Two words: MASTER-PIECE
When you thought that your favourite anime had come to your top to stay for a long time, when you conceived that your life would not be enlightened again by an artwork of such caliber, God of Highschool soon came knocking on everyone’s door, what am I saying knocking!, breaking down the door and establishing themselves as the best anime ever.
Where should I start? Its pacing and story-telling? Marvelous. Who else doesn’t love when things are so rushed that after 13 episodes you don’t have any idea of what is the main goal of the series...or even the main goal of its characters? Is it world destruction? God supremacy? Supporting the case of why taekwondo should continue being at the Olympics? No determination whatsoever!
As a matter of fact, us members of society can recall that WE ALL LOVE pointless fights without any meaning nor backstory; why wouldn’t we, if I may ask? Devices such as plot twists, showcasing character motivations, displaying impactful moments or executing contrasts properly in order to build up/shift momentum, change characters status quo, conveying emotions through the screen, or just for the sake of having an interesting, meaningful action scene are things that GoH NEVER contemplated, which, in my humble opinion, sets the tone on how things must be done on any anime which places value in providing quality content to its viewers. Greatness.
Speaking about greatness, we must ask ourselves about the integrity of the “plot”. It had been awhile since the last time I’ve watched a show which had such an organised, perspicuous and easy to follow plot, with no plot holes or unexplained sudden events whatsoever. For example: Seoul's population looks doomed because the good guys seem incapable of dealing with <<Nox>>? No worries, Alchemist-san saves the day transporting the whole city to a cliff out of nowhere. Already not convinced? What about if I told you that the show has a mysterious aura around it (however I have not been able to grasp it yet)?
And don't get me started with this show's coherence -one of its strengths-, like for instance, when the show it's stuck in a cul-de-sac, as they display their marvelous scripting techniques to solve the sticking point masterfully (e.g. kyuubi-power recovery from Ilpyo despite the key being detached from him)
And what about the GoH universe itself and its mechanics? Nothing notorious, just a normal society with its ups and downs, a little bit corrupted and all...oh, did I forgot to tell you that it's based on Ancient Rome? Such an elegiac tone! I mean, it’s pretty obvious when you notice how people love to rock the dome to see how high school students martial-fight to death...where the lions at? Oh, before I forget! Did you think this was a martial arts-esque show? Nothing further from the truth! By episode 8 you realise that EVERYONE has something known as “Charyeok” -kind of a borrowed power from an ancient God who had appeared twice in previous episodes- and that they are going to fight with it pretty much for the entire time. Greatness.
Nevertheless, I personally have to say that the major asset of this series is its originality. A mysterious organization stages a tournament in order to find the strongest high school student in Korea, but apparently it's all staged, being their “main goal” to find a “key” (which, apparently, is well-known that has to be inside a highschool student) that will help them fight a more mysterious and darker organization (as you must infer, because it’s never said due to the complexity of the plot and how they play mind games with us) who wants to destroy the world as we know. It is not my role to discern for you, but allow me to say that I had never heard of anything like this. NEVER EVER.
And let’s not forget about the originality of our characters! Whether it's our MC Mo-Ri, an oblivious, food-lover, meathead, “don’t you dare touch my friends” who just wants to live life fighting strong people, for the sake of becoming stronger; Mi-Ra and her pursue of power to prevent the ostracism of her family’s hallmark or even our s1 antagonist, a guy who wanted to feel relevant by any costs and rejected his personality and liveliness for the likes of a third party. Amazingly unique, isn’t it?
Speaking about this, highlight the ability of the writers in God of Highschool to avoid breathing life into their fictional characters. Motivations, backstories, RELATABILITY...the writers could had made the mistake of believing that these would have helped them develop a marvelous, compelling story which made the audience empathise with the cast on a personal level, laughing/suffering/crying with them as different events took place during the show, but, fortunately, they were quick-thinkers enough to avoid using these devices.
Backtracking a little bit, talking about the artistic component of the show, it’s obvious that MAPPA made sure that the quality of the animation in God of High School was good enough to support their OFF THE CHARTS job in the plot and characters counterpart. Fluidity and choreography looked, for the most part, good enough -especially during fight scenes-, sakuga animation was carried out surprisingly well, backgrounds were depicted nicely, characters were designed properly...art and animation was quite good, with the only complaint on how camera rotations and 3D movements were often overused, making it, on those specific moments, something really hazy to watch.
By the same token, music has had a leading role in the “success” of this season. Good job enhancing the different emotions that were on display during different moments, whether it was hyping up the moment when a fight was taking place, intensifying the sense of urgency, ...yet I really missed a banger as OP. Voice actors did a notable job, felt like it had to be said.
So, at the end of the day, I guess that if you've reached the end of this review you'll have the same opinion as myself: GoH is a great piece of rubbish.
"There's a resistance for people to talk about things that make them feel guilty. When natural disasters happen, it's easier not to feel guilty about it."
