Tower of God

I wrote a full review on reddit if you guys want to check it out.

Art: The art is very unique and drawn by the author (SIU) himself at the start. Art is not its strong point at the start but bear with it as he gets way better as the story progressed (ongoing for almost 10 years now) and now he probably has an amazing team helping him out. Check out some new chapters if you're curious about the difference in the art now and then. The characters, shinsoo(kidna like energy in this story) , background scenes, fighting scenes, killer moves and techniques are all drawn to the highest level of detail and beauty nowadays.

Story: Not gonna go into the details to avoid spoilers but it's simply outstanding. Other reviews might have an outline of the story if you're interested. The pacing is slow at first and it might be confusing or boring depending on your taste, but absolutely stick with it. I'll just say that it just keeps getting better. Take your time, be patient and enjoy yourselves. There will be a moment when you start to go crazy and get obsessed with this story.

Character: The main character is the overpowered type. The destined one with unlimited talent and background. He's not the best character in the story and kinda typical for a shounen MC. .

The other characters are where it's at. So many characters who are all written to absolute perfection. Their relationships, family background, character designs (they look cool, their names sound cool, they act cool, etc...). Even minor characters usually show up or are involved in something later on. Everything and everyone seems to connect really well with everything else.

Overall, Tower of God/10. Definitely one of my favourites of all time and probably the best ongoing manga along with AOT

Synopsis: I can't really say anything without spoiling much. Essentially, the protagonist follows his friend up a tower (or in this story, THE tower), at first trying to find them, while also getting caught up in the tower's circumstances. Side Note: This series is quite lengthy with 452 chapters as I write this review.

Story (10/10): At first, the story doesn't seem so complex, but as you continue reading, you discover more and more about the workings of the tower. What I would compare this to is Once Piece, where the reader is introduced to more and more of the world's secrets as you progress (though One Piece does this a bit better). In doing so, a large portion of the earlier chapters may seem bland, but in actuality they are used as set-ups for later chapters. One other thing to note: this webtoon/manhwa has a habit of setting up competitions through sometimes overly complicated rulesets. I think this is a good idea, but sometimes the author goes overboard. Thankfully, the author has begun to do less of this in recent arcs (however this is just my opinion).

Art (9/10): Going to be honest, the art in the earlier chapters is pretty bad, around 4/10. Thankfully, with so many chapters, the author has greatly improved (or maybe he hired artists, idk), so that's why I have it a 9/10. The art is unique and has its own style, and the colorization is a plus for me.

Character (7.5/10): Once again, this manhwa has a huge cast, just like one piece. Unlike One Piece, it fails to really bring depths to its characters. Each member of its large cast does have distinct personalities, but often the huge cast pulls away from individual characters. Also, some character motivations, are, well, questionable.

Overall (9/10): Overall, the strengths of this manhwa outshine its faults by a significant margine. Unfortunately, the earlier chapters of it give a false representation on what the series is entirely about, so you might need to sit through some average chapters to get to the real meat of the manhwa. I also don't recommend this as someone's first manhwa (only because it has a very unique style), but I would recommend to anyone who has read a few (4 ish) and are looking for more.

First time writing a review, so here it comes. TOWER OF GOD.

Story 10/10

The story is so entertaining, interesting, and one of the best crafted stories I've ever read in all of my years reading mangas, manhwas, and even novels. I can't believe that a simple premise as "climbing tower" would be much more than that. The lore and mysteries is definitely one of the best as well. The series can be a bit slow at times because of the set-ups for the stories but the pay-off will definitely make up for it. Though the set-ups are mostly entertaining and interesting as well. Hunter x Hunter is the most similar show to TOG.

Art 6.5/10 (first season) to 9/10 (second season and beyond)

The first season's art isn't the greatest but it still manages to deliver what it's supposed to portray and after getting used to it, you won't even realize that the art is mediocre once you get invested on its story and it's characters. But it's still mediocre

The second season is when the art improves (might be due to having assistants) and it really portrays how the author(SIU) grows as an artists. there are plenty of beautiful arts here and there but there will be still bland/normal looking arts here and there. But it still gets the job done in the portrayal of the characters, setting and the story.

Character 10/10

Characters is one of the strongest points in this manhwa. The vast casts and each having different goals, personalities, strength, quirks, principles,is what separates it from most of the other stories out there. Each are unique, and interesting in their own way. The actions of these characters in different situations is what drives the story moving forward.

Enjoyment 10/10

Reading has never been this one hell of a ride as TOG. All the twists and turns, actions, psychological aspect, interesting characters, mystery and hype moments keeps me from not reading TOG every week.The comedies here and there are still hilarious even after rereads.

Overall 10/10

This is definitely a must read/must watch(if anime is available) and I highly recommend this. The length of the chapter might make you hesitant but trust me, when you read it and start to get to it, you would want it to be a lot longer than it is.

WARNING ! SPOILERS AHEAD!

I heard about this manhwa when there was an announcement saying two webtoons getting an anime adaptation for the first time, so it got my attention and I gave it a try. The whole story beginned with a wonderful start. Amazing characters, incredible worldbuilding, plot twists, etc. I was intrigued as I kept reading. And I have to admit it, it really was a series as great as "Hunter x Hunter". But as the time passed, many characters started to lose their majority and uniqueness. And there is also the toxic fanbase problem. If you can't tolerate a fanbase wasting their whole time for yaoi ships or throwing hate and love for some characters don't ever start this manhwa. Also after some point storyline drops quality and becomes very predictable.This manhwa has very big pros and cons. Thought I can't tolerate many things of the "Tower of God", I still kept reading it. But I can't stand it anymore. If I could the define this manhwa I would say "How to Ruin a Masterpiece". There is no hope neither future for Tower of God. Don't give me hope.

