Curse/Cornered

Before we get into how I used my 200 IQ brain to predict Mira’s Charyeok summoning, let’s get all the boring stuff about The God of High School episode 9 out of the way. And by boring stuff, I mean the little details that I want to mention, but that aren’t worth dedicating entire sections of this review to.

For starters, we have the gyaru (gal) character who randomly starts fighting Daewi. There’s some weird stuff going on with her. We know that she’s loyal to her teammate Jegal because she refers to him as Jegal-sama while only referring to Daewi as onii-chan.

But, her allegiance to Jegal doesn’t explain her actions like I thought they would. Jegal is the one who stops her from attacking Daewi, so he clearly wasn’t the one who directed her to attack him. Additionally, she doesn’t seem to have been eliminating the competition because her first victim, Jin Pum Kwang, has already been disqualified.

The next thing I want to mention here is that the team made up of Nox members is also doing things that make no sense. For example, one Nox member lures Jin out to an abandoned warehouse so that he can get the “small fry out of the way.” But if they believe Jin to be a small fry, why not just eliminate him in the competition?

But the thing that makes the least sense to me is the three Nox members who infiltrated the competition. They took the time to alter their appearances to match the real contenders they took out. But, they wore their obviously-evil-cultist cloaks anyway. To put it in Naruto terms, that’s like some Akatsuki members changing their faces but still wearing their cloaks.

It’s obvious what organization they belong to.

Lu Bu Fengxian

So, it was revealed that Mira’s treasured sword, which she suddenly stopped treasuring after it was stolen from her, is a legendary weapon. The sword’s name is Fengxian, which immediately made me think of the Chinese warlord Lu Bu Fengxian. And if you’re wondering why I know who Lu Bu is, I have Fate/Grand Order to thank for that.

Then, when it was revealed that Mira was awakening her Charyeok, the reason her sword was named Fengxian suddenly made sense to me. As soon as we got the scene of the army leading up to the general, before Lu Bu was officially revealed as her Charyeok, I knew what was coming.

There’s only one person who commands an army and is associated with the name Fengxian, Lu Bu. But, Mira didn’t only form a pact with Lu Bu. As you can see from the image below, she got a pact with Red Hare (Lu Bu’s horse) as well!

Now, what’s interesting about Mira’s pact with Lu Bu is that it’s the first time we’ve seen a Charyeok pact be formed in the series. And as such, I have a few questions about how exactly these pacts are formed — because clearly Mira didn’t get Lu Bu at random.

First, does forming a pact with a spirit in this series work like it does in Fate? That is, are spirits summoned by using an item as a catalyst? In this case, the sword Fengxian would be the catalyst for forging a pact with Lu Bu.

Second, if the first isn’t the case, then does that mean that Lu Bu is connected to Mira through her family? I don’t necessarily mean that she’s his descendant, but her family passed down a sword with his namesake, so perhaps Lu Bu is like the “patron Charyeok” of their family.

Doppelganger and Kraken

Aside from Mira’s Lu Bu, there were three other Charyeok abilities revealed in this episode. There was an unnamed, diamond-like ability I’ll be skipping over, Doppelganger, and Kraken. What’s nice about these latter two abilities is that we get both their names and their abilities so there’s less guesswork.

Doppelganger is mostly straightforward. Its user can create hundreds of duplicates of him or herself. They also have the ability to alter the appearance of others to make them look like someone else. And it appears that these two abilities can even be used in tandem, such as when one of the clones was transformed to look like Jin’s grandfather.

But as I said, it’s only mostly straightforward. I have no idea why these clones are able to explode. And even after Paylong is defeated, the people who he transformed keep their new form. So is it permanent until he changes them back? What if he died?

The Kraken Charyeok ability is one that I’m still a bit unsure about despite everything we’ve seen of it. Obviously, it allows its users to use the Kraken’s tentacles to attack. But is that the only thing it can do? Have we actually seen another one of its abilities without realizing it?

This Lee Marin is a fake. And as such, I’m assuming that the real Lee Marin did not have the Kraken Charyeok, even though it fits his whole marine specialist aesthetic. But what about the tanning oil that covered his body? Was this impostor really wearing a bunch of tanning oil in an attempt to be Lee Marin?

Or, was this “tanning oil”-like substance coating his body actually a property of the Kraken Charyeok? Squid are slimy and slippery, so I think it’s possible that this slimy and slippery body of “Lee’s” was actually due to the Kraken.

