This was a wild week for Tower of God. From cut content to changed scenes to crazy pacing, we are moving quick. So without further ado let’s jump in and talk Shinsu, Jahad and Best Girls!
Starting off, the pacing. Jesus Christ the pacing. I said from the beginning that the narrative would be tough if they tried for the whole first season. 78 chapters in 13 episodes is a ridiculous pace, and it looks like Tower of God is trying to meet that. As this week we burn through the position classes, cut entire magic system explanations and condense/change character moments. I’m sure many of the anime-only readers are noticing it to. After all, do we know what a Lighthouse is yet, or how it works beyond being a position? What about the floating cubes, why they use needles instead of swords or the entirety of Shinsu? I would be really interested to get an anime-only perspective on this. Because for me, at this point, I don’t see how you could be anything other than confused. At least they explained the Princesses well.
Speaking of Princesses, lets pick up with Anaak and Endorsi, who were once again my favorite part. I just find everything about their dynamic interesting. From Anaak’s perspective of revenge to Endorsi’s as a victim of the same controlling system. And while the climax of the fight ruins the tension of the bit, I have always liked it metaphorically. As they both fall, they both lose, they are both “wrong”. Anaak’s blind revenge and Endorsi’ blind subservience both lose here, as they both break their legs. And it is here, at both their literal and metaphorical bottoms, that Endorsi begins to question it. Talking about how Anaak’s mother was kind to her, and asking if she ever regretted her decision. Putting the same thoughts into her head, this idea that she could just… leave all the hardships she previously talked about. It’s nothing complex, but I enjoyed it.
Following this, we begin hitting some of the adaptations changes. Nothing to large yet, primarily just some small details with Endorsi’s bedroom visit. For instance originally Hatsu wasn’t present, it was just Bam and Endorsi. Additionally, there was a lot more reticence on Endorsi’s part. Refusing to sign it, refusing to be blackmailed with food, while Bam was a lot more playful. Picking it up and lowering it down as she refused or agreed. Basically, there was a lot more flirting involved in the original. Meanwhile Shibisu went to Anaak and the whole situation was different. Some changes were for the better, like making the food for Anaak a chicken pie, or having Khun be more involved than he originally was. But overall, considering Bam and Endorsi have one of my favorite relationships and a lot of it was cut, I wasn’t a big fan of the changes.
Moving on, we come to another complex situation within Tower of God, with Hoh, Lauroe and Bam. The spirit of the original work is still here in full. As Tower of God shows us Hoh becoming more and more jealous with Bam’s skill and frustrated with his own. Lashing out at Lauroe for helping him now that Bam is legitimate competition. However while the core of it is there, I think Tower of God skipped a lot of important, little scenes. From Lauroe explaining what “talent” is to his lines about not caring about Bam’s skill, because he is guaranteed to pass himself. It paints a very different picture for Lauroe’s character compared to the lazy, but ultimately wholesome individual we have in the anime. Most of all though, it completely fails to explain Shinsu in any meaningful way for the viewer!
So, since Tower of God has so spectacularly failed to explain its magic system and skipped over it, I will. Now as was explained, Shinsu flows through out the entire tower. The higher you go, the denser it gets, like water but magic. Because it increases as you go up, the better you are, the more you can so. So much so that its potential is actually limitless, so long as the user is skilled. Shinsu itself can be used for everything from physical enhancement, in Anaak’s case, to blasts of energy like we see Bam doing. Shinsu is also measured in “Bangs”, with 1 Bang being 1 unit of Shinsu, and are the orbs we see Bam form this episode. There are other units, such as size and density, but the number of Bangs you can control effectively equates to the number of “spells” you can cast at once.
So all in all, how was this weeks episode of Tower of God? For me, its a bunch of sped up plot moments before things kick into gear. All I can see are the differences, what was changed, whether or not its for the better, etc. So instead I want to pose the question to you: What do you think is going to happen? With Khun and Bam on different teams, do you think one will get left behind to reunite later? Or is there something larger at play? Considering we have 6 episodes left, the answer to that last one should be pretty obvious, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. Until then, stay safe and try not to go insane from quarantine like I am!
Another issue many readers of the webcomic had with the episode is that it fails to properly build up the threat of Quant. In the webcomic, you really get the sense that the regulars are about to face something terrifying: a ranker, someone who has made it to the top of the tower, a mythical being that regulars couldn’t hope to seriously injure – let alone defeat – even if they all teamed up together. But here a lot of the smaller scenes that build up that threat are omitted, and Quant doesn’t really feel all that threatening as a result.
I also think the adaptation doesn’t get across very well just how, well, irregular Bam’s talent is. It does make it quite clear that he’s talented, of course, but he isn’t just talented like Khun and Rak, who have slowly honed their strengths over many years, are talented. For example, in the webcomic there’s a scene where Bam’s instructor explains how he was lauded as a genius because he managed to make and control a baang in a mere two years. But Bam did it in two weeks! Similarly, there’s a scene where it’s explained that even rankers couldn’t hope to move freely in the dense shinsoo around the eels that Bam faced in the first episode. But Bam ran in it as a regular! To be fair, Bam Gary Stuing his way up the tower isn’t a particularly interesting story thread, but it’s still an important part of his character that isn’t explained very well here. And that’s a general problem of the adaptation: it rarely fails to include information that is absolutely necessary for following the story, but by omitting the many small moments that build up the world and its characters, they don’t feel quite as “alive” as they did in the source material. It’s understandable, given the cour system and the lack of a good earlier ending point, but still regrettable.
These complaints aside, though, I actually did quite enjoy the episode: all the moments with Anaak and Endorsi were excellent (though the changes you mentioned were indeed unnecessary), and Endorsi made an excellent case for best girl here (she should really stop wearing heels in fights though…).
This one felt like a lot of material was adapted quickly – way more than the previous episode. The only major thing I didn’t understand was the Lighthouse. I feel like the power gap level of a Ranker vs Regular was built up before, so I think that was alright.
Us anime-onlys know why the needles – they explained that magic water stuff gets thicker, so no one uses swords!
I think Bam’s power level is a bit confusing, but seeing him practice definitely gave me the feeling he’s an anomaly, no question. I’m a little curious what Rachel does though? She’s gotta be an irregular too, right?
Man, and that makes a bit more sense with Endorsi telling Rachel that whatever she’s looking for at the top has to be better than Bam. I now am really disappointed we didn’t get to see Bam spittin’ game.
Actually, now that I think about, isn’t the Lighthouse where the 2 people are in, Googling other people? Or am I way off base?
Yes and no. The cubes are the lighthouses, and you should think of them as tools, effectively magic computers. The Lightbearer controls those lighthouses from far away, or as far away as they can be. They arn’t actually in the cubes, they just surround themselves with/make use of them.
“Irregular” is a general term for everyone who entered the tower from the outside, so yeah, Rachel’s an irregular too. Her exact status is explained in the epilogue of season 1, but I’m not sure if the series will get that far (it might make more sense to end the season a few chapters before then).
Are you sure they explained the use of needles in the anime? You might instead remember it from Lenlo’s post about the episode, where he briefly talks about the omission of that particular explanation: https://starcrossedanime.com/tower-of-god-4-the-green-april/.