So these things I said right now were my overall thoughts about the series. Now I'll be touching upon each element of the manhwa, plus I will also be specially write something about a few characters that I want to mention.

Season 1:
Season 1 was pretty impressive. Thanks to SIU, we realized a great story won't need great drawings to make it good. A twist ending, interesting characters and an unusual worldbuilding.

Season 2:
I really don't know how to put Season 2 to words, since there were so many arcs it contained. I won't be evaluating the overall story but it had a major importance for the manhwa. %50 of the "Tower of God" story was comprised in this season. We met many of the major characters and faced the driving forces of the story here. So it's definitely better than 1st season.

Season 3:
Season 3 had the worst arc as the beginning. Deng Deng Arc was absolutely trash and cliché. It had a story which has already been used for the manhwa several times, "save the kid arc". But I really liked the later arc, Nest. It has a good potential and might grow into a vital part of the story.

Story:
The story in overall is incredible. The whole idea of fitting the whole world of the manhwa in a gigantic tower is absolutely a never seen before idea. Yet many later arcs share similarities and gets boring after a point( in many arcs, the main motive is usually obtaining some sort of item or saving someone). Althought, really liked the first arc, Workshop Battle, Hell Train etc. Another bad thing about the story is that it can sometimes be full nonsense. For example, in the beginning of the workshop battle arc, it has been mentioned for many times that the battle is gonna be pretty dangerous, thought our heroes managed to leave the arc with only a few injuries. Also, near the start of Hell Train arc, Hwaryun said to Bam that "this is a place where you must sacrifice to go on" and similar things for many times. But he only ended up losing two people(which there wasn't anything he could do about) and I won't be counting the part where he couldnt save Yuri and Jinsung from getting imprisoned, because it was Zahard's act and had nothing to with the train.

Worldbuiding and lore:
The lore of Tower of God is massive. I believe there might not be an end to it, including the notes SIU shared about the Tower's structure, characters , etc. We currently don't have enough information whether how big tower really is, and also don't know what exactly does the outside world looks like. I really loved this part of "Tower of God".

Cast:
The worst thing about this manhwa is,I believe the character cast. Bam is a pretty short phrased protagonist compared to any others in any manga or anime. Although I've been reading this manhwa for a long time, I really don't have an idea what kind of person is Bam precisely. It's obvious he is a caring and compassionate character but he is sometimes suprisingly mad. And I really don't think SIU is showing enough of Bam's personality, his inner voice or overall thoughts. Which makes it hard for the audience to symphatize for the main character. For the rest of the cast, including the side characters, I believe there aren't many good-written characters at all. There sure can be fan-favorite characters but, they are nothing more than fanservice.

Khun and Rachel ( An Especial Situation):
I won't be talking about the relationship between these characters, but I will be talking about the overall opinions and thoughts I have for them. Starting from Khun, he used to be my favorite character since the very start, but I believe Khun got very screwed since his obsession with Bam, started to think about nothing but Bam. Which leads to unhealthy fangirls to ruin the quality of tower of god fanbase. I don't care if Khun cares about Bam, but him being abnormally obsessed with him ( in many parts of the story he does a lotta things for Bam), but I really believe he is pretty ruined. For Rachel, she is the only character im neutral with. I do hated her at the season 1 finale, and when she stabbed Ran's legs, murdered Akraptor also led Prince to get eaten, but in overall she really isn't a bad girl . In stark contrast, I believe she is the most fitting character for audience to symphatize. She is a natural character. Didn't you ever had simple dreams, yet were so big for you, and that you would give anything for turning those dreams true ? She might be a b*tch but she definitely is a strongly-written character. I'm very sure she will have even greater majority in the future chapters.

Tower Of God Is Masterpiece
Tower of God is a manhwa written and illustrated by Jong-hui Lee. The difference between manga and manhwa is that manga are Japanese comics, they are made in black and white and read from right to left. Manhwa are Korean comics, they appear in local magazines, but more often they do not have a physical copy and are published on websites. On to the storyline of Tower of God, the legends say, if you manage to climb the top of the Tower of God, any wish you might have will be fulfilled. The manhwa focuses on Rachel, who is afraid of the darkness and cannot live in the gloomy world anymore. Despite her friend's wish for her to stay, she opens the door to the Tower and begins to ascent. Her friend Bam does not want to lose her and decides to follow her. However, those who are not worthy to take up the challenge, will be killed. But the risk is worth it!

Still Not Asleep?
Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. In the beginning the author should setup a hero (or a heroine) and the story, then you throw something at him that is a great source of conflict and takes him into a whole heap of trouble. After facing many foes and overcoming various obstacles the hero saves the day and wins a girl. Long story short, Tower of God follows that idea, which was created by many scholars, including Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's view of myth. Simply put, Tower of God is exactly what you call a monomyth, or a hero's journey. While giving you detailed information on it might be a spoiler, all I can say is that the same formula is used in Star Wars and in The Lord of the Rings. While this might be not the best example you can come up with, this is what Tower of God is about.

What Is Tower of God?
So what is the tower? It might be confusing firstly for one to understand where the story takes place; it has been 10 years and the fact that the protagonists of the series still have not reached the final floor is slightly confusing, to say the least. Think of the tower as some multidimensional world, which is both the center of the universe and the universe itself. Still confusing, huh? Well, of course, since it is something created by a God, hence no solid explanation can be given. Think of it as a challenge, we, as readers, will never see the tower outside, we are always inside of it, we go through endless floors, some of these floors are so big that they can contain an ocean, a whole city, or maybe even a whole country. So, as you must have already understood it, the world of Tower of God is simply enormously big. It might sound somewhat similar to the manga Blame!, but with a touch of Korean magic. With that being said, as readers, we never fully understand what the Tower is. Is it alive? Does it have its own will? Who is the God? Can you even conquer the Tower to fulfil any wish you might have, or can it be just a joke for the God to make fun of the humans, who are ready to do literally everything to be able to clear even one floor. However, this is something you will only know, after the end of the manhwa.

