“What do you desire? Honour and pride? Power and influence? Money and riches? Revenge or to transcend all such things?… Climb the tower, and everything will be yours.”

– Headon

Tower of God – Brief Review by Mizz Rai

This is a dark-fantasy action show following the story of Twenty-Fifth Baam/ Bam (Nijyugobi no Yoru/ Yoru in Japanese) and his journey climbing the Tower. He is joined on this journey by Khun Aguero Agnis and Rak Wraithraiser, who became his teammates following their meeting on the second floor. They are later joined by many others, as they go through various trials. The anime is based on a hit Webtoon of the same name but for the sake of limiting spoilers in this, I will focus on the anime.

The tower has its own system of power with a basis for most of it involving manipulation and tolerance of an element, known as shinsu. Shinsu is an invisible element that makes up the atmosphere of the tower, allowing residents to breathe but can also be manipulated by regulars (people with permission to climb) for combat purposes. The density of shinsu is said to be greater, the higher you climb with some abandoning their climb due to being unable to tolerate it.

The Tower is ruled by King Jahad, the first person to conquer the tower alongside his companions – the great warriors, who later became leaders of the 10 great families. The Great families rule the floors of the tower, and it is considered to be the highest privilege to have the status of belonging to one of these families. Though the great families have command over tests on their floors, one must still follow the rules of the floor’s “Administrator”. But we won’t get into detail about that here.

The show starts without a clear antagonist trying to hinder Bam’s journey. Its soul driving force being given as his desperation to see Rachel once more. However, like Bam, every character has their reason for climbing the tower, be it money, power, revenge, or sport. Beings of all walks of life strive to reach the top and gain the power/ favour of the king. This makes for some pretty interesting revelations in the future.

The protagonist of our story is the young and naive Bam. He has a trusting almost pup-like behaviour that leads others such as Khun and Shibisu – who know how evil the world can be – wanting to protect his pure aura from being tainted. Bam is social and sees good in others, which leads to him seemingly becoming friends with almost all the regulars he trains with on the floor of test.

He was born outside the Tower making him an irregular (someone not bound by the rules of the tower) and lived his life in a dark world devoid of human contact, until one day when Racheal appeared before him. She taught him, fed him, clothed him, and took care of him.

Rachel was all he knew in life, and having her by his side he was content to stay in his cave forever. However, Rachel dreams of the stars and longs to see the sky so she leaves Bam ignoring his cry to go with her and sets out to climb the tower. Unable to accept this, Bam follows her and has his cry heard by the tower which accepts him.

Upon landing in the tower, Bam is met by Headon, the caretaker of the tower who issues him with a test to see if he is worthy of climbing up. During this test, he is introduced to Princess Yuri Ha Jahad who lends him her needle “The Black March” allowing him to successfully pass the test and move to the next floor.

Mainly referred to as Khun, is one of the many sons of Khun Eduan (leader of the Khun family and an irregular who was one of the first to enter the Tower alongside King Jahad). The Khun family is one of the 10 great families that hold power in the tower and raise daughters aspiring to become princesses of Jahad. It is this fierce competition among daughters that lead to Khun Agnis being abandoned by the family, when his sister was not chosen.

Khun is smart, diligent and in charge of formulating plans in just about every situation his group encounters. His superior intellect is acknowledged by others as they willingly follow him and trust his plans – though sometimes with reservation.

One side effect of his upbringing is that he is a very untrusting individual and tends to believe there is a hidden motive behind everyone’s actions. This leads to him over thinking during the simplest of situations  as well as keeping most people at arm’s length.

Despite his untrusting nature, Khun seems to fully trust Bam, to the point that he is ready to derail plans in order to accommodate his wishes. However, he does maintain some distance from him, such as not being completely willing to talk about his past or plans. Khun is also the only one who seems to question their last test and how Rachel survives, though he doesn’t pry into it publicly.

