English Dub Review: The God of High School “renewal/soul”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The preliminary round of the God of High school qualifying tournament heats up and Mori, Mira, and Daewi all proceed with relative ease and set their sights on making it to the end of the round so they can advance to the National God of High School Tournament. The trio performs well, but Mori’s resolve is tested in different ways when a battle between Gang Manseok and Go Gamdo gets out of hand.

Mira also lets down her guard a little bit as she, Mori and Daewi bond more as friends rather than fighters and she opens up about her family and the significance of her signature weapon.

Our Take:

The God of High School’s inaugural episode did a commendable job at introducing Jin Mori and the people who appear to be his allies through this adventure, Yoo Mira and Han Daewi. It doesn’t peel back the layers too far with these characters and only offers a hint of Mori’s past, but it gives enough of an impression of these characters that they still feel real enough to root for here. Right from the start it becomes pretty obvious that The God of High School’s priorities are beautiful action sequences over provoking emotional drama. That doesn’t mean that these characters can’t have depth, but it’s a little easier to be forgiving when the show advertised itself as pure action and didn’t give off any indication that this would be anything else. The series’ second episode, “renewal/soul” makes the anime’s interests even more apparent as it operates as a series of thrilling action set pieces. In that sense, “renewal/soul” may not be wholly unique, but it’s still wildly entertaining, looks fantastic at the same time, and it actually manages to subvert expectations.

This is an episode that covers a lot of ground and highlights many battles, but it does find some time to flesh out its main characters more. Mira gets a little more backstory in reference to her Moon Light Sword and how it didn’t just belong to her late father, but that it’s a symbol for her family’s dojo that Mira hopes to rebuild. This sense of honor in Mira is nice, but it feels pretty reductive that she’s determined to find a powerful man to be her father’s successor and inherit the Moon Light Sword style from her. This archaic thinking isn’t exactly surprising, but hopefully Mira’s story will be able to mature and she figures out that she can be her father’s successor and that she doesn’t need to find a man to do so.

A major fight occurs between Manseok and Gamdo, but it’s strangely Mori who becomes the focus of this battle. This becomes a smart extension of the unease that’s felt at the start of the episode as it boils over in a very surprising way. Mori can’t help but intervene in the fight and help out Gamdo when he sees that he’s in danger. Gamdo has also had Mori’s back throughout this tournament, whether he’s realized it or not. The fight continues to rage on and grows more violent with each new blow. Mori is threatened with disqualification if he interferes in the fight another time, but God of High School actually has the courage to follow through on this threat. Mori isn’t able to control himself and he jumps in to Gamdo’s aid a second time, which leads to the most impressive scene of the episode. Mori executes a powerful triple kick attack that’s almost ballet-like in nature. The kinetic energy involved when Mori’s leg collides with Manseok’s and they’re thrown off course is one of the best examples of how this anime animates the movement of bodies and musculature so well.

After Mori’s outburst, “remewal/soul” concludes on an even bigger cliffhanger than before as Mori is reprehended by Park Mujin and looks to be on his way out. I’d genuinely be surprised if Mori is actually disqualified from the tournament, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the anime take some unusual detours or focus on Mira and Daewi while Mori is stuck with a separate redemptive quest. There’s also some tiny momentum made with the larger mystery surrounding the organization that’s behind this tournament, as well as Park Mujin in particular, so now that Mori is in his orbit could see these storylines come to a head. I’m excited to see where this LOST-like dynamic to this action series ends up.

“renewal/soul” is a fitting follow-up to The God of High School’s first episode and it effectively establishes the kind of anime that this is going to be now that it’s gotten some of the groundwork out of the way. There’s a strong balance between action and mystery here and the emotional climax that the episode builds to between Mori and Manseok is surprisingly powerful. Hopefully the rest of this season will be able to show that The God of High School is able to play around with expectations and do something new with this genre.