Summary
Tower of God season 2 shifts the focus to new characters, risking a repeat of season 1's problems. Blue Lock's emphasis on friendship and betrayal improves Tower of God's approach. Anak's compelling character in Tower of God could have been explored more deeply with fewer characters.
Even though I was aware Tower of God For quite some time, I never watched the series until Crunchyroll announced the long-awaited second season, at which point I took it upon myself to watch it all before the series continued. The anime may have started dragging mid-season 1 for me, but overall, I was quite impressed with the story, especially the incredible finale that explained Rachel's true feelings for Pop.
Since I wanted to avoid spoilers, I stayed away from any news related to the second season while I was watching. This also meant that I did the same with any manhwa news, even though the adaptation clearly deviated from the original Webtoon. However, I wish I had kept this mindset until watching the first episode of the second season by starting with a blank page because summary is so confusing.
It's clear that Tower of God season 2 will change the perspective. focus on a new group of characters. Since the original cast's story never came to a conclusion, it was obvious that they would eventually return in some way, but the fact that season 2 is essentially a reset in this way is problematic – but only if the program follows the same formula as part 1.
One of my main complaints about season 1 was how Tower of God keeps many of its characters' backstories a secret. for too long, all to the detriment of viewers who care about them. So if the reason why these new characters want to climb the eponymous Tower of God is not shared sooner, season 2 will likely suffer the same drawbacks as the first season.
Blue Lock's Success Highlights Tower of God Part 1's Key Problems
Tragic relationships and the contrast between friendship and betrayal can make for great drama.
To further prove my point, I will compare Tower of God to Blue Lock. One understandable reason why some fans like Blue Lock so much is because all the characters are forced to temporarily play on the same team when they are destined to compete with them later, thus eliminating each other from the competition, since there can only be one winner.
Blue Lock clearly improves on what Tower of God started by emphasizing this dynamic much more immediately and strongly.
Blue Lock shares this aspect with Tower of God, as only one person can reach the top of Tower of God. However, Blue Lock clearly improves on what Tower of God started. emphasize this motivation more immediately and strongly.. Although this same ill-fated relationship is also alluded to in Tower of God, the theme of friendship and betrayal is never directly addressed until episode 8, essentially stripping away the show's greatest strength for the sake of mystery.
Furthermore, it doesn't help that the entire story of Tower of God revolves around Bam, who doesn't even care about reaching the top, since all he initially wants is to find Rachel. This is important because The main character is always the main source of conflict for the viewer.Similar to the case in Tower of God, however, Bam's lack of interest in climbing the tower makes it harder for viewers to understand the situation.
The new cast of Season 2 must avoid repeating the same mistakes as the Team of Season 1.
Part 2 will reveal the new main group's motives sooner
Meanwhile, everyone else is climbing the tower to get what they lost, but that fact is inexplicably withheld in favor of focusing on Bam’s personal struggles later. Once viewers understand everyone else’s losses, it’s much easier to care and despair over the fact that only one of them will get what they want while everyone else will be left with nothing. However, these revelations are left unexplored, thus prolonging the time in which characters are portrayed as unnecessarily two-dimensional, like Rachel’s initial desire to “see the stars.”
In contrast, Yoichi Isagi from Blue Lock is constantly worried about the fact that his dream might be shattered because only one person can win while everyone else has to give up their dream of becoming a professional soccer player. This involves Yoichi obsessing over what this means for him and everyone else, even before the viewer knows the other characters' motivations. With this, the viewer can understand his anguish and thus easily apply his anguish to everyone else, even before their backgrounds are revealed.
Bam and Rachel are not original characters so they should appear more in Season 2
Anak is one of the most interesting characters of Season 1.
In part 2, the series will gradually move away from the main characters of part 1 after I spent too much time caring about them. However, I'm not disappointed that we'll see less of Bam and Rachel, but Anak. Anak's relationship with the royal family of Jahad is fascinating because it cleverly subverts the usual dynamic in shonen, where characters are often praised and revered for being born with powers, while those who gain abilities from others are ridiculed. My Hero Academia's Deku and Black Clover's Asta are the latest and most prominent examples of this genre.
This is not the case with Anak in Tower of God. Due to how the Jahad princesses are chosen and what they are forbidden to do, Anak, who received her powers genetically from her mother, is despised and regarded as an abomination to be eliminated. While an interesting subversion, Tower of God would have a harder time exploring this dynamic further since there are now so many competing forces vying for screen time instead of just Bam's group.
If she had fewer characters to compete with, Tower of God could easily give Anak the shonen treatment to amplify this unconventional view of genetic power. Of course, Tower of God is a manhwa, so it could never be officially considered a shonen, but other manhwa like Viral Hit meet and surpass certain shonen stereotypes. So Tower of God could easily follow in their footsteps.
It would be interesting to see if Tower of Godseason 2 will fix the mishandling of side characters in season 1, but this does not dampen the excitement of fans who have waited a long time for the adaptation of one of the most popular and successful manhwa.