[Megane]

It all began as a fighting tournament to seek out for the best fighter among all high school students in Korea. Mori Jin, a Taekwondo specialist and a high school student, soon learns that there is something much greater beneath the stage of the tournament.

You can find more about the anime, here: https://myanimelist.net/anime/41353/The_...igh_School

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It's highly recommended to keep your posts in spoilers, but there is no way to enforce that since this is a discussion thread and anything goes. Don't get upset if you read something and you aren't up-to-date with the current episodes.

As for me, I shall use spoiler codes for the first three episodes. After that, I will not use the spoiler code anymore.

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My review on the first episode.
Spoiler (Click to View)Before I watched the first episode, the first thing I saw about this anime was that it was being produced by Crunchyroll and the synopsis included, "Source: LINE Webtoon." Instantly after that, I decided to take more of a look and I was correct, this anime is an adaption of a manwha. In addition to that, it looks like this show is going to be the "brother" of Tower of God. For those who read my review on Tower of God, you know I disliked it. Well, good news so far (crossing my fingers), but I have more positive things to say for the first episode of GOHS.

Before I start, but I guess you can say I am starting with some sort of discussion, I want to include that this anime has way more of a Korean influence than TOG did. In TOG, the opening and ending were done by Stray Kids, a very popular male K-pop group. Additionally, the only other thing was "Bam"'s name being Bam. Of course, the Japanese switched the pronunciation to Yoru which means evening or night but kept the subtitles as Bam. Fun fact for those who were curious as to why they did that. Bam means night in Korean.

In GOHS, the anime takes place in Korea itself. While TOG, as it suggests, took place inside a tower. The location being unknown. At the moment in GOHS, we are only introduced to the Seoul area, which is the capital of South Korea. I don't know if we'll be branching out of Seoul, but as I mentioned the first episode takes place in it.

What is really cool is the usage of Hangeul, otherwise known as the Korean alphabet for all you non-Koreaboos, in the show. I don't know if we'll see it throughout the show but the very first episode had it and I thought that was cool. It would be weird if it took place in SK but used kana and kanji, right?

Additionally, the character names are also Korean. You won't be learning any Korean in this anime so don't expect too much but unlike TOG, we will be getting authentic Korean names in this anime. I guess there were a few names that were Korean in TOG though, so I could be wrong.

Some of the characters have a more Korean anime-esque hairstyle. That's hard to explain, but if you've seen Korean "anime art" you'll understand lol. And I noticed a little bit of the fashion sense having some Korean style to it too.

If you take a look at the picture that is at the top of this thread, you'll see that the art style resembles that grainy feeling I described TOG having. Well, to those that are thinking the art style is going to be the same as TOG, nope. It will be the art style you are known to see. However, there are some weird characteristics to some characters. I don't know why but some characters have really long pointy noises and in addition to that, the top of their ears and their nose itself is a cherry red color. I am not sure what that is trying to indicate or if there is something behind it but I don't exactly like that.

What is this anime even about and why am I comparing it to TOG other than the fact that it's Korean? Well, this anime is similar to TOG in the sense that you must compete to climb to the top of something. In this case, "The God of High School." We aren't too sure everything about the contest but what we do know is that the winner will be able to have any wish granted.

Imagine TOG, but now in a high school setting and mixed martial arts. If you are a fan of watching people get their but kicks in a shounen manner, then you'll want to give this show a try. That's not me encouraging to watch the show. A contradiction I know, but bleh, let me continue. If you are expecting different styles of fighting you'll get that in this anime. However, you'll get a mixture of unreal stuff like teleportation and maybe even more crazy stuff like that. It's an anime though, of course not everything is going to be realistic.

We are introduced to three characters. It states in the synopsis that we'll be focusing on Mori Jin, but after watching this we got a little glimpse of Yu and Han too so I don't think it will revolve completely around Jin, however, I think Jin will be the Bam equivalent to this anime, but more badass.

Oh, speaking of Bam. Yay, no sh*tty simp, weak protagonist! Woo! Jin knows how to fight and he kicks ass. He also doesn't have a girl influence everything he does! #Biased.

The beginning half of this anime felt useless and I felt like it could have skipped it and gone straight into the tournament. If you watch this anime you might agree or you might think it would add to the story. Honestly, it didn't. However, I will say that I was less confused about what was going on, whereas the first episode of TOG was so ResidentSleeper (boring) bits and pieces flew over my head because of my uninterest.

