Tower of God

Tower of god is one of the most fascinating and well built stories I have ever read, the characters are all so well written and their interactions don’t feel forced or fake. SIU just has a way with writing outstanding characters! As for plot well it’s kind of hard to summarise, because not only are there multiple sub plots that add layer upon layer to the build up of the overarching plot, but there’s also so much to unpack still, like what’s outside the tower, the lore and hierarchy etc.

But yes I’d definitely recommend this series, it’s one of my all time favourite stories in general and you can reread multiple times without getting bored, you alway find out something new When you go back through the series. It’s simply a masterpiece and I can’t wait to see where the story goes.

First things first, Tower of God has a lot of things wrong with it currently with the biggest being Siu's inability to flesh out characters. However, although I do realize that this is a problem, it is only an issue because SIU is literally the most ambitious ass mf ever. We are literally on chapter 500 currently and not even half way up the tower. Because of this, I realize that there is tons of times to fully flesh out alot of characters even when it seems like SIU just forgets about them. I know alot of people see this as a huge flaw but personally this makes me even more invested as to whats to come.

I realize I'm biased af here but I don't think I've ever read anything else which I have gotten more personal enjoyment from. Even with the most unnecessarily convoluted plot in existence on occasions I'm just in love with the atmosphere. The world is just exciting. Keep in mind I'm writing this after dropping season 1 3 times and giving TOG a 2 rating for several years before I powered through so by no means was it easy for me to admit that I enjoyed the series. Everyone about the world is just so interesting, the ranking system, the powers (shinsoo drawing), the character designs, the families (That Po Bidau family panel was absurd), and even the beautiful Rachel. I don't understand why people can't give TOG the Solo Leveling treatment and just enjoy the ride instead of calling out SIU for things that will clearly change in a couple years. Anyway that is just my opinion and if the series ends and there are still a lot of veritable issues I'll eat my words.

Never before I had to force myself to continue reading a comic so much like I had with Tower of God. Having to load another of the endless chapters pained me greatly and often I found myself distracted by literally anything else rather than to continue reading. This means that it took me great amount of time to arrive at this chapter count and my strength and will weaken with each another chapter. I'll try to continue, but I don't know for how much longer I continue this thorny journey.

Sure, there are a lot of worse manga, but at least those tend to be entertaining, if only because of how bad they are. But not Tower of God. ToG is just blunt boredom. Weaponized boredness. The work where you're be wishing to do anything else than reading it.

Now, lot of fans keep saying that it does get better and that I should keep on going. I recognize this pattern, I've already seen it with Homestuck and Salad Fingers communities. And like them, I hope Tower of God will be left in the dust of history someday and my life will be peaceful again.

Real talk though, does it actually get better? Well... yes. Technically. But mainly because the first part is so horrendous, that even the mediocre continuation is an improvement. Although, the main improvement is art. Let me describe the art of the earlier chapters a bit more. It looks like 2009 deviantart creation made entirely in MS Paint. The character design is like that of a fanfiction OC originating from the forementioned site. Worst are the drawings outside of action scenes, where the characters are frequently off-model and just unpleasant to the eyes. But yeah, the art gets noticeably better. We're talking about almost 100 chapters of bad illustrations though.

The plot is, as you might have guessed, a big mess. Most of the time nothing interesting happens, and the rare moments that might distantly resemble entertainment are gone quickly. The pacing is horrible and it takes forever for the plot to move somewhere, especially with the trials that tend to get too complicated and drags on forever. The plot doesn't seem to be much well thought and it's more likely that it's made up on the go. I get the feel that the author just thinks of some elements that sound cool and throws them into the next week's chapter without much thought. The plot goes both everywhere and nowhere. There is both too much stuff happening and nothing happening at the same time. I have no idea how the author managed to attain this zen state of storytelling, but I can tell you that it's nothing enjoyable.

The most glaring problem are the characters. The cast is bland, shallow, one-dimensional and instead of actually developing at least some characters, the author just throws in bunch of more new characters to get your attention. There is barely any chance to get attached to any of the characters and the comic doesn't really try to get you do so beyond the tactics akin to "look what cool power this character has". This results in fights that should in theory have some stakes but that fall flat because you just don't care what happens to the characters at all. As the cast is treated as props, not as real people, all of this feels just artificial and distant.