Conclusion

What do you think about The God of High School episode 9? Do you think the gal character had any sinister plan in mind when she was attacking people seemingly at random? Is Lu Bu a good spirit for Mira to partner with? And what spirits would you like to see Jin and Daewi make their pacts with? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN and Rob Wright for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Kouhai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Close/Friend

The God of High School episode 8 was an alright episode. The first half was decent, but I didn’t care at all about the second half so I won’t really be touching on that in this review. If you want a discussion on how the GoH tournament wristbands function like Facebook to remind you of your friends’ birthdays, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

I’m here to discuss the important things, like the tournament arc, characters who seem like they’re going to be important, and of course, Charyeok. On the tournament front, there are a couple of new developments, starting with the magician kid from last week dying — you know, the one who was eaten by the shark.

Perhaps I’m remembering it incorrectly, but wasn’t killing an acceptable outcome of the tournament? I mean, you’re not supposed to kill your opponents, but wasn’t it stated that if it happens, it happens?

Anyway, it was suggested that the shark boy be disqualified, but Mujin Park said that he didn’t want to disqualify him in case he turned out to be “the key” they’re looking for. What is this key? Well, later on in the episode it’s stated that the key is needed to kill God — and that Nox is fighting to awaken God or something.

And the final thing I’ll mention about the tournament itself is that Daewi is suspended from the next round. That means we’ll only get to see Mori and Mira fight. I’d rather Mira have been the one to be suspended, but there is some good to come out of this: We’ll actually see Mori fight unlike in the last round.

Also, how many more rounds are there? Isn’t this the final part of the tournament? Do they have a world championship next?

Mori’s New Rival

Ilpyo Park appears to be Mori’s new rival. Now, I won’t say it’s impossible that Mori will defeat him in this next round and we’ll never see him again. But because he has a connection to Mori’s grandfather, I think Ilpyo is going to be sticking around in some capacity — probably as Mori’s rival, as I mentioned.

Why would these two be rivals, though? Just because Ilpyo knows Mori’s grandfather doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But when Ilpyo did meet his grandfather, Mori was with him. That doesn’t matter too much because Mori was asleep at the time, but the connection is still there.

Additionally, Mori’s grandfather is the person both Mori and Ilpyo strive to be like. He’s their hero, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about people who have the same hero, it’s that they’re going to be rivals. I’m looking at you, Deku and Bakugo.

But, the biggest reason for why I think Ilpyo and Mori are going to be rivals is because their grandfathers were friends (and probably rivals). We know that they were friends because Mori’s grandfather says as much. And we can assume they were rivals because Mori’s grandfather also brags that he was the stronger of the two.

I also think that in Ilpyo, for the first time, Mori has found someone with the same outlook on life as him. This is shown by how the two initially spar, stop short of hurting each other, and have the same general carefree, yet somehow serious, disposition.

The fight between these two should be good, and I expect there to be a mutual respect between the two of them regardless of its outcome.

More Charyeok Discussion

There are three things I want to point out regarding Charyeok in this episode. The first is that we saw a brand new Charyeok user (pictured earlier in this review). Gi Gwim was defeated so we’ll never see him again, but he had yet another, very strange Charyeok ability that’s never explained.

As far as I could tell, he has the ability to control darkness itself and also harden it into a metal-like material. It would be really nice if we knew literally anything about the abilities we’re seeing. I can’t even properly discuss Charyeok abilities like this.

Anyway, what’s more important than the darkness guy is that we also learned about the ability of one of the female commissioners. I think she was Commissioner P. Again, this is a Charyeok ability that doesn’t really make sense because they’re so varied that we don’t know what ties them all together.

Her ability apparently allows her to create marionettes that can be molded to look like specific people. And I think it’s safe to assume that these marionettes can be set to automatically function as the person they’re supposed to be because controlling them manually would be pretty annoying.

Finally, the biggest Charyeok reveal of the episode, sort of. We don’t yet know what Mujin Park’s ability is, but there have been a few hints. In the very first episode, we saw him smash an island using some sort of “hand of God” ability that left an imprint on the land of the cross mark on his hand.

In this episode, that cross mark is again highlighted. However, when he raises his hand this time, the commissioner who barged into his office was pinned to the wall as if he were on a cross. What does this all mean? Well, I know Mujin’s seemingly stated goal is to kill God, but it looks like his Charyeok is connected to God in some fashion.