Yada yada, omg, stop flaming TOG. Alright alright.

There are still things that confuse me in this show but it is the first episode so hopefully, my questions get answered later on. At the moment I have a positive outlook for this anime and I hope it doesn't disappoint. At the moment, it's already on my good side.

[Schwertgeist]

Kinda didn't like they skipped the first 3 chapters of the series but the fight scenes look amazing

[Soulmate～っ☆]

I really enjoyed the first episode, I don't have as much to complain about compared to what I'm more hyped to see. I agree that their pointy red noses and red fluffy ears are kind of a turn off to the otherwise great looking characters but besides that the animation was amazing, especially the switches of styles at the beginning.  Personally I liked the first half more (except the first few minutes on the island). My favorite part was the fast paced race and how the mc had to retell the story was hilarious. It reminded me of tatami galaxy when they talked really fast, and the crazy racing fight was sort of like klk, which are 2 of my favorite anime. The main girl and main boy also had a badass dynamic, and I liked how the girl isn't a typical shy heroine but straight up tells that dude that she likes his muscles. Likewise, I expected the "villain" to be more shocked when the mc pulled his pants down but he just played along with the joke. Another thing I liked was that the mc isn't ridiculously underpowered as in most shonen, judging by his combat he seems pretty skilled or above average at worst. Lastly, the hand to hand combat was hype, seeing the characters dodging and weaving between kicks and punches is super satisfying.

This anime seems like it would take every trope and flip it on it's head so I'm excited to see the next episode.

[Megane]

Second episode.

Spoiler (Click to View)I've got a few things I'd like to discuss in the discussion of the second episode, and as, always my paragraphs will be all over the place because when I'm writing stuff, more ideas come into mind, and I just write whatever.

I think the story is being rushed too much. In the last episode, we were having a battle royal. However, at the start of this episode, it was over and there was no announcement on who won. In general, battle royales are supposed to be a single victor. Or, if you are doing a team-based BR, then a team, however, multiple people ended up winning, allowing them to continue to the next contest. Of course, we already knew that the easily distinguishable characters were going to advance. However, they threw in some background characters who would end up losing eventually.

The first few fights where it was distinguishable characters vs. the average characters, they were very boring and ended so fast. The opponents stood zero chance and were wiped out immediately. Boring. We finally get to see our first fight. The fight between Gam and Kang wasn't very impressive at all. We get to see a nice display of power with the use of real MMA fighting, but unrealistic power which I guess if you are looking for a "hyped fighting shonen" then this is something you'd like, but I'm not a fan of that and I don't think I was when I reviewed the first episode.

I'll just have to get over that fact, and that's something I can get over, but in the final review of this anime, it is something I'll mention. Thanks to the usage of the cells that were injected into each participant, "nanomachines" will allow the healing process to increase tremendously. Meaning that it will take a couple of minutes to get back to normal before your fight.

Through flashbacks for certain characters, we get an understanding of their upbringing and their motives to win the contest. As I said I think this anime is being rushed a little bit too much, but I do like the fast pace. Compared to Tower of God which was slow and boring, I'm liking that I'm not falling asleep.

We meet Park who is the commissioner of the tournament and compared to everyone else he has "god-like" powers and we even saw what he's capable of from the first episode where he destroyed that private island. He's not one to mess with. Since Jin broke the rules by interrupting a fight, some sort of consequence will happen to him. I don't think he's going to get kicked out. Rather, he might have impressed Park. Of course, it could go he upset Park, but he'll allow Jin to continue, or the last option being Jin's removal from the tournament.

[Megane]

Saw a fight scene of it on an anime instagram page and watched the first two episodes, I agree that they were very rushed but the fight scenes were great. Haven't read the manga so don't have any source material to compare it to, but when comparing the length of the battle royale to other tournaments from anime I watched previously, this one was over very quickly (I remember Boku no hero battle tournament most recently lasting like 4+ episodes)

I haven't read it either, but I've read some comments that in the anime, some of the fighting moves weren't portrayed how they were drawn in the webtoon. After taking a look at the pictures they provided, I am disappointed that they weren't able to adapt it like that. For example, the "three-step-kick" that Mori performed on Gang/Manseok whatever you wanna call him wasn't as cool in the anime as it was in the webtoon. ☹️
Spoiler (Click to View)

[Silver Fang]

I enjoyed the two first episodes!

