The God of High School Episode 5 “Ronde / Hound” Anime Review
Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.
While watching this episode and eating my lunch at the same time, I was having mixed feelings. First, the fight scene between Han Daewi and Jin Mori came way too early in my opinion, but I believe this is because the second half will cover the “Nationals Arc” based on the characters we saw at the end of the episode.
Han Daewi’s backstory and the friendship between the trio felt force-fed to us. While the Webtoon was somewhat guilty of force-feeding the friendship to us in a way too, the anime managed to do it worse with the five episodes we were given so far. The anime covered about 40ish chapters in five episodes to give context for non-Webtoon readers. I think cutting the exposition regarding certain characters and plotlines harmed the anime more than helped it.
Jin Mori and Han Daewi’s fight scene was animated beautifully despite the breakneck pace though. I’ll give the writers and animators credit for doing a good job on that at least. Han Daewi’s Wave of the Blue Dragon—or Azure Dragon—wasn’t animated the best as it could be. Jin Mori’s Original Technique: Kick of the Blue Dragon was animated better—similar to Goku’s Dragon Fist in a way—but not by much compared to Han Daewi’s technique. Watching the fight scene made me realize they cut a lot of context out regarding how they learned their fighting styles. Let me know when we riot, y’all.
However, it looks like the second half of the season will be covering what the God in The God of High School actually means. The “Nationals Arc” will be pretty epic once that story gets going though, so I’m hoping getting there will be worth all the cuts and changes that had to be done in the beginning. Hopefully, the anime’s pacing fixes itself now. This next arc is actually really good, and it kept me reading when I experienced the Webtoon back in May 2020.
Overall, I’m not feeling The God of High School the way I thought I would. While I’m still excited to watch the next episodes, I really hope The God of High School isn’t a 13-episode season. We need more room and space for what’s going to happen next. I guess time will tell how the first season will turn out in the end. Thanks for reading my episode review! I will see you all next week for the “Nationals Arc”! Let’s keep it going!