Despite being a reasonably fun series to watch, Solo Leveling's most boring point is when the actual leveling solo happens. The solo dungeons are nothing more but a waiting room for Jinwoo to defeat an enemy that he is obviously always stronger than. The fights where there are some stakes are much more enjoyable, despite also always being predictable in a frustrating way, like how he always just happens to be just a bit stronger every time he faces a new threat.

There is far too much arbitrary tension, like when Jinwoo "accidentally" stabs his sword into the ground, or "oh no I dropped my teleportation stone.... Again...". And the overexplaining of what is going on slows down the otherwise good pacing of the story. In fact, the constant overexplainging of the world is very much a show of the author's skill, which I hope he learned from, but it is the prime factor of why the storytelling of the anime is so lacking. Characters have nonsensical dialogue, explaining to each other what they already should've known for ages, and the worldbuiling is spoonfed to us like we're idiots even when it's obviously shown in a better way later on.

The animation, on the other hand, is something to be admired. The anime is rather well directed and all of the moments of impact are also followed by tasteful visuals in a variety of animated styles. But the artstyle itself brings the anime down, especially considering the bland character designs. If it wasn't for the black smoke and blue light motif or the design of Sin Sang, there would be nothing worth talking about.

The part that is gripping about the story is the mystery of why Jinwoo is the only one with this power, it is set up so that is interesting enough to keep you watching. There is some charm to the show, the emotions the characters are showing after such a traumatic event is something interesting to behold, but the feeling like it's written by or for an edgy 13 year-old doesn't give me much hope for how this will be handled. There could've been an amazing confrontation with Jinwoo's past self in the last episode, but it is dropped in favour of him just "lucking out", both hurting the character development as well as the motif of "hard work pays off". The show still has a chance of saving those, it can still be an story about giving yourself a second chance, about self-improvement, I just fear that the selfishness that Jinwoo developed isn't supposed to be taken as an effect of his trauma, but rather as a positive change in his character.

There is still lots to be said about emotions, survival, recovery, hard work and even the worldbuilding, but we'll have to wait and see the direction it takes.