Tower of God – 9 -[The One-Horned Ogre]

I won’t lie to you, Tower of God was rough this week. There were ups, there were downs, and I dare say some parts were even good. Shocker, I know. But all I can think of as I write this is how it could have been better. So without further ado, lets dive in and talk about that.

Animation wise, I am very split. I want to say that Tower of God overall looked better this week. Quant had more weight for instance, especially during his fight with Hatz. Meanwhile I will always enjoy the water-like effects of Shinsu. However at the same time Tower of God was also incredibly safe with how it handled everything. Every shot felt standard, neigh uninspired, like they were trying to get the base information across and nothing more. Just going through the motions of mimicking the original work. There was never a moment that I, as a viewer, went “woah, that was awesome”. It’s only when I step away and try to look at it like a “critic” (hard to type that without laughing), am able to nitpick some decent shots. Sadly, beyond its art direction, Tower of God is just not that well animated a show.

Moving on to the actual content, I can only really think of that old Oprah clip. Except instead of giving out cars, shes handing out betrayals. It’s really rather ridiculous when you think about it, but it teaches a good lesson about Tower of God’s world. Namely that to climb is to put down other people. To achieve your dream means shutting down other people’s dreams. Even Bam, who doesn’t want and never intended to hurt people, did so merely be existing and climbing. Or at least it would be teaching that lesson well if Tower of God hadn’t skipped over large amount of relevant content. For instance, I bet none of the anime only viewers knew only a limited number of people in each position got to pass. For instance only 2 wave controllers were ever going to pass, and Lauroe had already secured his spot.

However because Tower of God failed to explain this, along with the entire points system, Hoh’s entire arc is ruined. His desperation comes off as manufactured and without purpose, after all his team was winning. If he had helped them catch Quant, surely he could have passed right? Except no, because Bam and Lauroe would pass to. It’s these little tidbits of information that really drive home how backed into a corner Hoh was. Why he chose suicide rather than return to his life before he started climbing the tower. This isn’t all that Tower of God failed to explain though. It also lacked Quant’s reasons for why he couldn’t just subdue Hoh himself, a fair bit of backstory for multiple characters and completely re-contextualized Endorsi’s entire scene. Suffice to say, I am going to go on a bit of a rant here, so buckle in.

First up, Endorsi. I am undecided on if Tower of God did this justice. In the original, this was one of the scenes that made me love her. She spends the entire thing trying to convince Bam to abandon Rachel, to find his own happiness. That climbing the tower will only bring him suffering, that he can’t do whats necessary, only bad people like her can. Its completely self-depreciating and filled with self-loathing. Endorsi hates, or at least dislikes, what she has become and both loves and is jealous of Bam’s devotion to Rachel. At the same time its this moment that really sells her on Bam. As he has this whole monologue about if “the stars are really that beautiful”. About if whatever is at the top is worth climbing over your friends to reach and how he wants to see it with them.

Instead, we got something very different that still sort of stays true to her character. Instead of resigning herself to fighting them after Bam leaves, “just us bad guys”, she actively seeks it out. Only this time Tower of God presents it as her finding her own desires. About finding someone she wants to climb the tower with in Anaak, just like Bam. This is good because its true, that is part of her character. Anaak is what helps her start to escape from the shoe case, to find her own joy and desires. But we also haven’t spent near enough time with them for this to really work. You have to remember after all, this first cour is effectively just Tower of God’s prologue. And none of this is even mentioning the other big bugbear of the episode, Hoh.

I’ll be frank, Tower of God screwed Hoh this episode. Originally there was a lot more meditation and planning in his attack, and he even baits Rachel out differently. As in the original he tells her that someone is trying to hurt Bam, playing on the fact that she does care for him a bit. Here it’s just sort of half-assed and really makes Rachel out like and idiot. Beyond that though, it fucks over Quant, since Tower of God didn’t even bother explaining the safety zone. That’s right, part of this test is that there is a safety zone that Quant isn’t allowed to enter. At least not without invalidating the whole test. So that’s why he can’t go after Hoh himself. Meanwhile Hoh is forcing Bam to fight and beat Quant, or else he will kill Rachel, explaining why Bam fights him at all.

Finally, and this one is a bit of a nitpick I will admit, Quant’s was a bit lackluster. I am fine with the changes made to the Shinsu technique, even if wrapping people in a bubble isn’t how it works. Visually it looked good and got it across well I thought. However, because Tower of God failed to explain the previous bits with the safety zone, Quant’s just comes off inept. In the original, he never expected Bam to be able to pull it off. He gave him false hope, something to keep him going and at least push him to try. So when combined with that explanation and Hoh’s mental breakdown around Bam, it painted a much more daunting picture of Bam’s talent. All in all, I think the way this entire sequence of events was handled was a massive disservice to the series.

Still there is one thing Tower of God got right this week I think, the Sunk Cost fallacy of climbing. Throughout the episode we see everyone, every character, scheme in some way. They lie, they cheat, they kill, all to climb the tower. Meanwhile in previous episodes, we see people lie and cheat and deceive but in a more positive light. For example Khun’s entire character is built around deceiving people, and he is one of the good guys! So Tower of God did a good job really hammering home what the tower is like for those climbing it I feel. At the same time it sort of got across Bam’s mentality, but it frames it very differently. Instead of wanting to see the top with everyone, its more that people have already lost, so why stop now. I don’t think its as compelling, but hey, it’s something.

So, all in all, how was this episode of Tower of God? From a source reader perspective, it was a massive disappointment. Entire characters were changed, speeches removed, and context forgotten about it. And while the bare bones of the original story got through, such as Hoh being setup, as a whole it lacks the same impact. However as a source reader, I am very biased in this. So instead I want to hear from you anime only readers. Did you understand what was going on? Did Endorsi’s bit work for you, did Bam get across, was Anaak’s short shot as cute as I thought it was? Please leave your thoughts below because I have absolutely no idea how an anime only could keep up with this. In the meanwhile, I will sit here hoping the remaining 4 episodes doesn’t botch the remaining 25+ chapters…