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A refreshing read within many other manhwas of the same genre. While 'The Fateful Invitation' starts off similar with our main character Hillaria married off to an Emperor to save her country, it is immediately evident that she will not tolerate any disrespect. While she slowly starts developing feelings for the Emperor, and he in return, at no point does she abandon her own goals and desires and stands strong with conviction.

The characters were written wonderfully, including all the side characters. They actually go through character development, have clear goals, and will change attitudes as the plot moves on. They actually have depth to their ... personalities instead of being cartoonish villains or supporting roles. A huge plus is that Ebenezer, the Emperor, has zero interest in the other girls (his other wives). Even though the women have conflicts with each other, and a part of it is due to the Emperor, it is more of a fight for power and control rather than love.

The integration of fantasy elements was also done masterfully - in that, it doesn't dominate the story. While both Hilaria and Ebenezer makes use of their powers to gain the upper hand in some situations, the manhwa doesn't devolve into a strange fighting story where their powers dictate everything. Instead, their abilities simply act as a tool for the two main characters, utilized accordingly based on their own wits.

The art style is one of its biggest advantages, with consistent quality across the chapters I've read. There is great attention to detail down to the nails of characters, and the artist has a great eye for dress designs. Even the male characters have great clothes, which is, to be frank, a surprise.

Even with only 50 chapters read so far, this story brings intrigue and an intense urge to read more every week.

'Skill Master Levels Up' is a generic, game system levelling up storyline with an OP MC, who also travelled back in time after the world got dominated by monsters. Nothing special. As suggested by the title, this manhwa focuses on the MC levelling up and more notably, earning 'skills' that is a bit more special compared to manhwas - skills like attack nullification which nullifies the first damage they take, something more akin to perks in an actual video game rather than a more fantasy setting. The premise itself wasn't particularly exciting, and the actual story thus far is the same as well.

Plot-wise, nothing much ... has happened, and although I've dropped this quite early, the premise itself does not suggest there will be much plot either. Our MC travels back in time after the world falls into ruin. He chooses to pick the hardest difficulty (Solo Mode) so that he can actually use his skills to defend humanity once more in the future. To do this, he has to relearn all his skills in the Labyrinth, getting the most power he can before he finishes going through all floors. This itself suggests that all that happens is he gets new skills and grows stronger, floor after floor in the Labyrinth. And since he chose Solo Mode, there is zero opportunity for actual interaction between other characters, discounting NPCs. There is never any tension because the story never lends doubt to the idea that the MC will fail, or suffer lasting consequences. He knows everything about the Labyrinth, which is a characteristic in most regression stories, but feels like a missed opportunity to introduce new elements since he chose a different mode this time. There is no actual conflict nor climax at any moment.

The characters are one of the weakest points in the manhwa. The blandness of the MC's personality can only be matched by his boring face. At the beginning, he appeared to be somewhat bitter against the rest of humanity for not learning skills like him, and that he ended up the only person who managed to fight off monsters competently. So when he goes back in time, he tries to advise other characters on how to learn skills and explore the dungeons fully, but doesn't seem bothered at all when they don't listen to him. He expresses zero emotion, has no motivation and his only identifiable trait is determination. He never gets angry, or even frustrated, and his face never even changes expression. His mascot companion exists only to provide useless commentary and to make the story a smidge less boring since it only follows one actual character. This doesn't work and every time he says something the panel becomes more unbearable.

Artstyle is similarly plain; the action is nothing noteworthy. There is some element of strategic planning when it comes to fights, but only when he's against tough opponents, which come once in a blue moon. Every other opponent he oneshots way too early in the story, especially when he's supposedly at the hardest difficulty.

All in all, it's virtually indistinguishable from the other levelling up stories, or probably even falls behind them with how boring everything is.

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.

In a nutshell, it's pretty boring. Classic reincarnation story, where the MC has to work hard from the bottom since he's weak, but in truth he's actually OP and gets strong really quickly. First few chapters make it seem like the story would be more interesting, as the MC was originally an assassin who got betrayed in his past life, and he wants to take revenge. But this plot point seems to just disappear somewhere throughout the story and all we get are 'Oh I've heard of this dangerous man in my past life'. Remove the part about his past life and the story wouldn't ... change one bit. It's as if nothing carried over from his past life.

Character-wise is exactly the same. Supposed assassin feels nothing like an assassin. Girl with a traumatic past looks up to him and becomes his 'disciple'. Random rivals that only make the MC look better. A blue blob who only ends up as comedic relief. None of them are interesting or entertaining.