A bit rushed it seemed but came out good either way =)

[Happeh]

Read the webcomic while I lived in Korea, so looking forward to binging the anime.

[Megane]

Episode 3.

Spoiler (Click to View)Just finished episode three and I still think that the anime is being rushed too quickly. There are so many questions that I have after watching an episode. Sometimes the answers are given in the next episodes, other times there aren't. For example, in the first episode, there was a battle royale. Everyone who is up-to-date with the dumb genre knows that there is always one victor, whether it be a solo or a team. In episode two, there was no knowledge of who one, rather, a bunch of people has assumed the victor since they were allowed to participate in the next qualifying round.

In this episode, the use of supernatural powers is more frequent. There is still no explanation behind it. We know that in episode one, the main commissioner Park blew away a whole island. He left the marking of a cross and something else. At the time this could mean anything, but at the beginning of episode three, we are met with some cultist looking group praising god. Do they support Park? Are they against him? Wait, who even are they! Yeah, that's a whole bunch of questions needing some answers.

We get to see Mira and Miseon fight for the first. I'll be honest and say that the fight is pretty boring. From what I've noticed, the fights leading up to the main ones are like this. There will be some banter and maybe a showcase of each person's ability, but I feel it's lacking. Good for Mira for winning, but I would prefer it if Miseon won instead. But then Mira wouldn't be the main character :P.

Dae's fight against Seung who looks like every character drawn in Persona, that fight was far more interesting than the previous one. However, I have to complain yet again. Wow, what a surprise right! Hear me out though. I am happy that the fight was long and we were able to ee some cool secret abilities that Dae has, but it just wasn't anything special. The whole time I sat there with a blank face. No "woo" "omg wow so cool" (not sarcastic). Nothing. It was still boring to me.

Gam and Kang are no longer able to participate in the tournament after what happened at the end of their fight. Since Jin interrupted it and that breaks the rules, he was taken away until a decision was made on his punishment. Commissioner P, as the MAL labels her, or the beautiful blue-haired commissioner, common, she's the only female one, you have to know who I'm talking about, says that Jin should be disqualified completely. Park suggests that Jin fights Commissioner Q, or as Jin likes to call him "Midori Megane" or "Green Glasses" or "Green Four-Eyes," whatever your pick is.

The match was a handicapped one where Jin had to knock down the commissioner once. I honestly thought that the fight was going to start in the next, but Jin was able to knock him down twice in a matter of seconds.

After that, this is where the supernatural element I discussed occurred. We are given no knowledge of what the heck Commissioner Q summoned. With that being said, all of the commissioners must have some sort of magical ability that is far beyond the contestants.

Prior to the match, Park gave Jin special fruit. I think it was Jin's grandpa or something that made Park give him the fruit after reading on his information page (idk what else to call it), that he was trained by his grandfather who probably was (or still is) very strong. Hopefully, we learn more about Jin's backstory even more. Maybe the fruit that was given to him was also given to Park at one point in his life? Or all the commissioners at that? Since it's said normal humans aren't able to eat it.

One last thing I want to talk about before ending this discussion is a small rant. How the f**k are you going to give this anime a 10 when there are only three episodes? I really don't understand that. I'm all for having predictions on what you think your final rating is going to be, but don't ya'll think that's a little too high?


Also here's a random picture I wanted to share because damn. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Megane]

Laughable episode four.
Spoiler (Click to View)Episode four was terrible. I've already had low expectations for this anime and giving us a stupid filler in the fourth episode, especially out of nowhere was uncalled for. There are only three things in this episode that I felt was important. I'll go into that later.

In my last post, I mentioned that this anime was given a high rating at such an early time. There were so many people giving this anime a 10 when only three episodes were released and they were not even that spectacular. After this episode, the ratings have dropped and I'm glad some likeminded people who agree with me.


