Tower of God is an ongoing manhwa created by SIU (Lee Jong-hui) on LINE Webtoon. The anime is written by Erika Yoshida, directed by Takashi Sano, and produced by Joseph Chou.
The spring anime season was rough this year. With COVID-19 causing chaos, a lot of series have been put on hiatus and we have no idea when they will return. Luckily, there were some series that they were able to finish before all the shutdowns began and thankfully, Tower of God was one of them. I said before in my Spring Anime Picks that I have been reading the manhwa for quite some time and I was so happy when the anime was announced.
Twenty-Fifth Bam (yes, that’s his actual name) has been living in a cave for an unknown number of years, his only human contact being with a girl named Rachel. Rachel has taught Bam many things and told him many stories, including the legend of the mysterious Tower. When Rachel tells Bam she is going to climb the Tower, he feels compelled to follow his only friend, wanting nothing more than to be her support. However, the challenges of the Tower are great, they are deadly, but Bam is determined to find Rachel and reach the top with her and his newfound friends, Khun, the son of a Noble and High Ranker, and Rak, a reptilian spear-bearer
Of course, these 4 are not our only characters. The world of Tower of God is vast and complex, but it’s also easy to keep up with. The series takes time to introduce every character and establish their motives without slowing down the plot. It’s honestly impressive how much ground they cover without leaving you feeling confused about who is who or why something is happening (unless it’s obviously supposed to be a mystery). I won’t spoil anything for non-manhwa readers but I will say this, the season finale punches you just as hard in the anime as it did in the manhwa, even knowing it was coming didn’t soften the blow.
One of the best aspects of Tower of God is Bam. Rather than being your stereotypical way-too-powerful shounen protagonist, Bam starts off incredibly weak, but he’s not whiny and unlikable for it. It’s made obvious he’s special and has a hidden strength inside him, but he isn’t immediately over-powered. He still has to learn and grow just like everyone else. He also relies heavily on his teammates for support and they all bring their own unique strengths to the table.
The anime does an amazing job keeping true to the source material. Some things are altered, but its relatively minor aesthetic changes. The art is clearly inspired by the manhwa as well. It doesn’t look like a lot of your typical anime design and it’s perfect. It feels like the manhwa has come to life and not just been adapted into a standard anime format. Everything about this anime feels like so much time, effort, and thought were put in to it and it pays off.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Tower of God is available exclusively on Crunchyroll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2YwDnBPVs
