The God of High School is a South Korean manhwa which is released as a webtoon. It is an action anime that follows a high school student, Jin Mori and his friends, as they compete in a tournament. This tournament determines the best fighter among all high school students in Korea.
Released in 2011 on Naver Webtoon, the anime adaptation of the series later came in 2020, directed by Sunghoo Park. Best known for directing the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, Park is also known for directing this fantastic anime television series.
He has executed an exceptional vision in the anime that follows bright-eyed protagonist Jin Mori and his friends. The director brought supernatural techniques and a variety of styles on display.
Even though the form of martial arts displayed in the anime needs immense training, yet the director chose not to undergo formal martial arts training for its execution.
“I studied taekwondo techniques on YouTube” — Sunghoo Park
In the series, Jin Mori practices Renewal Taekwondo, a martial art created by his grandfather, Jin Tae-Jin. It focuses on powerful, straight kicks to defeat opponents.
The God of High School tournament brings different martial arts styles together in one venue, but the director who executed that was neither professionally trained nor tried to do so. Park told about his experience working on the anime adaptation of the smash hit WEBTOON series:
“For that reason, I wanted to try out each of those martial arts styles myself, but I had neither the time nor the budget, so all I could do was research them all on YouTube (lol).”
He continued:
“For example, I studied taekwondo techniques on YouTube, then reproduced their motions in hand-drawn key frames. I incorporated my own style of camerawork to create highly intense images that give the impression of great speed.”
It might be shocking to hear because the execution that was presented on screen was more than perfect — and nobody can say that the director carried out each move in anime without any formal training.
Was it Easy For Sunghoo Park to Implement His Vision in The God of High School?
It would be challenging to execute something (especially an anime when it’s already adapted from a well-accomplished webtoon) by watching YouTube videos, but director Sunghoo Park actually did that to direct his super-hyped series. So, how did he do that? Know from his own words as he says he sent all the scripts, storyboards, and designs to the author so he could check them over:
“I explained to him in detail how we were using the original work as a base while changing the designs and scripts in ways unique to the anime format, and he was very happy with it. He had deep respect for the way anime is produced, which made the project much easier to work on.”
Watch The God of High School on Prime Video.
Source: Crunchyroll
