This is sort of a tough piece to write, because I do so under the assumption that at least some of you are going to read the manhwa after the anime left things where it did. There are things I really should talk about in interpreting this finale, but really can’t without coloring one’s view of the chapters to come. I always err on the side of caution when it comes to spoilers (and I implore commenters to do the same), but there are conclusions that can safely be drawn here, so I’ll concentrate on those.
This was certainly a finale that had some ‘splaining to do – and it did that in spades. I think it did a pretty good job of placing the events of the season in context – in fact, offering more information than the manhwa did at this point in the story to help it do so. Is that an implication that there’s no second season of the anime to follow? I’ve always been skeptical that Tower of God would run more than one cour – it’s popular by web manhwa standards but that’s not a medium that offers a lot of moneymaking potential for a production committee. Still, there was a part of me that was quixotically hopeful we’d see an announcement at the close of this episode.
First, Rachel. The anime spent more time this week showing us these events from her perspective than the source material did (though it skimmed over a few interesting passages that cast her in a slightly different light). I would say, on balance, Rachel comes off looking better – well, less worse – here than she does in the manhwa. But while it’s hard to be objective I still think she comes off looking pretty awful. Is she manipulated by Yu and Hwaryun to suit their purposes? Sure – but she was a perfectly willing tool in their hands. She had a choice – it’s not as though her life was threatened, only her ambition.
This, to me, is the hard truth about Rachel. She lacks the ability to do what she wants to do (this is obvious in her humiliating conversation with Headon), and she’s willing so sell out a much more deserving and honorable person to make up the difference. Not only that, but she hopes someone else will come along and kill Bam before she has to do it herself. Of course we can’t talk about why Yu and Hwaryun did what they did – why they needed Bam’s friends and the Jahad princesses to think he was dead. But when you hear the word “savior” tossed around, it’s obviously something they consider pretty important.
Jealous, a coward, ruthless – Rachel is a bad apple to be sure. And you can add “shameless” to the list, as she now accepts the help of Bam’s friends to climb the tower. There’s plenty of resentment from Khun and grief from all (most demonstrably Rak), but no obvious indication that any of them suspects what really happened. They think this is what Bam would have wanted, and they’re going to honor his wishes. There’s fallout beyond that too – Lero-ro walks out on his job as a ranker, and Quant is jettisoned along with him. He may not know exactly what went down and why, but Lero-ro can certainly recognize the stench of treachery when he smells it.
As for Bam, he is indeed alive – though his fate has now been commandeered by those who see him as a powerful weapon to serve their ends. As much as we learned about Bam this season, he remains mostly a mystery – even to himself. Being exploited by others is clearly the one constant in his life, so this new turn is nothing especially surprising. The only thing new was finding friends who valued Bam for who he was, and those have been taken away from him now.
It’s hard to overstate the extent to which this season only scratched the surface of SIU’s story. Basically this was the prologue, and only takes us up to the start of the main story. An anime that does that and stops there seems rather pointless, but the prologue happens to be some of the best material of the entire series. There are a lot of peaks and valleys ahead to say the least – Kami no Tou is an incredibly unfocused and meandering series at times. But there’s some great stuff – and some great characters – out there too, and I would genuinely love to see the anime continue. The problem, as always, is money – and how a production committee could be convinced that might make any off a continuation.
On balance I think Telecom did quite a nice job with this adaptation. Frankly it was much more well-produced than I expected, the cast was excellent, and getting Kevin Penkin to contribute the music was a major coup. There was no genius on display here – Tower of God was a pretty linear take on the manhwa, without a lot of huge changes or stylistic flourishes. But with any anime and especially one giving only a small taste of the source material, I think the first priority has to be to give viewers a sense of why people like that source material. And I think Kami no Tou accomplished that goal quite well.
ibtachi
June 25, 2020 at 11:52 pmCompared to the first episode (which I didn’t love – I considered it serviceable) this turned out to be pretty damn good adaptation. In particular, on the audio side – I found the seiyuu, music and sound direction to really elevate this by-the-numbers adaptation. And I don’t mean that as insult – with the source material this solid, all it needed was a competent execution, but it definitely went a few steps further by the end of it.
