Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight #33: Tower of God

Have you ever felt like you had finally had to accept a trend? If you have, then perhaps you'll be excited to know that after nearly a year of reviewing webtoons, I will finally be shining light on one of the best and brightest manhwa of all time: Tower of God made by SIU!

Summary

Have you ever wanted riches beyond your imagination, power over all men, and life that will never perish? Whatever your desire is, you will find it inside the Tower if you are willing to do what it takes. 

And one boy will find out that lesson very soon as he enters the power for the express purpose of finding someone he loves more than anything. Thus he partakes in a journey that will shake the Tower to its very foundations. 

Characters

Twenty-fifth Bam: A mysterious boy that somehow managed to live outside of the Tower, all he has ever known is his friend Rachel. Because of that fact, Bam has a very polite but sheltered view of the way the world or I guess the tower works, which often gets him into trouble and many allies. 

However, despite all this, he is still an Irregular, a person destined to go against the Tower. Through the story, we see him grow up and use his talents to help further a new age as his power grows and his belief, maturity, talent, and ideals.

Rachel: Often described as Bam's light, Rachel also grew up outside of the Tower with Bam as he taught him much about how the world works. However,  inside that dank little cave, Rachel desired to climb the Tower's top and see the rumored starry night sky. 

While she is an Irregular, she doesn't go against the Tower's cutthroat nature, instead of going against its qualifications. Accepting her weakness, Rachel decided to make it her mission to ascend the Tower through any means while denying Bam as well.

Khun Aguero Agnis: Khun is Bam's first real friend after he moves up the Tower. In many ways, he is the opposite of Bam and Rachel as he decides upon meeting him to follow him anywhere, figuring that he will find the point of being alive on his way. However, due to being descended from one of the prestigious ten families and growing up in the Tower, Khun is a cutthroat tactician that has a very cynical view of most people. His head, however, can sometimes lead him to not being very decisive, though that fact soon changes since he meets with his friends.

Rak Wraithraiser: A powerful hunter Rak is often an act first question, never type of person. He is stubborn, hot-headed, and naive as all heck, but you could never ask for a better and more loyal, and funny friend by your side.

Overview

Some have called Tog has the Onepiece of Webtoon, and I could see the resemblance, and while it doesn't have the best artstyle initially, it is easily one of the best examples of art progression I've ever seen. The Tower itself is hands down one of the biggest and most intriguing fantasy worlds I have ever witnessed. 

Every floor we focus on is like a new adventure by itself as we see how our characters interact and grow from each experience. And with a cast of literal hundreds, if you don't like one character in this story, there are probably ten more that you'll like. 

Tog is also one of the best when it comes to telling the chosen one narrative as it makes every win from Bam feel very well earned while also not making him feel like a perfect character. The type of story relates heavily to an ambitious man who wants to see his desire carried out as we automatically get attached by the characters and their struggle to make their dreams come true.

Since the layout of the Tog can be complicated, I'll try to be brief as not to spoil too much. Currently, there is no known "top of the tower," with about 137 floors getting known at the moment. Across the board, each floor of the Tower is about the size of North America, and each one has both a floor administrator and a test they must complete to move up said floor. 

The people who seek to go up the tower floor by floor are called regulars (civilians who live on the upper floors still need to move their way up). Every regular effectively carries a pocket (a little phone like translator/ mobile inventory) to help them on their journey. Finally, a regular usually gets assigned one out of 5 roles. 

Fishermen who are the main attackers, Spear bearers that have long-ranged attacks, lighthouses who use the item of the same name to analyze the opponent. Scouts that patrol ahead of the others and Wave controllers who are experts at controlling Shinshu, the life energy that fuels pretty much everything in the Tower (i.e., From the air to living people). 

Those who've already gone up the Tower are called Rankers. Overall, the Tower gets ruled by individuals who once evolved into the ten great families, with Jahad was at the tippy top of the food chain. Their only real competition is a mysterious terrorist organization known as FUG, which seeks to eliminate the families at any cost.

    However, despite all this, Tog's most significant weaknesses can also be in its worldbuilding. If someone told me they knew every character in the series, I would say they were lying. There are plenty of locations and characters that I genuinely love and want to see more of but probably never will due to their limited focus. 

The excessive lore can make heads spin with how different the floors are to the point of blurring. Also, since this is a chosen one narrative, it often means Bam is accelerating to the point where it seems that he doesn't even need his teammates. 

Finally, because of the way the Tower works, time skips are often used to further move on the plot, and while many of them are fine, some of them can lead to developments like plot, power, and character to be too condensed to my liking.

Epilogue

If you think my complaints are too negative, I hope you know their only surface deep. Tog is honestly my favorite webtoon and hands down one of the best manhwas of all time. It is a beautiful story of ambition, responsibility, and finding one's path as you move forward in life. 

With the new anime coming on April 1st, I hope it brings many a new age of anime. Tog is a journey like any other, and I hope I one day get to see it shine as bright as it needs to. And with that covered webtoon covered, let's bring the light up to another fantastic webtoon, but until then.