Around the same time, a certain teenager named Jin Mori is beating up several delinquents with his grandfather's brand of Tae Kwon Do. With a record of 299 fights, 297 wins, 2 ties, and 0 losses, he's happy to declare himself the strongest around.
On his way home, a strange, blond-haired man in a suit comes to him out of nowhere, declaring that he's worthy enough to enter a new martial arts tournament called "The God of High School", meant to enlist the best and brightest fighters of Korea for a chance at anything the winner desires. When Mori decides to simply ignore the man, the latter punches a path through an entire forest without touching a single tree, leaving a cut on our hero's cheek.
Impressed by the move, the teen agrees to participate if the mysterious man was able to beat him. Mori loses spectacularly. But when he comes to, he's absolutely ecstatic since he's finally found someone able to challenge him in a fight. So, this story begins.
The webtoon can been seen here
(in Korean) and officially translated into English here.
An anime adaptation produced by MAPPA in cooperation with Crunchyroll began July 2020.
The God of High School contains examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Whenever the camera moves around during tournament fights, the arena and the fighting ring are rendered in CGI.
- Adults Are Useless: Completely averted! While the focus of the story is on the teenage cast, almost every major adult in the series is fully capable of kicking ass and have a significant role in the plot as a result.
- Alliance of Alternates: For the final battle with Mubong-Tathagata, Mori rips open holes in spacetime to summon some of the strongest alternate versions of himself from across the multiverse to aid him. These alternates include a female version of himself, and old man version of himself from a ruined world with the ability to stop time, and an alternate version of Mori Hui who became his own person and settled down with Mira.
- All Myths Are True: Borrowed powers are drawn from many different mythological sources.
- Amusing Injuries: Mira has her face smacked by a bicycle's front wheel and the shot is intentionally played in slow motion to make it as ridiculous as possible. She also more or less shruggs it off like a mere slap.
- Later her face meets a highway sign at high velocity when chasing after a thug on a motorcycle. It leaves a bend in the sign in the shape of her face.
- Artistic License – Martial Arts: EVERYWHERE! For example, the protagonist, Jin Mori, apparently uses a form of Taekwondo in which one becomes capable of generating tornadoes with a single kick to knock opponents skyward before riding said tornado to kick them back to the ground, which leaves the victim spinning on the ground unconscious but alive. And that's without magic.
- Artistic License – Physics: Not even counting the magic feats, but more than half of the stuff people do here should not be possible in real life without major repercussions - Newton's third law, anyone? The author even recognizes it at one point: during Ragnarök, when 666:Satan makes Jupiter crash on Mars, in response to Daewi using an ability to toss the latter on Earth. Which doesn't really make sense, as the author admits by the end of Episode 283, since Jupiter is a gas giant. Author (Yongje Park): This has been a fantasy comic since borrowed power first appeared. Please just take it as artistic license.
- Art Shift: Things are light-hearted and hilarious when everyone is being drawn in chibi-style. When everyone is drawn with sharper faces and more detailed features, shit is going down.
- Badass Crew: The main characters and The Six both count as this. There's also every international team in the third tournament.
- Battle Aura: Every important character has one in the form of their Borrowed Power (borrowed power) in the shape of their avatar save Mori and his grandfather.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The official English translation has several grammatical errors, though it does get better. Some sections are physically painful to read and you may get a migraine trying to parse the broken English by chapter 10. It does indeed get better later, but it's a good idea to turn your brain off and just enjoy the pretty fights for the first 50 chapters or so.
- Blood Knight: Very many.
- Jin Mori is a downplayed example, as while he loves fighting strong opponents it comes second to his objectives, typically helping his friends. Historically, however, his priorities were the opposite.
- Dean, who after growing up with a crippling illness and having it cured loves fighting because it lets him use his body to its full. He's especially exhilarated by strong opponents, to the point of being delighted to face Jin Mori at his most determined. Twice.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Too many times to count, almost always for comedy.
- Calling Your Attacks: Very frequent.
- Cast from Experience Points: It features a character who essentially does this, manifesting as aging in reverse when she uses her powers. Essentially she turns into a child, or could even de-age out of existence if she doesn't wait years between using her abilities.
- Casual Sports Jersey: Baek Seungchul is an eccentric badass genius who carries around a baseball bat, which he uses to beat up criminals or people who pick fights with him. He is solely seen wearing red athletic jerseys, even in school, which just adds to his weirdness.
- Character Level: Each person in the tournament was given a level shown on their wristband based on sheer physical prowess. The first case of this is when Mori first uses his legs in the tournament, making his level jump from a measly 6 to a sky-high 13! Being the type of series this is, prepare to watch those levels skyrocket as time goes on.