The worst case is the main character. He's pretty much a blank state that miraculously keeps getting more powerful pretty much by being at the right place in the right time, not to mentioned being marked as "predestined" to be powerful right from the start. Blank, because we know near to nothing about this character. For most of Season 1 of the comic, all we know about him is his name and that he came from outside of the tower. And even the little background info we get later is ultimately nothing. Now, I'm not against the idea of protagonist with mysterious background, but this is just taken too much to the extreme. Not to mention that Bam's only personality seems to be "I have to protect my friends with my power". That's it. The core characteristic of generic battle shounen with nothing on the side. Of course, this makes the protagonist perfect for self-insert. Huge power, "cool" aura and no starting personality. Just insert the reader.

In fact, the protagonist is so uninteresting that the best part that I've read so far was the part where he was gone. For a brief time the webcomic switches to a secondary protagonist that comes from more ordinary background and follows this character and the group around him for a while. This is also the closest the characters get to... actually having a character. Of course, that is ruined when the focus shifts back to the main protagonist and the dullness takes the lead again.

At this point, even if rest of the chapters were magically somehow really good, it still doesn't change that over two hundred chapters were dreadfully awful, and that alone is enough for ToG to lose the right to be labeled as "good".

Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless your preferable medium of choice is soulless product that you can keep mindlessly consuming. I fail to see why anyone would continue reading this except for the Sunk Cost Fallacy. The story sure keeps raising a lot of questions, but I prefer reading something where reading the story itself is enjoyable, not just the "waiting for the answers" part.

"This is perfect" here i said in my room at the night while reading tower of god, trully this series is the gift that keeps on giving, when i heard about this series receiving an anime i knew it was apparently a korean manga that only gets good on season 2, i had low expectations, but oh boy it's so much more then that, it's hard to put into words how much i enjoyed reading this and still do, but i'll give my best,

STORY: The story of Tower of God is fantastic, ever since one piece i haven't witnessed such a enormous universe with so many mysteries to be unraveled by the most charismatic group of characters ever, it starts pretty dumb with a boy going after a girl, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, a giant iceberg, we have a tower and anyone who gets to the top basically becomes god, with the journey to get there being basically impossible for average ppl, then comes our protagonist Bam, at first he looks quite average, but slowly and slowly we get the hints to his hidden power, and potential to bring a storm of fury towards the tower, at first i didn't like him that much, but his development is quite interesting but i'll leave that to later on, the cenary in TOG is amazing as each floor differs from each other and as higher and higher the characters go more crazy/stronger and the stakes of fights/tests of the floors just keep getting more insane, yet what makes this story so intriguing are the most important factors of why the tower so mysterious and dangerous in the first place: the concept of "irregulars" and "regulars" and the 10 great families, the king zahard, zahard princesses, FUG and the slayers, Rankers, High Rankers and Guides, and the power system of Shinsoo and the different classes, each new revelation about all of this and more is what kept me reading this nonstop even after 400 chapters, the way i see the progression in the story of TOG is very simple, it's like you're climbing the tower yourself, and reading it is like riding an elevator, just a very slow one, and with all the twists and turns possibles, sometimes it stops for a while, then ur certain it's gonna fall or blow up, u just never know what's about to happen and that's what makes reading tower of god such a thrilling experience.

CHARACTERS: Best setting of characters ever, i don't even know in what SIU is more of a genius, the creation of the story or the characters, actually is the fusion of both is what makes this a masterpiece, Bam is not the perfect protagonist, u may think he is just a simp but he probably had so much more development then any shounen protagonist out there, even his relation with rachel is good for the story imo, he's just simply perfect for the tower, and i don't mean for us readers but for the tower world itself, it may sound cliche, but the supporting cast provides so much that this it becomes irrelevant, Khun is one of the most badass and smart dudes ever, his strategies and schemes are always a pleasure to see, also his friendship with bam is beautiful, but none of that would be possible without the best alligator EVER, Rak Wraithraiser, honestly he is so badass and cool and funny, i really have no words to describe how hilarious he is, and despite that still has one of the biggest hearts among all characters and his viewing of friendship and the tower is also necessary for bam's group to advance in many ocasions, but my ultimate favorite character is Hwaryun, when i got the concept of guides and the objectives of Hwaryun towards bam she became the best character for me instantly, other great characters to me: Kallavan, White/Hoaqin, Wangnan, Yuri Zahard, Androssi, Baylord Yama, Karaka, Yeon Yihwa, Khun Ran, if i were to talk about all of them i would be here all night so let's keep it at that... but there's 1 character i'll just mention briefly here... Rachel, well she's one of the most hated characters in the entire world and i have wished her to die multiple times while reading it, but sadly we must admit, her being a bitch makes the story good sometimes, but still if SIU doesn't have something (bad) major prepared for her later on, it will cause massive outrage from the fanbase

