The Tower of God is the anime of this season. It’s the one everyone was hyped up for, and the one everyone wants to watch. So how does it hold up? Did it disappoint or exceed my expectations?
The opening moments of the show are bizarre cuts of characters, dialogue, and a bit of exposition. Unlike most other shows, it does not spoon feed you information in the first ten minutes of the show. While there’s nothing wrong with the show straight up telling you what’s going on and what kind of place the story is in, it’s nice to see something that makes you figure out things for yourself. After the opening credits you are met with the main character, Simp Lord. Simp Lord is simping after this girl who wishes to climb the Tower of God. Simp Lord follows her and ends up in the tower. The show has a very unique visual style, since it was based off of a web novel, and it shows. The art can look a little strange at points, but the visual flair adds a lot of personality and charm the the experience. Also, this scene is absolutely gorgeous. Instead of something more normal, the way Simp Lord enters the tower is completely baffling. The floor turns out to be a giant door that slowly opens up and swallows him whole.
When Simp Lord wakes up, he is in a dark hallway with a strange creature watching him. The creature is the one administering Simp Lord’s first test. He tells him that he must pass the test to go to the next floor. When I first started watching, I was hoping to see something that hadn’t been done a million times, and this show does not disappoint. Simp Lord must enter a room with an enormous steel eel and destroy the ball that it is protecting. This is way better than some generic trial like, “Defeat this dude to progress.”
I won’t spoil the rest of the episode, but I highly recommend you check it out. Of course, the show isn’t perfect. The second episode starts adding some comedy which I think completely clashes with the solemn and grim tone set by the first episode. Comedy in a serious show isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like they should’ve waited for a better time to use it. Dark or dry comedy would’ve fit the show way better than funny anime faces. However, this is just a small nitpick, and this show keeps continuing to impress me, so I’ll let it slide. I give this show a 9/10.