Tower of God - a very promising beginning of a huge story

I'll start my review by saying that... I basically watched the anime first and then jumped into the Webtoon and as I am writing this review right now, I am fully caught up to the Manhwa. Because of this my view on the anime has changed and I decided it will be interesting to express my opinion on anime before and after I read the webtoon/manhwa.

1. Thoughts on the anime BEFORE I read the Webtoon

Overall I really liked it. The start was kinda confusing because there was a lot of information to process(13 months weapons, irregulars, princesses of Jahad etc), but later I realized that it's just a unique way of storytelling this show has ( it's VERY rewarding to rewatch this show btw. You'll always find something you missed or didn't understand fully from the first time. I wasn't bored in a bit even though I remembered almost everything.)

What was good about this show?

• Characters.

The main cast in this show was very entertaining.
Each character has its own unique design, which makes it very easy to understand who is who, even though the cast is quite huge. But what I liked the most was that many of the characters had their own ideals and aspirations, which they relied on when climbing the Tower. I especially liked how the ideals of the various characters came into conflict in episode 9. Endorsi, who is used to getting everything through killing others, and Baam, who just got out of the cave, had a good conversation.
As a result of this conversation, both Endorsi and Baam got some character development. Endorsi suddenly saw a completely different perspective on her actions, and Baam saw for the first time the brutal reality of the Tower. A reality in which it is almost impossible to climb without betrayal and deception.

• Music

Music was magnificent. There is nothing to add. I am still waiting for it to be released so that I could listen to it again and again. Especially I liked Hunsung Yu's theme. That "AaaaaYAaaaaaa" was just great.

• Artstyle

I don't know what people think about when they say it's "bad" and "cheap" because it's unique and definitely one of the main advantages of ToG. I will go even further by saying that the art style was the main reason I started watching the show. The colors are vibrant and aesthetically pleasing. The backgrounds are so amazing that you can literally pause the anime, take a screenshot and use it as a wallpaper. Just look at this:

I think those pictures speak for themselves. Artstyle 10/10

• Animation.

Nothing to talk about it here. Animation is decent (8/10) but it seems like people expected top tier godlike animation for this show which I don't understand. By this logic HxH, OP and other great shows are bad just because they don't have top tier animation. But even then ToG is animated better than 80% of the shows which is more than enough to enjoy the story imho.

What was bad about this show?

I didn't really like the MC, Baam. I have nothing against nice MC's but Baam is too much of cinnamon roll imho. But I guess it's a result of him being in that cave for the entire life. He was basically brought up by Rachel and for the entire Season he's like a little child that does't know what's happening and why everyone is killing each other. He received a little bit of development in Ep 9 as I said before but nothing life changing. I guess it would be stupid if he changed only after 13 episodes.

A bit confusing. (most of the confusion can be solved by rewatch)

OVERALL

A really good show for multiple reasons. I gave it 7/10 after the first watch but gave it another point after rewatching it. So the overall score is 8/10.

2. Thoughts on the anime AFTER I read the Webtoon.

Now this is a different talk. When I finished the anime I didn't really know what to expect from the story yet but I will just say that I was pleasantly surprised by the size and complexity of it.

I will start by saying that when I finished the anime I had a lot of questions and the main ones (except for the obvious "What's the Tower?" "Why Baam was trapped in that cave?") were:

"Why it seems like Baam gets everything so easily?"
"Why it seemed like someone was trying to separate Baam and Rachel and make Baam climb the Tower for some reason (even though he didn't want to) and what that coffee guy has to do with all of this?"

I am glad those 2 questions were answered at the beginning of Season 2 cause they were bothering me for some time. I would even say that S2 had a lot of flashbacks to S1 which kinda filled almost all of the holes that the anime had.

The further you read the more you appreciate S1 because of all those foreshadowings. And the OP makes more sense after reading the Webtoon (especially that part where Baam opens his eyes and sees Jahad's symbol.)

All in all after reading the Webtoon I decided to give the anime 9/10. One point was taken because of all the cuts they made. I truly believe that S1 of the anime could be better if it had 20 episodes so that minimum information was cut. But if the anime adds the information from S1 to S2 and makes it in a good way I might even give it 10/10. But we don't know yet will there be S2 or not. And if it will be, there is still a chance it could be rushed again, But let's hope for the best.