The Final member of our main team is Rak Wraithraiser. A being from a species that is yet to be fully revealed but is theorised to have descended from the “Native One”; the original residents that ruled over the tower before Jahad and his team began their climb.

Rak’s goal is simply to fight the strongest opponent before him and has been shown to have the ability to gauge the power levels of those within a certain proximity of him. This is shown in Episode one when he attacks Bam after sensing the power of The Black March.

However, after being somewhat persuaded by Khun to fight Bam once he gets stronger – as well as being bribed with chocolate – Rak agrees to stay on their team and help them climb to higher floors where he will definitely face stronger opponents.

Rak comes from a part of the tower solely inhabited by beings of the Wraithaiser species and turtles. This has led to him assuming all other beings are turtles and referring to them as such. Bam – Black turtle, Khun – Blue turtle, Anaak – Green Turtle.

TOG is filled with a cast of many more wonderful characters and the author makes a great effort to highlight their individual stories and personalities throughout the series, while still tying everything back to the main story of Bam’s journey. This would go on if I introduced them all so I’ll just introduce one more character. 

Rachel Rachel RACHEL!!! a.k.a Michelle Light – If you watch this show and don’t want to reach in and slap her by the end of it; then I applaud your ability to not get attached to the show. When we are introduced to her, she’s the girl Bam is searching for and wants to stand beside, but as the story progresses we see her dark nature and ulterior motives come to light. She is ruthless, cunning and manipulative throughout the show. Going as far as to lie about her identity to the other contestants on the test floor after Bam finds out who she is.

Though the show has no clear antagonist when the show starts, one clear thing is that Rachel is looking out for no one but herself and she will gladly use anyone to get her way. She gladly leaves others for dead numerous times when she deems them useless to her.

You can argue that Khun takes calculated moves as well, but compared to Rachel he could be a saint. Khun makes deals based on mutual needs for each other’s power whereas Rachel plays the victim, using black mail and threats to get what she wants. She even contemplates killing Bam and Khun at one point. I’ll let you read the webtoon to know how that goes…

Back to the storyline. TOG focuses on the trials Bam goes through in his journey. He starts his climb to find Rachel but once he does,what is his next move? As an irregular, he is an ultra powerful being who doesn’t conform to the rules of the tower. But that makes him a valuable target for The 10 Great Families as well as FUG, an organisation that seeks to overthrow the 10 families from power, and Wolhaiksong – a mysterious organisation that seeks to find a way out of the tower.

From fellow regulars to High rankers (people who have climbed to higher floors of the tower) everyone has a reason to go after the power of an irregular. So who can he trust and what happens if they betray him. There are many lessons of loyalty, trust, faith and communication scattered throughout the show, which gives it a very mature view on life.

“For what do you risk your life to climb the tower? Whatever you desire, you will find it here. Welcome to the Tower of God.”

– Headon, the caretaker of the tower.

In the battle of Manga(webtoon/manhwa) vs Anime. I believe the anime, season one, did absolute justice to the manga. Reading it again after season one I feel there are parts that were cut out for the sake of TV sizing the show, but they managed to convey the main plot points and character behaviours as they are in the webtoon and I am so thankful for that. The show is well voiced, well animated and has a killer OST that I am hooked on to this Day TOG Opening Tower of God – Opening | TOP TOG Ending Tower of God – Ending | SLUMP. All in all it was a blast to watch and it got me hooked on the webtoon which I still follow to this day. Tower of God is one of my favourite anime to go back to and I highly recommend you check it out.

Season two of the show is set for July 2024 so now is the best time to watch Season one and get yourself caught up and ready for Season two. I sincerely hope it follows the path of Season one in its faithfulness, rather than going down the road of anime only changes. Season 2 trailer:Tower of God Season 2 | OFFICIAL TRAILER

Link to Webtoon: https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/list?title_no=95

Link to Anime S1 Trailer: Tower of God | TRAILER OFFICIEL