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Hello Everyone!

I knew this title was coming out way back in the last year of 2023; this is when I was reading the manhwa because everyone in the East Asian Media fandom was giving their highest approval to this Manhwa called solo leveling! Everyone was saying this manhwa was out of this world because it was cool and had a compelling story. I was duped into reading it, and it became one of the worst and biggest time-wasters I've dived into. You can check out my Manhwa review if you are inclined.

I had very little hope of the anime, which I thought would be somewhat ... of an improvement, but nope, it wasn't. It had the SAME FUCKING PROBLEMS as the manhwa. Such as making Jin Woo the center of the whole story with no regard for expanding the already useless characters found in the Manhwa. They weren't even inclined to explain how the portals came in the first place, giving many plotholes. These whole 12 episodes were just an adaptation of the first arc where it is animated and seeing the beloved main character point and click and PWNING the FUCK out of the enemies like the manhwa.

I understand why people like this show because of how well-animated it is, but if you want something of substance, literally watch Overlord or an Isekai because those things have more entertainment than seeing Jin Woo getting overpowered and being a 1 trick pony or just well-animated fights and nothing else of story substance.

don't watch if you want something of substance and don't even bother reading the manhwa

MAPPA executive: Hey Guys, you ready for a new battle shonen project

Mappa Animators: Oh, come on, give us a break. We are already tired from animating CSM and JJK like I didn't see my family for Christmas and any other holiday!

MAPPA executive: Stop being sissys. We have ⅔ of the Dark trio from Shonen Jump+, and those performed well, making us some money!

Mappa Animators: But what about our pay?!

MAPPA executive: Yeah, anyways, we are going to adapt the final piece of the dark trio, Hells Paradise, like these casuals like violent fight scenes and light, goofy comedy and fan service like JJK and CSM was ... too successful for us!

Mappa Animators: but the story is worse than the latter are people going to enjoy this?

MAPPA executive: As I said, people LOVE edgy fights and lighthearted immature fan service/comedy DO IT NAOW!!!

MAPPA Animators: Ah Shit, here we go again, not seeing my family this year ;-;

WELCOME BACK to another MAPPA project; this time, they are adapting the final piece of Shonen Jump+ so called Dark Trio. Hells Paradise burst out of the scene with animanga tubers calling it the best shonen to come out, boosted its popularity, and got an anime adaptation and more hype since the beloved studio MAPPA is animating it. Is it worth seeing? You may ask and I will tell you in this review.

Synopsis: Gabimaru, a very notorious and dangerous assassin, has no will to live and has memories of his wife; now destined to live, he is given a chance by his executioner Sagari to be pardoned to have a chance to see his wife again if he is willing to go to an island filled with monsters to find an immortal elixir for the shogun. He accepts and is joined by other criminals with the same offering of being pardoned and ADVENTURE TIME.

