Solo Leveling

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The manhwa community entitles Solo Leveling along the lines of "Not like the other manhwas" or "Not your typical power fantasy." And although I respect their awareness of the prevalent mediocrity in the medium, the aforementioned descriptions are still false. Solo Leveling is your typical power fantasy. And let's be honest, "not like the other manhwa" is not that much of a compliment.

It's mediocre, worse even, to be brutally frank. The narrative is brimming with formulas, has one of the worst character writing I've ever witnessed, and is overall a boring read. The protagonist's tale suffers no risk and receives all the rewards. No suspense ... is there to keep the reader on the edge of their seats or in any way to make it engaging. However, Solo Leveling's popularity proves otherwise, and it's understandable.

The author knows how to attract a specific audience; gamers. The manhwa is the closest thing I've seen to a game developer playing the video game he made, where he knows every exploit there is.

Solo Leveling is a superficial narrative. And that simplicity, that lack of depth to its characters, setting, and premise, helps the story in a way that would easily be understandable and doesn't create any frequent inconsistencies. However, it still has significant flaws erected from the beginning that was never fixed and became prominent over time.

Solo Leveling is very repetitive, and that coincides with its predictability. The beginning does a decent job of depicting the development of Jin-woo's power. His power grew steadily, and there was still tension in his fights due to Jin-woo's struggle. However, after Jin-woo fully comprehends his abilities and exploits the system, every battle he enters is an automatic win. The initial struggle for power made for great pacing; however, anything after the Igris fight was too easy for him. Every battle was always one-sided in favor of Jin-woo. No single match is present where you'd think he would lose. It would be more engaging if there's a difference between how he wins every time using his wit but he uses nothing but pure power. There is no risk and no suspense. The lack of tension and suspense undermines the narrative's engagement, ruining the average reader's experience.

Another flaw that you'll notice the further you read the manhwa is the characters, more specifically, the irrelevance of every character apart from Jin-woo. Not that Jin-woo is a well-written character in the first place. Every supporting character is just there to be in awe of Jin-woo's power, and every villain is there so Jin-woo can flex his power. Spoilers: This is prominent at the final battle, where everyone is useless, and only Jin-woo and his shadows are the only ones with the chance to fight. Everyone else is a liability, and even the most powerful hunter next to Jin-woo becomes a damsel in distress.

Even from an interpersonal relationship basis, none of the characters served a purpose, whether it was codependency or for his character development. Interaction with his family and friends that intended to create suspense never works. The slight tension and suspense it tries to portray is immediately undermined, knowing the plot is always in favor of Jin-woo.

The sad irony of these poor character development attempts only worsened Jin-woo's character. Before re-awakening, Jin-woo exhibited the most depth out of the other story parts. As his power increases, he becomes more blank, often confused with developing apathy - it isn't apathy. Jin-woo loses depth further into the story, making him more of a self-insert character than he already was.

I acknowledge the author's ability to attract the audience more than other trite cash grabs. They promised a power fantasy, and a power fantasy they gave. It doesn't pretend to be anything it is not and continues to satisfy the audience they meant to attract. And the artist's talent strongly contributed to the manhwa's success. Solo Leveling's most vital asset is its art. Each panel's vivid drawings and coloring coincide well with its portrayal of power. Things that don't make sense are present, like many anatomy issues and shadows emitting light, but that's not an issue since, like the story's typical writing, it's only there to look cool. The artist knows how to draw fight scenes and anything in general - making full use of techniques such as perspectives to their maximum effect.

Solo Leveling is just like any other manhwa out there, only that it grew more popular than others due to how it carried its mediocrity. There's nothing special or unique about Solo Leveling, but it knows precisely what it's doing. If you like power fantasy, you'll most likely enjoy this manhwa. If you hate these overused formulas, you'd be wasting your time if you tried to read this.

This isn't your typical "MC becomes crazy OP" story where the OP MC becomes absolutely boring af.

This story is a fucking masterpiece.
You may be skeptical about reading it, perhaps you think it will end up trash like many generic RPG/MMO style anime/manga.
I assure you that that opinion is completely wrong.

The Story: 10/10
Absolutely solid, it flows extremely well and is probably one of the best adaptions of a LN into a Manhwa I've ever seen.
The story is filled with plots that make sense, flowing with extremely well written character development, assisted by very good character interactions.
Of course, like many stories, it starts out slow. When I ... first started reading this story definitely pissed me off to the point that I was like "Does this even get better."
Yes, yes it does.
You may be annoyed with the MC and many supporting characters in the beginning but that quickly changes as the character begins to go through a change no one in this fantasy world has experienced before. He is able to level up his rank. Through that experience he drastically changes in personality and is able to experience much more action than previously before, at the bottom of the barrel. This manhwa quickly becomes exciting to read and you'll continuously be asking for more after finishing each chapter. Give it a chance and run through the chapters, I'm sure it's something all action and fantasy lovers will enjoy.

Art: 10/10
It's really hard to not love the art style honestly, it's beautiful and clear, well drawn, and definitely adds to the appeal of reading this.

Character: 10/10
I cannot get enough of how amazing each character is in their own way.
This being a fantasy, theres a loott of things we can't relate to in this story, but even with that the characters are easy to understand, or relate to.
The choices each characters make make complete sense based on our understanding of their personality, or their history.
We aren't stuck with any characters that have overly unrealistic personalities, which makes reading this all the better.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I have reread all the chapters available many times and it really doesn't get old.

You definitely may not see this as a Masterpiece like I do, but it is definitely a minimum of a 7/10.
If you love fantasy... action... adventure.. then this is for you.
Give it a chance and run through all the chapters available, I'm sure you will see the beauty in it.

Overall, I give these 86 chapters currently available to us a 10/10.

Every. Damn. Time.

I don't understand why this superficial manhwa is so hyped

Solo Leveling tells the story of a mary sue named Sung Jin-Woo who tries to mimic a random isekai plot in search of a hollow character development, it's a kpop version of the Arifureta, but Arifureta can be funny for involuntary moments, but here, the things are they're stupids in a raw way, it's the kind of manga a person would make just to satisfy fetish self insert of a cool edgy guy in another world.

This story has a terrible worldbuilding, I thought it would show you at the beginning of your journey how ... the world works, but it did not this it at some point (even later), just leaves it to the reader to understand in such a flawed way, and when it suits, it's done in an expository way over and over, it's just "only talk, dont show'', it doesn't fully justify how the world occurs or at least sets a time for readers to be more immersed in him, that's the proof. How lazy you have to be to make a story.

The protagonist is the most uninteresting being here, I imagined that in the first chapter there would be a construction of all your motivation, but then it ends up being foul so you don't care anymore. He thinks he has been betrayed, as people worry about their lives, they are afraid, they have a family to come back to, but no, he needs to contradict himself later with stupid thoughts, the same one who decided that someone else should flee. And when we have a development, everything about it is simply empty, there is no consequence (maybe one, but not enough) to his life, he is a wind head, who only uses a self head when in a dungeon, and only the the most predictable answers at all times, in fact all this adventure is predictable without guaranteeing a moment of real distress or difficulty for the reader.

The narrative is lazy, bad and highly expository in the action scenes, as I had said: monologues that only focus when the MC is in the dungeon, we never see that anymore, the dialogues are horrible, I seem to be reading a story where each the characters is deaf and needs to repeat the same thing all the time, when he doesn't, have it, the whole dialogues are empty that don't complement much on the journey, and the author has the audacity to insert a totally random Nietzsche text, that doesn't fit the situation was only played because the author thinks the phrase is cool, and many people consider it deep.

The characters are all bad that we can sum up in 2 words: uninteresting and unimportant, I think only 2 characters I could care about, one of them is dead because they performed properly, and their last scene was a moment of construction, the another was only shown in different environments, I doubt the author will use it again, the antagonists are bad, only 1 of them has a plausible motivation, the rest is just bad for being purely bad, the author only knows to do this idea because he needs to satisfy The fetish of seeing a cool edgy guy killing someone.

Not even the flashback moments here work for anything, it's always something expositive, and the only thing shown is the first dungeon the protagonist had, basically every conflict for MC, they insert this flashback, jesus this manga not only be without creativity but disrespectful to the reader himself, insisting on something we already understand, because this universe is so empty that he at least has no courage to show anything else, not even a memorable memory at least as interesting as possible, not even his mother dear, who is informed in the first chapter, which has become a lousy excuse for you (the reader) to care about him at the first point and then forget about her, seriously how badly written this it and often lazy again.