- Chase Scene: The series has one pretty early on, with Jin Mori pursuing a thief on a motorcycle... in his bike. It ends up being how he, Yoo Mira, and Han Daewi meet for the first time.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- That picture of the flattened island in the first chapter was the first example of Borrowed Power seen in the series, a fact that wasn't revealed until several dozen chapters later.
- There's also the GP measurement on the wristbands. Both the rating and the wristband turn out to be this. The former is short for "God Points" and measures the power of one's Borrowed Power The latter is a Power Limiter for the Judges.
- Creepy Child: Satan, all the way. Ugneo may also count, though she's more of an angry, badass child.
- Critical Existence Failure: If the character's HP doesn't hit zero, don't expect them to quit.
- Crossover Cosmology: All mythological figures and deities are real and a select few martial artists have the ability to use their powers to supplement their own abilities through a technique known as Borrowed Power. At least one of the obvious contradictions this presents is addressed by Nox, an Abrahamic Apocalypse Cult which views all other Borrowed Power users as heathens.
- Dead Guy Junior: At the very end of the story, Mori names Mubong's daughter Taejin to honor Mori's adoptive grandfather. But she keeps her biological father's surname as a sign of their ties despite her animosity for his actions.
- Deus ex Nukina: When things began to escalate in Korea, the resident Obama-Expy ordered every nuke to be fired at it to decisively end the crisis. Luckily, this was averted by the timely intervention of Jeon Jaesan, leading magician of The Six, who prevented the destruction of Korea and saved the heroes at the cost of Seoul's infrastructure. Prior to this, Park Mubong informed him that the tactical nuke had lost its effectiveness as a weapon due to the rise of borrowed powers.
- Expy: Long-haired, blue-eyed blonde Anna who has a Flying Brick powerset and wears a blue leotard, red cape and mini-skirt is a Supergirl expy.
- Evolving Credits: The anime implements this for it's intro sequence. The first six episodes feature the opponents faced in the preliminary round and Announcer T along with fight sequences from the first episode. Episode 7 meanwhile, the first episode for the national round, features different characters taking part in the nationals and Announcer X, along with different fight sequences from that episode.
- Fighting Spirit: Borrowed Power fighters are somewhere between this and Summon Magic or Guardian Entity. The actual power comes from whatever god, monster, or spirit they've contracted, but almost everything about the power (from effectiveness, to form, to power level, to versatility) is determined by the user's skill, preferenecs, and Power Level.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Jin Mori is Sanguine, Yoo Mira is Choleric, Han Daewi is Melancholic, Park Ilpyo is Phlegmatic.
- Full-Name Basis: Due to Korean naming conventions, this is quite frequent. Made necessary after the creation of Hui Mori to distinguish between him and the original.
- Genre Shift: The story starts out standard tournament style with everyone using fanciful forms of real life martial arts much like the arcs in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Then borrowed powers came in and turned it into a fantasy Shonen Battle comic. Then the gods entered the picture and turned the whole story into High Fantasy in a hurry.
- Guardian Entity: Borrowed Power is a supernatural martial art that allows its users to borrow power from mythological entities and occasionally have them assist in fights as avatars.
- Handicapped Badass:
- Han Daewi starts off the World Tournament arc of the webtoon with only one eye, after losing it in the climax of Chapter 3. Even with it obviously becoming a big handicap specially by the start of the arc, it motivates him to train his fundamental martial arts skills and eventually pull his weight during the tournament.
- A significant example of this trope is Jin Taejin, Jin Mori's grandfather. He loses his arm while fighting Man-Duk Sang, and he does not become one centimeter less badass compared to when he had both arms. Besides the fact most characters continue being as intimidated by him as they were before he was handicapped, the man proves how badass by using his time imprisoned by Nox to train on how to compensate for his missing arm, adapting his martial arts techniques to his new sense of balance.
- Healing Hands: Each fighter in the God Of High School tournament is given nanomachines that allow them to heal most normal injuries in this fashion, but severe damage like lost limbs, internal bleeding, and damage inflicted by Borrowed Power are far more difficult to heal. This is Daewi's motivation for entering the tournament, as he hoped that this technology would save his dying friend.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Multiple levels in the climax of A Battle With The Gods.
- I Hate Past Me: Jin Mori realizes more and more that as the Monkey King he was a terrible person, neglecting his friends and allies in favor of seeking out good fights. When he finally meets his past self/memories, he punches him right in the face for being such a jerk.
- Jerkass Gods: You'd be hard-pressed to find one god in this universe that isn't an example of this trope. Specially during Ragnarök: as each of the Heavenly Realm gods arrive in Earth, it's almost scary how interested they seem in messing up whatever is in front of them.
