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What’s up everyone, the next anime review is Solo Leveling. Now this one will be a doozy because of so many mixed reactions. Now to be completely honest my take may be a bit biased because I’ve read the Manwha and personally loved it, but I can see some of the cons to the anime for the 1st season. Now let me be clear there is definitely going to be another season, now on to the review! Oh, also note there are spoilers within the review.

Story

The story takes place on earth (Korea) specifically where portals (called gates) appear where monsters can potentially roam out of. To prevent this, hunters (humans granted with power) must defeat the gate boss for the gate to close. Now how do you become a hunter you ask well you get tested, and you are then ranked according to your power. The ranking system is E-S (so are the gate rankings) and not everybody can even be ranked. Now our main character Sung Jinwoo is nicknamed the weakest hunter due to his level E ranking. Until one day they roam upon a gate where he’s killed to reawaken with newly found power.

Personally, I like the story line, it’s not anything impressive but it could be worse. Yes, this is a power fantasy anime, so there will be one focus main character who strives to get stronger, typical right?

Animation

This is where I think Solo Leveling will ultimately excel at. So, let’s be honest season 1 barely had enough fights to gain a positive response from most watchers but there are at least 2-3 battles where I think you can give Solo Leveling a passing grade for animation. No, the character’s design is nothing amazing, but again I believe the author was looking to have a realistic view on the characters.

Spoiler, click to view

Spoiler alert! The animation with the crew attempting to kill Sung Jinwoo was great! See video below.▶

Characters

This is where I have an issue with the series, there is absolutely nobody else other than Sung Jinwoo in the story. I’ve completed the series so I’m aware how much more camera time Sung Jinwoo receives and it’s a bit disappointing on how the story could have progressed or possibly evolved with including other characters. Outside of Sung Jinwoo there’s only his right-hand man Jin Ho. Spoiler alert! You would think Jin Ho will gain some type of power to help Sung Jinwoo or something but nope, it’s simply the Sung Jinwoo show. There are a few female characters like

Now as for our mc I think this is about as good as you can get successful wise on focusing on one character who typically is overpowered. This is kind of sad to see which brings the question of what is the character even fighting for? Please see next segment for this answer

__My Opinion on some of the Negative Opinions
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Now I normally don’t do this, but I did see a bunch of negative reviews on the anime, and this is just my opinion on the negative view opinion. Firstly, the genre of the anime is a power fantasy anime some people on twitter and even on here were angry regarding the depth of the show. News flash people some of the best anime (Naruto, One Piece, Bleach) don’t have much depth.

Another issue was him not overcoming any tragedies to get stronger, which is false. To begin with earlier in the show, we see his mom is diagnosed with a condition called eternal slumber. The reason why he’s even hunting at his weak stage is for his family, to keep his mom in stable condition at the hospital, for his sister to go to school constantly. We clearly do not see any indication of his father (this will be brought up later). Also how did he get stronger there’s no training arc.... hmmm I don’t know did you see the daily quest he has to do every single day! You try doing it in real life I bet you get strong too lol. Also, within the anime the head of the hunter's association explains what a reawakening is. Hunters typically receive a stronger power, yes, it’s rare but Jinwoo wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.

Wait but he doesn’t lose? Why would he so the anime can be over? We saw him literally die in the first episode and you people want to see him get beat up now? He’s literally fighting for his life in every fight. Against the crew who tried to kill him for no reason, against monsters, against the assassin, against Igris.

Now I admit all anime is not good anime, but I can’t take you seriously if you claim Solo Leveling was trash.

__To conclude
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To conclude my honest opinion on solo leveling is exciting. No, it’s not anime of the year but it’s definitely within the category for OP character of the year. I personally loved the fight scenes and seeing what Jinwoo had to go through just to get the strength he needed to protect his family. For example, he had to die, after he had to kill an actual human just to make it back home. I do wish there was some progress in the characters within the story but there isn’t. For all the review readers if you are into battle anime, or dungeon and monster fighting themes, or possibly like seeing a character get so strong that nobody can touch the character then I do suggest watching it.

Also, I have to say the music was my least favorite thing in the anime, I wasn’t feeling the opening or closing song.

I rate this with an - "You should watch"

For those who don’t know scores of 80+ get a “you should watch recommendation"

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