The development of the protagonist in the general context is acceptable, but scumbag and continuing with shallow labels, I have never hoped for a comic moment to appear in the midst of such a tense scene. I currently arrived midway through the work, the protagonist does not show an interesting image, he is totally one-dimensional that not even his relationships with secondary characters strengthen him, not even in a "melancholy or mental" situation the author can humanize the character, he repeats the same flashbacks, give the impression that this is not a story of someone who fights for the people around them, but of someone who needs to satisfy the faster leveling fetish, he seems more like a character for fujoshi to fall in love with because he's so hot and uhh so much badass.

The most positive thing I leave is cap55, the first chapter that made me laugh without being stupid about this narrative, but it's still a bad and foul story. And I don't think that can change enough, even if he does, his first part has rotted just like the protagonist's will, it's just an amateur story that doesn't even show courage in his actions, I feel like I'm seeing a bootleg of a Izumi Shinichi just repetitive, I wanted to talk more about this journey, but this empty story keeps me, that's why i don't classify this Manhwa as a good thing, and I don't think I'm just the only person thinking differently.

"Solo Leveling", what seemed like an underdog story has really left me disappointed. At first glance, the whole reason I started was to expect him to grow as a character slowly and PROVE himself. However, this is not what I got at all.

Forget the underdog story, forget the meaningful process of character growth and development, the story tries it's hardest to make the character look like he's "struggling", but it's pretty difficult when the MC has the same emotionless, edgy facial expression on every panel.

It's just extremely confusing and frustrating how this supposed "underdog" MC gets so strong so damn fast. He is literally flawless, ... he feels completely void of humor and emotion and is just a living, breathing, OP, issekai MC. These 3 paragraphs alone are all about my number 1 reason as to why I dislike this Manhwa so much. The main character just really sucks.

The only thing that doesn't give this a "1" for me is the art. Absolutely amazing art that made me stomach through the horrible MC writing and directionless plot that could've been finished if the MC just didn't hide his power. The art was literally eye-candy, filled with clean line-work, shading and colours.

Anyways, if you don't like edgy, power-fantasy MCs, don't read this. If you were expecting the slow-climb and rise of an underdog, go read "Hardcore Leveling Warrior" (technically a "re-rising" here), or read Tales of Demons and Gods instead. The MC might be OP in HCLW and ToDaG, but they have limitations and a bunch of situations where they can't just "clean up" the enemy as easy as Sung Jin-woo.

2/10

Solo leveling is a super fun read, where the MC is pretty much op but it never ceases to be entertaining. The story flows well and is a straightup an upgrade from the LN. Combined with the godly artist every page is just a feast for the eyes. This manhua is an example of op done right.

Story : 9.5
somewhat generic isekai power fantasy but that doesn't really affect the story.Starts off slow but quickly turns into a ride you can't get off. World building is done well in both the LN and manhua.

Art: 10
Most likely one of the best looking manhua/manga I've read besides ... berserk, being a manhua the colors just give that extra kick to make this an eyegasm

Characters: 10
MC goes from 0 to 100 real quick, many scenes where I just think damn, thats a fucking badass mf if I've ever seen one.

Enjoyment:10
I really can't get enough of these new chapters, one of the few things I look foward to during the week.

Overall: 10
In general a fucking good read

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS!

Solo Leveling is a manhwa that always baffles me whenever I hear someone talk about it. They usually like to say nice sounding buzzwords whenever they praise it, but never bother to actually expand on it. It's always at the front page of whatever site or app you're using. But when I myself read it, it felt like I was reading a completely different manhwa than the one everyone was talking about. Let me break down the different aspects of the manhwa:

Art 8/10: Art is the one and only aspect I can praise Solo Leveling for. It's undeniable that it ... has fantastic art and I believe this is the second biggest factor for Solo Leveling's popularity (I'll get to the biggest factor later on). The shading and coloring is fantastic. The reason I have art at 8/10 instead of higher is because of the lack of details and background.

Story 3/10: Story...What story? The premise is that gates have appeared around the world with different levels of dangers within them. So they employ hunters to go into the gates and dispose of the danger within. We follow Sung Jin-Woo, a low ranking hunter who suddenly gains a power that allows him to grow stronger through quests and he quickly becomes a S-Rank hunter.

I'm gonna be honest, the first like 15 chapters were actually entertaining. And I thought it was gonna turn out to be a really good manhwa. The gate we entered in the prologue was so different than how they are presented in the rest of the manhwa. There were rules to be followed and if not followed it would mean death. This is not at all present in later gates, in later gates its basically just different monsters in different environments. Which means the gates themselves are not at all interesting after the prologue which is a shame cause you had this sense of dread and mystique surrounding the gate when they entered it for the first time.

Now I've only really touched on the prologue and gates. So how does the story develop after the prologue? Well...It doesn't really. We simply follow Sung Jin-Woo as he goes into different gates and strengthen himself at an insane speed. It just uses the same formula over and over again. He goes into a gate, something unexpected happens, for instance the gate was more dangerous than it seemed. He handles it with ease despite the difficulty change. And then rinse and repeat. It was very disappointing to have him become so extremely strong so quickly. There was no real sense of progress. One second he's the weakest and another second there is literally no threat in existence that can phase him.

Also a lack of overarching story makes it hard to be motivated to continue. There's no real goal Sung Jin-Woo set for himself. They did slightly touch on his mother being ill and he needing to heal her. But they barely explored his relationship with his mother or anything like that. It was more just a dumb reason for him to enter a gate. And it was resolved with ease.

Character 1/10: Now we get into the absolute worst part of Solo Leveling. The characters. Mainly Sung Jin-Woo himself. I mentioned earlier about the biggest factor for Solo Leveling's popularity, and this is it. That might sound like a praise, but it's definitely not. Sung Jin-Woo was made to be as bland as humanly possible so that people can insert themselves into him and live out a power fantasy. We barely know anything about Sung Jin-Woo. He doesn't have any real motivation that drives him. He doesn't have any clear morals. In fact, he doesn't really have any emotions at all. Almost every single panel he is in he will make the same generic emotionless edgy expression. He almost never smiles, laughs, look scared, nervous or anything like that. His expression is always like he's watching a mediocre movie cause his girlfriend wanted to see it.

He has no development at all either. He goes from being the generic weak main character that's surprisingly brave when the situation calls for it into the generic edgy overpowered main character. There's no transition. And even after he has become overpowered nothing still develops him. And besides, there's nothing to push him into development since the arcs never presents him with a dilemma that forces character change.

As for other characters, there aren't really any notable ones. They introduce some new characters each arc but then they just kinda forget about their existence and you never see them again. At this point I've stopped remembering the name of the characters because they've proven time and time again that there's no point to it. I also have a problem with how much they're pandering and using certain characters (mainly female characters) as tools for this. What I mean by this is that Sung Jin-Woo is made to be the ultimate edgy overpowered main character that you can self insert yourself into for a power fantasy. And they also uses characters as a tool to reinforce this, like him needing to rescue every female character as soon as they are about to get hurt (all the while the male characters gets slaughtered left and right).

Pretty much every female character he meets will at some point be rescued by him and/or fall for him. For instance there is one female character that is a bit obsessed with him cause he "smells" different than other people. And at another point where he's murdering monsters suddenly the last monster surrenders out of fear. And what do you know, that monster turns out to be a super hot monster babe that falls for him. All characters are just tools used to put Sung Jin-Woo himself up on a pedestal or as a measuring stick to see how overpowered he is.

Enjoyment 3/10: As you may already have figured out, my enjoyment for this manhwa is not really high. None of the characters are memorable, the arcs are uninspired and had no real purpose except to make the main character stronger. The main character himself was dull. Except early on in the story where it was actually interesting and he had emotions and there was a sense of overall dread.

Overall 3/10: I really can't give this any higher. Remove the art which is its only praiseworthy point and all you will be left with is the same generic self insert edgy overpowered main character power fantasy that has all the ladies fall for him. There's nothing memorable at all about this manhwa.

Solo Leveling is the literary equivalent of an 8 year old playing make-believe with plastic toys. I can tell because I used to be one.

It goes like this: DUNGEON RAID START DOOM BOOM LEVEL UP CRACK SMACK BOSS FOUND IT'S THE KING OF VAMPIRE OGRE LORDS WHOOSH WHAT IS THIS BLAM SHAZAM OH NO YOU DON'T BANG KERRANG SKILL USED "ULTRA THROAT SLIT" CRITICAL HIT BOSS DEAD LEVEL UP LEVEL UP LEVEL UP +675 TO ALL STATS YOU'VE FOUND THE ELIXIR OF SUPER IMMORTALITY YOU'VE FOUND THE DARK SWORD OF PAINFUL DEATH +36457165 TO ATTACK YOU'VE LEARNED A NEW SKILL "INFINITE ANNIHILATION" etc.

