The God of High School

REVIEW: ‘The God of High School’
? ? SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD? ?

The end is nigh for Crunchyroll Original The God of High School. The anime based on the WEBTOON of the same name by Yongje Park is at its season one end with The God of High School episode 13, “GOD/GOD.” In the last episode, the anime pushed to new heights with new charyeok materializing, a new god birthed from the Key, and of course, a lot of fighting. Truthfully, this series is very far from where it began. What started as a battle anime about three friends fighting in a competition to have their greatest wish granted is now a supernatural action series that has all manners of powers and beings involved in the story.

In The God of High School episode 13, the god that appeared over the arena has been shot down by Jaesan’s technique. Having been spirited away to the Holy Realm by a powerful member of The Six at the end of the last episode, Mori and the rest have fallen into a huge cave. There, they battle against Jegal, who has transformed into a god after absorbing the Key. Mori, Daewi, and Mira face him together, but their attacks don’t even reach him. But, in a turn of events, Daewi is severely wounded protecting Mori from Jegal’s vicious onslaught and leaves their fate in question. As the situation grows desperate, a memory that had remained dormant in Mori’s mind all this time reawakens and the series pulls off an open-ended conclusion by setting the stage for the story past season one.

Over the course of 13 episodes, audiences have gotten the chance to watch each character grow, and their charyeok is the embodiment of that. We’ve watched Mira choose to be the one who revives the Moon Light Sword techniques and embodies the ferocious warrior god. For Daewi, we saw the young man who has the power brutally wound develop a charyeok based that manifests as healing waters. And for our main hero, Mori, while we haven’t seen large amounts of growth into a new character, we have seen him learn about his hidden power in a way that brings together all elements of his personality.

That said, I want more from the characters. While Mira and Daewi have striking moments in battles that take center stage, there is more character work to be done. In truth, for a series that has done well to incorporate storytelling and character growth within its fight sequences, the quickness of the battles leaves me wanting so much more. Truthfully, this pattern of accelerated battles doesn’t end in The God of High School episode 13. “GOD/GOD” is split directly in half at the commercial break with the team fighting the now god-like Jegal in the beginning and what feels like an epilogue in the last half. While this isn’t a problem per se, the final battle, while beautifully animated and showcasing some of the best use of charyeok in the season, is anticlimactic. In comparison to Mira’s battle against Marin Lee and Daewi’s fight with Mori, this “final battle” doesn’t hold as much weight even with the big reveal rolled in.

Now, we don’t need a nine-episode battle out of Dragon Ball Z, but there isn’t time to breathe or see characters pushed in this final episode, at least not in a meaningful way. But, this has been my main issue with the series. And with The God of High School episode 13, I’m left with the solid feeling that it would have benefitted from either a longer season or one that just focused on the storylines up until the fight between Ilpyo and Mori which changes the focus of the series. That said, the latter half of this episode does a lot of work in setting up a season two for The God of High School, and while it hasn’t been confirmed, the amount of foundation laid during the closing OP is enough that we can hit the ground running if it does come to fruition.

While I would like to dive more into the content of this episode, some of its larger moments that are worthy of conversation are also huge spoilers, so the last element I can leave you with is this: MAPPA is s-tier. While every episode of season one has been beautiful and dynamic in both fight choreography and emotional moment of animation, the final fight in this episode is on another level. It’s faster than what we’ve seen, larger than what we’ve seen, and it utilizes every charyeok that has been unlocked within our core group in a way that showcases their power.

While this season has not been perfect, The God of High School has been entertaining and it’s the first time I’ve watched a series that began as one thing and finished as another with no qualms about where the journey has taken us. Through stunning animation from MAPPA and characters that do more than embody shonen tropes, this anime series is sure to turn into a favorite of the year for many fans, and The God of High School episode 13 is a finale that leaves you waiting and hoping for season two.