Story 2/10:
We have seen many survival islands and medieval Japanese historic settings countless times we've seen survival islands like Battle Royal and BTOOOM! And Feudal Japanese settings like Dororo, Demon Slayer, etc. So this is nothing original it's just a merge of two popular settings/stories that we see very commonly. Now this doesn't mean a bad thing whatsoever; you can still make this work if 1. you have good writing and 2. If you bring something new to the table that no one has seen. But the main problem is that Hells Paradise doesn't have those two things; it's just a combination of BTOOOM! And Demon Slayer mushed up in a shonen. We start off at episode 1 with the worst exposition dumps I've seen. We see literally all of Gabimaru’s backstory, which is VERY unconvincing, where he is shown to be an awful character(We’ll dive in the next section) where the pacing is bad and pretty much was a snooze fest. Literally, I couldn't give a single shit about how whiney and “sad” Gabimaru's story is. Anyways when he says he got the will to live fighting his executioner, she stops the fight and whips out instantly a pardon saying that the only way to get it is if he does an “important task” which he just accepts (this is a whole episode btw). Next episode, we are now going on with the actual plot! If it's already going strong, we get to see the shogun tell Gabimaru and the other criminals who had the exact proposition where he says there is an elixir on an island that has an immortal maker elixir! And yet NO one has ever set foot or explored fully the island due to the monsters killing them on sight. If no one is able to tell the tale of the island why BELIEVE there is Elixir on there your sending your best men/executioners for probably NOTHING. Anyways he says that there is a small boat that can fit ten people, but then WHY get like 40 criminals on the same gig? Are you this STUPID to not realize this beforehand, or are you broke not to afford a bigger boat?! Either way, we get an unnecessary edge fest of the main 10 criminals of the story killing everyone with superhuman powers?! Anyways we go to the island, and they are split up just like BTOOOM! And then they are just looking at the island finding the elixir until they are confronted by the monsters. It's just the Villain of the Episode with edgy fights killing them, but the main criticisms is that most of the main characters are already overpowered, which ARENT EVEN EXPLAINED since they do GREAT damage towards them. It takes like 2-3 hits for the monster to die, but sometimes when they get hit by anything that can KILL them they are immune and when there is some bullshit move from the monsters they get hurt badly. There is literally NO tension with the fights and it's just me seeing edgy fights with copius amounts of blood from a Linkin Park AMV. The anime continues to dump more worthless and corny expositions for characters who just have 4-5 lines i.e. most of the executioners and yet it becomes more boring. The finale was a long 2 episode fight of one of the strong villains and then just a teaser of “Well, that's it folks, you saw the final fight of this arc, and now you have to wait for s2 coming 2025 for more exposition and pointless character development !”

The standard shonen power system is either non existent since there was no explanation of why Gabimaru is a OP character since we seen him taking off heads, punching into chests, and withstanding and breaking a large steel hammer to the head. In some occasions the plot armor completely disappears after 1 move of the villains which makes the fight scenes really bad and laughable.

Characters 1/10
As much as I heard, the characters were “Well developed,” “Amazing,” and “Likable,” and how I see they are the polar opposite since I can call them “underdeveloped,” “Awfully Cliched,” and “Unlikable.” I NEVER liked or rooted for anybody, tbh.

Gabimaru is a typical edgy Gary stu whose only motive is to see his wife and nothing else. He excuses his wife for all the horrible killings he committed due to his dad. Yeah sure he has been influenced by a young age of killing people and being a irremorseful killer but even when he had the realization of his wife existing he still is irremosrful. He is plain unlikable and edgy which his whole character that was intended to be cool is shown to be corny.

Sagiri is pretty much a domineering female since well she has been an executioner and dealt with prisoners like Gabimaru for her whole life. But she still has insecurities and “demons” holding her back from being a proper warrior. Like you have been trained for this for 18 years, how do you still have these insecurities? Due to this she is a no-nonsense girlboss and is obviously a love interest of Gabimaru where when she gets into fights, she is scared, pathetic, or just doesn't do anything. To me, she is a PATHETIC version of Meryl Strife from the OG Trigun series.

Yuzuriha is pretty much a slutwalk character since her whole reason to exist is for fanservice, she doesn't even contribute to the fights or the story. She is just there to live because of fanservice. Most of the thirst scenes are for her only. SHE HAS NO REASON TO FUCKING EXIST; cut her from the show, and nothing will change.

Chubei is pretty much Gabimaru without his corny and laughably bad underdeveloped backstory. He is just an edgy character just killing monsters for fun nothing else.

Im not going to mention the other characters since they were boring, uninteresting, and had unconvincing backstories. Like I forgot most of their names while watching, which shows how Hollow the characters are.

The island creatures or our main villains of the show are just there to be evil and just be plain sadistic towards humans to eat/assimilate them to look like them because they find them interesting. They are just that one villain in many horror survival games that just follows you around and want to kill you. They have no motivation of their actions and they just want to kill humans to look like them.

Animation and Production 7/10
This is a MAPPA production, so of course, this is going to be the only good part. I liked the choreography attempts that try to make the fights somewhat engaging event though how retarded it is. The setting is very nice, the monster designs are nice, and the CGI isn't that bad apparently. These are pretty much the only things I have to say in this section.