(No, that's not ... an actual spoiler for Solo Leveling. OR IS IT?!)

But yeah. There are no stakes, no sense of danger, no meaningful character development, no interesting plot, no original mechanics, no dialogue, no personality, no charisma, no maturity. Instead, there is the most quintessential Korean reincarnation power fantasy where the main character immediately goes from a weak shy underdog boy to a tall, six-packed and undercut, stern, poker-faced ladykiller giga-sigmachad who can kill everything by sneezing at it and only keeps getting more overpowered by the minute. Because of fucking course he does. And this is enabled via a faux VRMMORPG interface because of fucking course it is. This cookie-cutter drivel writes itself on autopilot these days. The momentary but overemphasized weakness the MC exhibits in the first chapter is a mere formality to transform him into a completely different person right afterwards, and the moderately tedious grind that he undergoes for the majority of the comic's first half is just as much of a formality to establish him as the most powerful, all-around-capable being in the universe in the second half. The longer it goes, the less it makes you care because there's no struggle and nothing matters. Ever. Plot points are introduced and— oh hey, a kitty is playing with its tail! How cute! Moving on.

As you can guess, Solo Leveling certainly isn't shy of being the most trite thing in existence—quite the opposite: it revels in its own infinitely indulgent tropeyness, it takes pride in being the textbook example of everything that made the genre so boring and predictable over the past ten years and presenting it with the aplomb of reaching the pinnacle of creation. And in doing so, perhaps to its own merit, it outright discards everything that it doesn't want to do. You cannot fail that which you don't bother with, and so what remains is pure shonen battle sakuga with a side of wish fulfillment fluff, with everything else (including everything of literary substance) being decidedly left out. The detailed full-color art serves the goal admirably where it matters, i.e. when characters are striking a pose so that you could marvel at their menacing looks and soak in the edgy atmosphere. As soon as they start moving, however, it becomes a blurry mess where movements are very poorly defined, there's no sense of space, no impact to any strikes—all of which reflects the very nature of the comic perfectly. It has some style and looks great on the surface but is soulless, lazily written, and mediocre by choice.

But to give credit where it's due, at least it knows when to end. So long, leveling.

Solo Leveling does everything it tries to do goddamn right.

You may think the setting has been done a million times and it's just another generic overpowered main character doing what he wants, it's exactly that, but executed absolutely magnificently in every regard.

Story: 10/10
The setting is quite simple, one day gates start appearing all over the world out of nowhere and people start awakening magic abilities in order to close these gates. Our main character is a man dubbed "The Worlds Weakest Hunter", Sung Jin-Woo, who joins these raids in order to pay for his comatose mothers treatment and his younger sisters education. After a raid ... gone horribly wrong, Sung Jin-Woo awakens an ability that enables him to level up his abilities, which is unheard of. The story follows Sung Jin-Woo's growth as a person and a hunter. The mystery and high-stakes in this manhwa make it an enticing story to follow.

Art: 10/10
This is where Solo Leveling shines above all it's competitors.
What starts off as mediocre art suddenly improves drastically to become pure joy to look at, I've never seen manhwa done so beautifully.
It's so unique you can't really compare it to art you see from something like OPM for example. Each panel is a sight to behold and truly makes you appreciate it on a whole other level. Keeping in mind it's released on a weekly basis which is unbelievable.

Character: 9/10
Unique characters with good character development throughout the series. For most of the series the way they introduce new characters at the right rank milestones for Sung Jin-Woo is executed very well and at multiple times in the series will you go like: Whoah, holy... what a badass character.

Enjoyment: 10/10
In every aspect this is a masterpiece to behold and I urge you to give this a fair chance, you will not be disappointed, I guarantee it.

Overall: 10/10
Hands down one of my favorite reads ever, it's captivating and you may find yourself re-reading the series over and over again without even giving it another thought. There are quite a few minor and somewhat major changes done compared to the light novel, but in my opinion most of them have been positive changes.

What are you waiting for? Join the shadows!

This my first time writing review so go easy on me.

Solo leveling has great start we have MC that is weakest hunter but still explores dungeons in order to pay medical bills for his sick mother and to help his sister become doctor however after a incident he gains mysterious power that helps him level up his rank and become strongest.
So let's start with good points of solo leveling
(1).Good start
Start of Solo leveling is good like I said earlier story has relatable MC in the beginning but after that it's down hill
(2).Art
Solo leveling has great art it's fully colored and it's easy to read ... it's clean, plus characters are good looking.
Now for what's bad
(1).Story
After the good start of story solo leveling gets predictable and boring
Every time over mc enters dungeon we know that he will defeat the monster and than say his catchphrase "Arise" and add that monster to his shadow army this is same process over and over.
(2).characters
Worst thing about solo leveling is characters,characters of solo leveling are like NPC. They are here for only two reasons either admire the mc or to hate him no in between. Every time new character is introduced they either praise the mc or hate him. New character are disposed after mc's business is finished with them. No character are relevant they only exist to make us feel how great MC is.
(3). Main character
Main character of story is sung jin-woo, like I said earlier he is relatable in beginning but than after gaining his powers he becomes self insert,Overpowered,emotionless. If I have to describe sung jin-wooin one word that is Korean Kirito.

My prediction for this manhwa is that people will know how bad this is in my opinion this series is going age like milk.

I would not recommend this series to anyone with good taste in anime and manga.
If you like power fantasy than read One punch man. It's sad to see this manhwa is ranked higher than manga like OPM

Solo leveling is just a Good looking trash but trash is still trash.

(I strongly advise reading the entire review to understand everything about Solo Leveling. Or at the very least the TLDR review, thanks for reading in advance.)

This is the story of a man who levelled up all alone.

It's hard to write about Solo Leveling whilst accommodating to everyone, which is something I'd like to try to do since the series is both an obscured masterpiece whilst actually still being very good so much so that it doesn't deserve to be overshadowed by some of the hate it gets.

To understand why Solo Leveling is a good piece of work we first need to understand the community. It's ... crystal clear to me that two types of individuals exist. The ones who enjoy a bit of hype action regardless of internal plot/story content, and the ones who call out stories for being exactly that. As is Demon Slayer, and probably JJK (hell, might as well be every shounen for that matter), Solo Leveling is no expectation in this case. I wish to be on a point of which I understand where both sides are coming from since to me it is clear that stories like Solo Leveling is literally just trying to be a simple hype piece of work for action lovers, but there are some elements in which makes me believe that this story is just not there in masterpiece status, which I will get to more on later. In actual fact, it is why I can actually side with the latter callout group in this work rather than others simply because of some of the stuff that Solo Leveling does that makes me become unforgiving.

At its core, SL is a simple story. That story is levelling up, and levelling up my dude Sung Jin-woo is so damn good at. This "zero to hero" story takes its sweet time getting into the actual good parts that make everything about SL so enjoyable, that is, literally just levelling up I suppose. It's a slow game but the payoff is a pleasant one, and for the most part, it is the grind from nothing to god type power that is the core of SL, because that is where the levelling up actually happens. Of course, it isn't a flick of the switch like OPM for example, Sung Jin-woo goes through many experiences calling for a wide variety of tactics, strategies and strengths for him to be the true king of the playing field. Many times you may find yourself thinking as to what Jin-woo will do in X situation. With him being overpowered, it doesn't mean that he is liable to just battle alone, the story does exploit some real-life calamities that need well-thought decision making, a little bit like politics if you like but only specific to the hunters in this story. SL knows this all and plays with such elements in a way that would make you want to praise the story even more. Faults are present here, however, which I will come onto more later. Something else I'd like to touch on here is the themes of such a story. What we have here is not just plot specifics that are respectable and all, but past a transparent layer, you are met with some interesting themes about the absurdity and reality of having such immense strength in a real situation. Sometimes these themes drop off as easily as they come, but the existence of such only gives me a reason to praise the thought anyway, it is just a shame that it was not expanded on, as that would have been quite an interesting way to develop Jin-woo, which it does in a literal sense, but not enough so it has a lasting effect as an actually good and developed idea. The means of being so overpowered would have forcefully changed his life anyway, so to call it something of a developed theme in that sense is missing out on the specifics that actually carry the story to where it goes. Such is just my perspective on the matter, however. Take what you will from it.