ART: So i will use the art part to talk about the fights, the fights in season 2/3 are simply INCREDIBLE, the reason i gave 9 to the art is because is bad in season 1, but u would hardly believe it's the same guy drawing when u see the superb quality of late season2 and season 3, Shinsoo is the coolest power system ever in my opinion, we get a variety of powers and fight styles from the all the characters, that just gets better and better as the strongest ones start to apear, and that would never be as good without SIU amazing improvement on art, just looking at the way he draws powers/monsters/stylish guys on his prime is a joy to myself, so basically that's the deal with the art if it was as good as it is today in the beginning of the series... god knows how many more people would be reading this

Anyways, tower of god is a manhwa masterpiece much better then many manga out there, with the coolest characters i ever saw in my life

Art

Art is a bit bad at Season 1, but improved greatly at Season 2 but somehow the transision or minor things in Season 3 decrease its quality.. maybe because every Author only have 1 week of deadline so that's why I guess the art decrease it's quality although not drastic..

Somehow atmosphere in Tower of God is lacking a soul. I don't know but it feels gloomy to me, the setting is fantasy world but the world is lacking any world building details. For example like all the place we see, we only have empty ally, empty hallways, empty open space, empty sky, even inside airspace its empty without tech and furnitures. I heard by fans this webtoon has a strong point in World Building, but I don't see any good points from it. Compared to another webtoons or some mangas they have detailed drawing so the places looks really alive and lifely.

Character

MC

I have a mixed feeling about Bam as a main character, I'm actually pretty fine at first in Season 1 and Season 2. But at the end of Season 2, I noticed that he is somewhat a boring character.. he is somewhat like a passive character, it's hard to explain.. it's similar like he is not a type of person who speaks very much. At first it crossed in my mind maybe he is a bit psyco because his obsession with Rachel, I mean he really chase her down at the end of the world and wants to dragged her down to his cave despite meeting new good friends and somehow endanger them. If he wants something he has to get it.

About MC powers, I really hope he will have a drawback or negative effect from absorbing too many powers. He needs powercheck in Season 3 cause he increased his level abnormally compared to his peers and gain something with minimal efforts.

Side Character

ToG have interesting character but, the downside is it has too many characters... I mean a lot of sidecharacters only introduced for 1 ark, after that,Author kind of ditched them and make us forgot about them. So, many side characters actually don't have any significant role at all it's better if they don't get introduced at all. I currently read at Season 3 and look, I forgot most of Bam's companion because they are left behind and we will never see them again. (Small example. What's up with Anaak revenge right now? Where is she? Ahh what about glassess girl and big guy from Wangnan's team? Are they forgotten? What's about Leeso's old team? Like Verdi or whatever her name is. Why bother introduced them only for 1 ark and then dissapeared??

Because of too many characters, Author also don't have a good time to develop their characters for example like Androssi/Endorsi. She seems important for season 1 but at season 2 she is only for a driver teleporting people around. She is wasted, I heard from spoiler she will have an important role in Zahard's Princesses Ark far in Season 3 but boii it's actually shows us Author have a bad style developing their characters. Another ones when Bam crying hysterically hearing Jinsung Ha is dead I don't feel any emotion at all, that's because we rarely see any interaction from this character so that's why I don't feel the connection.

Story

The story it self is good, I like the concept of survival game in floor test but it's sad we rarely see them anymore. It's focus point now about how to take Zahard down. So floor test and climbing the tower is not important anymore. Ahh using strategy, weapons and items also not important anymore for combat its quite sad.

I think sometimes Author forget some details, for example like in Season 2 after when Bayrold Yama sent his faithful regular dogs helping Rachel to revive White in Hell Train we don't see any interaction at all between Yama and White 🤔.

Nevertheless its still entertaining story

Tower of God is one of those Manhwa which will keep you hook to it till the very end of the story. You might form a love-hate relationship with the story-line, but the characters are the ones which will keep you attached to it no matter what.

