is give or take. I’m not the biggest fan of techno music but I do like how it builds up with the visuals on screen. BUT, the opening does lose points for the action being just scenes taken directly from the episodes instead of showing off it’s own action to make the opening more independent from the rest of the show. The ending I like as well. "WIN" by CIX, is a nice way to show off the growing bond between Mo-Ri, Dae-Wi and Mi-Ra and is a nice way to calm down after the relentless action. Just a nice solid ending.


Conclusion:

“High quality animation and sound can only carry you so far before your story and characters have to hold up their own weight.” It’s a line I came up with when I did my review of Sirus the Jaeger back in 2018 and it’s always stuck with me when it comes to shows like this. No matter how good your animation and sound is, if your story and characters don’t do as well, then your show will just be a hollow shell of a technical masterpiece. The God of High School is a show had a lot of promise. If it was able to make sure that the story and characters match the quality of it’s animation and sound it would easily been one of the best anime of the year. But it didn’t. If anything, it bought into its own hype and tried to prove that this show was more than it meets the eye but without establishing why. What’s left is a show that feels very shallow and honestly a waste of MAPPA’s best work to date. Poor pacing and context to the story, underdeveloped and shunted characters, a rather boring protagonist and very weak villains leaves a show that feels half full. While the fights on their own are very good, without a good narrative to back it up, it leaves the fights feeling very hollow.

I do believe this is a case of 12 episode syndrome where they tried to cram it into 12 episodes to save time and budget and move on to the next. But this show badly needed at least a 24 episode run time to help establish key plot elements and character growth. But it didn’t (probably due to budget) and there’s no changing it now. What we are left with is what we got and what we got is honestly, a show that I am disappointed with.


My Personal enjoyment: 4.5/10


Overall score: 5.7/10 Recommendation: Consider it (VERY, VERY BARELY, Consider watching it for the action for the first 3-4 episodes and see where you go from there.)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Snapshot426 (86)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 28, 2020

Stark700

Not Recommended

No, my eyes aren’t deceiving me. I finished today, what I see as one of the most overhyped, yet underwhelming show of the year. The God of High School represents the type of show that is forced down our throats like the next big thing. Advertised as a Crunchyroll original, this anime has convinced me that there’s little hope for a decent manhwa adaptation in the future. Don’t let your eyes deceive you by the flashy animation and aesthetics. The God of High School is a show I wouldn't dream of recommending.

As I sat here wondering what went wrong, my initial impression of the anime ... was actually hopeful. The first episode bought out the talents of director Seong-Hu Park as he’s able to craft together some lavishly animated scenes. In fact, it’s easy to say the first episode is an eye catcher of animation with the amount of ass kicking and fast moving action. We are introduced to 17 year old Mo-Ri Jin, a martial arts from the country of South Korea. The free spirited young man has the ambition of a fighter, and seeking out powerful opponents to test his abilities. This is where we are introduced to the God of High School Martials Arts Tournament, a place for fighters all over the world to showcase their skills.

Despite being the main protagonist, the story also introduces Mi-Ra Yu and Dae-Wi Han. Both characters also possesses talent in martial arts with their unique fighting styles. It’s why both are also invited to the GoHS tournament although they have different motives. For instance, Han participates in the fight to help his friend while Mira seeks to find a suitable marriage partner. No matter what the reason, it seems GoHS loves pushing the characters’ personalities at every chance it gets. The most prominent examples are when Jin gets excited at fighting a powerful opponent or when he is motivated. Other times, it’s when Jin finds a reason to fight, such as crashing a wedding and helping Mira. It’s motivations like this that sets off an early impression of the show. But with every progressing episode, the show degenerates into a chaotic mess.

It seems the more and more I watched the show, the less I feel motivated myself to understand the main purpose of the story. What is it even trying to get us to understand? The main characters? The tournament arc? Or perhaps some sort of reason for God of High School to even exist? The meat of the show remains with the tournament and different fights that occurs throughout the main story. It also seems these fights often feels rushed and lacking importance. Even Han, a selfless man, who fights for the sake of others becomes a chore to watch. How many times do we have to hear his unenthusiastic dialogues? Every one of his fight feels similar and furthermore, it’s easy to say he is the most boring character to watch in the entire series. As the story ventures forward, we are thrown into more chaotic storytelling involving supernatural forces such as the Nine Tailed Guardian, God incarnates, and plot to kill certain divine beings. When you try to make a show spin out of control in such way, it sets off a ticking time bomb of chaos.