Or in other words, being overpowered is no simple game. And I like SL's acknowledgement of that for sure. However, SL does fault a lot when getting into "serious" and "mature" territory as such. When something gets into said grounds, I'd expect it to take itself seriously enough so that the setting can become enjoyable. SL has nothing wrong in that matter, it is serious enough to understand everything and still not raise eyebrows. My issue with it is simple. It is boring. Really. Very. Boring. I know I've just praised the story a whole lot. It is something that makes sense to itself, but it can come across as something of a disorderly author trying to piece together two very different puzzle boards and hope that something good will come out. I am not here trying to say that "serious" + action is some inherently bad connection to make or write a story on, I quite liked *most* of Attack on Titan, and I would imagine maybe FMAB would probably fall under the same category (talk about a controversial duo). But SL was literal switch-ups to and from the "serious" side with the hype content. It isn't even a theme thing, this is a plot thing to need to get used to. When you are flying well with one side, you then get another almost irrelevant matter on the next. You could argue that in the nature of the webtoon, in order to move forward content, one would need to have this game of catch for it to just be stable. In my eyes at least, that is problematic. It ends up being a binary system only having to wait on when a foretold event comes over another. I'd be more willing to forgive if the—let's just call it SoL—side of things was actually interesting. It is mostly made up of "we need Jin-woo here!" or "who should we send to fight the beasts" or something trivial like that. I mean, it probably could have gone further and at least made such moments interesting. Unfortunately, I was not met with such whilst reading all unfolding. Oh well.

There's another bit of storytelling I need to touch on as well. That part is the lore of SL. Now, truth be told, I don't remember all of it. I don't believe it was interesting enough for me to care about and was something that came across as a copy-paste RPG type thing with all "monarchs", "rulers", "god" and all that rubbish that came out of my ears as fast as they came in. Though, I give respect for it to even include such. Sure, it was a certain and integral part of the story, but in the drawn-out chapters of this webtoon, at least it didn't just say "ah yeah, those guys existed and now they have beef". I respect that it is something of detailed lore that whilst not the most enjoyable or interesting there is to offer, was still something anyone could tell has some thinking behind it. Whether you will submerge yourself within the lore is a detail for another day. I won't go too much on the topic too, mainly because it had no real overarching themes plus such info gets given away way later on in the series so I have no real intention to discuss such.

Now. Characters. Or the character. This webtoon has a tendency to make everything about Sung Jin-woo. He really does level up alone. I don't exactly have a problem with everything being centred around the dude, and to be fair, that is what I quite like about the webtoon. It is just about him at the end of the day and his journey as the solo leveller. With his strong development from zero to hero, I can only really praise what goes on in the story in relation to him. At one point we are given a time in which we can actually see the change from zero to hero, like a literal side by side comparison. For such a long series, the flashback only makes for such a staggering effect on the mind to absorb into oneself. Seriously very good stuff around Sung Jin-woo. It's a little absurd though, I have no idea if this was intentional or not to in fact embrace the solitary nature of the story, but I will comment nonetheless, and that is the lack of importance of side characters. Everyone who isn't Jin-woo gets minimal treatment to the point in which they could actually be considered background characters, as fast as they come is the period in which they also depart. It is a little disappointing at times since many had the potential to become pivotal characters in the webtoon, but I supposed that such is to be expected from an egocentric story. That isn't to excuse the matter though, since bothering so much about some characters lead to a disappointing memory of their existence. Actual thought out characters like Yoo Jin-ho, Cha Hae-in, Go Gun-hee, members of Jin-woo's family, hell even Radiru Esil should have either been minimal matters, or people you could actually look back and think "wow, what a great character". Such of course is not present here, and whilst I do understand that, yes, it may have been a good call in a story of this kind, it still acknowledges that at the end of the day there were some very disappointing characters here.

Now, the selling point of SL. The entire reason (I believe) it is so highly praised.

That is simply due to the art in the webtoon. Now, I will point out that I don't read a ton of webtoons (as of this review's publication anyway), but I will point out that of all that I've seen in the medium, SL easily topples everything in terms of quality. The only thing coming close is "The Horizon" but that has an entirely different story so you need to take the art in a different manner than you would this action, actually "The Horizon" may even be better but that is not the point right now and is for another time. But anyway, this webtoon has some seriously good art. Whilst I'd like to believe that SL is just a product that is close to a reflection of the webtoon medium, I have yet to see something as good as itself, so I truly would go out of my way to say, yes, this is some kind of artistic masterpiece. This is like the Demon Slayer equivalent of webtoons. It is that good. What is consistently found is not just a heavily detailed sequence of action and battles, but detail to a point where it is made to become believable to an illusory point of actual motion. It's not just onomatopoeic, it is an edited work to suit such tones consequently enhancing the many clashes that arise in this webtoon. As you have moments of intense action, you are able to fly through them in a way that would make you the camera of the moment. You have your page turns from manga to create effects and such, SL took the webtoon's infinite scrolling as a means to guide the reader down an action-packed path suitable for their imagination, whilst also having enough moments to make for a quick and intense battle as everything is made out to be in the story. It's kinda genius really, but I am not sure whether to consider such as coincidental or intentional, but with panels literally being too large for a perfect fit length (unless you are on 50% zoom or something wild like that), you are met with a forceful scrolling down of actually moving yourself to see the entire picture unfold. You'd have one side and then go down a bit to see the other. You'd have characters at the top of the page in a wide shot, only to cross-hatch down to a close up of how intense the battle was going from up there. I may be making some obscure thoughts here, but I genuinely felt that way when I was reading the webtoon. It is a good way to exploit the endlessness of a webtoon in a way to forcefully make you drag yourself down for what lies ahead. Not that the action isn't enough though, being equally intense and immersive, I should refer back to how the effects here are no joke too. You have tilt shifts and blurs here that do a splendid job at conveying speed and movement relative to the characters and where they are. I should go on about the comic book type format too, which works really well in making for some action as you'd expect from something with the style. Coherent, bombastic enough to not care about meaning, fast enough to not end up lost, there's a long list of things to go on about, some of which I've just forgotten about after reading this for a long while now, but my point stands and even in the early chapters, considering how consistent in quality this is, there was no point in which I feel as if the artwork lacked in some kind of area associated. It's a magnificent action webtoon and something that has its well earned praise with apex level work being a permanent mark in its entirety.

Now, to end with, I will go over the enjoyment reasons for SL and give a fair judgement as to why it isn't as bad or good as made out to be. SL's reputation is an easy target for it to be obscured by both aforementioned sides, that is, the lover of visual spectacle, and the seekers of zenith literature. What I see in the community is the lack of acknowledgement from either side to understand the reasonings either side tries to present. Because it is probably the best example, I will use Demon Slayer. As SL, Demon Slayer is a manga that received an anime adaptation that whilst indeed was praised to some absurd (but reasonable) degree, is still something that should be understood as to why it is so loved. Take any "overrated" anime/manga, Your Name, Clannad AS, literally any top shounen. Titles which are praised when other *very* similar titles are not praised as such, called out as overrated for some trivial matter like "the art is the only reason it is good" or "it's just boring dramatic cry bait", to which I say "so?". Such takes are obviously very reductionist and don't take the whole criticism into account, but those are usually the foundations. Of course, whilst they are indeed valid opinions anyone could have, it's strange to be someone to disregard something as trivial, in a way that states that it is some kind of objective statement. Why can't clarity be a sophisticated reason as a means to enjoy something? I've seen many works with "nothing" to speak of that still manage to land some very high praise from me simply because it was an honest passionate piece of work that managed to understand its audience and simply delivered the highest quality piece of work you could imagine in such a genre. To say Demon Slayer and the likes are bad because there is no "detailed story" or "characters were flat" is the equivalent for me to take Monster and call that out for being "too philosophical" or "boring for being so serious". I am not saying to start getting your ideals checked out, you can enjoy what you want, I simply say to understand why it is people like the works as such. SL is a very enjoyable piece of work because of how it is a magnificent action-packed eye-candy full of tirelessly battles that only know how to give more than the last. It is very VERY reasonable as to why it is currently sitting at a score of ~8.8 as of this review.