It was previously stated that Charyeok is the manifestation of deities and divine beings, so it’s possible.

Conclusion

What do you think of The God of High School Episode 8? Do you think there’s going to be an additional tournament after the South Korean nationals? Is Ilpyo going to be a recurring character, or will he too be cast aside? And what do you think Mujin’s Charyeok ability really is? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Anima/Force

Last week I decided that I don’t like The God of High School. And while that’s still the case, I did appreciate episode 7’s heavier focus on action and Charyeok abilities because it gives me something to discuss. But before we get into the good stuff, I have to mention the bad stuff.

Okay, so this first thing isn’t actually bad, but there are new opening visuals to accompany the new arc. The song (and some of the visuals) is still the same, but the part where it showcased random first-arc characters fighting was replaced with scenes of the commissioners fighting.

This tells me two things. First, the commissioners are going to play a larger role in this arc than they did in the first. So far, that checks out. And second, I was wrong to assume that some of those random characters would be important just because they were featured in the opening. Now I know better.

The bad part of the episode came with the first round of the three-on-three portion of the tournament. Why are we getting background for these random characters we’ll never see again after this episode? Who cares about Jin Pum Kwang, his younger brother, and the high school girl who has a crush on him?

They didn’t even have good background stories. Jin Pum is a 38-year-old guy who’s been working a construction job, just entered high school, and uses “working man’s style” fighting. His brother got no backstory. And the girl’s backstory is just that she admires Jin Pum’s never-give-up attitude.

At least during the fight, Jin Pum mentioned that he has an actual dream he wants to be fulfilled by winning the tournament. But, his real dream wasn’t powerful enough to beat Daewi’s dream of “I want to be stronger.”

It Must be the Work of an Enemy Charyeok

Things started to get interesting when all the various Charyeok users showed up — and I don’t mean Jin Pum and the girl. Jin Pum’s Charyeok was just a giant hammer, and the girl’s was a “bastard sword” made of light. That looked like a two-handed sword, though, not a hand-and-a-half sword, so the name was wrong.

Besides those useless abilities, we got to see seven other Charyeok abilities in this episode, starting with the joker ability we’ve seen before (which I previously referred to as a grim reaper). I don’t really have anything else to say about that one other than that it’s also connected to a magic deck of cards.

The first villain in the episode had a more interesting ability that was a giant silkworm. With this, he could reattach any body parts that were severed, which is a pretty useful ability, I suppose. But I doubt it would prevent him from being decapitated or stabbed through the heart.

Then we saw the abilities of two other antagonists from the Nox organization. Exly’s Charyeok ability appears to be based on a fallen angel, or maybe just a bird. I assume fallen angel because of the black wings combined with the “Priest” title. He can fly, and that’s about all we’ve seen so far.

Saturn has my favorite ability so far. She’s the BDSM girl we saw early on in the series, and her Charyeok ability reflects this. She can make hands (and weird, multi-eyed slime creatures) appear out of the ground to restrain her opponents. It reminded me a lot of Robin’s Devil Fruit from One Piece — and that’s probably why it made the most sense to me.

Another that was somewhat straightforward was the dragon ability of the other commissioner. Basically, he can manifest a giant dragon and use fire-type attacks.

The final two Charyeok abilities we saw in this episode were previewed in the previous episode. One is a giant shark and the other seems to have something to do with elemental magic since he used both fire and lightning “spells.”

Is Charyeok a Good Power System?

The short answer is, no. I don’t think Charyeok is a good power system. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episode reviews, there doesn’t seem to be any grounding rules that apply to it right now. We don’t really know anything about it. How do people acquire it? How is it used? Is each ability unique to one person? Etc.

But the worst part about Charyeok as a power system is that we don’t know the limits of each ability individually. Some people might argue that this isn’t a problem because they don’t want to be told the limits of every ability we encounter in the series right from the start. But while I understand that perspective, I think it’s avoiding the problem.

We don’t need to be told everything an ability can do. But we need to at least be shown enough of what it can do that we can infer what it can’t do as well. If there’s no known limit on an ability, then anything goes and that’s how you end up with extreme power scaling and Deus ex machina conclusions to every fight — just like in Sword Art Online.

Let’s take this shark ability as an example. From what we’ve seen, it can be used to create a giant mouth on the ground that swallows people up, manifest a giant shark that attacks people on land (seemingly anywhere), and even randomly impales people with shark tooth-like spikes.

