Tower of God Anime Review

Depending on where you look online, Tower of God is one of the more hyped anime I've seen floating around this season. It follows around Bam who is trying to climb the Tower to find Rachel, the only other person he has ever known. She wishes to climb the tower so that she may see the stars, and she left him behind to pursue this.

Being given a sword by Yuri, a Princess of Jahad, to help him climb and meet Rachel once again. While the world as a whole we are given very little information on, as our lead character was isolated from the world, we learn bits about the world as the show progresses, mostly with how it relates to the Tower. People who are invited to the Tower by its guardians are called Regulars, though people like Bam who entered the Tower on their own but granted permission to participate by Headon after completing a test. Bad things happen whenever an Irregular enters the tower, though it's never detailed what exactly that is.

This is where we start to get into the biggest negative of the show, and that is Bam himself in insufferable bland. He's kind, he doesn't have any real ambition, he just wants to find Rachel and make friends along the way, he probably is also really good with animals, he's just boring as a character. Come seasons end it seems we may start to get some interesting things going on, but most of the show he kind of drags it down.

The rest of the cast, however, is fascinating. You have the two people that form a Team with Bam, one of which is here not necessarily to climb the Tower but to fight powerful opponents, Rhak, and Khun. Khun acts as the brains and cunning to keep the group together and alive, often through very underhanded means that are never made aware to Bam, he sees something in Bam he likes and wants to protect that look in his eyes. It ends up being far more interesting than Bam, especially when you realize he has something against the Tower and how the games and tests are being run.

The tests themselves are all interesting as well, ranging from brief mind games to various combat scenarios put together by the administrators of the Tower. It's also pretty interesting to see how little is known about the reward at the top, 'At the Top of the Tower exists everything in the World'. That is the promise of the one who climbs to the top. Whatever it is, so many people are doing a lot to fight for it, and it's made all the more interesting as you start to see all the different groups involved in the Tower and the plans of their start to unfold. The Princess's of Jihad all have their ideas, the government class trying to reclaim the Thirteen Month themed Swords, including the Black March given to Bam, the plans of the administrator, and even Headon himself seems to have a scheme brewing. It's not even clear right now who is on who's side.

The show did a great job setting everything up and paying it off with a hell of a twist at the end of the season. The show can fall into some pretty unbelievable stretches of Logic some characters follow to show off how smart they are, and Bam himself is seriously lacking as a lead, but the show does enough to help make up for it with some great characters, fun fights, and a lot of intrigues. I am looking forward to what the next season has to offer.