Though, of course, this doesn't help out for people who are actually looking for a well thought out story. When we have one side not acknowledging why people will be quick to point out irrelevant plot issues. The same side lacks awareness for the legit reason of pleasure that comes with an elegant piece of literature. SL happens to be devoid of this. Completely. This is not a problem in a rational sense. Why does everything need to be deep? But, at the very least for SL, is something that I have to agree on, that yes, it becomes a fault—it needs to be considered too. At least with Demon Slayer, it doesn't have all that lore and pseudo politics, at least with Your Name it doesn't try to expand on a simple idea with a simple story. SL tries to go and play a safe game where it should have noticed that said the safe game was a very conflicting element in large in retrospect like I would have ignored this argument if it weren't for that, but the reality of the situation is that there more reasons become apparent whilst criticizing the story of SL in what it actually habitats. It's sad, but hey, that's what we have here.

In some collection of thoughts, SL becomes something of a great webtoon to enjoy. It's one with a ton of basic features like good art and hype that sustains it long enough as it has already done so albeit as with action anime/manga—ones with good production behind them. A distortion arises a wall between two very vocal sides who forget the simple needs of the other. With an entirely flashy and fierce presence comes a lackluster story that was indeed good, but faltered as time went on with the abundance of newly found monotonous discussions that seemed to linger for an eternity.

At the end of the day, I suppose SL is a game of patience for the fans of action, but seeing the high reception, even those fans seem to be fine with everything here. Otherwise, others who thought they were in for some kind of next FMAB have come to the wrong place, though, there's no harm in wanting a bit of fun here in my opinion. Take what you will from this webtoon, it's not every day something as SL comes, in its own culture of copy-paste RPG type manhwa as you have Japanese fantasy light novels flooding the place. Why not just have a bit of fun? Isn't that why you entered the medium?

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TLDR Review:

Story - 7: A simple story that expands itself a little too much to the point where it has to consider a lot, effectively making it boring at times due to a lack of interesting moments that consistently find themselves present here.
Art - 10: Undoubtedly amazing art. From crazy fights to insane detail that it almost looks like GFX. What is not to like with the additional scrolling mechanism that enhances the experience?
Characters - 7: It's all Jin-woo's world. Other characters are kinda disappointing to have a memory about. However, in Jin-woo's solo hold up of the story, his development is pretty cool and likeable.
Enjoyment - 8: Very enjoyable for its hype moments and only that. Otherwise, content which aims to show something more "sophisticated" is devoid. That's kinda not the point but given how seriously this webtoon takes itself, it can be understood why one would dislike it for such. Still very good tho.

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I somehow managed to write a lot on this which was kinda easier than I expected but also had a very low input than I would have imagined, but I consider this review a good write up of mine so I will publish what I have written without any major changes for the sake of haha long review I must be smort :))). But yeah, SL was in some grey area of what it was that made it good and bad that I haven't (explicitly) seen many comments on about. So I thought to give both sides of the argument and well, just say that it was fun, because it really is. To anyone who wants though, I've read a webtoon similar to SL which actually has a more profound and thought-provoking story to it. It goes by the name "Omniscient Reader" which is well worth the read if you weren't so much of a fan of this due to a dry story. But whatever. One thing is certain with SL though:

This extraordinary story of a man who went from nothing to the most powerful human on earth. That man's name is Sung Jin-woo, how he got to that position was truly a grand event to witness. How did he do it?

"I Level Up Alone"


Overall - 8.0 (8)

Oh no, where do I fucking begin. Despite what many of the manwha legion will claim, this story is not one that is good and has no real meaning that leaves you feeling bored after the official ending. This shit must have been written by an angsty 15 year old because it is every bit of power fantasy that you would expect from a something written by them. The main character has a heroic moment at the beginning, but after that his personality does a complete 180 and is easily one of the most powerful characters nearly 30 chapters in. A lot of stories seem ... to miss the slow progression of the hero and it is very saddening to see a bunch of the hero's development and charm nearly disappear.

Before explaining the rest of the story, a fatal flaw about the manwha must be discussed. The simple fact that no other character in the show (except for one other character that is promptly killed) takes all of the interesting progression out of the story. I do not understand why the author thought that it was a good idea to lock everyone else's power level and only have him scale up. Later on, this becomes a massive problem later on, but this is even important near the beginning.

The art is pretty good, especially for a webtoon. Panels can be boring and the backgrounds can be lacking. Overall, it's fine and there's nothing that can be too criticized, other than the fact that the character designs can be uninspired.

Here comes the issue. Spoilers ahead. The story revolves around leveling up, so it goes without saying that the enemies would need to be more and more powerful over time. Giving the main character a necromancer ability that allows him to use very strong monsters from past fights was a big mistake. It completely removes any weakness that he may have and effectively kills all the tension that may arise in fights. Having the main character lose builds character and increases stakes for later fights, but after so many fights with 0 losses I know that he can't lose. Power creep gets very bad after he clears the hard demon dungeon, and that's when I lost almost all interest. Every other character is sucking his dick and he has near infinite power. His edge is also through the roof as he kills without mercy but is still kind-hearted? I just didn't understand his character. When he single-handedly defeats an enemy that none of the other top hunters in the nation could do combined and rose him from the dead, I understood that the manwha could not go on and that it's problems could only get worse.

How could the character even lose at this point? He is unbeatable and untouchable. This is as generic and bland as it gets, saved only by the art.

Tl;dr I would avoid this one.

This is average, no more, no less.

Story (5/10)
It's a simple story and executed in a very average manner. A classic zero to hero and not much more to say about it. There are some plotholes especially in the world building but none of them are really that damaging on thier own though.

Art (7/10)
The art is good, having it colored makes it way more lively and for the action scenes, which after al are one of the strong points of the manhwa, it does work well. But it's no more than that, good, do not expect beautiful art pieces you can simply sit there ... and admire. The art is streamlined for action, made to be scrolled through quickly.

Characters (4/10)
The characters are shallow, to feel empathy towards them is hard, borderline impossible in my opinion. They don't feel like people, rather they are spotlights pointed at our MC to amplify his awesomeness.

Enjoyment (4/10)
It didn't really make me wish to continue reading except on some particular panels in the begining. For me geting to chapter 42 was a grind.

Well then, would I recomend this to anybody? If they are unable to accept black and white action scenes yes, otherwise no. The art really does, in my opinion, shoot this manhwa into the stratosphere when it really just wanted to go on the trampoline. I understand some people might've longed for colored action scenes for years but I don't believe this manhwa is the one truly magnificent manhwa that deserves to be praised as the long awaited messiah. Wait a little longer and we might find something truly worth remembering.

Story- 3
The MC is crazy overpowered, and there's absolutely no tension left in the story because of that. There's not a single point past the first 50 chapters of the series where I could at least kind of imagine that he could've died because he NEVER loses. The most he'll get out of a fight is losing a handful of his soldier minions- meaningless when he has a million of them- and maybe a scratch on his cheek- which he can heal with a single thought.
The plot is super formulaic. Weak dude suddenly gets blessed with amazing powers and becomes an awesome hero who shows ... up all the lazy corrupt muscleheads who think they're strong. It's just a power fantasy.

Art- 8
The story might suck, but the art is amazing. The artist's constant use of glow and blur effects for action scenes really adds to the sleek aesthetic of Solo Leveling.

Character- 6
The protagonist, Sung Jin-Woo, had some minor character growth in the first 20 or so chapters but since then he's devolved into an edgy edgelord with zero character depth. (Who happens to be incapable of wearing clothes colored anything BUT midnight black.)
He's a Mary Sue through and through. In Solo Leveling, the entire world revolves around this guy. Everyone wants to get close to him and use him, or wants to worship him as their savior, or is scared of his power and wants to kill him. A lot of characters want to do all three. He isn't just a healer or a summoner or a mage- he's every Hunter type *and more.* He's overpowered, infamously famous, dark but not evil, intelligent and never conflicted, perfect in every way... how are we supposed to related to this guy again?

The writer even misses out on a key opportunity for giving him character growth. Since he's killed so many people and monsters, and since both people and monsters are shown in the story to be sometimes good and sometimes bad, there's plenty of room for a moral conflict there- should he stop killing everyone so mercilessly and give them a chance to change? Or is he in a kill-or-be-killed world where compassion becomes weakness?
The writer completely ignores this opportunity for giving the story some depth and instead goes with a story revolving around our protagonist, a necromancer mage summoner supreme overlord of dark energy and death and flashy attacks, clashing with big angry demons in big fancy smashfests, each one more grand and explosive than the next.
No one else besides the MC even gets any development. There are some interestingly conflicted characters who were around at the start of the series, but since then they've been quietly shuffled into the background of the story. By the midpoint of the manhwa, there's little to no character depth in the series at all.

