The jist of the story focuses on Jin Mo-Ri and his goals of becoming the best practitioner of Renewal Taekwondo. Which draws the eyes of an organization that organizes fights every year to determine who among those in High School’s across South Korea can be considered “The God of High School.” Various things ensue, and the story gets better with each chapter.
The God of Highschool or GoH by Yong Jae Park is something I randomly was recommended by a friend. At first I was put off since, at that time, my brain didn’t understand that manga could come from Korea, not just Japan, but in Korea they’re called manwha. As I read the first chapter, I was instantly hooked. What caught my eye was the art style during the fights. They were something akin to an info screen, outlining a move from start to finish, in different colors, but then it wouldn’t take itself serious during the funny moments. And it works, each and every time. You’ll be caught off guard by it, but you’ll enjoy it. It gives you the ‘O this is the breakdown.’ compared to the ‘O the move was that quick, don’t need to explain it.’ The lines and art are crisp, and you can tell, they take pride in the art style being consistent throughout.
The story and the way it flows, gives rise to a great deal of action, suspense, some drama sprinkled in, and downright funny moments. The funny moments are normally accented with a drastic change in the art style. The characters turn into an odd chibi version of themselves, but it works, and it adds to the comedy at that moment. You’ll be caught off guard, but you’ll enjoy it, trust me.
The plot of the story focuses on Jin Mo-Ri, a very happy go lucky high school student in South Korea, and his goal in life, ‘Fight the strongest Fighters in the World.’ But Jin also contains, a familiar, Tiger within, when fighting someone that will stand between himself and his goals. And that’s how he appears on the organizers of the Tournament, and is picked to participate in the opening rounds of the tournament, to choose the best from his region. But this doesn’t happen till after Jin receives his first loss, and soundly. The tournament also promised those, who entered an incentive, besides the life saving medical staff that any injury during the fights that were sanctioned, would not die. They offered a single wish to the winner. Anything they wanted within the World and it would be theirs, no questions asked.
This intrigues Jin, the incentive, the fighters, and to avenge his loss, and as he continues through the tournament, he meets many others, as strong or stronger, each different, each with a different way of fighting. During the opening rounds, he comes across two other individuals, Han Dae-Wi and Yu Mi-Ra. These two, would befriend Jin Mo-Ri after their fights with him, and were teamed together after the preliminary rounds. These two become integral to the development of Jin’s character as well as their own abilities and stories. As the tournaments preliminary rounds finished, and teams assembled. Plans for many different people within the organization, and those pitted against them begin to make their moves to achieve their goals. All these events take place with the backdrop of the ‘God of Highschool’ tournament as its backdrop.