Are You Still There? (More About Storyline)
Why are you conquering the Tower? - which is the main question of this manhwa. There are many races that are introduced in this manhwa, they form clans, families, so you will need to keep in mind many things. And do not think that the reason for all to conquer the final floor is just money, or power; as it has been mentioned already, they are many characters in Tower of God; they all have their own reason to reach the final floor and the important part about it is that their reasons always change, since both the characters and the storyline always change, which makes this manhwa this interesting, since reading the same thing for 10 years about something that never changes might be somewhat boring.

More Confusion
The protagonist of this story is a boy named 25th Bam. Let us omit the 25th part in his name, since this discussion will involve way too many spoilers. That said, Bam does not know anything about his birth, who his parents are, he knows absolutely nothing; he lives in the darkness. Until Rachel accidentally finds him, the girl becomes the first and only living creature that Bam has ever seen in his whole life. They spend a lot of time together, they play games and dream about a better future. Rachel teaches Bam how to read and how to write, she tells him what is the good and what the bad, and that girls need to be protected and that a man should never lie to a woman. However one day, despite Bam’s wish for her to stay, Rachel opens the door to the Tower and begins to ascent. Her friend Bam does not want to lose her and decides to follow her.

So begins the long awaited conquest of the Tower. And here is the main contradiction the main protagonist of the manhwa Bam does not need the Tower, he does not need the conquest, he does not have any wishes, all he wants is to stay with Rachel. So, with every floor, Bam will meet new friends and, of course, new enemies and with the help of them he will pass the tests and meet many obstacles on his path. Tower of God is not simply about Bam and Bam only. Tower of God’s main focus is a team play, Bam is not as powerful to conquer the last floor alone. While he is powerful, of course, his power is explained, he works hard to achieve this power and even when Bam becomes stronger, he still relies on the others. So, what I am trying to say is that this manhwa is not simply about one character, which would be just boring; Tower of God focuses on many characters, be they Bam’s enemies, allies, or some neutral parties. And that is why it is that interesting to read, because it requires some talent, to introduce so many characters and also show enough development for these characters.

Bam Is Boring
No, he is not. I do agree that he might be hated at first, because he is like a baby, he does not remember anything about his past, he does not even know to how to speak, so, of course, he is going to be that easy to manipulate. But this is why Tower of God is that amazing. Bam starts as a blank sheet, but during his long path he finds new teachers, who help him become stronger, not only physically, but also mentally. Bam always changes, becomes more interesting of a protagonist and his growth is not always you would call growth, sometimes it is also the complete opposite. So, what I am trying to say is that Bam receives so much character development, that I cannot name you any other character that has ever received as much development as Bam.

It is also worth mentioning that Bam is also an irregular. An irregular is one, who was able to enter the Tower on their own, by whatever means and for whatever reason. This grants Irregulars certain benefits, such as the ability to use Shinsoo (we will touch upon it later) without a Guardian’s approval. By contrast, all other people in the tower did not 'enter' the tower themselves and are so restricted to use Shinsoo; they must be allowed to use Shinsoo and are bound by the laws of the Guardians, such as a complete inability to kill King Zahard, or a Guardian. Bam, as it has been mentioned before, is an irregular. And irregulars are these people, who can change the rules of the game, they have the power to dethrone the Kings and to introduce the new order in the tower. But Bam is too weak to be called an irregular, he is even weak by the standards of the ordinary participants, so what I am trying to say is that Bam’s power is well explained, it takes him time to gain any new power and whenever he becomes more powerful, he meets the new enemies that show Bam how weak he is mentally and physically.

First Floors
Already on the first floors, the heroes will have to face grave danger, only those who are worthy are given the right to clear a floor, those who are not worthy, will die. And I must say, quite many participants die horrible deaths. However, for administrators, or floor directors all these tests are nothing but bureaucracy, bookkeeping, anything that can be associated with boring. Tower of God grants you any wish: you can become a God yourself, anything you can think of, any wish you could have ever thought of, will be granted. And this, as you might have already guessed it, includes the fact that you can wish for the tower of God to be annihilated, or you can even destroy the whole universe. Indeed, the tower, or the God, will not want for such wishes to be made, hence the first floors are designed to get rid of these ‘unworthy’ participants. Those who are worthy, however, will learn about the meaning of power, including the Shinsoo.

Furyoku, MP, Reiatsu And Shinsoo
These are basically the same thing, but with a different name. Shinsoo is a substance that flows through and is produced by the Tower. Each Floor has areas of varying amounts of Shinsoo density, increasing with each Floor. In lower concentrations, its density makes the substance act like a gas, but in higher concentrations, it behaves like a liquid. This should be enough for me to give you a basic understanding of what Shinsoo is. Of course, many more things can be said about this mysterious power, but it will be for you to find out. And so, step by step, the world is being introduced to the reader, as well as the new friends of Bam, for example Khun Aguero Agnis - who also has a very interesting backstory about him and he is also one of the reasons why Bam changes and becomes a more interesting character. How can I forget about a racist crocodile - who will also play a major role in the storyline.