The beginning of the story will feel little fast paced but it wont affect the flow which holds the key to the story-line. I think that MC of this piece of art may seems confused or irritating at some point but the character growth is what makes the fruit of waiting taste so sweet. I have feeling that most people would cling to side characters more than MC since they are so well written and executed along the plot.

Its a great adventure of thrilling journey to the top of tower, I hope you all will enjoy it.

Tower of God is one of the grandest, most ambitious, and engrossing comics I have ever read. However, it has many flaws that prevent it from being one of the greatest fantasy comics.

First, let's focus on what the series is doing right. Tower of God has one of the most interesting and vast worlds I have seen in a fantasy story. The concept of a massive tower-like structure with each floor being a world is novel and damn cool. The way the world of the tower is introduced and set up is interesting as well. It is evident that the author put a lot of effort and passion in creating such an ambitious world. The titular Tower is full of mysteries and the societies present within it are engaging as well. The various politics and groups add up to make a world that feels alive in many ways. The many tests and trials the characters go through are also unique and fun. It reminds of Hunter x Hunter and One Piece in the way it's structured. The artwork starts rough, but over time it becomes quite good. The panel layout utilizes the scrolling of digital manwha well and the character designs are all very unique as well. Overall, it has an interesting world, lore, and presentation.

However, I have many issues with this series. The characters can be quite lacking for example. Many have cool designs, origins, and abilities but tend to one note, forgettable, and undeveloped. It also does not help that there are so many characters. Even the protagonist, Baam, can be dull and bit uninteresting. The series also has immense power creep and anyone who is not a main character will have a hard time keeping up. My final critique is that the story does not utilize its interesting setting to its full potential. The many societies, races, and people of the tower tend to lose focus as the series goes on.

Overall, Tower of God is an enjoyable and engaging series despite its shortcomings. It has a cool premise and setting but has issues in its character writing and worldbuilding. A fun read but not as great as it could be.

Many people recommended this manhwa but i never picked it up before since i didnt really like the art style, and i can travel back in time, i'll slap my past self for reading through 400 chapters of it just because some random guy said it gets better. Sure, it does get better, but its only better because the first season is just so horrible that it makes even mediocre seasons after it become somewhat better. Even among manhwas, its far from being one of the best, there are a lot of better manhwas than it, even the isekai/resurrection manhwas with around 20-30 chapters have more plot than it.

Story 3/10: the author had a good start with our protagonist being mysterious and all to get people to keep reading to find out his past, but from there on, it just keeps going downhill, i've read 400 chapters and still dont know anything noteworthy, the storytelling is poor, the author tries to tell us the stories of so many characters and trials/trainings at a time, and surprisingly none of them is interesting, and then the main plot never gets anywhere because all of these side stories keep overwhelm it.

Art 7/10: the art at the start is also horrible, the characters look like theyre made on MS paint, but it does get better after some 100 chapters or so, and its also the only thing that rly gets better in this manhwa, although the character poses are still stiff even after 400 chapters.

Characters 3/10: the worst part of this manhwa, the main character of the story is mysterious, and he remain so even after 4 seasons, we dont know anything about him aside from a few things from his past, he started off as the "i will get stronger to protect all my friends" protagonist just like in shounen manga, but he never gets anything more than that, he rarely shows emotions and rarely says anything. The main antagonist is even worse, for a bad guy, the main antagonist of the series have the worst reason ever to become a bad guy, and just like the protagonist, we rarely know anything about her except for her being mediocre. All characters other than the main guy and the main bad guy are basically there to be part of the crowd, even though the author tells a lot of side stories about these characters, we never even get a chance to get attached to them, because when the author is done telling their stories, they're thrown away to make room for new side characters, this thing happened every season.

Enjoyment 3/10: i read this because i ran out of manga to read and thought that it was a good time to start reading this, and that was the worst decision of my life, i forced my way through 400 chapters of this manhwa and barely gets any enjoyment, everytime something promising happens, the author just start to ruin it like the way he did in the last season, by introducing "new" characters, telling "new" stories, that somehow just end up like the last season, everything leads to a big battle at the end and protagonist end up having to leave his friends behind to find a way to get stronger and somehow gets new friends in the process.

