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「400分の3」 (400-bun no 3)
“3/400”
To stipulate up front, the second episode of Kami no Tou was certainly better than the first. But in fairness to Telecom Animation Film and the anime staff, the manhwa was the same – at least for me. The first couple of chapters were a walking start, but it was with the arrival of the major characters that really entered the story this week that things became genuinely compelling. While Bam is an excellent protagonist (as I think most new viewers will eventually come to agree) it’s in group dynamics that SIU really excels as a writer.
There’s a danger of input overload with Tower of God, that’s for damn sure. Fair warning – it becomes a major issue later in the manhwa, should you choose to read it. Even here one can get overwhelmed by the flood of characters and background information, but I thought the anime did an excellent job of navigating that this week. The presence of Lero-Ro (Tsuda Kenjirou – thank goodness he finally got some work) definitely helps. He’s the first ranker (a kaibutsu who’s climbed all the way to the top of the tower) we meet, and his rather serene and logical presence helps ease us (and Bam) into the next phase of the story without being too heavy-handed about it.
I was a bit skeptical of Kenjirou for this role, and he’s certainly not what I imagined when I was reading (not to mention being terribly overexposed at the moment) but his performance is kind of working for me. Casting is a huge deal in this sort of series where larger-than-life characters are everything, and none of them is larger than Rak Wraithaiser (Miyake Kenta). By contrast Miyake is spot-on what I imagined – Ohtsuka Akio is the only other name I considered. As for Khun Aguero Agnes (Named after a soccer player from Argentina who’s named after a manga character who plays soccer. Full circle.), Okamoto Nobuhiko is another odd choice – I was thinking someone like Ishida Akira – but so far he too is clicking pretty well for me.
These two are the Yin and Yang surround Bam at the moment. The Blue Turtle calm and calculating, taking an interest in this strange young boy wielding what’s clearly a legendary weapon in the Black March. Rak is pure hunting instinct – the Black Turtle interests him only as prey. But when the child-cube announces that the culling to 200 has been completed and that the next stage is for survivors to form groups of three within five minutes, Khun moves into manipulator mode and tries to make Gator see the logic in joining forces. Bam interests him enough to merit close observation, and Rak is obviously strong as all get out – a useful quality for a potential teammate.
It won’t be news to regulars (pun intended) that I generally despise exposition by explanation, but here it sort of made sense in context for Lero-Ro to explain a few things to both the group (Shinsu, and its importance) and to Bam (regulars, irregulars – like him – and such). Obviously Bam is here for a reason – if he weren’t strong, we’d have no story. He wasn’t even moved by Lero-Ro’s wall of Shinsu, and he spotted who the strongest of the ones on the other side of it was. But Bam is a child even above and beyond the fact that he physically remains one – he has no memories beyond being trapped in a pit and rescued by Rachel. His innocence is not a put-on – it’s who he is. Nothing in his memory has prepared him for what he’s currently facing.
As for the other climbers, a few certainly stand out. Anak (Sekine Akira), who both Bam and Lero-Ro recognize as a beast). Hatz (Fukamachi Toshinari) who fought her to a draw. Their eventual teammate Shibisu (Eguchi Takuya), who seems to be all bluster but does manage to will his way through the Shinsu. And this chap (Ono Daisuke), who can only be bothered to wake up when he needs to do something badass in about three seconds or snark at somebody for being too loud. But newsflash – Rak is the best character of the bunch. No one beats the Gator.
It surely isn’t going to escape the attention of anyone who knows the series that this setup bears a striking resemblance to the Hunter Exam arc in Hunter X Hunter. I don’t really consider that either a positive or negative, just a thing – but to the extent it matters I don’t personally feel Tower of God borrows too liberally from HxH, and I won’t hold it against any writer that they’re influenced by Togashi Yoshihiro (that’s just good taste). I just think at this point of the story Kami no Tou is insanely good fun, and to my relief I thought this episode really captured that. I described myself as “cautiously optimistic” after the premiere, but I’d definitely crank that optimism up a couple of levels now.
Wow, Bam is about to awaken his ‘Nen’ abilities. I bet it’s either enhancer or specialist
I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the first. The pacing was much improved
Personally I think the Manwha is pretty bad. It suffers from “Naruto Syndrome”
That is pretty much, the Author not know how to write a complete story. Also given that the format of manwhas call for as LITTLE content in each chapter as possible, makes it VERY frustrating to read, combine those two together and you have a manwha that’s been going on for 10 plus years. Really I look back the other day to where it is now and really the story hasnt progressed much from where I left off years ago.
Unfortunately This story has made me swear off Manwhas (and I read others before this but. . .they ALSO never had a damn ending!) I like to read Korean Webnovels though, as they have an ending and it doesnt take a thousand years to get there.
Where I would differ is that IMHO the earlier arcs of the series (which will presumably be all the anime adapts) are much less impacted by the syndrome you’re describing.
So does that mean we won’t see a conclusion with this show?
Who knows? If we do it’s likely to be something original. The manhwa has been running for a decade and the anime is 12 episodes. Unless there are unannounced agreements for this is be a long-running anime franchise (which I highly, highly doubt).
13 episodes, actually. With the pacing they are going for right now (6 chapters per episode), that’s exactly enough to adapt the entire first part plus its epilogue (74 + 4), so at the very least there should be a logical stopping point.
I really doubt all we’ll see is 13 episodes. They wouldn’t take a random Korean book series, adapt it in hyperdrive and then say thats it. There will be a method to the madness.
Funny, my opinions are the opposite, most webnovels are slogs of either poorly written or poorly translated literature. just cannot abide by them. It does not hurt in comic form because the art can carry the series. But novel live and die by the word, and most Korean webnovels are miserable to read through (and yes I have read quite a lot of them in desperation to find a good one.) Yes they end, but if the story sucks who cares?
Pretty okayish episode, but Bam is still bland and the SD characters threw me off. Less of those please.
Baam’s bland because he’s supposed to represent a total blank state, devoid of character, which ironically gives him a unique character. Also, SD characters are faithful adaptations of the OG material which I appreciate so give me more of those please.
Thought so, but those work better in manga/manhwa form then anime IMO.
I can’t help it but I chuckled a bit after hearing “Khun Aguero”, he’s just a recent iconic player, so it catched me off guard
SIU loves using names of football players (or soccer, if you’re American) in general, haha. I think fans counted at the very least 20 of such names? Though of course the manhwa is long, approaching the 500 chapter mark this year, so there has been plenty of time to use those names.
Well, that’s certainly interesting, I’ll wait for a Michel Platini, Zizou Zidane, Lionel Messi, Pelè, Alex Del Piero etc…
“The presence of Lero-Ro (Tsuda Kenjirou – thank goodness he finally got some work) ”
Really? I’ve begun hearing this guy all over the place. I’ve probably heard him several times before, but I didn’t really NOTICE notice him, until he played OH in the first half of season 4 of MHA.
After that I recognized him again as the main character in Id Invaded, and now, here in this new show. I’m beginning to hear him all over the place. It’s not like he’s been absent.
It was sarcasm, ROFL. He’s in pretty much every show.
Ah, lol.
I looked up his credits and was astounded at how much stuff I’ve seen with him in it. I just never really noticed him until now for some reason.
It’s obvious you’re not a fan of the way the manhwa is going but I feel like shining that bias through in your review of the Anime is not particularly objective or fair for anime only fans if the impression you constantly give in the early episodes are ‘tower of god sucks later on’ . Let us determine that for themselves .