All In All
So can I recommend Tower of God? It is a must read if you are watching the anime adaptation, which, by the way, skips many details, but is still a worthy adaptation, but the anime adaptation is not the main focus of this review. Tower of God is a masterpiece, the world of Tower of God is tremendously big, this manhwa is not simply about one, or two characters, there are many characters, even supporting characters are important for the storyline, Tower of God is a mix of action, adventure, mystery, drama, fantasy and even comedy, which is funny. With that being said, there are many things I have not mentioned in my review, to tell the truth, I have not explained you anything about the world of Tower of God. This manhwa is your own little research that you must do for you to understand what it is all about. And this research will be something you will never forget.

After the anime first season finished airing, I couldn't stop myself from reading the webtoon.
I read the entire first season in less than a day and in just 3 days I've already read 250 chapters.
For the first time in my life, I find myself completely addicted to a webtoon/manga and fight with the tiredness to keep and read another chapter.

Art:
It’s the first time I read a webtoon and it shook me.
At first, the art wasn’t that great, and I thought it’s fine since the coloring covers up for it.
Also, I believed that it’s kind of ok for the artist to put less effort in the accuracy since it’s a webtoon and the story is more important.
I didn’t believe he was that professional.
But he put me wrong, as the chapters continue the art just kept getting better, at some point, I just wished somebody will read it to me and it already feels like an anime to me.

Story:
From the very beginning we are thrown into a world with a LOT of questions about it, little by little we learn new things but just when we think we know it all, they manage to add another piece that fits perfectly to this world.
The characters are amazing and their development and side stories are exactly what I like in any anime/manga/book/series I watch/read.

I really enjoy and I really recommend to whoever watched or even didn’t watch the anime first season, start read and enter the wonderful world of “Tower of God”

This manhwa is the best one that I have ever heard about, the art is 10 out of 10, the story itself is also a 10 out of 10, literally, everything is 10 out of 10.

I'm not the type of guy that would just read something that will one day become an animated series, I really hate reading, but after watching tower of god the anime I could not hold back and went straight to the manhwa until now I don't ever regret starting reading the manhwa.

I'm really excited to read the whole story right now I have taking a break from reading it. because I have been reading it non stop for the last few days, but I noticed that SUI stopped publishing chapters because he took a break, I cant wait for him to get back I'm really excited.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Lots of potential, could have been done better.

Warning this is a really long and dumb rant

Things I like about TOG:

- I know no one cares but I honestly quite like the character designs. I like the diversity (not the best but better than most I would say) and I'm glad SIU took full advantage of the different races and species in the tower to make the characters stand out instead of maybe just 1 girl with horns.

- If SIU wants to, he can make very interesting characters (huge quotation marks on if he wants to). Relevant characters in TOG generally have backstories and motivations that get you invested in them and interested in their development (if they get development COUGH COFF).

Things I don't like about TOG:

- The concept of having to pass tests and win games with very different rules is an interesting concept, but in TOG I think it's executed quite poorly. Season 1 was good enough but the tests beyond that are often extremely unnecessarily complicated. And all of them barely feel different from each other because they all turn out the same anyway, with lot's of flashy fighting. What's the point of having these complicated rules if every single one of them ends with Bam defeating some huge enemy?

- Speaking of fighting, the power scaling in TOG is utter bullcrap. Every single arc there's a new big strong villain and Bam gets more powerful and defeats them, at this point you don't feel anything when they try to make a character seem powerful.

- Looooots of plot armour, especially bam. I don't have much of a problem with plot armour usually, but sometimes the amount of plot armour characters get feels just unnecessary. E.g Khun getting OP just so he can stay in the story. The character with the most plot armour is definitely Bam, to the point where I can't feel bad anymore whenever he faces a challenge, because I know something's gonna happen and Bam's gonna get stronger and overcome it. I know plot armour is a pretty common thing, but like I said in TOG the amount of it is just frustrating

- Remember when I said SIU can make characters interesting "if he wants to"? Straight up TOG has way too many characters, most of them get minimal attention just enough to get you interested in them and then all they become are plot devices. Characters will only appear in fights or when they need to contribute to the plot, or just completely not appear at all if they're not needed anymore. What happened to Khun's backstory with Maria? Is Anaak still getting revenge for her mother? I know the ending of season 2 is supposed to be sad, but we only see Jisung Ha like 5 times, I don't feel connected to him at all, let only feel any sort of impact when Bam cries about him. The only character that I can think of who gets consistent development is Bam, and he's a whole separate point.

- Uhhh what else is there... Oh yeah it's not just the tests that are complicated, the entire plot of TOG is so convoluted and for what? We go from climbing the tower to fighting a war against Zahard. I guess 3 seasons of just climbing the tower would be pretty boring and I'm not saying it should just be that, but I would much prefer that with more focus on the characters than this overcomplicated plot that isn't even that good. Even the world building is so, I guess extra? Like what's even the point of the Red Witches and Silver Dwarves thing with navigators.

I can't think of anything else I have to say about TOG without getting nitpicky and this review is long enough already so those are my thoughts, overall you'll probably enjoy the characters, but that's it. If you are extremely bored and have nothing better to do, this is a pretty popular manhwa to waste your time with

Manhwa that actually make me sit down and read for hours a day, the author really know how to make you interested in the world that he create, the storytelling is also really good, it give you piece by piece info about history of the tower, putting you in the same position as the mc which is just a clueless boy that doesnt know who he is, and what hes goal, he may feel like a simp in s1 but its justyfable because the girl is like a mother figure to him, and the first people that he talk to, but later on hes gonna grow up, the power scalling is also really good, like if the mc is facing a clearly stronger opponent he gonna get help from other people, and his power boost is also make sense, doesnt feel forced

I am amazed by the complexity of this story. I love how the author create a whole new world with its own rules and challenges on each floor. Each floor are uniquely different from one another.The artsyles at first are not the best i see but it gradually improved. The conversation is not overwhelming. It's very simple, direct and easy to understand.

