Solo Leveling

So it's been 4 years since I last did a review on Anilist and I thought, why not try to do more. I just wish I had chosen a better series or a series I enjoyed more instead of this, which is bad since my last review was on another series I didn't like either, WHOOPS!!. Regardless, I'm just doing this for fun and to see if I want to do these again, so here are my thoughts on Solo Leveling, I will also discuss the epilogue chapters as well.

AVOID THIS REVIEW FOR SPOILERS, THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING, THANKS!!

Solo Leveling follows Sung-Jin Woo(If I messed up the name sorry lol) as he works as a hunter as a form of job, living with his high school young sister and mother who at the beginning of the series is in a coma. He is regarded as the weakest hunter of all mankind and always in a struggle of survival when it comes to his job of going through portals and taking on jobs as a hunter. One day, everything changes when his party is trapped and overpowered by an powerful enemy. Just when he is about to be killed off, he gains an unknown power that will change him from the weakest to the strongest.

Cool plot but yeah that about it for me. One of my first issues of Solo Leveling was the slow start. Pacing might be subjective as like comedy, I think it depends on a certain person likes. Does someone like fast pacing over slower pacing, does someone like fart jokes over comedic timing, you get the point. I like both slow and fast pacing as long it done right or in a way I can understand what going on or it feels right. An example I would use is the manga series The Bugle Call, that series pacing at times is slow but feels good and helps me understand what is going on. Solo Leveling is the case of I understand what is going on but I felt like it should have gotten to the point. 10 chapters it just to fully show the whole sequence of events of the MC party getting overwhelmed, his survival instincts and the leading up to when he gets this new power. This I felt was too long and could have been shortened out.

Now I want to move away from the beginning and more talk about the rest of the series, cause around this point, there more issues here. The cast are just forgettable, I swear I can only remember a few characters through designs and not names and the rest I can't even remember at all. I feel like the biggest issue with Solo Leveling is that is always focused on its main character that its side cast is left in the dust. Sure there are some scenes with them but I think majority of it is just Sung-Jin Woo going Aura Mode(god that felt rough to type). Its a shame cause some of them have some decent designs that could work or had some character writing that would put them in an interesting spot in the story but I feel like they are just stepping stones Sung-Jin Woo's story and not letting them have more time to shine. Overall, it just an extremely forgettable cast of characters.

As for the story, there might be one, I just can't remember it, it might just not exist at all. Woo working as a hunter to pay for his family since his father is missing, mother in a coma, and sister is in high school. Something I want to note is that it feels like story parts were skipped or left unfinished. My biggest complaint with this was the fact Sung-Jin Woo's father went missing, reappears, gets interrogated by Dong-Su Hwang(had to look up this character name) and beats the ever living hell out of Dong before disappearing. And this storyline doesn't come till way later on in the main story, like it doesn't come back till Part 2. I also think this storyline could have been written way better but it feels extremely rushed. I also think the story isn't really there either since the focus is always on Sung-Jin Woo cause my god, I feel like besides Beru, the antagonists didn't get as much build up as they should, heck the final villain of the main story is so forgettable and had no build up at all, I was left with thought of "WHO IS THIS GUY?". Overall, plot feels non-existence.

Manwha arts aren't my thing but Solo Leveling has decent art, and I love the coloring for the shadow generals. Like the mix of blue and black and purple is honestly pretty nice. Like I said, I'm not crazy on Manwha art styles cause I think a lot of them just look the same to me.

I want to bring up a point of the series I did like, which was the hospital scene in which Sung-Jin Woo revives his mother. I liked this scene, i just overall like happy moments. I think if I cared more for Sung-Jin Woo or for the series in general, I would have loved it more. It just shows him in a better light than just some badass MC who Aura farms 24/7. I didn't like when I heard some people hated this cause like why? Why do want your badass MC not to cry? Dude just achieved a goal he thought he wouldn't see and you get pissed cause he is crying about it, like why? This might be the only time I will defend this part of the series.

As for the ending, it was not great, luckily the epilogue chapters came out, and I'm mixed on them. On one hand, we have Sung-Jin Woo living in a new reality where the fantasy and portals that lead to building of Solo Leveling world are gone and you see the characters living normal lives. Except Sung-Jin Woo still has his powers and some of his shadow generals. I liked these chapters, just seeing the characters living an almost normal l like it, not much but good enough. I also enjoyed the romance between Sung-Jin Woo and Hae-In Cha in these chapters cause it felt like wasn't fully built in the main series but here it was built nicely. I also enjoyed the chapter with Igris and the one with Beru and Sung-Jin Woo's son. But then we have the chapters setting up the sequel series. I hate these chapters, they were so boring to read, I just couldn't care about what was going on and most of pages were just straight up battle after battle after battle with some resting parts. I flat out thought these chapters were worse than most of the series, and it brought it down in my opinion. The epilogue chapters were decent but I felt the sequel set up chapters were boring and soulless.

As for the future of this series, I don't plan on checking out the sequel or the anime adaptation. The anime I put in as an anime I have to watch if I lose a bet or have to watch just for the sake of friends but I'm never going to touch it. Overall I don't recommend the series. I think whoever wants to check out some Manwha series should just avoid it and check out some other stuff. I've heard the Fantasy Romance are good but I haven't tipped my toes in there yet so IDK. I'm trying to get into Manwha since 2022 and this year I've been trying again after reading this 2 years ago. It is a slow process cause too many series don't appeal to me as much as some manga do. Luckily after reading The Boxer this year and actually liking it than most other Manwhas, I can say I finally hit gold and probably will read more in the future. My score for the series has changed over years, it started as 6/10, then to 5/10, and now 4/10. So for this, my final score will be a 4.5/10.

(Thanks for reading this awful review. Like I said, it's been 4 years since my first one so just doing this for fun. Don't let my opinion as I'm taking a crap on something you love. If you love it, you love it, I'm not against it at all. PEACE)