I started Solo Leveling on a whim when I was scrolling through which manwha to read next. The badass cover caught my eyes, so I prepared myself to give it a proper shot in the hope of finding some great fun. To my surprise, I did just that and so much more. Solo Leveling has slowly grown in popularity for its top-notch execution of an overpowered main male character. Not surprisingly, either since that's one of the simplest premises but with good potential, if executed properly. No, you will not find a masterpiece with a complex story, but I'll facepalm if someone said Solo Leveling is not fun at all. If I compare it to The Gamer, which is quite similar in many ways, even though that story has an awful number of issues and the execution for me feels sloppy. No hard feelings. It was just not my cup of tea.

We are so forcefully for no reason drowned in utter exposition every time, and it felt way too much than it needed to be. It was like the author only knew to throw around fancy words and not how to write the story to fully utilize its apparent strengths. Solo Leveling is more or less, our badass male lead Jin-Woo destroying monsters left and right with relative not much trouble. At least so far. But you can feel the tension, but in The Gamer, everything feels like a complete joke and is not taken as seriously. It feels jarring and wishy-washy. Another similar story I'd like to compare Solo Leveling to is Dice, which starts out pretty strong for its setting and grows wonderfully. Then a point came, and the author loses their touch. For me, the story simply plummed to the ground. But unlike The Gamer, which is just a nightmare in terms of unnecessary exposition. Dice just lose every bit of its sense of direction. While it's a-okay fleshed out cast of characters just becomes an awful nightmare and far more annoying.

Solo Leveling is a different case. It just works so damn well. It's just as simple in its nature and never wanders too far out from its comfort zone. Solo Leveling does give you exposition about how Jin-Woo's ability works. Still, it's done in a digestible manner, and it's not forced down on you like The Gamer. Whereas Dice loses all of its sense. Solo Leveling has a clear direction: to utilize all of its strengths and follow along with the story directions that are foreshadowed early on in a tasteful manner. The story writer Soryeong Gi does know how to use his pre-established strengths more satisfyingly. While the artist Seongrak Jand adds to the charm of that by the absolutely gorgeous depiction of art-style.

The story by itself is nothing to write home about and has a simple premise of getting stronger by beating down monsters. But Jin-Woo has a clear goal in mind for doing these things. It's to protect his family and make sure her sister gets raised and fed well. Sadly, their dad is nowhere to be seen, and the mother is in a mysterious coma for years with no signs of awakening. This driving factor for Jin-Woo being his family adds enough depth to him to make him very likable. As a character, Jin-Woo starts out quite shy but has a will of steel since he is risking his life to go into these dungeons to earn money for his dear family. In this world, you're given rank once you are born. This odd but curious phenomenon occurred after The Gate connected to the Monster world. Now all kinds of adventurers, explorers, and interested individuals go to the dungeons to scavenge all types of things they don't have in the human realm. To make themselves rich or to perhaps better the future for all of the humans. But who knows if this event is actually a blessing or a nightmare in the makings that will eat away at their world without them realizing it just yet.

Jin-Woo, upon accident, gets an incredible massive boost. Unlike all who are stuck to one rank from birth, ranging from A-E. Jin-Woo was the lowest rank has now, suddenly the potential to go much higher than ever thought possible. But unaware that this one blessing might carry a tremendous curse that drags him slowly into the abyss and eating way his humanity without him realizing. Jin-Woo is a gentle, caring, kind-hearted soul and good brother who cares deeply for his family. So it might be possible he will beat this darkness, but that's up the readers to find out. Once Jin-Woo gets his boost, he changes in attitude and grows confident but still has that tender heart. He rises to become an absolute beast you don't wanna mess with. It's true everything happens quickly, but it's still damn satisfying to see this cinnamon roll turn from innocent to a badass. Sadly, that's where the growth of his stops from a character standpoint anyway. But often, you see soft signs of his quirky and dense like character which gives you reasons to appreciate Jin-Woo's much more.