The story is however heavily focused on fight scenes. You might feel suffocated from reading the never ending fight on each floor. The pacing for this story is slow in the beginning but once the ''plot'' kicks in, boi it kicks you hard.

Each side characters equiped with their own background stories with their own purpose and not just exist there as ''extra''. The main character is however quite the opposite.He has no background story, no bursting personality but as the plot moving, he developed from 1D character to a character with his own sense of feelings just makes me proud. It's an entertaining manhwa. You wont regret reading it.

[I ONLY FOCUS ON THE NEGATIVE ASPECTS IN MY REVIEWS CHECK MY PROFILE FOR MORE INFORMATION]

Story [7/10]: Generally the Story is alright. The overall story is quite interesting but each arc usually boils down to some sort of over complicated tournament which just becomes so tedious and boring. The world that Tower of God is set in is quite an interesting concept- a giant tower with different floors where people have to pass challenges to go up, but this severely limits the story structure of each story arc in the above mentioned tournament. As well as this, a lot of the lore in ToG comes from the author's notes, which is quite frustrating as it feels like the author is too lazy to add in these plot points into the story (although they are not always that important but quite interesting nonetheless).

Art [5/10]: The art is pretty bland. The quality itself is okay (apart from the first 50 or so chapters where it really is just low quality in my opinion) but I really dislike the art style; most panels are boring to look at especially in "fights" which have now become incoherent beams of light hitting each other. The art also makes the setting quite confusing, as it is sort of like a cross between a weird fantasy/sci-fi world with space ships at the same time as special soul stealing characters, and the art makes the environment quite ambiguous as to what t.one is trying to be set, although I'm sure some people may find this appealing

Character [5/10]. Firstly, the character design is awful in Tower of God. This is more of the art style complain but I'll put it here anyway. A lot of the characters look very generic or just similar to one another and their clothing especially makes me wretch- people wearing Adidas tracksuits or just trousers in an (admittedly) epic world just is really off putting. Most of the characters themselves are either boring or under used. There are three main characters: Bam, although he used to be a very intriguing character in the second season, is now just so hard to read because of no personality beyond " I like my friends and want to save them". Khun is okay I guess but him and Rak are basically just comic relief characters now because they are too weak to keep up with Bam. I'm not going to bother mentioning any other characters because they probably won't be in it for another 100 chapters anyway as per.

Enjoyment[6/10]: Although I have criticised the series a lot, I did moderately enjoy it, although this was more due to the mind-numbing amusement in Shonen fights and power ups more than anything else and the theories that come with a rich,mysterious world like the Tower. With that said, I will still continue reading Tower of God to the end due to how intriguing the story is but at the same time I eagerly await the conclusion that can't come quick enough.

Overall: 7/10

I have read it at Webtoon. Season 1 (before time jump) was good there is direction where the story was going. A good introduction to the characters and story. It doesn't fill like dragging and almost every chapter have purpose to the plot.

Season 2 (after time jump) is where the problem begins, it starting to lose direction, too much added character that is not important to the plot and will not appear later on, starting to have some character that straight out copy paste from another series (there is a discount Killua)

I was hoping that it will get better in the later chapters but it keeps dragging on that I have to dropped out

This series is riddled with problems. One of them is the characters. The characters are very retarded. They also talk a lot in exposition, which is completely stupid as that is not how actual people talk. Whether it's dialogue or monologue, the exposition is used to dump information which may be important to the story sometimes, but is mostly useless garbage.

Also, the author decided to ditch the original side characters of Season 1, like Anak and instead brought in a lot of others. That itself would not constitute a bad thing, but unfortunately, we don't come to care for these secondary characters. I couldn't care two hoots about these characters if I wanted to. Not only do they not appear long enough for us to care about them, they are also badly written. There's so many of these insignificant characters in Seasons 2 and 3 that I've lost count. The vast majority of them don't even have any influence on the plot.

Adding to this is the complete lack of character development for most characters, making things worse. The characters also don't have consistent motivations and many characters also change their personalities out of nowhere. One minute they are ruthlessly killing their own teammates and smiling while doing so and in the next, they are crying "how could you?" at the villain for killing their mother. The only well written character in the entire series is Rachel and I haven't seen her even once in Season 3.

The next problem is the story which initially had an interesting and promising premise, but quickly went the uninteresting shounen way. Shounens themselves are not bad, HxH is a very good example of a shounen. This story is extremely bad due to the way it is excecuted. Two things were incorporated which made things worse - the power of friendship from Naruto and Dragon Ball Z style attacks. The fights only have flashy shinsoo light explosions now. There's no intelligence to the fights.

Another huge problem is the excessive focus on Baam, who is the typical angelic and flawless shounen MC. In ToG, whenever you get an interesting premise for an arc, 90% of the arc will be about power levels and how special Bam is, with the villain then getting two pages worth of back story after he's defeated and the arc ends. That's a problem with with plot and characterisation at once.

The plot has been going nowhere since Season 2 and I'm not even sure there's a plot to the story anymore, there no longer seems to be an end goal. The first Season was rather nice, had quite a lot of potential. But man the 2nd season was a bore. The story after the workshop arc was such a pain. I had to force myself to read through it. I've hadn't read something so boring and generic for such a long time. ToG is essentially a series which had potential, but squandered it terribly. I don't think the series is worth investing time into. There are way better series out there that you can read instead.

Overall, completely overrated and not worth investing time in.

Unpopular opinion here, Tower of God is overrated and the attention the anime seems to receive is going to be short-lived. Note that I'm writing this review, having read the webtoon for many years but decided to drop it.