[Side rant- The manhwa doesn't even hesitate to take a dump on the one actually well-written scene from the light novel, where we get to see Sung Jin-Woo from the point of view of ordinary citizens, as people react to his fierce battle watching from their TVs at home, as his heroic actions restore an old man's faith in the strength of Hunters. From that scene in the light novel, readers got to see Sung Jin-Woo as not just a monster-slaying warrior, but a symbol of hope for humanity. The manhwa downplays and shortens this whole sequence so much it might as well not have been included.]

Enjoyment- 2
Solo Leveling was an immensely disappointing experience for me. The story and characters are flavorless and boring and the writing is downright lazy.
All this manhwa has going for it are the action scenes but even flashy fights don't mean anything if they lack all forms of emotional weight and tension.
At the end of the day, there's not much I can say I enjoyed about this series. All I can say is that if mindless action is your thing... by all means, give Solo Leveling a shot. But if you're turned off by bad writing and a boring cast of characters, please stay as far away from this series as possible, because it is not worth the read.

Let's start with the positives. Out of all the aspects of Solo Leveling, the art is definitely the best. The artwork is visually appealing and the most enjoyable part of the reading experience.

Unfortunately, the rest of manwha leaves much to be desired for the reader. The worst part of the manwha is easily the characters. Any character besides Jin-Woo is pointless and simply serves to further the point that Jin-Woo is the strongest character. They are very one-dimensional and hard to get attached to or feel anything for the characters. Jin-Woo is not much better. He is your stereotypical manwha badass that defeats every villain ... and attracts people towards him romantically or platonically. He doesn't have any redeeming qualities besides being a badass that the readers desire to be like.

The story is also very uninspiring. It is a very repetitive manwha where Jin-Woo enters a dungeon, clears it, gets an upgrade, and becomes even more overpowered. Besides the beginning where there was at least some struggle, there are very few obstacles for Jin-Woo to overcome as he is way too overpowered to beat. There is no tension and no suspense as everyone knows the outcome. Jin-Woo will beat whatever big antagonist the author throws at him and saves the day. This formula creates a very mediocre story that becomes more and more uninteresting as the story continues. It is just your regular boring power fantasy that serves a specific audience that enjoys reading someone absolutely owns and destroys everything in their path.

Overall, Solo Leveling is not this spectacular game-changing manwha that promises something amazing for new readers. It provides the same thing that many other manwha provide. A mindless power fantasy that fails to present anything of real substance to the reader to take away besides the badass MC will win because he is the MC. If that is something you enjoy then that's perfectly fine, but I can't help but feel disappointed after reading.

This Manhwa is only on top manga board because it was doing all the cliche, plot point of all the other shounen, OP main character trope from all the trend Sao, One punch man, Overlord,Moon light sculpture very well and all the new reader who was not feed up or familiar with the older would not understand how much this Manhwa suck dick. This Manhwa is just stalling time bomb, the MC keep getting stronger with little to no risk or stake, and the MC is just a cookie cutter guy with no trait worth noting, it just to make us feel like the ... MC so we can live out the fantasy of getting stronger easily and all the women just wet seeing us for no decent reason. It has biggest problem of shounen battle manga of just keep upping the scale (lazy writing) plus all the character all just foils for the MC and the setting wasnt entirely Inspiring or even felt real at all, like how can the government control all the volatile of power human running around, why haven't power human take control of the world, because Country paid them money to be law abiding citizen? because they will overlook their crime, bitch, the government was clearly demonstrated to not even compare to all the private own Groups? Why the government even allow private group to use the portal for grinding xp and item for levels and money anyway, China would fuck them all to death or nuke the whole country before it allow non regulated group to control them and tip the power scale, so i imagine, US, Korea should do their best to control all the gate and take all the power it can to compete. Like it so stupid to even allow a group to even have the opportunity, the chance to have the even more power than the government, not the people but private own group.
Overall Solo leveling is just copying all the trend without adding any unique twist, charm or even character to the genres, it just do all the old thing really well, that why the story is Pathetic, the character is poor but the art is very good lift up the whole Manhwa, the only reason it not getting 9,10 from art is because it's Manhwa, wasting paper POS format plus the design most of the time is only decent. It's still enjoyable cause the formula work but the OP power scaling Formal clearly have Aged A LOT especially if you are as generic as Solo Leveling so i'm not in good conscious give this anymore than a 5.

***contains spoilers***

This series is straight-up offensively bad. Normally I wouldn't care and just move on with my life, but from the high ratings, the comparisons to much better series (such as To Your Eternity), and the constant front-page status on various manga sites, I just want to say: shame on the manga/manhwa/webtoon reading community.

As others have mentioned, this goes beyond basic wish fulfillment. It manages to be a masturbatory, fetishistic parody of something that was already indulgent to begin with.


Characters 1/10: There is only one character that 'matters', that being Sung Jin Woo. Every single other character is window-dressing meant to ... frame SJW in the best light possible, either by being in awe of him or being comically evil/arrogant in order to justify his psychopathic behavior.

Manhwa, I have noticed, seems to struggle with restraint. They are not content with merely having the main character stand out, that character must dominate every single aspect of life, and effortlessly rub it in the faces of every other male character. From women to money, to strength, to appearance, to fame, to rare valuables, to potential, and even regarding more intangible ideas like being the most mysterious, or being the most aloof and cool-headed. They are at once designed to be the superficially indulgent male suitor in a harlequin romance novel and OP protagonist of a Wuxia novel.

What's more, the edgy nature of these MCs goes beyond simple brooding to appeal to the typical hoodie weeb, it is also *heavily* sexualized. Dangerous yet loyal, charming yet curt, socially domineering yet understated, casually psychopathic yet protective, sly yet straightforward, and somewhere between arrogant and confident. These traits have heavily psychosexual implications and are nauseating to read when played straight because they are clearly not designed to create consistent characterization or an interesting person, they are meant to walk the razor-thin edge of "f*ckably dangerous". This is all very directly reflected in how unobtainable women submit to the overwhelming raw sexual energy of the MC despite *minimal* interactions, with this series even going so far as to bring smell into it. Idk if this is meant to appeal to readers who are potentially attracted to the MC or simply be another layer for readers to project themselves onto, but either way it's insufferable even by power fantasy standards when the main character is OP Christian Grey.

As a result of the above, there is absolutely nothing to humanize Sung Jin Woo. There is no room to create depth when any flaws or complexities must be spent building a carefully crafted dark-triad fantasy archetype. The superficial struggles the story presents (emotional or literal) only serves to highlight how poorly fleshed out our MC actually is. Any inner turmoil or kind act depicted is lip-service meant to pull SJW's character back from literal monster to Sigma Chad. Any mistake he makes or reckless action he takes is merely designed to build tension, as he never loses anything or faces real consequences. You can't even root for him from the perspective of zero to hero because after his reawakening he becomes literally and figuratively unrecognizable as the same character. The plot will also bend over backward to justify SJW's irresponsible actions via information he couldn't have possibly known, leaving people to die simply because of some convoluted logic he came up with at the moment. This is often done in service of preserving SJW's mystery and the "big reveal" where SJW whips out his huuuuge powers to the shock and awe of all the characters. Plot contrivances are also worked in to justify SJW's edgier moments

Speaking of kind acts, with the notable exception of saving a wealthy D ranker, most heroics result in SJW garnering the affection of women, with men in the story being treated like cannon fodder. The only people treated worse than men are non-Koreans. This story manages to surpass even Baki in its xenophobia, which is a bit funny considering SK is rarely even mentioned in other types of comics. One-sided media rivalries like this reek of an inferiority complex, which is perfect for the target demo of this series, I guess.

The foulest example I can think of to summarize many of these complaints is during the Jeju island arc, where the MC decides to hold off from helping to wipe out the poorly ripped-off chimera ants thanks to weak plot contrivances, only to have a bunch of Japanese people die horribly. It's okay though, because their boss was *evil* anyway, so SJW only shows up at the last second to save all the Koreans and unnecessarily proceeds to make sure he proves himself stronger than his opponent in every single aspect of combat before obliterating it (instead of doing the safer thing and bringing out his shadows from the beginning). Then, another male character who he previously snubbed makes a request of him, which he only acquiesces to after a bit of posturing because the other male character was respectful to SJW this time.

I will give a nod to SJW's shadows, which will often have genuinely cute moments that are elevated by the art.

Finally, our MC's motivations are not clear, which brings me to the plot.