- Killed Off for Real: Whoever dies stays dead, with very few exceptions and subversions.
- The Lost Lenore: Sang Mandeok's sister, Sang Mansuk, is one, of the Posthumous Character variety. Although her existence was only clearly revealed in recent chapters, we discover her death by the hands of Beelzebub is the main reason behind Mu-Bong Park's hate for gods and therefore many of the events that happen throughout the webtoon.
- The Magic Goes Away: At the end of the series, all of humanity gives up their access to Borrowed Power by lending it to Mori for the final battle with Mubong. The only ones left with magic powers at the end are Mori and Taejin Park, who inherited her father Mubong's powers and is selected to become the next Jaecheondaeseong.
- Magic Staff:
- Although it does take a while (more than 100 episodes), the Monkey King's Yeoui (or Ruyi Jingu, as it's commonly known) is almost always around after Jin Mori regains his memories.
- Later, Seo Bongram gets her own when Adom and Adum, two Generation X members, transform into a staff for her to use.
- The Masquerade: The true nature of borrowed powers has not been revealed to the general populace yet, with every fighter who has it learning about it by themselves or from someone else. Absolutely shattered after Ragnarok.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: A staple of the series. Power levels are constantly escalating throughout the story... and there's no sign of this trend slowing down any time soon. Of course, as one character points out: power levels are just a number, and if they were everything there would be no need for tournaments or fights in the first place. It's entirely possible to out-think your opponent, or to be Weak, but Skilled.
- Nanomachines: All of the fighters in the titular tournament are injected with nanomachines that constantly monitor their vitals and heal them between matches.
- Never Grew Up: Taejin Park was born with myriad physical deformities that have prevented her from growing up past the age of 5 or 6. She struggles to fit in with anyone her apparent age and is still the size of a small child at 17. Her feelings of isolation are only intensified by her resemblance to Mubong/Mujin Park, her biological father. However, this is subverted later on, as Taejin is later shown looking like a fully grown and healthy-looking teenaged girl.
- Nosebleed: Used just once, but to hilarious effect, after a transformation sequence resulted in a final form that one character apparently found quite attractive.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Doubling as last words, no less."Don't be silly... You're already... a monster. Just like me."
- One-Man Army: Anyone with Borrowed Power becomes this versus normal humans.
- Power Level: Each contestant of the tournament is given a wristband that measures their physical prowess in the form of a level. The main character, Jin Mori, begins as a Level 6. The other value, GP (God Points) is a measure of the power of one's Borrowed Power. Being a battle series, expect these levels to inflate dramatically over the course of the story.
- Product Placement: In the anime, one of the sponsors of the tournament is series co-producer Crunchyroll, whose logo can be seen several times on the side of the fighting ring.
- Serkis Folk: The BTS video shows that some of the production involved motion capture sequences.
- Smart People Play Chess: The Jade Emperor plays chess against Daewi play Korean chess, tying it into his monologue about how dangerous the coming war will be for Daewi. At which point Daewi promptly checkmates him, making him ask to take his move back.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: The series revolves around Borrowed Power, a supernatural martial art that allows users to borrow power from mythological entities to enhance their own abilities.
- There Was a Door: So many times. Gets name dropped when Dusik Kim of The Six does it twice in a row.
- Time Skip: A 17 year skip after Ragnarok.
- Title Drop: The title is the name of the tournament which is introduced in the first chapter.
- Tournament Arc: Several of these, as they are the title's name sake.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The initial arcs work like this. While the primary focus is on Mori, Daewi, and Mira as they participate in the actual tournament, the secondary focus is given to the judges as they do battle with Nox, Q and O in particular.
- Unequal Rites: "Power Borrowers" and "Genuine Fighters" each tend to look down on the other, viewing those who've followed the opposite path as having wasted their potential. Or at least the adults do; the teenagers don't seem to care.
- The Unmasqued World: After Ragnarok.
- We Didn't Start the Führer: Well, we've only got Park Mubong's word for this, but according to him Nox is responsible for almost every major disaster and war in history and myth in order to supply the gods with vital energy. WWII is one of the specific examples he lists.
- World of Badass: Every named character is able to kick ass in some way. While power levels vary greatly, there's no doubt that any one on one fight with these characters would be a Curb-Stomp Battle in their favor against a real life martial artist. Or in some cases, most real world armies.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: How time flows in the Sage Realm compared to the Human world, in which one hour is equivalent to a day's time.
- Talk to the Fist: Mori against Beelzebub during Ragnarok, twice in a row!