At first, the story seems really captivating in the beginning. A character named Bam is trying to reach the top of the tower, to have his wish granted. Not to mention, Bam's relationship with Rachel. All these are really interesting to start off a series like this. However, the concept of reaching top of tower isn't exactly new or really thought provoking, hell even SAO did it already. Characters need to progress through levels in the tower to reach a specific goal, sound familiar? What SIU does well is presenting his ideas, in his own image, to the world via the form of webtoon.

Sadly, the story/plot gets forgotten really fast after the first arc or I could say first 50 to 80 chapters of the Tower of God webtoon. Suddenly theres no coherent plot or even story telling. The author at that point is just mindlessly introducing an endless amount of concept and ideas, which sadly fails to build upon a story unless you are willing to religiously dedicate your time to it hoping somehow it will be fulfilling which it never does. Exposition after exposition, nothing seems to capture readers like it did in the first few chapters.

Character interaction just doesn't seem to build upon anything and is just downright bland. The anime so far is sticking close to its source material which I hope the studio is able to wrap it up in the last few episodes.

Art-style, while its typical webtoon, don't expect much. I'd argue other webtoons are much more worthy of your time; God of Highschool, The Gamer, Hardcore Leveling, Solo leveling, Girls of the wild)

I honestly think that people are mistaking a good story with endless exposition of ideas. But you might argue, if its so bad, why is it so popular? Well this is just my opinion. Being popular doesn't exclude the fact that it can be bad or boring. TOG is just the result of SIU imaginations which doesn't deliver much in terms of story or character interaction.

I regret having spent so much time reading the TOG webtoon expecting it to deliver an experience which it probably never will.

The only thing good about the TOG anime that is really making it interesting, for me at least, are the voice actors. Anything else, is just due to the source material being downright boring.


TL:DR: I dont like the webtoon and think the anime will run dry after the first cour.

Tower of God is decent at best. It is by no means a masterpiece nor is it the best-written plot like claimed by many.

The only thing that really keeps you interested is the tower itself and the mystery around it. There was a lot of potential in the premise, it could've been done wonderfully.

Sadly, not all things turn out as you wish. The first season of the Manwha was very good, it seemed to have delivered with a good plot, well-done characters while still keeping intact the mystery. The end had me wanting more, maybe the hype was all justified. See, the 'fans' will keep telling you that it gets better so I kept on reading.

The first half of the second season was a mess, absolutely horrendous. I could barely get through 30 chapters before quitting for a week. Maybe I was missing something? There is no way in hell people got hyped for this and called it better than the first season. Turns out, not many people actually liked it. I am not going to spoil much but the first half decided to introduce a completely brand new set of characters who were all thinner than a piece of paper, it was insane how much of a turn the entire plot took and that's in a bad way. Not to mention the cheesy dialogue and the new edgier bam didn't add much either.

Anyhow, after a week of asking around to when it actually got good, I finally got an arc. It was the "Workshop Arc" that was directly after the horrible stuff. I decided to continue on and finally got to it. Surprise, the story had another major issue now. It was paced way too slow, literally reading through the chapters started becoming a chore. It was all just so uninteresting and I genuinely couldn't care less. It was like a filler arc, but somehow worse. The plot was a bit better but it really didn't matter.

As I kept on reading, it became way too apparent that the show wasn't going to get better, even if it was, I am not going to read through another 200 chapters of absolute garbage to get to it.

The story seems to have gone from the bizarre nature of the tower to how many useless side characters we can add in one plotline. It was way too obvious that SIU was trying to compensate for his lack of ideas and answers by adding more and more characters to show some sort of meaningless "depth" in his one-dimensional story.

I gave this Manwha way too many chances, even read through visceral trash, and after 200+ chapters, I think I can finally make a judgment of it.

Don't get me wrong, it's am not giving up on it just yet. I might just keep reading extremely slowly. Maybe even forget about in a while, but if it all actually ever gets good. I'll update this score to an 8, no matter how much better. If a show takes 400 Chapters to get better, it isn't worth it.

If you're someone who rightly expects a story to be good within its first 200 chapters, then ignore this Webtoon at all costs, but if you can handle painstaking going through bad chapters, 100s at a time then you might just find something at the end of the tunnel. I am however not going to go that far

Honestly, indeed, when I read once in each chapter (since season 2), it's a bit boring. But when reading for the second time and so on, I felt it was much more exciting! Especially if we repeat far, what I initially read feels boring after the second time like connecting with a story that is already running ... If this is the case, I have come to like it and on several occasions I reread the chapter that I wanted.

The first time I read it it was addicting, although at first I wasn't too interested in reading it (I thought the story would be romantic because it featured Baam and Rachel in the header of the Webtoon when it was first released in my country, so in the end I only read the prologue and eps 1 out of curiosity too). Then when I intend to read all of them, it really makes me addicted, while looking for which part of the story is interesting, why people can like it, and so on. I continue to read it until now (season 3). Even though sometimes I feel bored like I said before, I still believe that in the future there will be more interesting things for the writer to tell. What's more, I'm also looking forward to the unraveling of the mysteries that have helped shape the storyline.

Overall I can give a rating of 8.8/10, but I rounded it to 9.
This manhwa is not bad, I can recommend it to others who can tolerate reading a story as diverse as this one.

I've been waiting for this on MAL for so long and now it's finally here, I can finally put it on my list of one of my favorite Manhwas.

This btw, is one of THE BEST manwhas out there, for me tho, dunno about you guys. But I got hooked on this since the first chapter and didn't want to stop reading this for days, weeks or even months whenever I have the time to. This has become bread and butter in my daily life. That is how Intrigued I was with this, in short I got addicted since the day I laid eyes on it.

Well enough chitchat shall we? Time for the review I guess?