Plot 2/10: There is obviously a broader plot being alluded to. with the gates obviously being manipulated by some interdimensional godlike figure who is forcing all of these battles to happen (gives off some Gantz vibes), but SJW seems cooly detached from it, only vaguely pursuing the goal of obtaining strength or overcoming some obstacle that is directly in front of him, from saving his mom, to saving his friend, to avoiding detection, to making some money, to starting a guild, to overcoming whatever task the system gives him. Each arc usually culminates in some tensionless boss fight.

The first chapters are boring, the first dungeon is moderately engaging, the rest of the story is terrible and feels like a mindless hack and slash video game with occasional creative flourishes. MC's shadow powers are kinda neat but are largely meaningless when it's obvious he will prevail every time regardless of his power set. There are occasionally developments, characters, and plot threads that seem interesting but go nowhere. The fact that SJW is the only character who can "grow" and has unlimited potential deflates any sense of tension or rivalry. The story has massive, gaping plot-holes all over the place, but will spend exorbitant amounts of time on trivial details or explaining an item/world/system mechanic, which all lack any sense of weight because they feel arbitrarily manufactured and poorly integrated into any other aspect of the story or the world in which these characters exist. Everything feels hollow, partially because of how flimsy the world-building is, and partially because it feels like the story exists inside a Korean fashion magazine with a coat of fantasy paint on top of it (sometimes the paint is even invisible since SJW can make his armor disappear so as not to diminish from his cool-guy persona). There is zero subtlety in the foreshadowing, and most of it revolves around random system mechanics that are used for plot convenience.

You can tell pretty early on that every organization, character, etc. introduced largely exists just to JO the main character, his own special powers being the only thing that really matters (something CONSTANTLY reinforced by the author)

Most of all, I'm just insulted by how much this series wastes your time. It will spend many chapters building up and introducing characters and plot elements, just to drop them or burn through them in one chapter for a single badass moment for SJW.

Art: 9/10

The art is good. In the beginning, the anatomy is rough, but it cleans up over time and goes from feeling like a talented amateur to Korean Joe Madureira. Where it shines is the use of color and many graphic elements. Some panels are truly beautiful to look at, with flame effects, shadow effects, laser eyes, etc. They're all very well done and extremely polished. The panoramic shots in general tend to be exceptionally done.

It even manages to utilize the single panel format better than a lot of others, with some creativity in panel placement.
Enjoyment 2/10

Art is the one major redeeming quality. The shadows can be cute.

Overall 2/10

If you want to read a Manhwa that is very similar to this, but I would say is worth reading through, Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the Dungeon manages to work in a lot of the same elements, but in a much more satisfying and carefully crafted way, with characters that have genuine depth. It absolutely has some weirdly dissonant moments that seem to be common in Manhwa, but it improves on this general "edgy OP MC" formula in every way possible.

Otherwise, if you're just looking for a power fantasy fix, read something written by a competent author like Overlord or Mushoku Tensei.

If this manhwa had to be described in one word, it would be 'overhyped'. With how much the manhwa had been lauded as the best series of its kind, and even a must-read, the reality falls disappointingly short of its expectations. Solo Levelling is mainly enjoyable for its art, with the plot and characters suffering from a lack of development and a general disinterest.

Sung Jinwoo is known to be the weakest hunter alive, but still desperately attends dungeon clears in order to pay his mother's hospital bills. Unfortunately, abilities in this world are stagnant, meaning that it is impossible for him or any other hunter ... to grow stronger. But after a near-death experience, he is granted the opportunity to 'level up', gain new abilities and increased strength, but he also has to complete quests to avoid punishment.

This premise, while not outstandingly novel, is still a fairly interesting one. Most notably would be his original weakness, as well as the possibility of incurring punishments. However, these plot points are immediately flipped upon its head, and never mentioned again. Despite the title of this manhwa being 'Solo Levelling', which would suggest the main character's quest to grow stronger as the major development in the story, Jinwoo becomes way too strong much too quickly. There is barely any struggle in his quest for strength as well, making the whole story lack any tension at all. The punishment quests only show up twice throughout the entire story, and he faces little to no consequences for anything. The story quickly becomes a power fantasy with the same formula repeating itself over and over: a new enemy which is more powerful than before shows up, which defeats every other character, but Jinwoo arrives to save the day.

The concept of overpowered characters can be found all across media, each to varying levels of success. In Solo Levelling, the overpowered status of Jinwoo simply makes every other character redundant. His necromancy abilities give him enough summons that obey his every command which replaces other hunters in the story, who are simply too weak to do anything relevant. The other characters which begin to appear in Jinwoo's peripheral, pointed out to be the stronger of the bunch, end up useless as a whole. His shadow summons do not have an interesting personality either, with them being basically shadow puppets that are occasionally playful or slightly more angry than the next. Because the entire premise is that only Jinwoo is capable of growing stronger, the other characters show no development, neither in strength nor personality. They lack depth and exist only to make Jinwoo look better. And yet, Jinwoo himself does not have much more depth than the others. Throughout the manhwa, it seems that his personality is replaced with 'strong' and nothing else. He fights because he has to. His protection of humanity never appears to be a desire of his.

Character relationships are another disappointment, mainly because they are utterly unemotional. Other than at the beginning of the story, there was no point which was convincing that Jinwoo would develop close relations with any other character. One of his biggest motivators before he grew stronger was to provide financial support for his family, but soon after he seems to forget them, or rather interactions between Jinwoo and his family are barely shown. The romantic beats end up unexpected, and not in a good way.

The art is perhaps one of the only good points of the manhwa, but it does not really reach exceptional standards. And yet, it is still one of the better qualities.

The popularity of Solo Levelling is what drew me to read it, but my experience with it was mediocre at best.

I wanted to like Solo Leveling. I'm Korean; I genuinely want to see manhwas succeed and stamp their place within the Animanga industry, but I finished reading and regretfully my first and only thought about Solo Leveling, without pulling punches, was that it was utter garbage. It's completely devoid of creativity, it's painfully predictable, the characters all suck (not that anybody other than the MC mattered in the first place), and because of these numerous faults it made for a very boring and unengaging reading experience.

When I think of how one could still manage to write an interesting story in which the protagonist is ... dumb overpowered, I look to One Punch Man and how well Murata managed such a difficult task with Saitama. Saitama is untouchable in the OPM world, every reader knows this, we know Saitama can never lose yet OPM is still so special because it does everything else so well. The side cast is excellent, characters like King, Genos, Garou, and others each exhibit their own charm and display a belonging within the story. Of course, whenever Saitama is in action the outcome is an obvious victory for our MC, but this never feels like a problem because we as readers are cognizant of this fact; it's because Saitama's opponent is always presented as the challenger rather than the other way around that makes for such an interesting element, like a Souls game, except in this instance our protagonist is the seemingly impossible boss fight. This is why such a heavy emphasis is placed on the side cast, as One Punch Man is ultimately a story about our stupidly overpowered protagonist in search of his equal, and therefore to make such a thing happen the side characters must be more important than even the main character.

On the contrary, Solo Leveling failed to compensate for its overpowered MC in every possible fashion. Sung Jin Woo begins the story in the abyss of powerlessness, just but an ant at the very bottom of the food chain. Jin Woo then receives a massive power-up, as expected from any story like this, and gradually scales his way up the food chain but at a certain point in what was still the infancy stage of the story he gains quick access to completely busted monsters that eventually work under him as slaves. From this point on it really was a cake-walk for Jin Woo, as nobody and nothing stood a chance to him. None of the side characters are worth a single penny within Solo Leveling; all of them are utterly powerless and rendered useless before Jin Woo and it certainly does not help their case when not one of them possesses any traits that make for a good character. Instead of using the side cast to augment and give some more depth to the overall story like any good writer would, the creator of Solo Leveling would rather treat these side characters as throwaways to further increase the gap in power between Jin Woo and everybody else. What is the point of a ranking system when nobody other than Jin Woo is worth a damn? Almost like Naruto and how everything in between Genin and Jonin ultimately meant nothing. The story is disgustingly unoriginal which goes without saying: the typical zero to hero. There is no depth whatsoever, just a linear path without any obstacles from one enemy to the next until we finally arrive at the last one. Whatever type of half-assed effort of world-building was immediately vanquished when Jin Woo went from the strongest hunter in South Korea to immediately the strongest in the world. Just an absolute sh*t show.

I'm just not understanding where this Solo Leveling hype stems from. Is it because it's in color and you all view it as a novelty? Or is it because you enjoy a story even an average 3rd grader is capable of writing? I'm not a fan and wouldn't recommend to anyone with any type of standards.

