I really wanted to like Tower of God. The trailer was interesting (I thought the art was unique enough to pull me in), and I had heard mostly positive things about the manhwa. Perhaps it was because of this initial anticipation that made watching the show so painful.

If I were to say anything even substantively positive about this show, it would have to be the art. I liked it (the music was cool too). These are where my compliments end.

I didn't like Tower of God. In fact, at times, I even actively hated watching the show. Tower of God exists at the excruciating midpoint between a train wreck and a masterpiece. It's not glaringly atrocious, which would have made it fun to watch, if only to constantly rip apart the plot. And it certainly wasn't incredible, I can assure of that. Instead, it sits in the dustbin of mediocrity, content in it's utter inadequacy.

I suppose the plot is interesting enough. It sets up a unique world, I suppose. But the characters who occupy that world simply drag the show down, and for one simple reason. I don't really care about any of them, nor do I really care about their successes or failures. And if I had to point fingers at which character I cared about the least, it would easily be Bam.

I hate Bam. I think he's an utterly terrible character, who continually offers nothing throughout the entirety of the show. Maybe it's a shortcoming of mine, but I tend to dislike characters with little to no motivation for their actions, badly written dialogue, and for whom the rest of the cast fawns over. Bam is a blank slate. Through the entire show, from Episode 1, all Bam does is talk about how he wants to climb the tower with Rachel, and how great it would be to climb the tower with Rachel, and how he loves Rachel so much. Such a character is the protagonist for this show, and such a character, despite his own insistence, doesn't grow throughout the show's entirety.

I will not hesitate in saying that Bam seriously undermines the entirety of the show. Maybe if Bam wasn't there, I'd even nominally like the show and it's characters. After all, some of them, such as Khun or Shibisu, have their enjoyable moments. However, I cannot base my feelings of a show off of a hypothetical, and therefore, any possible attachment I could've had to a character is ripped apart by their continual relations with Bam, which ruin any of their potential for me, and cause me to not care about any of them.

Even the action of the show feels poorly executed. Throughout the runtime, it always feels like the animators are holding back, a feeling that I think is exemplified in the boring fight for the throne within the early part of the anime. At multiple points during this, it looks like there are going to be exciting connections with one's fist, or that a sword fight might turn dynamic. But these possibilities lead nowhere and ultimately rely on one's imagination to fill in the gaps if they want to derive enjoyment from the scenes.

Tower of God isn't good. The main character is awful, and the anime tries to keep your attention with cheap "gotcha" moments, the action is disappointing, and I left feeling very little desire to want to continue watching, when this inevitably gets a second season, or even in reading the manhwa. Perhaps the source material is good. I don't care. This show isn't, and I think that sure is a shame.