English Dub Review: The God of High School “wisdom/kingdom”
Overview(Spoilers Below):
The second preliminary round of the cutthroat God of High School Tournament continues and Mira has to face off with an expert wrestler, Mah Miseon. Despite Mira’s sword skills, she struggles to keep up with her opponent and worries if she’ll be able to stay in the competition. Daewi also meets his match in an opponent who relies on numbers to overwhelm his enemies. As Mira and Daewi try to stay afloat and outsmart their competition, Mori faces the consequences for breaking the rules of the tournament. Mori is prepared for dismissal, but instead he must face a more surprising punishment that excites Mori just as much as it worries him.
Our Take:
“wisdom/kingdom” begins in a difficult position because it has to follow the enormous cliffhanger where the Commissioners and Park Mujin have threatened Mori with dismissal from the titular God of High School tournament for repeatedly ignoring the rules. What makes cliffhangers such a double-edged sword is that it’s easy—sometimes too easy—to create a compelling cliffhanger, but it’s not simple to follow through on it. In fact, the greater the cliffhanger is typically means that this task becomes even more difficult. So after grabbing the interest of its audience, The God of High School now has to follow through on its actions. “wisdom/kingdom” may cheat its way out of Mori’s situation in some regards, but it mostly sticks this landing and still delivers an entertaining episode that has some real stakes and suspense to it.
“wisdom/kingdom” doesn’t forget about Mori, but it allows both Daewi and Mira to step into the lead for some brief, glorious moments. I suspected that after Mori’s “disqualification” that God of High School would prioritize some of its other characters as Mori tries to redeem himself. Mira engages in a fantastic fight with Mah Miseon, a pro wrestler, which makes for one of the best fights that the anime has turned out so far, both in terms of content and animation.
The first two episodes have done some careful work at providing hints towards the larger story that’s being told here between super organizations with shifty global motivations. The God of High School puts the spotlight on the flashy battles between young fighters, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that this other story is probably more important and what the real story of The God of High School is about. “wisdom/kingdom” provides the biggest glimpse of this yet, but still remains coy on the matter. The scope of the tournament and a look at the other preliminary rounds throughout Korea is a helpful moment, but it also creates a larger sense of dread since it begins to sink in just how many people might be manipulated by these puppet masters for a much greater purpose. They seem to become fascinated with Jin Mori and the character’s roots, but his significance remains a mystery at this point.
“wisdom/kingdom” is another strong episode of The God of High School that’s able to shift its priorities a little and tell a bigger story than what’s going on with Mori. He still gets plenty to do here and the way in which the air is sucked out of what should be a major obstacle is a smart way to keep the audiences on their toes as it plays with expectations of a series like this. The spread focus on Mira, Daewi, and the people behind the tournament help make this episode feel the most well rounded. The God of High School is still having a little difficulty with covering everything that it wants to and the pacing is still chaotic, but much like Jin Mori, the burgeoning anime series is moving forward with confidence