Those are some varied abilities that don’t tell us much about the limits. Does the user have to aim the spikes? They seemed to just appear within his opponent. Can the shark appear literally anywhere? It appeared behind his opponent, away from its user. Can the mouth manifest anywhere as well? And, are there other abilities it has that we haven’t seen yet?

In contrast, look at stands in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, which probably has the closest power system. Stands can do some pretty crazy things, but their limits are generally clearly defined early on. From there, the users make use of their stands in unique ways while staying within those limits — like Buccellati’s Sticky Fingers which can unzip things and open pocket dimensions.

Conclusion

What do you think of The God of High School episode 7? Did you care about the random character backstories? Do you think Charyeok is a good power system in its current form? If not, what improvements do you think it requires? And, what’s your favorite ability in the series so far? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Fear/SIX

I’m thinking about dropping The God of High School from my weekly review schedule. It’s really not a good anime, I don’t enjoy writing about it, and nobody seems to care about it anyway. If you actually like this anime, let me know why in the comments. It seemed like a lot of people were excited about it before it aired, but I don’t see that hype now.

So, as much as I don’t feel like writing about this series or episode in particular, here I am, so we might as well get into it.

The first thing I have to say about this episode is that it was obvious that some rule was going to be changed to allow Daewi and Mira to continue on in the tournament. I predicted this last week, though I figured more of the preliminary tournament characters would make it to the next round.

Despite how obvious this development was, that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Any time a development happens for the sole reason of being more convenient for the plot, it’s not good. Why not write the story so that doesn’t have to be done? We’re still at the very beginning of the series and it’s already taken the lazy way out.

It would be one thing if we were tens or hundreds of episodes into the series and something had to be written in that contradicted something else from the start of the series. But we’re still at the start. There should be no reason for this type of writing already.

Looking at another famous tournament arc as an example, there’s the chunin exam from Naruto. Despite things getting kind of crazy towards the end, the rules of the tournament were still observed and the outcome didn’t contradict them. That’s how a tournament should be written.

True Nature of Charyeok

I’ve described Charyeok as stand-like abilities in the past, and while that’s still true to an extent, we now know a bit more about it. The first thing is that it isn’t always manifested as a large figure behind its user as we’ve previously seen. In this episode, there were two new Charyeok users who were quite different.

One of these Charyeok users seemed to have a basic fire-type ability. The other was much more interesting and was able to summon a large mouth on the ground that appeared to open to another dimension. That’s really all we saw from them for now, but I’m hoping we get to see these abilities used in unique ways in the future.

What’s probably more important for me to mention, though, is the true nature of Charyeok as a power system. There are still way too many gaps that need to be filled before I can properly discuss this system, but the groundwork has finally been laid.

Charyeok is the summoning of divine beings — or at least the borrowing of their power. For example, since Buddha (I assume that’s supposed to be Buddha) is featured in the mural pictured above, someone could make use of Buddha’s abilities through Charyeok.

This also seems to imply that every Charyeok ability in the series is connected to a specific deity. Hopefully, that’s actually the case and all the characters don’t just have random abilities. I find it much more interesting when there’s a reason for the abilities each character has.

I don’t necessarily need to know the deity every character is connected to, but I’d like to know enough of them to the point where the system seems well-developed.

The SIX

The final thing about this episode I want to mention is the group known simply as the SIX. These are six individuals who, I’m guessing, are the strongest/best in their individual fields. Nah Bongchim, the “Divine Doctor” of the SIX is apparently an extremely skilled physician (who can also fight).

The guy in charge of the God of High School tournament is also a member of the SIX, but his exact relationship with the other members is unclear. It doesn’t really seem like he’s their leader, so maybe any member can call upon the others. But at the same time, maybe he is the leader, and he just has a more personal relationship with Nah Bongchim.

I guess we’ll find out in the next episode when all six members meet up.

I was going to say that the SIX don’t seem to be part of the organization that oversees the God of High School Tournament at all. And my reasoning for this was going to be that they each seem to be doing their own thing when they receive their summons. But, perhaps that’s not entirely correct.

Aren’t there six regions that are being represented by three-man teams in the main tournament? Maybe I miscounted (and I’m not going to go back and check because I don’t care enough to), but if that’s the case, could the SIX each be overseeing one of those regions?

They have to have some importance beyond Nah Bongchim becoming Jin’s mentor. I mean, he said that’s what he wants to do, so I assume that’s going to happen. But this group can’t have been introduced solely for that purpose. Well, they could, and that would actually fit in with the writing in this series thus far.