Overall 4/10: main plot is barely developed even after 400 chapters, all the side plot are not intersting and the author just keep going in this pattern, art is somewhat bearable, characters are just bland and shallow even when a lot of the plot focus on their stories in stead of the main characters.
I know that everyone have different tastes, but for me this manhwa is even less interesting than some isekai/ressurection manga/manhwa/manhua by some nameless authors that only have about 20 chapters overall, even those kind of stories have more plot than this.
Dont let anyone trick you into reading this manhwa saying that it gets better, it actually doesnt.

For me plot comes first then the art. The idea of climbing to the top of the tower is not really common back when this was first released. Doing something bizzar for a girl? Not really surprising.

However, there are these little plot twists that make your eyebrows raise and continue reading. Im honestly reading so i can watch the main character SNAP.
Just like the tower, there are so many levels of twist in this story that just want you to climb up the tower with the main character in hope to find some answers.

I LOVE how there are powerful women in this story AND how important they are in the plot.

The type of art style isn't really my type (ITS NOT BAD) but MAN the plot its good.

Tower of God is one of those WebToons which wants to be everything. I love Tower of God with its beautiful art, great character development but I believe the story is being strangled by its own ideals.

Art: 8/10
The art is badass but not beautiful (-1) or unique(-1). It makes up with colored pages though which is a plus.

Character: 8/9
I like how both Bam and Rachel are progressing in different directions after starting from the same point. Also, the individual personalities of other powerful people are so prominent that it feels believable. The characters have their own conflict and problems in life which makes it realistic in a way.

True Adventurers missing (-1): There is no one, and I mean it, no one climbing to the top (I am talking strong) for the fun of it. There is no 3rd group who do not give a shit if the world ends. (I mean there is Rachel but all her insecurities shows that she is not climbing for the stars. I would be shocked if she was actually.) I mean this is epic fantasy.

[Note: 1 reserved because the story is not complete]

World-Building: 8/10
The world is big with a lot of mysteries. The Shinsu system is also a hard-magic system which is great because there are really few shows with hard magic systems. But the problems start piling up.
Flaws:
1. All the people who were chosen on the first floor are rising the tower without any problems but the author indicated that the Shinsu concentration increases gradually. So considering it is like our atmosphere, how the heck is everyone climbing up? Is it setting up to be a fairy tail of good vs evil? Although it can be like MHA and deal with a lot of other issues with such a big and expansive world. I do not like the wasted potential. But, still a long way to go for the manga, so just (-1) for unused world.

2. There are so many people that are getting killed in the inner tower that the motive of FUG feels hollow since we haven't seen poor people, slaves, oppression, female rape, any type of effect on normal people which is 10x greater than the candidates. (-1) for not making Jahad feel ominous.

Story: 8/9
Team-Ups (-1): They should learn from Bungou stray dogs or Re:Zero or Red Rising or Sarah J. Maas. The team-ups in this world feel a little naive.
FOR A PARALLEL OF ToG's logic WITH REAL WORLD: "Many people don't like the current state of politics, so let's just join the terrorist group instead of making our own resistance group."


[Note: 1 reserved for after the story is complete because no story is perfect unless it connects with personal life or handles a lot of human themes which brings tears to eyes.]

Enjoyment: 10/10 Otherwise why I would I still be reading it?

Overall: 8/9
[1 reserved] and (-1) for all the reasons above.

Tower of God is not your ordinary Shounen. SIU, the author, has stated he doesn't want to tie Tower of God down to a single genre. The story-line and lore is comparable to Naruto Shippunden, it definitely deserves more praise.

I came from the anime, I watched it and loved it. There was quite a bit of content removed for the anime, some parts I wished weren't and some parts I agree with. How does a webtoon compare to normal manga,? the chapters (episodes) are longer. They're longer but are also not longer, the number of panels is similar to Shounen Jump manga but there is so much more text. A single chapter (episode) can give so much information, which is why ToG is so good for theory lovers like myself. It will take you longer to read than you first expect, I can read 100 manga chapters in a single day if I try. ToG has ~480 chapters yet it took me over a week to read completely.

The art of Season 1 is good but not great, Season 2 starts with very good art and it only improves from there. There are times when it's a bit hard to tell what's going on in a panel but for the most part it is very very high quality art. Almost every single chapter (episode) has panels that are background worthy.

The main critique of ToG is the numerous side arcs, there are a few side arcs that are quite lengthy. It gives me Hunter X Hunter vibes, if you like Hunter X Hunter then I think you'll love ToG. I do wish the story stayed more direct but I have always enjoyed every single arc, even if I started by hating the fact we had a side arc, I ended up very much enjoying the arc. The main issue is that we still know very little about FUG, Wolhaiksong, and the 10 Great family leaders. There are over 400 chapters, 07/29/20, so I wish we knew a lot more than has been revealed thus far.

