I have to say, I don't really understand the high rating given to God of High School on MAL. It pushes all of the standard battle shounen buttons but is exceptional at nothing, and honestly kind of a drag to watch. Allow me to explain...
***As a warning, there will be minor spoilers in this review***
Story: 3
There really is not much of a story to comment on. Characters are placed into an arena for some nonsensical reason, where they then fight to the death. The big twist? Even when you die, you don't actually die because of *magical hand wave*... nanobots in your blood stream. And,
...
per the title, somehow we are supposed to believe that these are modern day high school students.
For a shounen, this is perhaps excusable, however when you compare it to other AAA battle shounen titles of recent years (anything from HunterxHunter to One Punch Man), there really is just nothing going on storywise to even be remotely interested about. This title is 1000% focused on the fighting, to the detriment of literally everything else. Yet oddly enough, in any given episode, only a tiny portion is actually spent showing any fighting. Most secondary fights boil down to a sound effect/fade to black or a single attack finisher.
As for the humor, it is somewhat slapstick and while it may elicit a giggle here or there, it really is nothing to write home about.
Art: 6
The art/animation is fairly high quality, and while I generally like the character designs, they again seem somewhat nonsensical when the general theme of the anime is considered. What are supposed to be "normal high school students" turn into prototypical, uber over the top master warriors all while wearing tropey outfits that tell the viewer exactly how they are going to behave.
This anime also suffers from the "all important characters look well done and unique, everyone else is bland and expendable" problem. Simply put, it is lazy.
Sound: 7
The sound effects are solid, nothing really to complain about here. I think the OP and ED are average, but that is a matter of personal taste.
Character: 3
To me this is one of the weaker parts of the show. The first few episodes had me openly cringing at how corny the interactions between the main characters were (ep. 2 bridge scene, I'm looking at you).
There is little development here to speak of. Simply, main characters are uber unstoppable death dealing monsters while looking like average high school twerps. Every fight can be summed up with: 1) Main characters get roughed up a bit, 2) Enemy fighter acts over confident and condescending, looks down on weakness of main characters, 3) Main character absolutely kicks their ass in one or two moves, while generally in a weakened state to boot.
There is some nebulous background development, but really everything takes back seat to the fighting. Why does MC fight in an ultimate to-the-death style tournament? To get stronger, of course! Characters are shallow and forgettable, with one-dimensional motivations that make their behavior (and the plot) predictable.
Enjoyment: 4
I am going to use this section to explain what I think is the weakest part of this entire show, i.e. the lore and worldbuilding. To me, the world of God of High School is fundamentally uninteresting and boring. You may ask yourself, for a battle shounen, why would this even matter? Shouldn't is only be about the fighting?! But hear me out...
There are two major problems here: 1) The world contains a "soft" power/ability system (I will get more into this in a moment) and 2) The world feels like a disjointed mishmash of random ideas that appeared in the author's head, with no real sense of history or direction.
Let's start with the second point. The opening scenes show that the story takes place in modern day Seoul. Fair enough. However, we quickly are let on to the fact that the heroes fight with almost super human abilities that allow them to defy common sense. In the first episode, a major antagonist is shown walking into the situation room of the Pentagon and talking down to the US President, as the secret service look on in awe and shock. Then, we are told this man is the organizer of a fighting tournament between... high school students. As another example, we are told that these "high school students" must fight to the death, however they cannot actually die because they have been implanted with magical nanobots that can cure literally anything, while conveniently giving the living characters "hitpoints" that the show can use to describe how "damaged" they are. It just feels like it was written for the lowest common denominator.
As for the first point, the world is built around a "soft" power system. What this means is that, there are no predefined rules or systems that characters abilities are constrained by. While this is not inherently bad (Lord of the Rings magic is a famous example of a "soft" system), in an anime with dozens of characters and episodes, it can lead to some wildly absurd results. Consider shows such as Full Metal Alchemist or Avatar the Last Airbender. These shows use defined systems that all abilities must work within (Alchemy and Bending, respectively). In FMA, we know that every character's abilities must follow the rules of alchemy, and these rules help to prevent there from being Deus Ex Machina moments where characters perform outrageous stunts in order to keep the plot moving. Characters can be powerful, but their abilities are believable within the context of the world. Additionally, it prevents "power creep" and allows the viewer to gauge the relative strength of any given fighter. Certain abilities are inherently more powerful than others, and so characters must use creativity, tactics, intelligence, and perception to defeat these more powerful enemies (as opposed to "training" to increase your powerlevel to OVER 9000, etc etc).
God of High School has none of this. Because there is no system to define how characters can behave, characters abilities and moves can be literally anything. We have a guy who reads a book while fighting and beats people with a baseball bat. Katana girl that suddenly becomes stronger when she loses her sword, and has "swordless" sword moves (wtf?!? Why fight with it in the first place?). An MC that is the clueless, perfect moral compass, god tier ability average high school student whose single kick can break any character. Similar to My Hero Academia, the show is set up in such a way that the author can literally create any character that he wants with any level of power, since there is nothing that defines what a character cannot be/cannot do (with that said, MHA is still a great show and is very strong in other departments, unlike GoHS). This leads to a bland set of fights that ultimately lack tension, with nonsensical abilities that are only there for the eye candy and feel entirely disjointed from the world.
Overall: 4
If you are bored and have literally nothing better to do, this may be worth checking out. But for me, the nice animation does not make up for the ultimately boring fights that have no sense of tension or risk, and are generally very short. Seeing random harem girl vs dream chaser sword girl do a couple lame swings at each other while shouting out their moves is not really my idea of interesting. And because I am not invested in the world or characters, it doesn't really matter who wins or loses, which is by far the worst part.
Jul 27, 2020
The God of High School
(Anime)
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I have to say, I don't really understand the high rating given to God of High School on MAL. It pushes all of the standard battle shounen buttons but is exceptional at nothing, and honestly kind of a drag to watch. Allow me to explain...
***As a warning, there will be minor spoilers in this review*** Story: 3 There really is not much of a story to comment on. Characters are placed into an arena for some nonsensical reason, where they then fight to the death. The big twist? Even when you die, you don't actually die because of *magical hand wave*... nanobots in your blood stream. And, ... 
Aug 6, 2018
Steins;Gate 0
(Anime)
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Let me preempt this by saying two things: 1) This is my first review and 2) Steins;Gate (dub) is my favorite anime of all time.
At 14 episodes into the Steins;Gate 0 dub, I have to say, I am disheartened. So disheartened that I felt compelled to write a review so that strangers on the internet could empathize and console me. The original Steins;Gate stands out to me for several reasons. For one, the dub is exceptional, as it is not a literal word-for-word translation but a localized and natural sounding one. The voice actors have great chemistry and the dialogue flows in a ... |
