SEASONAL PRATTLE

 

Maybe it’s because this episode actually had more than a shot glass of relevant backstory for our characters, or maybe it’s because my expectations for this show’s writing are so thoroughly in the earth’s crust that anything even somewhat resembling reasonable characterization and exposition is like gold to me – but this latest offering from The God of High Shcool felt okay.

It would’ve been nice to get some of the key vignettes that episode eight dished out as real-time, fuller segments instead of flashbacks (like Han’s suspension or Jin and Mujin discussion on Tae-Jin), but narrative riffs like Ilpyo’s introduction and handling are good enough to counterbalance that. The series’ overall tempo still comes across as fast, however, not as disgustingly fast as previous weeks, and it helps this time around that Jegal’s shark isn’t chewing on people bloody only for them to be fairly okay in the next scene. So progress, right?

Well, not really. Initially, I was going to leave the check-in for this series at that and continue on as usual. I wanted to feel “okay” about The God of High School as a product after the repeated, heavy demonstrations of the series’ ability to fumble over its storytelling throughout the Summer. But upon another watch, I just can’t do that as the earlier assumption that my expectations were so low coming into this week appear to be accurate.

After more time spent with it, episode eight teeters on the edge of “passable” for a lot of its beats – more or less showing the seams in its writing with the tonal whiplashes it can create and just how undercooked some segments seem to be in its second half. Our twenty-minute odd run here is essentially a somewhat less shoddy microcosm of the textual circus we’ve seen before – which is nothing to actually be “fine with” and certainly not worthy of any higher praise

At the end of the day, I thought it was important enough to highlight this episode as a standalone, lengthier entry. For those who were looking for the usual lineup of coverage, I apologize that this is the sole one. I’ve seen a lot of people going through similar mental hoops that I did to initially justify this episode, and this kind of reasoning isn’t uncommon with other series this season too.

Sometimes you can fall for a sort of “honeymoon phase” after a continuously poor airing anime seems to briefly sober up for a week. I think it’s helpful to take a step back and give it a second or even third watch. It’s more time consuming, so I know a lot of people don’t do it, but the clarity extra views bring in situations like this is often worth it.