The God of High School is the second entry in the Crunchyroll Originals lineup to be based on a Webtoon property. However, if you’re assuming this’ll be a retread of the similarly-titled Tower of God, worry not. God of High School‘s first episode, “Set Up/Stand Up,” carves out a lane very much its own. It’s explosive, it’s fun, it has a few ups and downs. We’ve been asked to keep mum on major plot developments, but there are still plenty of things to get into.
The show’s premise is, itself, quite interesting. If you’re not familiar from our coverage of the trailers, God of High School‘s setup is quite simple. The titular God of High School tournament is open to all styles. No time limits or restrictions are imposed. And finally, whoever wins gets a wish granted by the tournament’s organizers. (Who are evidently Some Sort Of Shadowy Organization. We’ll presumably get to the details later in the show.)
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Tournament arcs have a long history in shonen anime and media influenced by them. In fact, they’re often somewhat derided by hardcore shonen fans, as they’re seen as filler or time-killers. God of High School, however, by its very nature, is entirely a tournament arc. This presents an interesting writing challenge, and in “Set Up/Stand Up” we get some idea of how God of High School might handle it going forward.
Slapstick Eskrima
If the God of High School‘s trailers undersold anything, it’s the show’s comedic sensibility. “Over the top” is the operative phrase here. In the first 15 minutes of “Set Up/Stand Up” alone, there are goofy slow-down/speed-up effects, sharp cuts to chibi styles, a guy with a blonde afro livestreaming himself rapping on the streets of Seoul, and a rather silly plot about stopping a motorcycle-riding purse-snatcher. One of our main characters (the wooden sword-wielding Yoo Mira) is introduced ogling a bunch of comically buff karate men who, in an attempt to impress her, flex so hard that their gi disintegrate. At one point later in the episode someone is pantsed. This isn’t a show that takes itself seriously. And that much is evident from the word “go.”
Set Up, Stand Up
The real meat of “Set Up/Stand Up,” and indeed the show, is of course, the fighting. Again, we’ve been asked to not spoil anything major here, but the show lives up to the promise put forward by its trailers. There’s a lot of really nice choreography here, and it’s clear that some serious reference research went into animating all this.
Jin Mori, our lead, has literal stars in his eyes and even this early on seems quite powerful. He is what one might somewhat reductively call a Goku-type. From what we’ve seen so far (admittedly not a lot!) fighting is Kind Of His Whole Thing. It’s not the most layered character archetype, but it’s put to good use here. A brief prologue at the start of the episode also implies there might be a bit more going on than we see here. With a young Jin tearfully leaving behind a person who appears to be his father or grandfather.
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Also introduced, albeit only briefly, is Han Daewi, who seems like perhaps more of an everyman.
Finally, there is also the aforementioned Yoo Mira. Her bamboo sword shtick is cool, and speaking personally, your reviewer may have already found her favorite of the three.
There’s not a ton else to talk about so far. “Set Up/Stand Up” is as much a prologue (indeed, a setup) as a proper first episode. What we can say, though, is that the series looks quite promising. It’ll be a treat to see how it develops from here.
This is our first recap for The God of High School, but you can catch up on our previous coverage of the series, here.
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