The God of High School (Korean: 갓 오브 하이스쿨) is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by Yongje Park. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon from April 2011 to December 2022, with the individual chapters collected and published by Imageframe under their Root label into four volumes as of January 2023. The God of High School received official English translations by Line Webtoon beginning in July 2014.
It has received a mobile game and an original net animation (ONA) short attached to the aforementioned game's original soundtrack. An anime television series adaptation produced by MAPPA aired from July to September 2020.
Contents
Synopsis
Setting
In GOH, the action takes place and involves the inhabitants of three different realms:
The Human Realm is mainly populated by humans and is identical to the real world. It is the least powerful realm followed by the Sage Realm and then the Heavenly Realm at the highest.
The Sage Realm (동승신주; 신선계; 仙界; lit. 'World of the immortal/sage'), also known as the Demon Realm, Taoist World, or Other World. It is populated by various mythical creatures, spirits, and monsters (collectively known as demons) such as Dragons, Minotaurs, and Phoenixes.
The Heavenly Realm (신계; 神界; lit. 'Divine World') is the last realm and the most powerful. The Heavenly Realm is home to many powerful gods of various mythologies and legends like the Jade Emperor, Michael the Archangel, and Hercules.
At the dawn of time, humans, demons and gods lived together on Earth. The gods allowed the weak humans to borrow their powers, creating the "Borrowed Power" system (or "Charyeok" in Korean) so they could defend themselves from the demons who wanted to rule over them. Shortly after the demon defeat, the gods split up the humans, demons and gods among the three Realms. Humans are since able to use Borrowed Power freely but are not allowed to attack gods with it.
Plot
The main protagonist is Mori Jin, a 17-year-old martial artist from Seoul, South Korea. At the beginning of the story, he is invited to join a Martial Arts tournament called "The God of High School" (or GOH). The event, sponsored by a shady corporation, brings together people from high schools all over South Korea on a regional and then, national level in order to select three representatives for the World Tournament. As a prize, the winner gets his wish fulfilled by the hosting corporation, no question asked.
This intrigues Mori, and as he continues through the tournament, he meets many competitors each with a different way of fighting. Martial arts aside, participants fight by using "Borrowed Power", a mystical energy granted by supernatural entities (gods, demons, mythical creatures....), hence the name Borrowed Power. During the opening rounds, he comes across two other martial arts prodigies: Full-Contact Karate expert Daewi Han and epeeist master Mira Yoo. These two would befriend Mori after their fights with him, and will become teamed together as the Korean Team after the preliminary rounds. As the tournaments preliminary rounds finish, and teams assemble, plans for many different people within the organization, and those pitted against them begin to make their moves to achieve their goals.
Characters
Mori Jin (Korean: 진모리; RR: Jin Mori); (Japanese: ジン・モリ, Jin Mori (anime))
Voiced by: Tatsumaru Tachibana, Hana Sato (Young) (Japanese); Nam Doh-Hyeong, Kim Bo-Na (Young) (Korean); Robbie Daymond (English)
A happy-go-lucky 17-year-old martial artist from Seoul, South Korea who practices a fictional version of the Korean martial art Taekwondo called Renewal Taekwondo (리뉴얼 태권도) later shortened to Re-Taekwondo. Carefree, friendly and (rightfully so) self-proclaimed "Tough guy" (쎈놈), Mori participates to the GOH tournament so that he can fight strong opponents and wish to be reunited with his grand-father Taejin. Later in the series, after the mystical "Borrowed Power" is introduced Mori is labeled as a Genuine Fighter meaning he uses martial arts to fight rather than borrowing power from other beings (one chapter shows that he actually borrowed power from his clone). However, the reason Mori is so powerful is due to his true identity of the mythical Jaechondaesong, or Sun Wukong, the hero of the Chinese Novel Journey to the West.
After RagnarÖk, he assumes a new form and name via Dan Mori as a result of Park Mujin killing his grandfather and sealing his powers.
