anime about nothing

you should read then post this thread because it will clear it for you read from chapter 46

The fact that there is focus on mainly the MC Jinwoo, it does become a turnoff when other characters are more or less useless and don't matter. But if there is any other reason you didn't like it then power fantasy is just not your thing, manhwa won't change your mind either

I can't speak for other fans of SL, but personally I don't like something solely because I'm a fan of another medium of the story. I think what you said is certainly a part of it, but it's also the fact we know the story was still in its prologue state until now. Everything up to Ep12 was literally a prologue.

The story is certainly not the best there is. It's not overly complex, and while the side characters are likable enough just by not being annoying af, they didn't get the chance to shine in the source material (tho I'd argue the "human" side characters aren't even the real side characters). The story is still pretty decent. Everything gets explained later on, there's not really any plot holes I'm aware of, and now that I watched the anime I realized how much forshadowing, symbolism and hinting is going on throughout these 12 episodes alone. If a story makes you go "aah everything makes sense now" I'd say it's done its job pretty well, and that's exactly how you feel close to the end. Everything, since the very first episode, happened for a reason.

It's still a power fantasy though. But even with how stagnant the story becomes after a while because the MC is OP later, it's still enjoyable, since even when he wins fights easily later, that's when it shifts its focus from the MC more to the side characters and the actual story. I'm not saying it doesn't lack in storywriting, but the story isn't half as bad as people make it out to be. It's just nothing overly spectacular, but it's also not a "shut off your brain and just enjoy action" type of story, because then it will get really stale for you very fast.

I can still enjoy stories like ORV and similar manhwas just as much as SL, because they all focus on different things. They all have their flaws, even similar ones.

In the end it comes down to what you're looking for in a story and things can also just not be to your taste. Just because a majority of people like Coke, doesn't mean you have to and will like it as well.

@Vedrun I'm going to keep watching Solo Leveling because I'm curious to see what they do with it but I'm afraid it has nothing to provide except cool battle scenes without emotional impact. Power fantasies are incredibly fun when you properly develop them, especially when you create interesting dynamics across the characters on the screen. For example, how friend A, B or C reacts to the main character being stronger. Solo Leveling forgoes anything like that and cages itself into a non-story called "And he just became stronger". I often found myself asking "Why should I care if he beats x, y or z? He is just going to win anyway." when watching. There is not even an attempt on the main character having relationships with other characters while hiding who he is, and that is like incredibly basic storytelling.

But anyway. I think the animation and OST carries a lot of what could be considered a below average show by any other metrics. I just wish they paid just a little more attention to craft a more palatable story.