Now, let's get into the review. This episode mostly involves Mira. Some guy randomly asks her to marry him. She accepts. We don't even see that she accepts, it just fasts forwards us to where she's planning the wedding. What???? We don't know anything about this guy other than what they tell us later on, that he is a very strong martial artist. Now, I wanna say something that might sound dumb, but it does make sense to bring it up. This tournament is only for high school students in Korea. "It all began as a fighting tournament to seek out for the best fighter among all high school students in Korea." With that being said, why do half of the people who participated before the final four contestants look like they were full-grown adults? I was going to say that this new guy we met in this episode, whose name isn't even important because I couldn't even tell you what it was, why didn't he participate in this tournament? Then I realized he's an adult. Oh, and if you think Mira, who's like 16-17 is fine with marrying some dude who is probably 28, that's a yikes from me.

We learn that the person trying to marry Mira is just doing it so that he can get the hands-on the special sword Mira's father left for her, and have her powers to activate it. When it turns out, the secret to the power is a mind thing I guess? Blah blah, fast forward, Jin and Daewi try and break up the wedding, which I think was fantastic because a little bit into the story you can already tell this guy is fishy. First off, if a random dude jumps out of a car and asks a highschooler to marry him, that's fishy. You have to realize that this guy was fishy from the start. Anyways, the guy she was going to marry is part of the cult we saw at the beginning of the last episode. Some of us asked, what was the point of even showing us that? Well, now we understand why. It seems they are trying to become the strongest in Korea, but what is their motive? That is still unknown. He can summon a demon to give him strong powers just like one of the Commissioners.

Does this mean that the Commissioners and even Park the owner of the tournament are related to the cult in any way? What do these powers mean? As we saw, Mira was able to defeat him despite having that power, so it's pretty much useless. And I think this is going to be overlooked by people. So I'll add to this by saying Mira, Jin, and Park are already strong. Well, we know this, but I mean they are Commissioner level strong or even better.

I don't like Mira and I felt this episode was very stupid and it made me dislike her even more. She was so annoying and it's irritable that she would marry some guy and even if he were genuinely going to give her what he said he was going to do, it's just a cheat way out of her dream. I like the lesson Jin gave her by telling her that to follow her dreams she should do it herself and don't take the easy way out.

At the end of the episode, we see that Daewi's friend is most likely dead. This aggravates him. We still don't know what influence this person has to him, but he has to be an important influence because not only does he knock out the bullies at his job, but he beats the sh*t out of Mira when they were just friends a few minutes ago.

Another complaint was that fight. We learn at the beginning of the episode that there are four finalists. One of the finalists, I had to replay the beginning half (which is what I like to do when referencing things to make sure I am correct) but we are introduced to some dude:

Like who the hell even is this guy? Why haven't we seen him before?

This anime is being rushed so quickly that we are being introduced to characters we don't even know yet. Then, in the end, after Mira gets the sh*t kicked out of her, Daewi says to Jin "See you in the finals." Wait! But we didn't even see Jin fight this guy yet! Maybe we'll see it in the next episode, but there if we proceed to the very final fight between Dae and Jin that's so stupid!!!

Daewi's attitude has completely changed and I am curious to see what's to come of him in the next episode. As I mentioned before, I don't care too much about Mira. Never liked her, and as mentioned this episode made me dislike her even more. I do think Dae and Jin are cool characters though. All three of them are main characters, but the synopsis focuses more on Jin, and as we already know, Jin is stronger than all of them, so I think Jin will defeat Dae or it will be a very close fight. Let's hope they don't rush it. Like really, a 20-second fight between Mira and Dae for the semi-final? For a fighting anime that is so lame.

I have so many complaints about this episode lol. I hate to be such an elitist. I don't know how to say this, so I'll say it upfront and be real. It's better to be real than a fake. If you truly like this anime, I can understand that. But if you think it's a 9-10 from the past four episodes of what we've seen, there is no way you are truly thinking that. I'm sorry. I strongly believe that everyone has different opinions and I try my best, especially on this website, if someone says something I don't like, I'll either reply kindly, or I'll just ignore it because if I don't I'll be posting a very rude message. I just can't justify this anime having a f*cking 10 rating after the first episode! Hell, any anime at that.

[Astrogen]

Just watched episode four, I felt everything was rushed, they suddenly went to the last 4 and the 4th guy wasn't even shown on the previous episodes.

[Megane]

Just watched episode four, I felt everything was rushed, they suddenly went to the last 4 and the 4th guy wasn't even shown on the previous episodes.