Daewi Han (Korean: 한대위; RR: Han Daewi); (Japanese: ハン・デイ, Han Dei (anime))
Voiced by: Kentarō Kumagai (Japanese); Kwak Yoon-Sang (Korean); Sean Chiplock (English)
A 17-year-old martial artist from Seoul, South Korea who practices Full-Contact Karate. Daewi starts off the series as a hard-working young man who works to pay off his best friend's hospital bill due to terminal cancer. After being invited to the GOH tournament, he participates to cure his friend of the disease. After his friend's death, Daewi finds a new purpose in his life through his friendship with Mori and Mira and now wants to help them fulfill their dreams. A tall, lazy-looking young man with a loner personality, he is nonetheless fiercely loyal to his friends and willing to go to great lengths to protect them. His Borrowed Power is that of a Haetae, a Korean mythical creature with the ability to control water as a defensive tool or a weapon as well as augmenting attacks.
Development
Author Park Yong-Je majored in cartoon animation at Sunchon National University. Inspired by action genre and Dragon Ball, Park made his debut with "Tough Guy" (쎈놈), published on Naver Webtoon from 2008 to 2009. This manhwa, set around high-school brawlers from Park's hometown of Suncheon, was well received and inspired him to pursue a "100% totally unrealistic work of action" where high schoolers from all over the world would compete to become the God of High School.
Media
Manhwa
Yongje Park launched The God of High School in Naver's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon on April 8, 2011. Its first collected volume was published by Imageframe under their Root label on January 31, 2017. The God of High School was one of the first webtoons to receive official English translations by LINE Webtoon in July 2014.
Novel
A spin-off light novel of the webtoon, The God of High School:Eclipse, which was written by Bloody and illustrated by Park Yongje, was launched on Naver's web novel platform Naver Novel, and ran from April 2, 2015, to July 28, 2016.
Game
On August 14, 2014, YD Online announced that they had acquired IP rights for The God of High School to develop a game based on the webtoon. A team school battle mobile RPG titled of the same name was later released on May 25, 2015.
A music video from the original soundtrack of the game was released on August 11, 2016, on YouTube with singer Younha as lead vocalist. As of August 2023, the video has attracted over 10 million views.
A 3D mobile RPG game titled G.O.H. – The God of High School (G.O.H - 갓오브하이스쿨) developed by SN games Corp., was released on July 19, 2016, with an English version released on September 12, 2018. Jin Mo-ri was voiced by Kang Soo-jin, who is well known as the Korean voice actor of Luffy from One Piece.
In addition, the characters of Jin Mo-ri, Yu Mi-ra and Park Il-pyo appear as playable characters on I.O. Entertainment's 3D combat P.C. Lost Saga.
A cross-webtoon RPG game titled Hero Cantare was released in 2019, featuring The God of High School and other popular titles such as Tower of God and Hardcore Leveling Warrior.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced in February 2020. MAPPA animated the series and Sola Entertainment provided production management. The anime is directed by Sunghoo Park, with scripts by Kiyoko Yoshimura, Manabu Akita designing the characters, and Alisa Okehazama composing the music. The opening theme is "Contradiction feat. Tyler Carter" by KSUKE, and the ending theme is "WIN." by CIX. It aired from July 6 to September 28, 2020, on Tokyo MX and AT-X in Japan, and on Aniplus and Naver Series On in South Korea. Crunchyroll is on the production committee of the series and simulcasts the Japanese original version of the anime. Muse Communication has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia and released on its Muse Asia YouTube channel and iQIYI. On August 11, 2020, Crunchyroll announced that the series would receive an English dub and premiere on August 24, 2020. Viz Media has licensed the series for home video distribution in North America and has been released on Blu-ray on April 19, 2022.
The anime also has an easter egg in it, where the fighting ring has the Crunchyroll and the Naver Webtoon logos on it, implying that the competition is sponsored by them.
Other media
The series was featured on the South Korean reality music show Webtoon Singer, premiered on the streaming service TVING on February 17, 2023, which featured K-pop artists' performances combining webtoons with extended reality technology.
Reception
Nicole Mejias of Crunchyroll said that the series, when on Line Webtoon was an easy sell as it evoked memories of "classic school battling anime" like Tenjho Tenge and fighting games, saying that the series has "top-notch" action with "gorgeous art," along with "various martial arts and skills" from the main cast.
The anime series was nominated at the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in the categories: Best Animation, Best Score (Alisa Okehazama), and two for Best Fight Scene (Jin Mori vs. Han Daewi and Jin Mori vs. Jegal Taek).