Art is good, in that there's not much special about it. It looks generic enough that it is virtually indistinguishable from other manhwas. Fight scenes don't stand out, character design doesn't stand out, nothing stands out.

It's a cliched trope and story, but doesn't have a niche that other manhwas might have.

Another typical regression manhwa with an MC that is OP. Also with a game system with concepts of levelling up, learning skills and receiving rewards. The author uses these typical tropes yet still manages to construct and interesting and exciting storyline, and only in the first 30 chapters. Any reader that favours these tropes are likely to like Max Level Player's 100th Regression as well.

As seen from the title, it's the MC's 100th regression. He's successfully conquered all the games and made it to the last level, only to discover he needs allies. This is why he knows exactly what he needs to do every ... step of the way to achieve maximum efficiency. What stands out is that his knowledge isn't overly complicated, or any hidden elements aren't overly strange. He takes simple steps to achieve his goals one at a time. The MC also doesn't bother hiding his abilities, making it more fun to watch as he absolutely dominates everyone else.

Since it's only at 30 chapters, not every member of the cast's characters can be seen clearly. However, the actions of the MC already reveal quite a few of his personality traits. He is weary of the regressions, but determined to push on. He acts cold, but is still emotionally-driven (especially when it comes to his little brother), and he displays this in a methodologically cruel fashion. While the MC appears to take actions that would lead to the best outcome, readers can still question his morality and judgement.

The art of the manhwa should also be pointed out. The style is clean and the art during fight scenes should be particularly commended. Every character is also drawn nicely, especially the character expressions. Another plus point is that the MC is handsome (similar to YJh-type handsome)

Story-wise, it is not particularly exceptional. Something that stands out is that the story is carried out across both the 'game' world and irl world. While the MC's actions in the two haven't coincided yet, the story appears to be headed towards that way. There are definitely steps towards interesting interactions in the future.

This manhwa is definitely recommended for anyone that likes the regression trope.

I recently watched this movie on a flight as it was the only animated Japanese movie, without an anime origin. I watched the film without any knowledge of the original light novel, not having watched a single trailer nor even reading the synopsis. My conclusion? It's a good movie to pass the time with, but not anything entertaining nor exciting.

The highlight of the movie was definitely the visuals. I found myself drawn in to the amazing look of the tunnel, with its various colours and the way it looked as the characters ran over the water. Even outside of the tunnel, everything looked crisp as ... well.

Something else that resonated greatly was the feelings it presented. The characters' desires - to be more than ordinary, to escape to the past and to reunite with their loved ones - they were all shown to the viewers quite clearly, and the characters' reluctant acceptance near the end that it's futile or impossible to achieve such dreams through the tunnel. After learning this lesson, the character's growth from their grief evoked a lot of melancholy that was able to transmit through the screen.

For voice acting, the voice actors did a masterful job of depicting both mundaneness and desperation. This provided a great contrast to show their desire to escape from their current lives. It can be seen as quite stoic or one-toned at times, however.

The characterization is what causes mixed feelings. The length of the film is quite short, meaning that not a lot could be written into the film, resulting in a small amount of development between the character's relationship. It could be explained by the two characters being relatively lonely in the first place, and being able to find solace in each other's understanding, but not a lot of their relationship is truly developed on the screen. It almost appears that they fall in love spontaneously, even though both of them have rather guarded personalities.

The pacing has similar problems. The more mundane parts seem to take a long time, while everything else moves too quickly.

The plot itself is nothing out of the ordinary either - character wants to make a wish, but realizes that they shouldn't at the last moment and turns back. The ending of this story does stand out as there are actual consequences.

In the end, I had a good time while watching the movie, but it's understandably not everyone's cup of tea - I'd recommend watching if you like bildungsroman stories.

A great conclusion to the story following Lucifer in this universe. I do believe it is a guilty pleasure as there are some faults, but I definitely recommend it to anyone who's been a fan of the Lucifer in the past series.

This movie depicts everyone's characters quite well. I won't get into much as it would spoil the movie, but none of the characters felt out of character and the story was able to revolve around their individual personalities and beliefs quite well. Arthur's characterization, especially, was a highlight, even more so in the second half of the film.

Animation-wise, the CGI was done masterfully. It's ... definitely a style that might not suit everyone, but the way the characters move kind of slowly adds to the unnatural feeling that makes them even more otherworldly and mystical. The fight scenes in particular were all animated beautifully; it was all shown quite clearly. They were also a variety in the fights, meaning that most of the scenes would combine hand-to-hand fights, projectiles, and magic to make it much more interesting to watch.

