#The God of High School Episode 1 – First Impressions

WOW! We jumped straight into the action and I was on the edge of my seat. The animation was incredible and I loved how they lightened the mood with the chibi art style.

That seems to be a recurring theme in the webcomic adaptations.

We saw a lot of that in Tower of God and I’m not complaining.

It seems like The God of High School is much more cartoon-like. We have wacky hijinks like Jin Mori riding off a cliff, Yoo Mira leaving a faceprint in the street sign she slams, and the sheer absurdity of the ‘Bicycle Assault Formation.’

I really loved how they did the bike scene. The little things like Jin Mori’s imagination of the grandma’s backstory made me laugh.

That bit was already hilarious the first time, but I was really in stitches when it repeated as Jin Mori explained the situation to Yoo Mira.

Even though the bike scene was packed with action, they took the time to transition everything well and did a fantastic job with the periodic slow-mo parts.

Speaking of transitions, I loved seeing Yoo Mira’s quick progression from shy, to flirty, to angry, to empathetic in the span of a few minutes. This first episode was great at showing multiple facets from each of our main characters.

That was a very effective way of telling us about Mira as a person. I hope we get some of that for Dawei, because it looks like he is going to be part of a main trio with Mori and Mira, but he didn’t get involved in the bike scene until the very end.

That bike scene was one of the greatest chase sequences I’ve ever witnessed. It was an effective and quick way to have our three main characters collide (literally) and it featured some great cuts of animation too. There was one particular tracking shot that followed Jin Mori for 10 continuous seconds in a single cut.

That’s a scene worth re-watching multiple times. That kind of camera shot is only possible in anime, especially weaving in and out of traffic like that. Beautiful storyboarding.

I want to mention the soundtrack too, as we’ve already heard a few interesting tracks by composer Arisa Okehazama. I especially enjoyed the track during the battle royale that featured some oriental strings under the more intense instruments, accenting the beautiful movements in all that violent action.

Speaking of music, THE OPENING SEQUENCE HURT MY EYES. I was super tired when I watched it and I couldn’t keep up. I think I was more well-rested. I would enjoy the animation more, but right now all I remember is PAIN.

Even if it hurt your eyes, it rocked my ears in the best way. The full version is available on Spotify, and I’ve been listening to it on repeat for a while now.

It felt overwhelming but the animation sequences matching with the music were incredibly cool to watch. Major kudos to the animators and storyboard for the opening sequence.

Oh no! We are running out of space! Quick, any last thoughts? 

I’m very impressed with how they presented episode 1. Like I said at the beginning, we jumped straight in, but kept us entertained and gave just enough of a teaser to make you come back for seconds.

I loved how much happened in the episode. The show really started off with a bang! I think the man with the long nose escaped from Kaiji.