The God of High School – 03 [wisdom/kingdom]

After three episodes, The God of High School still has no intention of explaining why its martial arts tournament is of such earth-shattering consequence. Top Korean politicians are involved in its operation, the Pentagon is monitoring its progress, and now a religious cult is planning to hijack the tourney for its own gain. In all three of these opening scenes, the links between those organizations and the tournament itself have been purposefully vague, which has surely frustrated a portion of the series’ audience. Personally, though, I’m not sweating the details at this stage. The fights are still fun, the tone is still dumb, and the story is moving at a faster-than-average clip. That narrative speed may be pushing us toward the threshold of Big Reveals, or it might blow past the governments and cults without a reason for their appearance. Either way, GoH is the kind of show that doesn’t need to justify its detours – just its developments. And boy, were there a ton of the latter in this episode.

The two or three biggest developments revolved around Mori, whose superhuman status is rapidly coming into focus. This was accomplished despite God of High School shining the spotlight elsewhere this week, as comments about his powerful lineage provided insight into his speed and strength. Mori dreamt of his grandfather during the first episode, and now we’re learning exactly how significant the man was not only in his grandson’s life, but in the world of martial arts. It’s good to learn of that significance straight from the mouth of Park Mujin – the cross-tattooed organizer of the GoH tournament – because Mujin is the strongest character we’ve encountered so far. Hearing him swear “never to let Mori get away” was a clear sign of his promise as a combatant, as was his survival of Mujin’s killer fruit challenge, and the dream it prompted. Present in that dream was an image of a spiky-haired spear carrier facing down a horde of inhuman characters, so Mori is clearly destined for great things, even beyond the arena.

If nothing else, he’s fast enough to take down one of the judges in single combat, a condition for his reentry to the tournament after beating down Manseok in the previous episode. What happened afterwards was a different story, however – the green-haired judge unleashing that giant scythe-wielding jester changed the fabric of GoH’s battle system, which is kind of a shame. Mori’s dodging and weaving looked nice, but he was eventually trapped by the towering spiritual figure without difficulty, which means the playing field needs leveling. And there’s no doubt in my mind that Mori’s killer fruit ordeal is the key to summoning an equivalent aura and learning to fight beyond his mortal limits. Daewi and Mira’s refusal to partake of the suspicious food retroactively supports this theory, as well – if they’d chowed down with their new friend, their spirit fighters would have developed alongside his, but it’s only natural that they be one step behind the hero. I’m sure they’ll follow closely in his footsteps, though.

Though it’s likely that Mori’s aura will emerge first, Daewi and Mira beat him to the punch in terms of concrete backstory. Daewi is as simple as simple gets: he needs cash to offset the cost of his friend’s chemotherapy. It’s why he slogs through so many part-time jobs, and it’s why he’s entered this tournament, which claims to grant any wish to the winner. Daewi might maintain an aura of calm at work, but he’s an absolute beast in the ring, harnessing a rage that stems from anger at his friend’s unlucky lot in life. That rage was on full display this week, as he took down the studious bat-user Seungcheol in a brief but satisfying spectacle. That fight played host to special moves and energy blasts galore, but its best feature was the contrast between Daewi’s emergent passion and his opponent’s stoicism. These characters are two sides of the same coin, so to watch Seungcheol smile uncontrollably as Daewi overwhelmed his composed façade was a lot of fun.

Mira’s “revive the family dojo” motivation was revealed a while back, so she got a more comedic showing this time around. While I didn’t have any major issues with her match against the gum-smacking wrestler chick, it was my least favorite part of the episode, owing mostly to its overambitious direction. In the fight’s early moments, we were locked into a rotating perspective as the girls squared off. Unfortunately, this orbital movement was given priority over some important impact frames, which gave the first part of their match a chunky feeling. As the show leaned into Mira’s swordless technique, things started looking more recognizably “anime” (making stylish use of just two axes, rather than focusing on depth), which worked to the scene’s benefit. This wasn’t the show’s first mid-tier fight, and it certainly won’t be the last, but I felt it warranted a mention, since it involved a main character. On the whole, though, God of High School still looks very nice after three weeks – I’m excited to see how it puts those chops to use in its upcoming phases.