Simpception.

A Tower of God reviewWhat am I talking about?

One of the highly anticipated animes of spring 2020, Tower of God a Crunchyroll original in association with Line webtoon. This series was expected to serve as a gateway for webtoon adaptations and acknowledgment of Webtoon as an adaptable source material on its own. The 13 episode season produced by TMS covers the first season of SIU’s work. Though the initial chapters of the webtoon look bland and tasteless, TMS’s unorthodox production quality coupled with Kevin Penkin’s music hit the mark. The ending and opening songs performed by popular Korean boy band Stray Kids and an OST composed by Made in Abyss’ Kevin were a auditory thrill.

What is it about?

The plot kicks off with a young and ambitious Bam (Yoru in the Japanese adaptation) wanting to climb the Tower of God, a gateway to one’s greatness. Headon the guardian of the tower lays down the rules to climb the tower and presents the first challenge. Intimidating at first glance, Bam overcomes with little effort with the help of Yuri Ha one of the princesses of Jahad, the ruling household of the tower . Moreover we learn about Rachel, the reason why Bam decided to take up the monumental task. Bam who appeared out of nowhere was taken in by Rachel who transformed into a kind and presentable person. Bam proceeds to round 2 with Yuri Ha’s sword The Black March one of the 13 month series swords, after a confrontation with him Yuri ends up pursuing Bam in order to retrieve the sword.

In the round 2 of the qualifiers Bam meets Khun , an azure haired mastermind with a dark past and a Brawns over brains alligator looking creature Rak. The three form a trio and overcome initial hurdles posed by Lero Ro, voiced by the omnipresent Tsuda Kenjiro. Meanwhile Rachel (using an alias of Michelle Light) who also manages to form a trio ravages through the qualifiers alongside Endorosi another prince of Jahad.

Bam and co form an alliance that sweeps through the latter stages with one of their accomplices getting killed moreover Bam discovers Light’s true identity which previously she had asked Khun to hide. Anak daughter of another princess of Jahad possesses a 13 month sword which she inherited from her mother, Endorosi turns a sour throat over this and challenges Anak for a deul in which both sustain injuries. Hang Sung an evaluator of the test a graceful yet malicious character who is depicted to be running a scheme behind the scenes as he poses an obstacle for Bam in every test. Later on a retrieval agent under the king of Jahad is tipped off by Hang Sung which leads to confrontation between the three princesses and the Ranker ends up in defeat of the latter. The penultimate episode which left us on a cliffhanger created the necessary hype for the season finale to end on a high.

Should you watch it?

Coming from an acclaimed source authored by SIU, ToG lived upto its expectations. Great production quality offered by TMS with an equally incredible music work lifted up the show’s ratings. A great development of Bam’s character can be seen, who initially starts off as Rachel’s simp evolves into a self-reliant and strong character through power of friendship. Khun is another character who was sought after in the anime, his unparalleled fondness towards Bam and helping him in every stage of the test a sketch of his past is also show and an Acquaintance of his gets a bit of screen time towards the end. An average Shounen canon that transcends its genre which disappointed me in the beginning owing to its generic theme in an innovative premise , evolves towards the half way mark and goes up by a mile towards the end , the cliffhangers, the quality of animation , narrative structure and even pacing makes it a true eye candy.

An anime well catered to match a binge watcher’s taste, is so far the most recommended anime of 2020. Garnering a rating of 7.92/10 on MAL and a 4.8/5 on crunchyroll is a no brainer if you love webtoons, even if you aren’t a big fan of medium its sure an anime to quench your thirst for unorthodox animation and long running series.

Conclusion

It would be a shame not to say ToG opened the gateway of new era of Webtoon adaptations. With a couple other webtoons getting adapted ToG sure did its job and is bound to get a second season. The anime even managed to draw more people to its source material who wanted to get on the update reader club.

All in all a great prologue to an epic saga yet to unfold, that falls short at a certain places overcoming its shortcomings with a great plot.~~~

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