I know that was what I was thinking too. They also didn't even show his fight with Jin, unless they are saving that for the next episode. For an anime about MMA, the fights have been a disappointment tbh. (imo)

[Astrogen]

I know that was what I was thinking too. They also didn't even show his fight with Jin, unless they are saving that for the next episode. For an anime about MMA, the fights have been a disappointment tbh. (imo)

True, I hope the next episodes are better.

[Megane]

Agree that episode four was incredibly boring and that the show's being carried by the animation, however it brought me a lot of joy to see Dae kick Mira's ass. She's an incredibly one-dimensional and boring character who's irked me since she beat the other girl in two moves after getting her ass kicked up until that point so it was nice to see her get similarly demolished.

Monday's around the corner and we'll be getting the next episode. I agree that Mira is a dislikable character. I'm not a fan with her attitude type, it's hard to explain. I'm watching Naruto Shippuden (yeah I'm years late) and she reminds me of Sakura. It's probably the short-temper I dislike. I hate characters who are so quick to judge, and Sakura does that with Naruto so much, ahhh it's irritating. Having Mira have that character type too angers me.

We got a glimpse of the cult in this episode so I'm wondering if we'll see them again in the upcoming episode 5. Hopefully the finals is a good fight too. If the fight is 20 seconds then I will be upset.

[Soulmate～っ☆]

There was so much going on in Episode 4 it felt like they tried to jam 10 arcs into one episode. Oh well, still looking forward to what they have for us for today

[Megane]

Episode 5.
Spoiler (Click to View)Thankfully the fight between Dae and Jin was a lot longer than I was expecting. The past fights haven't been too exciting, and they've ended quickly. This fight lasted almost the whole episode, which I felt was a good touch. I have a few things to nitpick though. It's all in good fun, I guess. That's just me telling you that I'm so choosy and just ignore my rants if I have any. I thought that this was the best episode so far.

At the beginning of the episode, we learn more about Dae's friend Seungtae. I still don't understand why they fought so much. They had a great relationship in High School so I think the first fight we saw between them wasn't anything serious, as when we see them a second time in the flashback, we see that Seungtae comes to help Dae.

When it comes to voice acting, I am super picky when it comes to what I'm watching. I was never like this, but recently I've started to criticize the voice acting when watching anime. Considering that I review episodes, I think it's justifiable I do that too because, in the end, I like to review everything. Sound, picture, story, etc. I felt the dialogues in the flashbacks were very, very bad. I understand that you can't make every line sound natural, but it just felt so fake and forced that it turned me off. Especially the "gangster slang" talk the kids that Dae was fighting in high school.

I think Jin's triple kick is an awesome idea, however, as I mentioned in a previous post you can check somewhere in this thread, I shared a picture of the webtoon and how it's different from the anime. There's no spice to it in the anime. It's not that flashy. I think Jin makes up for it with the final kick that won him the match that he used on Dae. But still, I'd like that triple kick to get more pizazz.

Dae's fighting style is cool, and I think the effects his moves get are cool and this is what I mean when I say the triple kick should get some more spice to it.

Sadly, Dae's friend passes away and leaves him a message. We don't know what it is, but it probably has to do with making new friends, mostly with Jin and Mira. It's good that things turned out nicely in the end and they are all getting along again.

I just want to point out, no one mentioned it and to be honest, I wasn't paying attention to it until this episode, but they are fighting on a concrete ring. Not whatever padded material UFC or WWE rings use. We already know the characters are strong as sh*t with unbelievable power, but I think it's flying past most people's heads that they are getting slammed into the concrete.

I want to mention was the mysterious person in the suit with the blue hair at the end of the episode. One thing I first noticed was that he's voiced by my favorite seiyuu Tsuda Kenjirou. I can recognize that voice anytime. Anyways, he says, "Is that all that Seoul has" which might be a hint that there will be more tournaments that are held outside of Seoul. Hell, Jin won the first tournament. Who knows, there might be more.

Lastly, now that the tournament is over, what will Jin get as the victor? We never saw that. The cult didn't show up in this episode, and there was no witchcraft or magic of any sort so which I'm curious to know if we'll see them again. There are a bunch of questions due to the story leaving some things out in the episodes, but you can't help that.