Enjoyment 1/10
Sure, the fights are there I did somewhat enjoy it (even though how retarded they were, as stated above), but everything else is as fun as you hitting your head on the wall to have a bloody forehead.

I REALLY wanted to drop this anime 5 times at episodes 4,6,7,9,10 but I had to continue since I really want to get this off my chest

Overall 2/10
The only saving grace of this anime was that it was made by MAPPA and the FUCKING BANGER OP, nothing else since it FAILS at everything that it sets to do with its themes, characters, plot, and fight scenes. I really wanted to drop this, but I decided to stick around to make most of my criticism valid of this shitshow I had to sit for like 3 months. Sure, I recommended this to average anime watchers who like the action only and ignore everything else since it's PARADISE for them. But if you’re like me, who values many things in storytelling, then skip this because it will be HELL and agony for you to endure these 13 episodes.

All I have to say, THANK GOD ITS FUCKING OVER, I'm never going to watch more of this.

NOTE THIS IS ONLY FOR THE 180 chapters

(This has been pasted since my old account has been deleted)

Solo Leveling is by far MAL's favorite manhwa or Korean Manga, yet there are sides to saying its peak fiction to saying it's absolute trash. Quite frankly, I dug into the hype of this manhwa, and it didn't take me long for solo leveling to show its true colors. Thus, it became of the worst things and biggest time-wasters in fiction I have ever read.

Art 7/10

The art is the high point of this manhwa, where the character designs are well done, and the monsters and fight scenes are ... well drawn and colored. Nothing more to say. It's just amazing; sadly, the illustrator died because he could’ve used his talent to be one of the best illustrators of Manwha History if he was still alive.

Story 2/10

The art only carries this manhwa, but here we enter the lousy part of the Manhwa, the story; the story revolves around these so-called “Gates” that appear, which brings a link between the everyday world and the magical world filled with magic and monsters. Then ordinary people go into said dungeons to mHunterquick buck. Enter Jin Woo, who initially is the weakest Hunter in the story and makes a living being a hunter to pay for his Mom’s hospital bills. After one failed mission, he finds himself in a hospital three days later with a questHunteraking him train hard, which in turn causes him the best hunter.

This plot is very generic since we have seen this million times in Isai or power fantasy anime. Still, at least it sounds interesting to develop it to make it enjoyable, right?

Sadly that isn't the case for this manhwa.

The story is severely made to see the main character progressively go from weakling to the most powerful. It's like playing any browser game like a cookie-clicker or just wasting time grinding on one thing to be overpowered, like killing monsters.

Worldbuilding elements are not there since we don't know how the gates appeared in the first place, and the author was pretty lazy about how they came in the first place.

It goes like MC enters a dungeon, kills the monsters/boss, gets more powers afterward, rinses, and repeats that about 7-8 times. It's all fighting which, apparently, is to entertain the reader and not add any value to the already generic story.

The ending is also VERY unsatisfying because it ends the most bullshit way possible of just undoing all your work, making this read be NOTHING worth it. Jin Woo just decided to make all his hard work go away to bring back every character, which was a wtf moment, and I just read this for NOTHING.


Character 1/10

Speaking of which, Here we go; the worst part of the whole thing is the characters; Jin Woo is an ABHORRENT character. He is bland like baby food and is a Gary Stu type, battling the gate creatures and becoming mighty. He has no clear morals or emotions and just gets hugely overpowered. The only part other than the ending part that makes him at least somewhat interesting is the whole Hospital scene with his mother showing some emotion, but that is quickly forgotten about or brought back. He is just an overpowered, edgy character with no apparent motives who hacks and slashes toward any danger he is in. No depth whatsoever!

As for the side characters, the Males ones are just there for some reason since, well, you won’t care about them nor remember their existence after each arc because they aren’t even developed at all. They are just there to be a measuring tool to see how powerful our beloved MC is and help him tackle all the beasts he fights in each arc.

The Female side characters only exist to serve to fall for him because all of them have no or just forced character development and have emotions for him to make him more like a “chad.”

