Do you like anime? How about seeing folks get their shit absolutely rocked? If you answered yes to both of those questions then you, dear reader, need to check out Crunchyroll’s latest original anime, The God of High School.
The God of High School is based on the Korean webtoon of the same name and follows three teenagers in South Korea as they compete in the God of High School martial arts tournament. Our three heroes, renewal taekwondo user Jin Mori, swordswoman Yu Mira, and martial artist Han Daewi cross paths during a humorous effort to stop an attempted robbery. As their friendship develops, you learn more about why each person is fighting in the tournament and find yourself wanting all three to take the top position.
The strength of the series lies in fight scenes which are brought to brilliant life by the team at MAPPA. One of my favorite aspects of martial arts movies and anime is seeing how different styles match up to one another. It’s a large part of why I go so hard for Naruto. Over the course of the first five episodes, Yu Mira has gone up against a professional wrestler;, a man of Tai Chi fought a demonic-ass brawler; and Han Daewi took on a dude who’s basically a superpowered version of Bat Boy from The Raid 2. I cannot tell you the amount of times I was on the couch yelling “Oh shit, they FIGHTIN’ fightin’?!”
One of the key aspects that sets this show apart from most fighting anime is the undercurrent of mystery that runs through it. Each episode begins with a cold open that provides a glimpse into the shady dealings of the organizers within the tournament who seem to be into some really occultish shit.
Like seriously, some of these folks clearly need Jesus.
Additionally, I was surprised at the strength of the emotional beats in the two most recent episodes. Episode five, in particular, darn near had your boy crying, and the climactic fight seriously gave me goosebumps. The series is already firing on all cylinders and we’re still only in the early days of the tournament.
If you want a sneak peak at the show you’re in luck as the good folks at Crunchyroll have sent over an exclusive clip from this week’s episode.
Jaegel Taek, one of the primary antagonists from the webtoon, is announcing his arrival in stunning fashion. So far we’ve only seen glimpses of the supernatural abilities that certain characters are capable of, and as the tournament is set to go to a larger scale, we’re about to see an entirely new set of fighters and abilities.
I, for one, cannot wait.
New episodes of The God of High School premiere every Monday, exclusively on Crunchyroll.