The characters are done well and almost every major character has some interesting backstory that we can't wait to be developed more. Bam, the main character, has had a lot of development throughout the series. There have been times where he's turned a bit dark or times when he's been too good. His main development comes from his views on saving people, to save everyone or be selective. It makes him a very interesting character. Other characters, like Rachel, are an enigma. Rachel's character keeps conflicting with itself, not in an uncontrolled way that would be the mark of a bad writer, but rather in a very interesting way that makes you question her actions.

The power system is not easy to scale, it mostly comes down to who has the bigger and flashier attack. Despite this, our characters have made very clear and controlled progression throughout the series. Some are through training arcs and some are through emotion during fights, Bam also has a unique ability to copy almost any skill after seeing it once.

The story is always layered, every single arc will have multiple plot twists and developments. It can be tedious if you want the story to progress but it is always thoroughly enjoyed. The arcs flow well too, they almost never pop out of nowhere.

ToG is a story that will have you making theories for weeks, there is so much mystery in the series and it only layers more on. The entire world itself is fascinating, it definitely sets itself apart from other shounen. The lore is very expansive, there is so much we are yet to learn that could change everything we know.

Currently, 07/29/20, ToG is on an indefinite hiatus due to the author's health. I wish SIU a speedy and full recovery.

I know manwhas and webtoons in general has weak writing but you know after all that hype going around I was expecting something better

Story : a really generic death game plot with incredibly predictable plot. I really can't say anything about it it is so boring and surface level I was barely able to finish season 2 of this shit

Art: really lame with flat colors generic art style and useless effects

Characters : story keep introducing them increasing cast constantly and since author can't write for shit he just gives them one note tropes to make them look like they have personalities

It's bad it's just bad I am regretting all the time I wasted on this.

ToG was one of the first manhwa that I ever read around 5 or 6 years ago, and I do remember enjoying it but still dropped it somewhere along the line. I recently decided to reread it again after seeing overwhelmingly positive reviews for it (8.74/10 makes that pretty obvious), however, I found it awfully mediocre (especially the 2nd and even more, the 3rd season).

Story: 6/10. The first season was decent. But the second season and third season just seemed like a remodelled first season. I stopped there, but I assumed the 4th season would be the same. This is a problem with the very concept of 'tower-climbing'. This story can very easily become an endless repetition of having to overcome obstacles after clearing levels. That's why character development is so important (I'll get to that later). What could have added depth to the story is the whole Rachel conflict motive, however, this also falls super short. We are barely given insight into Rachel's motives, her thoughts etc. She has absolutely no significant meaningful development. And because of this, the whole story just collapses in on itself. Not to mention the whole load of inconsistencies.

Art: 7/10. The art does improve and it is pretty good and has some detail. However, since it is a fantasy, with a pretty interesting and (at the time, 2010) unique tower concept, I thought the art could deliver more in terms of world building. The backgrounds tend to get very boring and repetitive, and fail to create a real sense of immersion with the world, and since I find the action and character part of ToG pretty bland, I was hoping for some redemption here, but alas. Also, the character/costume design is utterly bland.

Characters: 3/10. This is my main problem with ToG. The characters are so boring, and undergo no meaningful development over the 417 chapters that I have read. There has been some development, yes, some development hinted at sometimes but never followed through... hardly enough development for all the trials the characters have been through. The characters are vehicles for the plot which shouldn't be the case. The characters should be informing the plot, not making generic decisions with no personality, just to further the plot along. All the characters just lack dimension and personality. Especially Rachel and Baam. And they are arguably the more important characters...

So, overall 5/10 is pretty generous considering my ratings for characters and my enjoyment of the series. I just don't want to rate it 4/10 because ToG isn't 'bad' per say, rather just not for me since I enjoy stories with good character development, which ToG did not have. I am also older than the target audience (10-15 year olds?) so that might be a factor limiting my enjoyment as well. However, I can understand why someone who doesn't mind mindlessly consuming manga/manhwa that has a semblance of a plot and characters can enjoy ToG. It is readable. Just mediocre.

Tower of God: an exasperative criticism on an otherwise epic story.

