First Impressions: Tower of God
Tower of God/Kami no Tou is an action fantasy anime currently airing this season. I was very interested in this anime due to the intense advertising done by Crunchyroll; obviously an anime being highly advertised doesnāt necessarilyĀ mean itās a good show, but it did make me think that this show was expected to be very popular.
So far, Iāve watched the first three episodes of Tower of God. I was impressed by the fact that this was originally a manhwa webtoon; itās really cool that something that was originally a webtoon received an anime adaptation.
Something about the art style was slightly off-putting to me, and initially I couldnāt figure out why. The designs of many of the differentĀ āfantasy racesā in this show are actually very unique, and I think the humanoid faces are pretty cute. I also am generally impressed with the animation; the backgrounds are beautifully illustrated and the action, especially during the frequent fight scenes, is done well. But I think my issue is the flat, saturated color palette. There doesnāt appear to be much shading, like, at all, on any of the characters. Itās not horrible to look at, but it does take some getting used to.
I actually really like Bam, the protagonist. One of my favorite anime tropes is the very positive/kind shonen main character (think Deku, or Tanjirou) and Bam fits very neatly into this character trope. It could be argued that he doesnāt have much of an actual personality yet, but it seems like thatās intentional? Heās basically just obsessed withĀ āRachelā who we know very little about at this point, but again that seems to kind of be the main conflict.
I also like Khun, despite his character design being kind of ridiculous. His personality contrasts very well with Bamās, and with Rak (crocodile dude) completing their trio, they make a great team. Some of the other characters trying to āclimb the towerā seem like theyāre supposed to be huge assholes, but we donāt know very much about them yet.
IMO, the worldbuilding in this show is not super great; I know that inundating the audience with information about an entirely new fantasy world is not recommended, but there almost isnāt enough information being given at all to the point where I donāt even kind of know whatās going on. Iām hoping thatāll change soon as more episodes come out, but at this point Iām way more confused than intrigued.
Iāve mentioned that if I lose interest in a show I will stop watching it, but as of right now I donāt see this happening withĀ Tower of God. I wouldnāt say Iām loving it yet, but Iām a sucker for mystery worlds, and as of right now I want to know so much more about this world that Iām willing to suffer through the confusing drip feed of info thatās happening rn. Stay tuned for part 2 of this review once Iāve finished the season!
Thanks for reading,
-threecheersforinking