Aso, one reason why I have my fingers crossed for a continuation is the pacing. The team here did a good job trimming the fat from the manhwa. Overall, I do think the anime gained more from the kinetic pace than it lost in form of skimmed or skipped dialogues/conversations/gags. Future seasons (if they happen) could do a lot for rectifying or at least narrowing SIU’s unfocused pacing. Mind you I ended up dropping the manhwa quite a few years ago, so I’m not sure how messy the plot actually gets and how much rectifying a streamlined anime adaptation could do.
Guardian Enzo
June 26, 2020 at 11:21 amIt could certainly help if substantial cuts are made – I’m thinking more hacksaw than scalpel here. Ironically I think the part of the manhwa the first season adapted was the part that least needed trimming (though that’s a high bar).
I just don’t see who makes money off this franchise as an anime, and that’s generally the deciding factor. I hope I’m wrong, because the stuff being greenlit gets more and more dire every year.
leongsh
June 26, 2020 at 8:49 amSorry. Not convinced about this series. The kind of acclaim given to this manwha was off the wall. Even if we call this cour of Tower of God a prologue, it did not really want to make me read more. If you want a comparison between what a prologue of an acclaimed series really is, you need not look any further than the recent anime adapataion of Vinland Saga. Now, THAT is truly befitting the kind of acclaim the manga got. Against Vinland Saga, Tower of God is poor in comparison for an acclaimed series. Really underwhelming after so much hype.
dc22
June 27, 2020 at 7:55 pmAgreed. Seems people are only more forgiving towards ToG because its source is korean and they want more adaptations.
Elia Notari
June 26, 2020 at 4:16 pmJust out of curiosity: what’s your favorite arc of ToG?
On forums or on reddit the general consensus is that the Workshop part and battle is the most well-loved.
I remember I’ve really loved the Hidden Floor arc in the gigantic Hell Train mega arc.
Guardian Enzo
June 26, 2020 at 4:45 pmGoodness me, it’s hard to say. It’s been a long time since I dropped it and I don’t remember one arc standing out that much above all the rest. There were parts of Hell Train that were great but it just seemed to go on forever. I remember really liking Urek Mazino when he was introduced on V. 2, I guess in Zygaena’s Flower.
Elia Notari
June 26, 2020 at 9:34 pmHoly fuck, that tells me that you may have skipped Kallavan in his entirety, I think you’d like him
Jindujun93
June 27, 2020 at 7:50 pmI’ve sort of outgrown ToG by now (even though I still actively read it), but even with that being said, I’d love a sequel that covers at least the beginning of part 2 in the future, since until the end of the workshop battle arc, it’s still at its peak. After that it still had its occasional height, but became a lot more messy as SIU kept going and introduced more and more characters while bringing the pacing to a huge slowdown. An adaption of early part 2 would cover the introduction of all of my other favorite characters besides Rak, even the one character I like more than him (the characters in question are Ja Wangnan, Jinsung Ha and Urek Mazino, with the first one being my absolute favorite), so that’d be a treat, but I’m not holding my breath.
Still, that was a nice adaption. Cut a bit more than I would have liked since part 1 of ToG really wasn’t in the need for much cutting and the world-building that I appreciated early on suffered a bit from it, but it still turned out to be a lot more solid than I was expecting. Kevin Penkin nailed it just as I figured he would, the voice acting was on point too. I’m happy it got its chance, even if this will be the last we will see of it animated.
Guardian Enzo
June 27, 2020 at 8:10 pmThat’s the thing, for all that it becomes a colossal mess there are some great characters still out there – I personally love Urek Mazino too, and Khun Ran as well, and we got so little of Yuri’s awesomeness this season.