(NOTE: This review only covers the first ~200 chapters)

In short:
Tower of God is a great story marred with several flaws that could be a major turn-off to readers. It has the potential to be the best Shounen of all time if the anime adaptation goes well, or the manhwa writing improves, BUT… they’d need to fix the many flaws first.
It has a great plot (although it feels pretty straightforward), amazing settings, and great art(later on).


The Cringe Factor:
By far my biggest complaint, this could have easily been the reason I stopped reading this Manhwa.

-Overdramatization
It feels like the author is overzealous to announce a new character, event, or the beginning of some test EVERY SINGLE F**KING TIME. The exaggeration is ridiculous; every semi-powerful character is overhyped and made to look ridiculously strong or makes a dramatic entrance. It has the webcomic vibe of being some sort of epic, character-driven showdown, but that vibe is plastered on everything, the character’s thoughts, the serious dialogue, and the story itself; fighting to be or kill the most powerful person.
It doesn’t really typically have the sob-story character backgrounds of many other Shounen (thankfully), but it instead has half the cast possess powerful weapons and hail from powerful families from the moment they’re introduced. It also has the bad habit of having a random new character, item, or ability enter a fight before being introduced in a text box off to the side, giving the rank, how the power works, accomplishments, etc.

-The (lack of) content maturity/consistency
When it comes to mature content depicted, it feels like the target audience is somewhere around 10. The depicted violence and blood mirrors Naruto Shippuden at best, but half the time they’ll avoid showing blood or death and keep it in the background or avoid blood altogether. There’s a scene where a character stabs themselves in the chest, but I didn’t realize until I scrolled back up and noticed the knife… their WHITE clothes looked like they’d gotten a little pink dye on them. There’s a few scenes with blood, but they miss plenty of places where it would/should be pooling…
The other major factor is the substitute swearing: it’s hilariously unfunny that bitch is used in several instances early on, and bastard throughout, but the characters regularly say friggin and darn, and in far more extreme situations; I’ve encountered damn a few times so idk why darn and dart (drat??) show up constantly in dialogue. It’s just the shitty English translation, but if the translators wanted to keep it PG-13, I feel it might have been better to avoid expletives altogether, or at least avoid substitutes.

-The Comments Section
This kinda goes for all webtoons, but the comments section is sometimes almost always a cesspool of fangirls drooling over characters, UwUs, and general retardation. Not to mention spoilers.

-The Dialogue
“How dare you trick me…!!”
It feels uninspired and often childish, this could easily be due to the English translation, but the dialogue is lackluster at best, and often very direct. Nearly every character speaks the same way and the verbiage is basic, I’ve never really had this much of the problem in a manga before.


Other Complaints:

-The Tediousness
There are points where the story becomes boring to the point where it’s hard to go on; it’s almost non-stop short battles and they tend to get dull. The character’s run around having to do this and that as part of tests and games that take half a chapter just to explain.
The clever plots and strategies (think Naruto) made by characters to defeat their opponents often rely on new rules or techniques outside the knowledge of the reader, and are always explained after they’re used. This is lame and impossible to guess at. The manhwa has a seemingly endless stream of characters and keeping track of them becomes impossible, new characters aren’t introduced one at a time either, each new arc has a multitude, keeping track of who knows what twist and which team or side they’re on is a never-ending task.


Mostly Non-Complaints:


The Plot/Twists:
IMO the storyline has an almost perfect approach to plot twists, it doesn’t twist often, but when it does it twists hard…
The plot develops in ways that are fairly unexpected, but they’re unpredictable because they aren’t really hinted at and are taken one step at a time. This causes some developments to feel out of the blue or even forced, but occasionally the developments feel perfectly logical. The plot develops in interesting ways, and is cause for the rare quality conversation in the comments about where the hell it's going.

The story has a lot of plot development- and it kinda carries it when it comes to being a great story.

The Art:
For a while it looks like nothing but Deviantart fanart. If it wasn’t in color it would be boring, the character lines are fairly inconsistent in shape, especially in fights. As the story passes the art gets better and better, eventually reaching the level where half the scenes could be wallpaper.

The Story:
I’m a bit of a sucker for character hype, and ToG has a ton of it. Numerous characters are shown to be contenders for the most powerful, and having mysterious entities gives hope for future fights. The plot continues building sides and hyping fights do it does at least seem to be going somewhere epic.


My fingers are sore from typing so I’m done.