This review was designed to have minimum spoilers, however there will be some places where I discuss my thoughts and might grind into the spoiling section. Topics where spoilers will be present will be marked with a (-) above the text to indicate that the section will have spoilers

Solo Leveling is about E-rank hunter Jin-Woo Sung. Gaining little fame among the E-ranks, Jin is dubbed the world’s weakest hunter. He always gets injured in the dungeons but always goes back inside the dungeons in order to pay for his mother’s medical bills. His sister is about to go into high-school, his father is missing, and his mother is in Eternal sleep.
One day inside one of the dungeons Sung goes into, there occurs a double dungeon. (A dungeon inside a dungeon. These types of dungeons are super rare and often bring good loot) Many lives are lost inside of this dungeon and Sung almost dies, But a strange phenomenon occurs and Sung is now A ‘player’! What on earth could have happened in there?

System:

For a non-spoiler review, I don’t think i’m doing a good job of explaining all of the aspects of the series to a newbie. So let’s briefly go over the power system and the monsters!
Dungeons are like milky-way portals. They contain monsters inside of them. To clear the dungeon or make the portal disappear you must defeat the boss inside of it. If a week goes by and the dungeon boss has not been defeated; a dungeon break occurs. This allows the monsters inside to traverse onto the Earth and possibly wreck havoc.
People like Sung are awakened beings and recognized as hunters.
A hunter is someone who goes inside of the milky-way portals and defeats the dungeon’s minions and boss. You CANNOT become a hunter unless you have been awakened and you need at-least 10 different hunters of the same rank or higher to be able to go inside of the dungeon. People with high ranks like A or S are allowed to go into low-ranking dungeons but you might have the top dogs scratching their head over why you’re doing that… me as-well. proceeds to poker face and scratch head
Strike-squads are formed that consist of teams that go into the dungeon. Guilds usually form strike-squads as-well. Dungeons can be purchased online. To be able to go inside of the dungeon you need an entry-permit. Without one you are illegally entering a dungeon.
The ranks are distributed by the following:
E (lowest rank) , D, C, B, A, S (highest rank)
Other countries do it differently (did I mention the story takes place in south korea?) for example Chinea; they use stars to rank hunters. 1 star being the lowest and 5 stars being the highest.
You are evaluated for your rank by going inside of an evaluation office. (they’re dispatched around the country). You put your hand on a big gem or ‘mana meter’ and the number that comes up is your rank. The same practice applies to ranking dungeons but instead of carrying a big gem the security team uses hand held devices to measure the mana inside of the portal. Size is also taken into account when assigning the rank of a dungeon.
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Story(spoilers):

I do enjoy the story. I do believe that Sung being chosen as a player was a good choice and I like how he became the Monarch of Shadows and could make dead beings his minions. Also the interaction with the other minions and that the minions weren’t just beings who were lifeless was also amazing. Gave me some laughs and grins here and there. It was very cultivating to see Sung defeat beasts and see what items he gets. Seeing Sung get stronger was also a plus. Going from someone who couldn’t even kill a monster to clearing an S rank dungeon all by himself is just crazy! I sped through this in five days. I don’t speed through stories(in general) unless I like them. Sung had some very badass moments. For example the 1, 2, 3,4 moment was very very cool.
There is not much to really say about the story but I don’t really like how he went from weak to strong in such a very short time frame. It was like a get quick rich scheme but you actually get rich. Some things needed to be fleshed out more. For example; his life before he became a hunter/his childhood or when his mom went into an endless sleep. The authors were too focused on making a story where everyone would be “oh shit, badass” instead of “awww, that’s so heart-warming!! :sparkle:”. There was no tragedy to the main characters but the tragedy was already there and I guess they just had to overcome it? I’m not an author but you must have a good share of tragedy and bad ass to make your stories have depth and have more people attracted to it. I guess you could call me a pro since I watched a little of Bakuman. :sparkle:
After catching-up with ToG the amount of pages here just looked like a kids book. Things would get good then “chapter ended, go to the next one!”
?1!!11!1!1grr! me angry!
I also like how the authors didn’t make Sung the good hero type trope. If you mess with him or his family you are dead! Just a warning!
Tropes are weird most of the time but they are present in alot of anime. Some are recurring, some are completely new like a brand new car.

Art:
The art is very bootiful. I don’t remember the last time I was able to feast my naked eyes on full color! It’s going to take a while for me to get used to manga like One Piece or Dr Stone as they are just plain black and white. -Coming from a person who just finished reading ToG without reading anything else which was also in full color before jumping into Solo Leveling.
The drawing of the countries/landscapes of different countries (seoul) was another treat my eyes were set to enjoy. You can tell the artist took some time to develop his skills by drawing other manga or practicing before making it big with SL.
Art is very subjective in a sense, some people like it some people don't. But most learn to enjoy it regardless of their taste. The countries being drawn aren't given a-lot lot of time like One Piece for example but still does a good job with the color. Although it's a different story if this manga wasn't in full color. One man's trash is another man's treasure they do say..
Outro:

In conclusion, SL is a must-read. 4k quality that will shock you and also make you unable to stop reading. You are going to love this. (maybe more than me since you won’t have anything to complain about) I had a few nights where I was unable to go to sleep just thinking about SL. Even as a fast-paced story most of the symbols balance one another out and you can still enjoy
-martee.
I was using a school chromebook to write this review so no rough-draft google doc this time
:(