Anime Review – Tower of God Season 1 (2020)

It was inevitable that, like other contemporary streaming platforms, Crunchyroll would start to produce its own original content. Under the banner of Crunchyroll Originals, the first wave of titles was announced on the 24th of February 2020. One of the titles announced as part of this first slate was Tower of God.

Tower of God is based on the South Korean webtoon of the same name and is animated by Telecom Animation Film. The show follows our lead, Twenty-Fifth Bam, who goes by Bam for short. He is chasing down Rachel, who wants to enter the Tower of God to reach the top and see the stars. While trying to go with her and be by her side, he somehow manages to enter the titular Tower of God, but Rachel is nowhere to be seen. From there, his goal is to get to the top of the tower so he can be with Rachel again.

What stands out straight away is how stunning the show is. The animation has a rough-around-the-edges look that is visually alluring. It reminds me a lot of manga, where you can see the line work. This is at its best during the action set pieces. Even though it has this rough look, all the movement is elegant and full of drama. In addition, even the colours feel unique. While not quite muted, they are not overly vibrant, leading to a show that stands out compared to its contemporaries. Everything combined makes the show look visually unique and special.

What also allows you to be swept up into the world is the soundtrack. Kevin Penkin does a masterful job creating a score that accompanies every scene in a way that elevates the overall product instead of merely dressing it.

The narrative is where I feel the anime is kind of rocky. The show’s main narrative is about Bam while he tracks down Rachel. They are the least interesting characters in the entire show. Bam is very naive and overly nice, and Rachel is just boring. Her motivations are kept very mysterious and even later in the series her character delves into a dated troupe that I won’t spoil but I felt that story beat could have been dealt with more interestingly.

However, all of the side characters are incredible and make up for the lackluster main duo. I couldn’t go into why I love all the side characters, as there are so many of them, but each character is fleshed out and has their own motivations for wanting to reach the top of the tower. In conjunction with that, seeing our cast overcome all the challenges adds layers to their development.

Tower of God Season 1 is a pretty good start to this story. While I wish our main duo were more captivating, everything else is great and sets up an interesting direction for Season 2.

★★★★

Available on Blu-ray or to Stream on Crunchyroll / Johnny Yong Bosch, Chris Hackney, Matthew David Rudd, Valerie Rose Lohman / Dir: Takashi Sano / Crunchyroll / 15