Story 10/10: the story is about a tower built by someone (A god maybe? XD). No, it is actually about a boy who was left all alone at the bottom of a tower (more like a basement) since he was a baby, until he was found by a girl. Then they grew up together on the outer areas of that tower and one day this girl decides to go up the tower, for some unknown reasons, her dream maybe? (nah..she just want to see some sparkly things up there duhh). The boy then ran after her for he doesn't want to be separated with her (talk about clinginess to the max). Then they found themselves at the door and accidentally the one who was sucked in or rather chosen was none other than our protagonist BAM! (leaving the girl behind???? XD hey no spoilers you mofo!). And that was it. A new adventure awaits BAM. As he was searching for the girl (he loves?) new mysteries unfold about his past, his fam, his powa! While learing about the purpose of the floors and the tower itself, about why hasn't anyone reached the top yet, And why do they have loooooong lives? About the harem king which is on top, jk, He will each solve these mysteries as he meets his new badass friends along the way (and possibly a waifu! Make that two, no it is a HAREM!) And so the story goes on and on.

Yeah. So the story is magnificent. The pace is not too fast not too slow either, good balance between suspense and drama, I don't mind it being to long since I'm enjoying every part of it. Well that for me tho.

Art 10/10: It is simple and at the same time it's beautiful. Simplicity is beauty.. you can easily distinguish scenes on every panel. Characters designs too are badass. Watch out for BAM his transformation is the best!

Characters 10/10: hohoho man, the best there is, the development is quite good. As you go in deeper you'll find out even more cool ass characters and even bad ones.

Enjoyment 10/10: well I haven't caught up and waiting if I didn't enjoy.

Overall 10/10: you guys should probably read this. It's a must!

I was introduced to Tower of God through the recent introduction of its anime adaptation. I hadn't heard much of it before that and what I did hear was always positive so I delved into the anime with pretty high expectations. I was immediately drawn in by the setting and world of TOG. The story follows the mysterious protagonist, Baam, into the Tower of God and follows his journey of climbing the tower. The world building is compelling, and the story pulls you in with its unanswered questions. Which is why its so dissapointing to say that after reading almost 400 chapters of TOG, I can say that those questions I had? Are still unanswered. All of them. This story doesn't go anywehere.

Story: 3/10

Ignore what I said earlier about the TOG being compelling. This is your run-of-the-mill typical shonen story. There's a bit of momentum carrying it forward at the beginning with the main protagonist being thrust into an unfamiliar environment. I even think the first season ends off on a pretty strong note. But then season 2 hits, and my mind goes blank if you try to ask me to mention anything of praise from there. At the end of almost every arc, I had to ask myself: what was the point of all that? Couldn't we have just skipped all that and the story would have been left unchanged? And the answer to that question is almost always yes. The second season goes on for 300-something chapters and I can think of one, ONE, major plot development. An entire 8 years worth of chapters could have been replaced with a single arc, and nothing would have changed. And this isn't even mentioning the metric tonne of dropped plot threads, half due to the ever fattening amoeba that is Baam's team of forgettables (more on that later). The whole story is littered with random developments, that serve nothing to the overarching plot, and seem to be made up on the go and are later dropped, never to be heard from again. It was pretty evident to me when reading, that the author had no clear direction when writing the story, and each story arc seemed to be just a way for the protagonist to get a cool new powerup, without anything really happening.

Art: 5/10

I'll be lenient here and just ignore the quality of the art from season 1. I almost dropped the manhwa because the quality of the art was so off-putting. The art does significantly improve in later chapters, but just know, that if you're a stickler for good art, you're going to have to wait a hell of a long time before it even resembles anything mediocre. There isn't really anything significant to be said about the art to be honest. At best its meh, and at worst, it puts a grimace on my face. The backgrounds and landscapes lack any modicum of detail or thought. Typically just two-color blue or grey blurry images that hide behind the characters (which is really unfortunate, with a world as much potential as TOG, the background scenes could have been a very strong tool and medium of storytelling). The fight scenes are confusing, as I don't understand what's going on half the time beacuse they consist of 4 consecutive panels of random splashes of colour which do nothing to explain what the heck is happening. Overall, the art isn't unbearable, but it certainly isn't anything noteworthy.

Characters: 2/10

This is easily where TOG falls flat on its face. It's amazing how many characters are in the story, and yet at the same time there are no characters. Rather than developing a few characters to push the narrative forward, the author seems to be content throwing a bunch of flat, one-dimensional characters in your face, telling you to look at the cool special ability they have. Even the characters that do get some development are half-baked at best and are later forgotten about like the rest of the crew. And there are. So. Many. Of. Them. Almost all the characters are just props in the story, that serve as "friends that the main character needs to protect". And they just keep coming. With each new arc, a whole slew of new randoms get jammed into the already conflated cast, and some old ones are thrown in the dumpster, never to be mentioned again. You know, your story has too many characters when you could cull half of them, and the story would remain completely UNCHANGED. And don't even get me started on our beloved main hero, Baam. This boy is one of the most generic, self-insert, boring protagonists, bordering on Kirito levels of blandness. His whole character boils down to "I have to get stronger to protect my friends". I can't even give you an accurate description of his personality, because he flip-flops so much throughout the story for no apparent reason like a moody teenager. He has no clear and consistent motivations to drive the plot forward, no real conflicts that enable character growth, not even a BACKSTORY to relate to. Everything about Baam screams blank, power fantasy character with the depth of a kitchen sink. The story is filled to the brim with characters like these, who serve as action figures to play out a scene, rather than as actual people who drive the plot. The only reason this doesn't get a 1 is because I think some of the character designs are pretty alright.

Enjoyment: 4/10

Despite everything, I still think there are things that the 14-year old shonen lover in me found enjoyable. If TOG has anything going for it, its the interesting and unique concepts that it presents to the reader. However filled with inconsistencies, and underdeveloped those concepts may be, it was still cool to read.