Now, there are quite a few problems, namely the plot. The plot is a cliche as well as a wide stretch, and had an unnatural flow throughout. Events seemed to happen just out of nowhere with little to no true development. The movie also revolved around the theme of trusting in your friends, but such a theme was shoved right into the viewers face with no amount of subtlety at all. Definitely one of the weaker points of the whole movie.

Let me say first that I've never read the light novels, so I am writing from the perspective from someone who has only watched the anime series.

While this movie will most likely be enjoyed by any Mahouka fan, was this movie good? Not really, it was fine. The story was alright, art seemed slightly off in some scenes, and character development was laughable at times.

The story begins with Miyuki reminiscing about the past, and this is where the problem with the story begins as well. It felt unnecessary for it to begin with anyone thinking of the past, or rather it wasn’t ended in a ... satisfying way. The beginning and end of the movie did not feel all that connected to the past events the movie is mostly about. Yes, they are of the same characters, in the same world, but the ending in particular feels lackluster as it does not conclude the story before well. It felt like the character basically saw something that made her think of the past, then after reflecting on such events just shrugged and carried on.

Reminiscing of the past is fine as a story element if it actually serves a purpose for the current state or nature of the character within the same continuation – as in if the reminiscing was within an episode in a series, it is perfectly fine for that to conclude into the character’s current behavior or development in another episode, but for this movie, even if it is not a standalone movie, there should be still be something taken from this past you reflect on you currently try to live out within the same movie. For example, Miyuki could be shown in the end living out a lesson she learnt in the past. If not, the reminiscing serves little to no purpose and it would have been better if the movie started and ended with only the past events.

Another problem is Miyuki’s narration. Having a character state too much of their inner thoughts and through that reveal their personalities is just lazy. While there were indeed times when the narration made the scene funnier, there was simply too much.

The animation of the movie felt slightly off during the fight sequences at the beginning (fight sequences at later parts of the movie was fine and looked good). It did not flow well, stances did not look natural and the poses some characters held during a few scenes even looked wonky.

Character development felt abysmal at times. This movie was used to display how Miyuki got to the point of being all ‘Onii-sama’ in Rettousei, but the transition to get to that point felt rushed and forced. The final change in feelings did not feel natural. The gradual build-up at the start of the movie was fine and made sense, nor was it unreasonable and rushed. However, right after the climax (which did not really build up tension at all and feel like a climax), she had a sudden and complete change of heart that did not feel like what the events before would result in. They would certainly steer her in the way of her eventual feelings for Tatsuya, but not that completely immediately after.

This movie actually suffers from poor character development for side characters, or rather, the lack of character development for the side characters. There wasn’t much of a closer look or a deep dive for the side characters, and while these side characters are important to the development of the main characters, they suffered from the lack of character. Some characters only got to express part of their inner feelings in a rushed, short speech at the end, of which the contents would be closely related to the main characters. Others get a single line that referenced what would be a complex character trait but well, only received one line describing such. This movie would have been a great opportunity to dive into these particular side characters as they are not closely followed in Rettousei.

In the end, from a non-LN audience perspective, although I am unaware of what could have been of this movie if it followed the light novel, there were elements in the movie of which I was unsatisfied with.

[slight spoilers?]

The only thing I can say is: watch this not for the plot, but for the fight scenes.

The first few episodes were actually quite good, in my opinion. They were in a martial arts competition, the individual characters started interacting and slowly building up their friendship, their personalities and how those correlated with each other... I liked those scenes a lot.

And of course, who can forget the fight scenes. Animated beautifully, as I'm sure many would agree. They weren't completely overpowered and showed growth alongside their fighting, and not in a way that was suddenly gaining a mysterious power (not that much, anyways).

I only ... got confused when we got into the later parts of the anime. Obviously it is difficult to turn a 450+ episode manhwa into an anime show. Season 1 seems to cut at after the fight with Jegal, which means about 100 episodes. I'm certain that a lot of decisions and careful consideration had been made about what scenes to cut and change; if I've heard correctly the author had been involved as well.

However, the confusion is imminent. Maybe they didn't have time to fit it in, but there was definitely not enough explanation as to what the borrowed power was, which I think had to be important to link the entire story. The borrowed power is from the gods after all, and this is GOD of High School.

Overall, I'd recommend someone to watch this, but probably not for the story. It's poorly explained and really just confusing.