About time I got a review out there, this one will be for Tower of God.
I’ve recently finished binging both seasons of this series, and I have to say, it’s a real interesting one. Which is why we are here now! Note that this review is from the perspective of both S1 and S2.
Synopsis
There are some very vague hints about power, knowledge, and everything in this world being at the top of the tower. We follow a boy who, following someone else, ends up in the tower. Other people are also in the tower, and have their own stories.
The Tower
Throughout the series, you begin to learn more about the tower. And it’s actually quite interesting.
I’ll be honest, when I started this anime, I assumed that this was going to be some sort of dungeon-esque situation where instead of going deeper into a dungeon, they go ascend a tower. But I just figured we’d see your typical dungeon crawler elements, like parties, random monsters, loot, levelling up / getting stronger, more difficult enemies the further you go…. et cetera.
In reality, Tower of God is not just a case of “what if instead of a dungeon, it was a tower??”, for which I am greatly appreciative. I don’t hate dungeon settings, but I’m sure most would agree they are quite overdone these days.
Instead, people ascend the tower by completing tests. Tests which are assigned by a group of administrators which sort of work for the god of the tower, Jahad (or Zahard from what I’m seeing online, I watched Japanese dubbed and it was always Jahad there). I didn’t expect the tower to be so organized, but it really is.
While it’s not the best comparison, I did get sort of Classroom of the Elite vibes, as you have groups of people trying to accomplish all sorts of different tests / challenges. They pretty much all involve combat in one way or another, but at the same time, there is usually room for strategy and guile to also play a role.
A Breath of Fresh Air
That’s how I think of this series. In a world where super average and samey fantasy anime are being churned out, it’s really great to see something that’s actually just completely different. There is no other anime quite like Tower of God, it’s not just a carbon copy of something else. Tower of God really marches to the beat of it’s own drum. That, or I just haven’t seen / can’t remember anything like it.
I really love series like this that just do their own thing. I am a bit of a fantasy fanatic, and lately I just haven’t been very motivated to write a review about the exact same anime over and over (wimpy / down on his luck guy ends up getting super strong, gets a harem of girls, and acts like a paragon of virtue). Not to say that we don’t get good series that still sort of follow aspects of that formula, for example Solo Leveling was a great take on the usual tropes.
This is the main reason I wanted to write a review at all, Tower of God is just different.
Caveat
Despite how much I enjoyed the different setting, story, and so on from Tower of God, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a perfect anime. There were various elements of the series that I wasn’t the biggest fan of. The action wasn’t bad, but also wasn’t anything special. Some characters seemed kind of lame or like they didn’t really fit. And some parts of the story and setting can feel strange at times.
We are given these vague statements about how everything is at the top of the tower, but never more than that. I felt like more could have been done to invoke that thirst for answers that great intrigue / mystery anime are able to bring out. The pieces are certainly there, but Tower of God just didn’t really deliver. At least, the anime didn’t, maybe the source material does a better job.
Basically, I don’t think Tower of God is the greatest anime of all time or anything like that, it has it’s flaws like any other series can.
Animation
I normally don’t write much about animation, I don’t think it’s all that important to be honest. When you consider that anime from the 90s have animation that often still holds up and looks great, and that often as a viewer you adjust to the animation style after the first few episodes, it’s really not a big deal. Some series do go above and beyond of course, like Violet Evergarden, and that’s noteworthy for them, but for most anime it doesn’t really matter.
That said, Tower of God is kind of interesting because the animation changes from S1 to S2. S1 has this very minimalist (some might say low-budget) look to it, very bright colours and clearly defined lines, not a lot of shading or 3d texture. Personally, I liked it, although I can see how some may feel differently. Regardless it doesn’t end up mattering much because S2 becomes a lot more standard looking, to the point where it’s kind of crazy how much the animation changed.
S1 vs S2
This makes me think that S1 was not a stylistic choice, but probably budget related. Either way, animation was fine to me across both seasons, but I did think it was interesting enough to point it out here.
Rating
I’m going to give Tower of God a 7.5 / 10.
It’s a great change of pace from all of the copy-pasted fantasy anime being churned out these days. And that really helps Tower of God to stand out and just feel interesting. You don’t really know where things are going to go, or even what you’re getting into until you watch it.
That said, by the time you reach and finish the second season (or at least part 1 of the second season), a lot of that freshness is gone and the story just has to stand up on it’s own two feet. I think it manages, but I could also see a series like this just dragging on if the formula doesn’t get changed up a little.
I’m still looking forward to watching more though, we’ll see where this story leads!