One-punch man without the self-awareness. ONE had at least the understanding to move away from the self-insert protgaonist to the setting to keep the story interesting. Solo Leveling does not do this, so it gets boring. But maybe that's the point? Maybe the author just wants to a create self-insert wish fulfilment story, and that's fine. The problem that arises when you set your ambitions so low is that you lose any emotional core. So for all the good stuff I could say about this, I can't score it very highly. At least God of Highschool tries to have some semblance of an emotional throughline ... with character arcs from the main cast of characters and villains. Meanwhile in Solo Levelling, the MC's mom's illness is established as a narrative hook and it's brought up again until 80 chapters deep into the story.

Nothing shows the shallow writing of Solo Levelling than the cheap knock-off of the HxH Chimera Ant arc.

I should mention a problem I personally have with the fights is that they fall down to classic trope of anime fights: Spamming the entire fight with light trails, so my eyes have more reason to glaze over all of it.

(CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS)

So I've binged this in 2 days. I thought this was reeeeeally good and then I took a moment to think about it... I heard many good things and have seen it everywhere, so I decided to read it. The name popped in my head, and I'm like, "Yeah let's read that. I'm bored." I'd say the only reason I've made it as far in as I did was bc I binged it.

This is my first review so my apologies for bad formatting, etc.

Story 3/10: We follow Sung Jin-Woo, basic main character, in a fantasy world of dungeon conquering, loot-gaining MMORP goodness. ... Pretty basic. Kinda like SAO but better in... no it's actually very similar to SAO. The beginning is really good. The arc where they're in that dungeon is awesome (more on that in the next paragraph). It seems every arc is the same formula, with NO differences (more on that later).

Prologue 8/10: In a similar way to SAO, the first arc is actually pretty good in many ways. Not ground-breaking or fantastic, but actually not bad. They get trapped in a super dangerous room, there's rules they have to follow, lest certain death fall upon them. Stakes are reasonably high. Things are chaotic, and the read is intriguing. There's this mystery and dread behind it that drew me in. The creepy smile from the king statue brought back memories of the fish king dude from One Punch Man. That's a good thing. Again, the rules in this double room thing were awesome. Then, the useless MC was actually reliable and used his experience with near-death situations to be useful. I enjoyed it. The set up to the MC and to what I thought was the main female character were good. I'll go more into that later.

However, the prologue and the impact it has are scarcely developed. Early on after that, the fear he felt during the prologue cause him to not have fear during the other dungeons. Compared to what he felt during that, nothing is bad in comparison. But. that's it.

The rest of the stories are so repetitive. you know the formula. He goes into a gate, something unexpected happens, for instance the gate was more dangerous than it seemed. He handles it with ease despite the difficulty change. And then rinse and repeat. That's it.

Art 10/10: The art is really good. It's outstanding. I have no idea how they are able to draw this amazing stuff AND COLOR IT in time. Anyone who's read it knows.

Character 1/10: Oh boy here we go. MC is a Mary Sue. Basic self insert character for the insecure weebs who are unhappy with their life and want an escapist fantasy to delve into. I say this from personal experience. MC is edgy, bland, emotionless. There is nothing to say bc there is no character. There was a sub plot with his mom that was never developed.

He was fighting so help pay for his mom's medical bills (she's comatose) and pay for his sister's way thru highschool and college. So that's about as much detail into those two things as we're given. There's no development or relation shown between him and his mom, no flashbacks. I could sufficiently describe his mother as this: his mom. There's no character there. She has a scar on her neck that he caused due to trying to... wash her hair with really hot water I think..? It wasn't exactly clear, but that's the closest to development we've seen there and that was about 70-80 chapters in at least. I have no reason to care for this woman because the author hasn't given me one. The sister is bland to. Thankfully, I don't recall any incest implications with the sister falling for MC, but maybe I'd prefer that to the pure nothingness we got. We get clue that she was smart and thought to be a nerd at school, but nope she's just a regular relatable girl at home. She's doing something medical, which is cool ig. Probably related to the comatose mother, but again, no development into that.

One thing I thought would be super cool that was briefly touched on was him losing his emotions. It seemed like when he used the full status recovery when he was in a bind, that he'd lose more of his emotion. Or it was as he grew in level. I think they mentioned anger was one he couldn't feel anymore. I thought that was cool, but it was never mentioned again and he's shown kinda having emotion later in the sense that he saves all the female characters when they're in distress... which they always are, only to be rescued by our hero.

As well, his power progression is ridiculous, he gets overpowered so quickly. I thought there'd be development and progression, watching him climb thru hard work. I thought it'd be a struggle. A couple of the first arcs were a struggle, but of course he overcame it after a sudden boost (status recovery reward).

Then probably my favorite character was the B rank healer girl. She had an interesting character set up at the beginning. She was a B rank, but only went on E and D rank missions due to the fear she got from seeing those monsters, the deaths, etc. THAT WAS INTRIGUING. I was interested in how she'd struggle thru it, overcome it, and how the MC would help her. Things were looking good. Oh wait where'd she go? After the prologue she was just gone for awhile. It was mentioned she had worse trauma after the prologue and the events that transpired there, but no development. The MC never came to her to talk, help, anything. Never do we see her struggle. SHE GETS NO DEVELOPMENT. That made me sad. Instead, everything gets pushed aside to put the focus on MC getting stronger That's a common theme.

Then we see her again, alongside one-armed dude. He was also kinda cool, but I could tell he'd get no development, so I didn't bother getting invested. If only I did that for every character. Then she doesn't face her trauma. She retires... Then there's a little exchange with her and MC, and he says he'll ask her on a date next time he visits her, which he never does.

Then there's the little sister's friend. I thought there'd be development there. She was a highschooler who stopped going, bc she wanted to be a hunter. She was an E rank. The principal called MC in, bc he was a hunter and everyone loves him, to ask for advice and stuff. He then didn't talk to her much, but brought her to a dungeon with the White Tiger guild. She was gonna get some experience, but then nope. We don't see any interaction with her after they enter the dungeon. There's no conclusion to that sub plot they started. We don't see what she decided. Is she a hunter now? Is she gonna finish highschool at least like the teacher advised her to? No idea. Everything gets pushed aside to focus on MC getting stronger.

Then there's the rich kid. He was kinda cool ig. Wish there was more development with him. Again, a common theme. Near the end of when I last saw him (idk if he's mentioned again after chapter 107) his father kicked him out, bc the kid wanted to be independent and join MC's guild (thought MC would make a guild. So far he hasn't). So he goes to MC asking to stay, MC says no, and we find out the kid slept in a hotel. He drops MC at the demon tower dungeon, and we never see him again. Did he find a home? Did he progress with the guild thing? What happened to him? No idea. All got pushed aside to focus on the MC getting stronger.

Then there's that one s rank who could smell a difference in him. She fell for him bc: he's strong, he's the Mary Sue MC, and he was different. He has never had a legitimate conversation with her. I think there was brief interaction between the two in a group setting. That's about it. She was a damsel in distress that seemed cool but did nothing.

Then there's the demon girl. Again, she had no character. I had my last hope for development in a female MC in her, even tho it was already like 90 chapters in. Course there wasn't any. It got pushed aside to focus on the MC getting stronger. She was just there to be another character for weebs to lust after.

All females are cute, clumsy, damsels in distress. They all seem strong at first, but are brought to their knees in helpless powerlessness before our MC once the two of them interact.

Men in the story are usually so unappealing for various reasons. I mean duh. We don't want there to be any potential that MC isn't the BC (best character).

Enjoyment 6/10: This will probably get lowered the further I go on in my life. I enjoyed it kinda. It is NOTHING groundbreaking. It's a bad self insert shounen. Like a really bad one. But it looked AMAZING. Fights were REALLY cool. Seeing just how strong he got to be was cool. Just simply seeing the army come out and go ham on the enemy was REALLY fun to read. Usually the focus is ONLY on the one guy, but it slightly dispersed to the shadows when they were brought into action. Course only slightly tho. Don't want to distract from the MC. That'd be preposterous...

Overall 3/10: This manga is bad. If you want something pretty to look at, and something INCREDIBLY HYPE and only that, then this is FANTASTIC at that. I heard ppl being like "Yeah ToG had a bad anime adaptation, yeah GoH had a bad anime adaptation, but wait until Solo Leveling gets an adaptation. It'll be WAY better." I don't see it happening at all. It's gonna be rushed. It's gonna be bad, too. In this case, third time will not be the charm bc this isn't a good manga to work with.

Admittedly, the prologue is like a 7/10 imo, so if they don't at least rush that then it'll maybe be decent. But seeing the other two adaptations, I have no reason to have high hopes for it.