Enjoyment 0/10

Unfortunately, I have to give this a 0/10, but this manga didn't start with no entertainment since the first 26 chapters promised that this story could expand more, which is a solid 5/10 start. But as said in the Story and Character Section, it drops to 0.5/10, which rounds up to a 0 because appreciating the art is the only good part, and me going through rubbish writing is not fun at all. Me finishing it was a chore, to be honest, and I would've have dropped this around chapter 103

Overall 1/10

This manhwa is entirely wretched. I can't understand why this is hyped, with people saying, “It’s a masterpiece.” Every damn time the art and fights carry the whole manhwa while trapping the average reader, making them ignore all the wrong things with this. The author was highly incompetent in writing a good story that was par with the art. I understand why people like this because of the powering-up fantasy, but I can recommend this who like battle shonen just carried by the fights if you are like me that got duped thinking this is a compelling story, then I would recommend skipping this one since if you want to finish this, you would be treating that like a chore or pretty much dropping it after the 3rd arc.

Or here’s a TL: DR

Good parts:
Fantastic artwork, some traces of serious potential

Bad parts:
Unlikable mc, very generic plot, non-existent world-building, and useless side characters

Now I don't tend to be harsh, but I'm scratching why people praise this when I see everything wrong in storytelling.

Now Jagaaaaaan is a series developed with Muneyuki Kaneshiro, who is well-known as the author of Blue Lock, a wholesome standard battle shonen about soccer. Still, no one knows his edgy Parasyte ripoff, which tends to be a battle shonen or Tokyo Ghoul.

Jagaaaaan starts as a police officer named Shintarou Jagasaki, who does his regular job being a cop with his sidekick Clarabelle Kawamoto. Until then, suddenly, he gets powers where his arm becomes freakazoid and works as a weapon. Now this thing ... isn't an original topic since we've seen this in Parasyte, Tokyo Ghoul, etc., but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing if you manage to make it well-written, but the problem is it isn't.

The whole plot goes like a standard "Monster of the Week" where Jagasaksi is in front battling these weird creatures and then discovering more people to become a team with him to fight them. Where it just gets boring since I just see cool drawn fights with copious amounts of fucking gore. I have no problem with that unless it gets too repetitive, where it's just there to carry the story seen there.

Also, let's not forget the sex scenes too! I'm not much insensitive to it, but I got annoyed since the sex scenes were just there for forced drama between characters or to be a fetish show from the mangaka. I thought this was just a hentai manga with a plot and gore the entire time!

Jagasaki is just a worse cuckold version of Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul. He is such a lousy anti-hero.

Most villains are just there to be edgy and evil, and their motivations aren't even revealed!

There is a character that merges with a female and becomes a female, and that character is just there to be a sex device since we've seen her being raped, fucked in many locations, or even by the villains lol.

The original team of fractured humans is so bland, and the only thing interesting is that they have sex and help Jagasaki to fight the monsters, and then they die after like 60 chapters. I forgot their names because ffs they are so forgettable.

Then after Chapter 70, it turns into GANTZ-type wild, but not in a good way.

The cast of the team just gets killed off, and then a new antagonist where teams up with a fucking The Warden from Deadman's Wonderland to use the power of arm fuckery to make an everyone's dream come true. Ok, that sounds fucking stupid. Then now, after the following 20 chapters, he decides to fucking take over the world. How it jumps the shark 2 TIMES!

We have the businessman and two edgy swordsmen as bodyguards. One manages to betray our hero, then he is outnumbered 3 to 2, and then we balance it out with another antagonist who is just there to help get back. At Jagasaki, just for fucking killing his grandfather 30 chapters back, ok, then.

The rest of the last 50-60 chapters were pretentious bullshit about how life is valuable to directly live and cum. Most characters that died, including our former antagonist of the first arc, who just genocide for fun and who died at the final battle, get revealed he is alive somehow. How can you be worse than Okamoto when he brought Bando back from the Elfen Lied manga?!

It ends that Jagaski is now in love and finally fucks his new girlfriend.

One of the worst mangas I've read, tbh. What a sad waste of art, even if it gets worse in the last 70 chapters or so