Conclusion

What did you think about The God of High School episode 6? And what do you think about the series in general so far? Are you liking it? Do you think it’s not very good like I do? Also, what role do you think the SIX are going to play going forward? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Ronde/Hound

Now that we’ve gotten to a Daewi episode, The God of High School is actually turning into a show that I want to watch. We still haven’t really gotten a background for Jin, but I don’t see his being any better than Daewi’s. As I’ve mentioned before, his motivation for fighting simply seems to be finding strong opponents.

The reason I brought up Jin already is that while this episode does focus on Daewi’s backstory, it’s also the episode in which Jin and Daewi fight in the final round of the preliminaries. And while I think it was obvious that Jin was going to win here — because he’s the main character — it made me realize that there can only be one winner.

That might sound obvious, but when the three main characters are introduced in a preliminary tournament and there can only be one winner, it makes you wonder what will happen to the other two. Daewi and Mira can’t just be removed from the tournament altogether, right? Because then there would be no point in their characters anymore.

And it’s not just Daewi and Mira. What about all the other side characters who were named throughout the preliminary tournament and who were featured in the OP? Surely they’ll all be playing some sort of larger role (except maybe for Kang) beyond the first couple episodes of the series.

Although this wasn’t stated in the anime, I’m betting that there’s actually a point system in place for determining who gets through to the main competition. It’s probably something like, anyone who made it through the initial free-for-all automatically earned enough points to move on.

Either that, or we’re about to get an entirely new cast of characters within the next episode or two, which would be a strange thing to do mid-cour.

Daewi and Seungtae

Moving back over to Daewi’s backstory, it looks like he and Seungtae hadn’t actually been friends for very long before the God of High School tournament began. It was implied that they met at some point in middle school. But since they didn’t look like middle schoolers, I’ll assume that they were in their final year.

At this point, we know Daewi is in high school. And I think it’s fairly safe to assume that he’s a third-year. I mean, considering he looked the same as he does now in middle school, it’s very possible he could be a first-year. But the fact that he has a job and seems to be fairly put together tells me this is his last year of high school.

Also, I’m pretty sure it was stated in the previous episode that Mira is 17, so she and Jin are likely third-years as well. Or at the very least, second-years.

What I’m saying with all of this is that Daewi and Seungtae only knew each other from anywhere between one and three years. Of course, a deep friendship can definitely be forged within that time. But it’s not as if these two were childhood friends who grew up together or anything.

The reason the friendship between Daewi and Seungtae was so deep comes down to what I’d like to call the “Naruto effect.” In this situation, Seungtae was the Naruto-like character who’s personality pulls people towards him. Of course, this can be said of many shounen series protagonists, but that’s not what Seungtae is.

Since basically everyone has seen at least through the chunin exam arc of the original Naruto series, think of it this way: What if after “saving” Neji, Naruto died? That would have a pretty profound effect on Neji’s outlook on life, and that’s basically what we’re seeing here.

Friends

While the whole backstory with Daewi and Seungtae was good, the best part of the episode came afterward, when Daewi and Jin were able to finally fight each other with clear consciences and as equals. Obviously this was the part of the episode that had the best animation and the majority of the action, but it goes beyond that.

Fights are always more entertaining when there’s meaning behind them. Sure, standard tournament arcs can still be fun to watch, but you’re not really invested in them unless there are personal stakes beyond simply winning or losing. By including Daewi’s backstory before and during the fight, his fight against Jin became meaningful.

And, just as I had predicted (possibly last week, I forget), this was basically Daewi’s “Sasuke retrieval arc.” Due to his circumstances, he was momentarily lead astray, but thanks to his new friends, he’s been brought back into the group.

I do want to point out that I like the vague attempt to give Mira some importance here by being the one to bring Seungtae’s letter to Daewi. And by like, I mean I thought it was funny that they would give her a job like that rather than actually developing her character in any meaningful way.

It really makes me wonder what Mira’s role is going to be throughout the rest of the series. Is she ever going to be considered on par with Jin and Daewi? Or is she more of their sidekick? I don’t see her playing any major role unless she’s used as a Deus ex machina.

Conclusion

What did you think of The God of High School episode 5? Do you think Daewi’s backstory was good? Were you hoping there would be more to it? Did you think Daewi would defeat Jin in the final round? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.