Solo Leveling review

maggiic6
Apr 15, 2021
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 in the last 50+ chapters 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- which get easily replaced- and maybe a scratch on his cheek- which he can easily revert back to normal.
And he plot is super formulaic. Weak dude suddenly gets blessed with amazing powers and becomes an awesome hero, showing up all of the lazy corrupt "strong" guys who look down on anyone ranked lower than them. There's absolutely nothing about the story that's unique and sticks out.

[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 the protagonist- Sung Jin-Woo- from the point of view of ordinary citizens, as people react to his fierce battle watching from their TVs at home, and 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 as well. The manhwa downplays and shortens this whole sequence so much it might as well not have been included.]

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


Character-6
Sung had some minor character growth in the first 20 or so chapters but since then he's been stuck as an edgy edgelord (seriously, is the dude physically incapable of wearing clothes colored anything BUT midnight black?) The fact that he's a necromancer with the special ability to resurrect and control the monsters he kills certainly doesn't help.
Not only that, but he's a Mary Sue (well, the male version, Gary Stu or whatever) through and through. In this manhwa, 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's 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, never awkward and always charming, and dashingly handsome... who could get bored of a perfect character like that? (sarcasm, if you didn't catch that already.)

Solo Leveling 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 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.

Enjoyment-2
Immensely disappointing. The only reason I bothered to read the entire thing was because I wanted to see how it would end (the series looks to be ongoing so I didn't get to find that out.) The story and characters are flavorless and boring, and the artist did absolutely nothing unique with this manhwa.
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Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling
Auteur Chugong
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