Overall, I'm pretty disapointed with TOG. I wanted it to be good, because the concept on paper was compelling and filled with potential. But alas, what we got was a half-baked mess, filled with logical inconsistencies, unfinished plot-threads, and a bland cast of characters. I can't find myself recommending this to aynone, unless your a fan of the shonen formula and have a lot of free time on your hands.

Sup, turtles!

ToG is the answer to the very important question "what if Hunter x Hunter and One Piece had a baby, then stabbed the baby and each other in the back for mysterious reasons?". If you need more reasons to read it (I think I got it all covered already), I'll get in a bit more detail with NO SPOILERS.

Story: 9/10

Do you like Hunter x Hunter and One Piece? What about a series that combines the best aspects of both?

The first season is pretty much one big homage to the Hunter Exam arc, with the main plot device being our main cast going through a series of life-risking tests, most of them very entertaining to watch. The tests are well made and become a staple throughout the series, though they start getting less frequent as the series starts expanding its incredibly detailed world and all its underlying themes.

The Tower is absolutely MASSIVE. I have not seen this rich level of detail in world building since One Piece, hence the constant comparison. SIU went to great efforts in order to make the world of ToG feel alive, full of mysteries and events that affect the world without direct relation to the main cast, with many different factions fighting each other to achieve their own specific goals. The floors are for the most part very unique, basically their own pocket worlds with different rules and plotlines (very much like the islands in One Piece). The series is worth reading for the world lore alone, but there is so much more.

MYSTERIES. This world and its characters are so full of interesting mysteries its hard to choose what you wanna find out the most first. The way some of its mysteries end up being revealed can be a bit lackluster at times (looking at you, Garan "Exposition" Jarad), but there is always something being hinted at or foreshadowed which will make you keep reading because you don't need sleep, you need ANSWERS!

What are you willing to do in order to fulfill your dreams? Do the ends justify the means? These questions are at the center of nearly every character interaction in ToG. Unexpected alliances and shocking betrayals are so common the community gave ToG the lame but fitting nickname "Tower of Betrayal", you never know when a newly introduced character is being honest or hiding their true intentions, which keeps you at the edge of your seat most of the time.

The battles go back and forth between cunning tactical skirmishes (usually led by best boi Khun) and over-the-top DBZ power clashing fights, so theres enough here to please all shounen audiences.

Art: 6/10

This is a webtoon, so dont expect the art to have manga levels of quality. The first 50 chapters are barely good enough to be called professional, but the author improves A LOT over the course of the series, to the point where its actually very good now, for webtoon standards at least.

Character: 10/10

ToG has a huge cast of entertaining, relatable characters, but here I will focus on its most unique aspect, the two protagonists. Bam is the amalgamation of every possible cliche a shounen MC could have: a classic Gary Stu, the Chosen One blessed by fate with the power of Asspulling, whose only motivation is to get stronger for the sake of protecting the people he loves, something we've seen a million times already. But dont let his lameness deceive you, IT IS INTENTIONAL. The author made Bam as cliche as possible to constrast him with one of the best written characters i've seen in recent years: the anti-hero MC, Rachel.

Rachel is the true star of the series, the ultimate antithesis to everything Bam represents: she's weak, self-pitying, envious, manipulative and capable of doing anything to get what she wants, someone you could hardly believe to be a shounen MC. You feel a surge of hatred everytime she appears, so much that the hatred for her is what binds the entire ToG community together lol. People hate Rachel because she is far from being what an ideal MC should strive to be while still being extremely relatable, and relating so much to such a hateful character scares most viewers. She's an ordinary person struggling to become the heroine of the story despite not being chosen by fate like Bam, refusing to accept the fact there is nothing special about her and willing to do anything to fulfill her dreams despite of that. She is you, the viewer, isekaied into an over-the-top shounen battle world with nothing but your average wits to rely on, determined to leave your mark in history despite not being favored by fate.

Fighting against fate with everything you have despite knowing there's very little chance you can win is the human condition in a nutshell, and that is what elevates Rachel to the level of outstanding fictional characters like Guts and Spike Spiegel: she feels like a real human being.

This clash of Idealism x Reality, Destiny x Human Spirit represented by Bam and Rachel is the driving force behind ToG, and the author is slowly blurring this constrast with Bam starting to make cold hearted decisions, because in ToG, the MCs cant force the people they defeat into accepting their ideals (REVOLUTIONARY, I KNOW!), a clear sign of maturity and development to his one-note character, so you can expect these themes to get even deeper as the story goes on.


Overall: 9/10

ToG is a masterpiece in the making. It has nearly One Piece levels of world building, outstanding character designs, epic fight scenes and plenty of interesting mysteries to hook you in. The only reason this series has remained unknown for so long is its manhwa webtoon origins, a very new medium that is only starting to get mainstream attention, hopefully the anime adaptation will give this series the praise it deserves. Give it a chance, you wont be disappointed!

Eu posso ter dado muitas notas altas, mas esse é o meu Manhwa/Webtoon preferido. Referente a Manhwas esse é de longe o melhor, a masterpiece, e de um contexto geral do qual engloba Mangás, Manhwas e Manhuas esse com certeza é um dos melhores para mim.
A adaptação da 1ª temporada do anime não me agradou muito, ela ficou muito corrida e com alterações absolutamente desnecessárias (Principalmente o último episódio), espero que numa eventual 2ª temporada a Crunchyroll valorize e veja realmente o potencial que essa obra tem de ser um dos grandes, e dê a ela uma adaptação ótima e digna, uma adaptação merecida.

Espero que a Crunchyroll passe o anime para outro estúdio mais competente ou pelo menos mudar o diretor!