All of the interactions between him and others are not as fleshed out one might like. But all we get is so engaging. Even as Jin-woo might be much stronger than them, he acts formally and with respect, and I personally find that unique and charming. He oozes of pure badassery. Regardless of how humble he comes off as. Many who might want a lead character with tons of layers will be disappointed, but if you are tired of the usual touchy guys who'll get irked at the most minor shit. No matter how small. Jin-Woo is lots of fun since his character doesn't force us to feel sorry for him. You do that naturally as you learn of his situation. See what kind of good person Jin-Woo is willing to dangle his life on the rope each day without letting up. Mind you, this was even before he got a boost in powers.

This is obviously not the source material. That's the web novel, so all of my opinions are based on the manwha. I won't lie, but the story does feel rushed at times, and while I can ignore it somewhat and not let it irk me too much. This could not be the case for others who feel differently. But I think the manwha so far is doing a good job to not make it as annoying as possible. Like most readers, I am reading it for the hype and seeing Jin-Woo kick some serious ass. It never disappoints. I would love to have seen the world-building aspect be more fleshed out since that's one of my highest points to a story. That said, we at least got a bit of it to satisfy some of my needs. So I am not totally bummed out. We do understand the world is big. There are many monsters out there. We learn through dialogue from the characters before getting there.

I mean to say it's out nowhere and has been foreshadowed even if slightly awkwardly it does the job to captivate you. There are more than enough stories out there that have a great world-building and much more deeply written character from zero to hundred in a more tasteful approach. Where you see all of the details leading to the person growth. If you want some of that. Go read Tower of God, which has a much broader scope and is more about all kinds of details and exposition. Even to the point of complete exhaustion. I compare it to Tower of God since Bam is already broken from the getgo, and the hints are there in a subtle manner. Like that cage with eel and that water, which is not water. Where could I possibly be going with this information? In Solo Leveling, the main focus is also most on Jin-Woo as could be taken from the title, which implies he does things alone. So don't expect near as much emphasis or fleshed out of character like Tower of God, for instance.

We do have a love interest that is adequately executed, so you have an emotional connection to her. And it hurts when you see our quirky-dorky lovable cinnamon roll suffer some pain by enemies. Cha is adorable, and you gotta love her design, which is attractive. All for the right reason. She's no doubt waifu material, and her design is gorgeous. Plus, I adore all of her facial expressions and how she can be ditzy at times. It's all part of her charm. I mentioned the design of Cha being beautiful. I gotta say Jin-Woo looks terrific, and his design is so damn killer. I implied it earlier, but the art-style of Solo Leveling is incredibly gorgeous and detailed. It's colored-to-bottom with lush and vibrant colors, the shadings spot-on, and so are all the drawn lines.

As for the artist behind this stunning art-work is Seongrak Jang. He can draw some wallpaper material stuff. There is always a panel or two. I have to screenshot as I am reading through the chapters since it looks stunning beyond belief. No joke. Seongrak Jang can draw all kinds of various scenes, and the depiction of action sequences is out of this world. It's similar to SIU-sensei's after he improved a damn incredibly amount above his usual style. Expect to see many unique and artistic looking figures with a killer design and gorgeous coloring to add the biggest and fattest cherry on top you'll see. I won't lie even tho Solo Leveling is not a horror. There is one panel in particular that scared the living daylights out of me. It's my fault I was reading so late at night, but phew, that shit was frightening, and it was like that figure was staring right down at me to the deepest level of my souls. I got mad chills.

I have to say Solo Leveling is a must if you want a good starter manwha to get you into this world. I will never get to mention my favorite webtoons I am reading. So I want to throw some suggestions for some if you need Solo Leveling or if this might not be for you. If you came to that conclusion by reading my review. I will keep this short with little-to-no details, but I highly recommend everything I will mention here. Unordinary , Tower of God , Zero Game. Be sure to heart every chapter you read to show your appreciation for these authors who take the time to bring us such entertainment. These stories have similar aspects to Solo Leveling. All are fun in their own way. As for Solo Leveling itself, it's an incredibly addicting and fun ride if you have the right mindset and attitude. It's a read that you can simply turn off your brain and enjoy the thrill and excitement it throws at you with its gorgeous art style. I highly recommend it if you want something to kill your boredom. Since it was a relatively easy read to knock out in a day or less.