Solo Leveling

Bafflees★ 2

Do you enjoy decently animated fighting scenes and don't care about anything else? Then I highly recommend you stop reading this and start watching already! Still there? Great. Apart from the fluid animation during fights, this anime has no redeeming qualities at all. The characters are all unbelievably bleak. Of course, it's called SOLO Leveling - still, after watching all 12 episodes during the last three months, not a single character of this anime lingered in my mind for even a second. Jin-Woo goes from a timid, weak dude to a cold-hearted Gigachad with a flat, deep voice in the matter of about 4 episodes. That's allthe character development there is - he carries his husky tone and ice-cold mannerisms all the way through the finish line. His sister, like all the other characters, seems to merely exist as reason-givers or stepping stones. Why does he fight? For his sick mother and for his sister, of course... right? It's hard to believe this, given his complete refusal to engage in friendly, light-hearted interactions with others. Even his oh-so-beloved sister only gets the cold shoulder from him whenever she tries to talk to him. Why should the viewer care for Jin-Woo's quest if he himself doesn't seem to care in the slightest for anyone or anything? Then there's the world-building. I don't even need to go into much detail here. It's just the world we live in, but there are portals to mostly gloomy, fantasy-like dungeons. Some people awaken to powers that can neither get stronger nor weaker; a bit like in a caste system, you're forever locked into your rank. They have to go into the dungeon portals to slay the monsters, keeping the world safe from them and earning some bucks. It's not all that creative, and there hasn't been a single surprising moment. The world goes on as usual, but there are portals now. It doesn't seem to change society in the slightest. To top it off, the whole story unfolds in one place - a grey, anonymous city with nothing interesting to see. This point is so important to me that it deserves its own paragraph. Everything looks SO boring. There's the city and there are the dungeons, which are mostly just caves with no interesting features. Visually, this whole anime has no imagination at all. It completely lacks character and beauty. Why do even the fantasy world caves have to look so dull? Even Sword Art Online, a show often cited as an example for how not to do... anything, gets this right! And the show can't even make up for it with an interesting plot. The main storyline is basically "Jin-Woo has to become strong and faces some obstacles". Even the fact that he's the only one able to level up and get stronger isn't particularly interesting, as it doesn't seem to have any implications or downsides. It's just... there, instead of being presented as a mystery of some kind. Hell, if something like that happened to you, you'd be dying to know the "why" and "how"! Jin-Woo however just accepts it as it is, confiding in no one, never trying to find out if anyone else experiences this... What makes it worse is that it takes itself extremely serious. I don't mean to say every anime has to include comedy of some kind - but Solo Leveling just doesn't contain any light-hearted moments at all. The only thing that made me chuckle was the sudden transformation from weakling to muscular chad - but even that seems to have been intended as a serious matter. His surroundings at least accept it as the most normal thing ever, even though one can barely recognize him after this. The opening is just utterly silly - "Now I'm racking up the kills - I got to pay the bills" probably sounds like a cool line when you're about 10 years old. Yet, one could say the lyrics are kinda revealing - they're about as deep as the show itself. I can only advise anyone with any standards at all not to give this series a chance. It's not even bad in a funny way, but rather a slugfest lasting 12 episodes, interspersed with decent but basically meaningless fights.

Marinate1016★ 9

The recent trend of Korean manhwa being adapted into Japanese anime has finally brought us to this point. Arguably the biggest manhwa of all time, Solo Leveling has finally got an anime and is a meathead action fan’s biggest dream come true. Delivering some of the best action scenes you’ll see this year, an amazing Sawano OST and a solid power fantasy, this one was a fun watch. For the last several years, I’ve heard a ton of hype about Solo Leveling and I honestly didn’t think too much of it. Shonen esque battle series are just pretty meh to me at this stage in life,so I never picked up the novels or manhwa. But I have to say I was blown away by the anime. A-1 gave us an absolute visual spectacle with some amazing fights, but I also found the concept of hunters, dungeons and portals into other dimensions to be really cool. This type of urban fantasy adventurer setting isn’t really something I’ve seen before so it was quite the experience. Particularly seeing how the Korean government regulates the hunters and how it’s such a big part of the economy. I think I’ll be in the minority here on this one, but I actually like the story of Solo Leveling? At least as an anime only to this point in the story. That’ll probably come as a surprise to many of you given one of the biggest criticisms against the series is it being a generic power fantasy with no plot and great art. That could be the case later on in the story, but to me, the story so far while simple, is still interesting. Jinwoo getting stronger to provide for and protect his family as well as unravelling the mystery of being a “player” while simple, was still interesting. I also think your mileage may vary entertainment wise depending on the amount of power fantasy dungeon crawling stories you’ve seen. To my understanding, SL’s success made these tropes quite popular in manhwa, but since I haven’t seen or read any others, it’s fresh to me. Jinwoo as an MC is pretty one dimensional. He wants to get stronger and protect his family, but that’s about it to him so far. It’s hard to really criticise that aspect of the story, though because it’s clear the author just wanted a zero to hero type story with some cool fights and a little escapism. As he levels up and fights stronger opponents, we do see gradual changes in his personality. The cruel and ruthless reality of the world in which hunters operate forces him to morph into a more jaded and brutal person. Going from unable to kill humans to doing it with ease. He’s definitely a bit edgy at times, but again, didn’t mind it too much. In most of the fights in this season, he’s an underdog going up against opponents stronger than him. I like that every big fight gave him a struggle, but I wish they would have been more creative with some of the kills in the fights. It’s like the build up to and climax of the fights were top tier, but the kills were a little meh due to the same technique being used to take down 3 bosses in a row. I will say, even though it’s a meathead series, Jinwoo at least to the point we’ve seen so far, has to outwit some of his opponents since he isn’t straight up stronger yet. Seeing those techniques made the fights even more interesting. As a massive Sawano stan the joy I felt when I first heard the OST in this one was immeasurable. Absolute masterclass. Made every fight and hype moment so much more intense and Sawano just has a way of transporting you to another world in a way no other artist can. His collab with one of my fave Kpop groups, TxT for the OP was also incredible. A-1 brought the A team out for this one. The fights and direction were top notch and you can only image the painstaking hours that went into this. It paid off and I got to tip my hat to the staff. Solo Leveling might not be the strongest story or have the most compelling MC out there, but it has an interesting world, awesome fights and is just a nice visual spectacle. Not everything needs to be complex, it just needs to be competent, which this is. The story knows what it is and makes no effort to be anything else. It’s confident in its power fantasy status and excels in it. If you’re looking for something with substantive narrative, this isn’t for you. If you want to turn your brain off and have fun, this is one for you. Solo Leveling gets 9 out of 10.