Outside of the main cast, don’t expect much character development from the other characters. This is advertised as a 13-episode one cour series. To make the story flow, we are introduced to some significant side cast such as IIpyo Park. Serving as a more logical member of the cast, IIpyo is observant and not often the one to rush into battle head on. He appears to be one of the more mysterious member of the cast but unfortunately, the anime doesn’t get the chance to explore the full side of his character. This seems to fall in line with the majority of named characters, including one of the main antagonists, Mujin Park. As being the head in charge of the tournament, you can expect him to be the master pulling the strings. Being manipulative and calculating, Mujin represents the anti-thesis of Jin and the main cast. And to add on to the rogue gallery, there’s Taek Jegal, a major threat who treats almost everyone as worthless. His power hungry personality fees on his ego to the point where he cares for no one but himself. It’s the type of stereotypical antagonist you can come up in less than 5 seconds in any type of anime. Taek’s main rival appears to be Iipyo, but from a storyline perspective, he represents nothing more than a generic villain. With all said and done, background storytelling even falls short with info dumps about the cults, Gods, and other divine powers. Because let’s face it, this anime serves as little more than being an advertisement for a glorified fight show.

Well, if there’s one selling point of the anime, it’s the animation. In fact, I can say The God of High School is more about showing than telling. From the first major fight and every other forward, it looks like the anime pushes the boundaries of animation. It’s stylistic and dynamic with fast paced motion. The comic-like art quality also makes the important fights feel like major attractions. When the anime settles for a lighthearted tone, it bounces back into comedic scenery of cartoonish character expressions. Even the music accompanied with the action sequences makes the fights more dynamic. If you wanted to see a visual action flick, The God of High School will be a hell of a ride.

Don’t let those flashy animation fool you. This show wanted to be something special and indeed, it some ways managed to do that. But beyond the typical main trio cast and the ass kicking scenes, this is no more than a mediocre story trying its best to sell its product to you. Even with the sufficient funding, The God of High School reminds me to always, and always keep expectations in check for manhwa adaptations.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Stark700 (737)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Anime Based off of Manhwa

by little_shiz17

26 Entries · 1 Restacks

Battle Shounen - Animes (1)

by UekiZatch

50 Entries · 49 Restacks

r/Anime Award Winners - 2020

by Hurwitz

29 Entries · 2 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for April

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for April Week 1: April 5 - 11 Anime Releases Grenadier: Hohoemi no Senshi (Grenadier: The Beautif...read more

Apr 4, 2022 6:07 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (4 comments)

Summer 2020 Simulcast List [Update 9/15]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Summer 2020 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Jun 25, 2020 6:35 PM by Snow | Discuss (47 comments)

	Poll: The God of High School Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) KANLen09 - Aug 10, 2020	175 replies	by Balloon_Head »» Oct 15, 2025 2:55 AM
	Poll: The God of High School Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) SingleH - Sep 28, 2020	334 replies	by FONZACUS »» May 17, 2025 6:01 AM
	Poll: The God of High School Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) bcra - Aug 3, 2020	242 replies	by npc_635 »» Mar 29, 2025 5:30 PM
	Poll: The God of High School Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KANLen09 - Jul 27, 2020	296 replies	by npc_635 »» Mar 29, 2025 5:02 PM
	Poll: The God of High School Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) anime-prime - Jul 20, 2020	271 replies	by Regest »» Feb 12, 2025 1:18 PM

The Most (and Least) Popular Anime of Summer 2020

In this second of a three-part series, I look at which anime caught people's eye and which provoked their ire!

by Shymander

109,093 views

The Best and Worst Anime of Summer 2020

And finally... the Summer 2020 Anime of the Season and how we got there!

by Shymander

138,732 views