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Tower of God was hyped as Crunchyroll's big new original show. Unfortunately, what we were given was a clusterfuck. I don't know if this is the fault of the original comic, the makers of the anime, or Crunchyroll deciding to adapt any part of a 400+ chapter series into 13 episodes. I don't know if the comic is good, but this section is for reviews about the show, meaning the comic is irrelevant. And as for the show, it utterly failed to draw me into the world, the characters, or the plot.

The entire goal as presented in the anime is to complete in various challenges ... to climb a tower and gain basically whatever you want. It's the most generic possible goal for the most generic possible reward. The main character is equally generic. He's after a girl. For some reason. We don't really know why he's willing to risk everything to find her but apparently he is. Yay. Everyone around him is more interesting, though that is an incredibly low bar, and nobody really sticks out as someone worth watching the show for.

Fortunately, not all shows rely on plot or character. An interesting world can still make something worth watching. Tower of God's art, world, and character design all look interesting on the surface, combining futuristic and fantastic asthetics with wild character designs. Unfortunately, it's all surface deep. Why do some people fight with swords and look like they're out of a medieval fantasy while others use psychic powers and stay in a modern sleeping bag? That's a good question with no answer. What are the psychic powers from? The tower or something. Maybe. Do guns exist? I don't remember, but I assume they do considering how futuristic everything else in this world is. Why do most fighters not just shoot each other? Dunno. All the anachronistic elements aren't even mentioned, leaving me to think that nobody cared about worldbuilding and, as such, neither do I.

I don't know if these issues are the fault of the comic's writer or the way the director adapted it. I will say that such a basic plot and generic characters are generally not a problem caused by adaptation- at least on this level. The paper-thin worldbuilding may have been caused by the adaptation leaving out crucial information or it could be a core problem with the original story. Regardless, I don't care. I dropped the series and have no intention of even trying a comic that couldn't inspire remotely interesting characters and plots.