After Tower of God’s first episode drew a perfect review due to the series’ high production value and promise, expectations were high for the series’ second episode. A blaring question was present when reviewing this episode: would the impressive art direction turn out to be the series’ only redeeming quality, or would it deliver in keeping viewers interested?
Luckily, it turns out to be the latter.
Picking up in the middle of Bam’s test on the Tower’s second floor, “Three Four-Hundredths” begins with a series of quick action scenes as the Regulars continue to battle to the death for the right to advance to the next floor of the tower.
As Bam and Khun attempt to find a peaceful resolution to their confrontation with Rak, the rules of the test suddenly change: the two hundred remaining contestants must form a team of three and have all three members touching within five minutes or be eliminated. Forced to make a quick decision, Bam and Khun throw themselves at Rak, forcing him into a team-up and successfully complete the challenge.
The surviving combatants are then taken to Evankhell’s Mothership, where they are met by the Test Administrator, Lero Ro. Khun reveals that Lero is known as a Ranker, the title bestowed upon individuals who have successfully reached the top of the Tower.
Finding that too many teams made it through the last round, Lero decides to ‘cull’ the rest of the team with another test, proceeding to wash the crowd away with and raise a wall of ‘shinsu,’ a water-energy which “is the source of the tower’s power” and informing the remaining combatants that they must pass through the wall in order to advance.
The only individual to not be moved by the rushing wave of shinsu is Bam, who is then invited by Lero to sit with him and observe the attempts of others to pierce through the wall. While they watch the others attempt to pass the trial, Bam asks Lero questions, including whether he had seen Rachel and why everyone was so wary of Non-Regulars, though he does not reveal that he himself is one.
As this is only the second episode of the series, it comes as no surprise that exposition still features heavily in the script. Thankfully, the episode avoids boring the audience with extended scenes of one-on-one discussions by beginning with the clashes of the second floor and then placing exposition against the backdrop of the frantic and desperate strategies of the shinsu wall challenge.
Hopefully the exciting looking action scenes seen in the first half of the episode will be expanded upon during later, action-heavy scenes in the series.
Of course, the series continues to be beautiful. The backgrounds lend individual personality to different locations, with the watercolor-esque fields of the second floor being visually distinctive from the reflective floors and ordered architecture of Evankhell’s Mothership.
The wall of shinsu, whose liquid almost-gelatinous texture presents a colorful and heavy resistance to the combatants, is a particular standout of this episode.
The Verdict
The second episode should continue to interest viewers in seeing the continued adventures of Bam; after all, it’s clear that there’s a deeper mystery to his presence in the Tower than anyone seems to know. The beautiful art direction remains the highlight of the series, with characters and settings each displaying their own sense of individuality, while the action scenes, though sparse, give an exciting preview of what is hopefully to come for the fledgling shonen series. Overall, this episode should keep viewers enticed and keep them looking forward to climbing to the next floor.
A preview screener of this episode was provided by Crunchyroll.