This is the first time I’ve missed a week of GOH-posting, and that’s not by coincidence. The show isn’t bringing its A game to the fight scenes anymore, and since it maxes at a C in most other areas, it’s become a bit of a dull watch. These two episodes tread a lot of familiar ground, as well, making them doubly uninteresting. Mira getting beaten up again, Mori earning the title “tiger cub” as elite martial artists admire his potential, a sketchy art switch-up during a tournament match, Taejin’s relationship with his grandson – we’ve seen all of this before. If I’m being honest, I’d prefer for the plot to go supernova and give all the main characters charyeok so we could get this show on the road, already. Guess we’ll have to settle for just one of them awakening to their new power for now.
That main character is Mira, whose acquisition of charyeok in episode 9 didn’t exactly thrill me. The scene where she encountered a mirror version of herself underwater was far from trailblazing, since the same motif has been used in dozens of anime prior to this one. Way more interesting is the name of her new spirit power: Lu Bu Fengxian, a second century Chinese general famous for betraying multiple warlords. As Mujin reminded us in this episode, there’s a leaky pipe within the GOH organization – our current assumption is that it’s one of the judges, but what if it’s Mira, and her link to Lu Bu is an anvil-sized hint? The show certainly hasn’t been kind to her in these first nine episodes, pitting her against brutal opponents and fixating on her lack of sword mastery. That harsh treatment could be a tactic to soften the blow when she’s eventually revealed as a mole, but I’m probably just overthinking things.
Mira’s opponent in round two of the tournament, Lee Marin, turned out to be a doppelganger created by an unnamed Nox member, who Mori defeated not long before her match. At least, I think that was the timing of those scenes – though he must have sprinted from his crushing of the clone user back to the arena for his next match. The show used a split-screen presentation style for his two duals, rather than intercutting them for clarity and visual interest, which I would have preferred greatly. Instead, our engagement was supposed to stem from Mori’s power-up, which made use of the same black and white style that we saw during his bout with Daewi. It was so short-lived, though, that it felt like a shadow of what had come before. The previous episode didn’t have great combat presentation, either, but at least it put its characters to the task of carrying the show, rather than trying to replicate past glory with less than half the effort.
Looking back to episode 8 now, we see a messier, but marginally more impressive installment of GOH. Park Ilpyo’s emergence as a secondary character was the main story, and his link to Jin Taejin ensures that he’ll retain significance going forward. Like Daewi, Ilpyo has a quiet strength that you wouldn’t want to meet in the ring, but he’s on the friendlier side of the spectrum, happily sharing a childhood memory with Mori upon their initial meeting. The one crack in that calm exterior is his rivalry with Jegal Taek (which is how we were originally introduced to Park’s character). This episode provided us with a flashback to a scene of Ilpyo sitting atop Taek’s chest, beating his head back and forth with his bare hands. The antagonism between these two has been running in the background for a few weeks now, but the series hasn’t put a real spotlight on it yet. If it doesn’t correct that oversight soon, it could miss its chance entirely.
In the present, the two young men have another confrontation – crucially, with Mori caught in the crossfire. Seeing how strong these guys are changes his tune from “I don’t want to rely on charyeok” to “get on their level by any means necessary.” But this realist perspective has its own drawback, in that it causes Mori to look inward and see where he’s lacking. This being an anime, that of course means a trip down memory lane, this time to Taejin’s departure on his grandson’s sixth birthday, which Mori sees as a consequence of his weakness. A child’s inability to grasp their guardian’s protective strategies is great backstory material, and GOH makes good use of the resulting sadness here; although Taejin left Mori’s side to prevent his endangerment, the younger man now celebrates his 17th birthday alone, replicating the hurt he felt eleven years ago. Daewi and Mira come to the rescue with a picnic feast, however, giving Mori both a taste of companionship and a reminder that it’s not just his own tournament life that he’s fighting for.
It should be noted that Daewi and Mira’s tournament smartwatches notified them of Mori’s birthday, since they hadn’t known the date beforehand. That makes me wonder whether Taejin is involved in the God of High School tournament from afar, and programmed those alerts to make sure his grandson wouldn’t be alone on his birthday. Perhaps this is meant to be our clue that he’s still alive, since his fate is currently up in the air? In any case, you won’t hear about his survival status here for another two weeks, as this pair of episodes took the wind out of my sails where GOH is concerned. Doubleheader posts on 10-11 and 12-13 will have to do, unless the show suddenly reaches a level of style and energy that we haven’t seen since the premiere. Fingers crossed, I guess.
