Tower of God Season 2

Episode 11

We've hit a point here with Tower of God where I can't help but notice every single visual blemish. In a series with an entertaining, well-crafted story, I might not notice—or might not even care if I did. But in this show, every flaw just leaps out to me.

So here we are, at what is basically the action climax, and it just looks so bad. No amount of explosions and speed lines in the background can make up for the minimalist animation on the screen. Over and over, we get a second or two static frames of the windup, just enough frames for the motion of a punch, and then another too-long-held static frame of the follow-through. The attacks have no weight to them and nothing this side of a magical arm through the chest actually seems to do anything akin to damage. Transitional shots are missing and any excuse for an extreme close-up is taken (you know, so pesky things like backgrounds and movement aren't needed). There's no tension, no excitement. It's just a mess.

The plot doesn't fare much better. Apparently, all that happens here is part of Rachael's master plan. Somehow, she convinced FUG that killing Khun would be a good idea, so they put her in touch with a pair of mercs to infiltrate his team and had some of their own members plan a trap.

Of course, the more you think about this, the more confusing it gets. Why would FUG want to kill Khun? Khun is a valuable hostage who is one of the main reasons Bam is climbing the tower for them. Killing him when Bam has done exactly what they've asked of him is like a recipe for him to rebel. After all, a hostage situation only works when you trust they won't kill the hostages if you do as you're told. If they just kill one randomly, their leverage is gone!

Then there's the other side of things. What does Rachael have to offer? What could she possibly give FUG that would be worth losing control of Bam? Heck, while we're on the subject, how much does she actually know about what's going on? Does she know that Bam is alive? Does she know that Viole and Bam are one and the same? Did she know that Bam and Horyang were connected?

And on the subject of Horyang, why would FUG want to capture him? Is Cassano a member of FUG? Was Horyang targeted just so Bam would get involved—even considering that not having Bam involved would be better for FUG (as they could hide their involvement in Khun's death)?

In the middle of this mess of questions and sub-par animation, we get the reunion of Khun and Bam—what should be the big emotional scene of the season. As you'd probably expect, it falls totally flat. There's too much that doesn't make sense going on to be able to feel the emotional drama that should be happening. Moreover, the editing is all over the place and makes it unclear if Khun recognizes his friend or not—you know, right until the final moment when he explicitly does recognize him.

In the end, the only scene in this episode that actually works is Rachael's murder of Dan. Her not being able to manipulate him and then losing her control and stabbing him repeatedly while screaming that she's done nothing wrong is a window into the character's soul. It's a truly fantastic scene… if only things like this were the rule instead of the exception.

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Tower of God Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.