Solo Leveling

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"This isn't solo leveling anymore!"
- Solo Leveling, chapter 46

Ah yes, the highly praised webtoon, Solo Leveling. Now that it started being released physically too, it's finally added to MALs database. Does it live up to expectations? Not really, no.

Note that this review contains slight spoilers.

Solo Leveling is pretty much your typical "zero to hero" story, despite what fans might claim. Protagonist is weak, encounters trouble and is handed down some op abilities out of nowhere. Yes, he technically has to do quest to earn progress, but just the ability to do quests itself is unique to the world and is given to the protagonist with no explanation as to why. (Also the starting quest is ripped straight out of One Punch Man). This "underdog" is now stronger than almost everyone else, yet still has tendency to try to hide his abilities, for no apparent reason. I guess him being shown as strong all the time would hinder self-insertion.

The story is fine, more or less what you would expect from the genre, not great, not terrible. It's still a fun read, don't get me wrong, but it's hardly something I would call great. The greatest weakness is the repetitiveness. All the arcs after the first one go like this: MC enters a dungeon, something "unsusual" and "unexpected" happens, the expected difficulty increases, everything looks dire and unbeatable, MC starts doing stuff, the threat turns to be irrelevant as MC triumps over it relatively easily. More and more easily with each arc.

In fact, there is just no thrill anymore. Which is why the first few chapters were the best. You were worried about the protagonist as there was no telling whether he'll make it out arive. But at the current point of the story, the threath is there no more. It's just a massacre of obstacles.

The MC himself went from likeable underdog that works hard despite being the weakest to help his ill mother to not really giving a heck and having no problem straight out murdering someone. And this substory about ill mother? You would would expect that to get attention right after the protagonist gets strong and loaded, right? Nah, it doesn't get mentioned until much later when the author remembers that they made this substory in attempt to make the MC more likeable.

Edit: With the new chapters, the story does actually go back to the "mother is ill" part of the plot. It is thanks to a bunch of random item drops that conjuret the potion of plotforwarding, sure, but that's still better than nothing. A positive point for you, Solo Leveling.

With this are tied the "edgy spikes". I'm not that fond of using the "edgy" buzzword in a review, but in this case it fits as the description perfectly. Most of the time the manhwa is fine, but from time to time the edginess spikes out of nowhere, probably in an attempt to make the comic more interesting, but the result is exactly opposite.

The best part of Solo Leveling is undoubtly art. It's full colored, atmospheric, and the action is well drawn. On the other hand, it's not that's much different from most of webtoons of similar genres.

Overall, Solo Leveling is a fine read, but certainly nothing revolutionary.

Update: Since the 1st season of the webcomic is now finished, I'd like to comment on its last arc. With it, all the weak aspects of Solo Leveling are even more obvious. Not only the story of the arc is a porr man's cheap knock-off of Chimera Ant arc from HxH, the writing is terrible. The arc can be summed up as presentation of the the strongest characters the Hunter Association has to offer only for all of them to be beaten easily so the protagonist can waltz in and save the day effortlessly like the Gary Stu he is, takes a souvenir corpse to summon another overpowered servant and that's the arc done. This part really cemented Solo Leveling as nothing more than bad power fantasy with good art.

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This isn't your typical "MC becomes crazy OP" story where the OP MC becomes absolutely boring af.

This story is a fucking masterpiece.
You may be skeptical about reading it, perhaps you think it will end up trash like many generic RPG/MMO style anime/manga.
I assure you that that opinion is completely wrong.

The Story: 10/10
Absolutely solid, it flows extremely well and is probably one of the best adaptions of a LN into a Manhwa I've ever seen.
The story is filled with plots that make sense, flowing with extremely well written character development, assisted by very good character interactions.
Of course, like many stories, it starts out slow. When I first started reading this story definitely pissed me off to the point that I was like "Does this even get better."
Yes, yes it does.
You may be annoyed with the MC and many supporting characters in the beginning but that quickly changes as the character begins to go through a change no one in this fantasy world has experienced before. He is able to level up his rank. Through that experience he drastically changes in personality and is able to experience much more action than previously before, at the bottom of the barrel. This manhwa quickly becomes exciting to read and you'll continuously be asking for more after finishing each chapter. Give it a chance and run through the chapters, I'm sure it's something all action and fantasy lovers will enjoy.

Art: 10/10
It's really hard to not love the art style honestly, it's beautiful and clear, well drawn, and definitely adds to the appeal of reading this.

Character: 10/10
I cannot get enough of how amazing each character is in their own way.
This being a fantasy, theres a loott of things we can't relate to in this story, but even with that the characters are easy to understand, or relate to.
The choices each characters make make complete sense based on our understanding of their personality, or their history.
We aren't stuck with any characters that have overly unrealistic personalities, which makes reading this all the better.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I have reread all the chapters available many times and it really doesn't get old.

You definitely may not see this as a Masterpiece like I do, but it is definitely a minimum of a 7/10.
If you love fantasy... action... adventure.. then this is for you.
Give it a chance and run through all the chapters available, I'm sure you will see the beauty in it.

Overall, I give these 86 chapters currently available to us a 10/10.

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Solo leveling is a super fun read, where the MC is pretty much op but it never ceases to be boring. The story flows well and is a straightup an upgrade from the LN. Combined with the godly artist every page is just a feast for the eyes. This manhua is an example of op done right.

Story : 9.5
somewhat generic isekai power fantasy but that doesn't really affect the story.Starts off slow but quickly turns into a ride you can't get off. World building is done well in both the LN and manhua.

Art: 10
Most likely one of the best looking manhua/manga I've read besides berserk, being a manhua the colors just give that extra kick to make this an eyegasm

Characters: 10
MC goes from 0 to 100 real quick, many scenes where I just think damn, thats a fucking badass mf if I've ever seen one.

Enjoyment:10
I really can't get enough of these new chapters, one of the few things I look foward to during the week.

Overall: 10
In general a fucking good read

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Solo Leveling does everything it tries to do goddamn right.

You may think the setting has been done a million times and it's just another generic overpowered main character doing what he wants, it's exactly that, but executed absolutely magnificently in every regard.

Story: 10/10
The setting is quite simple, one day gates start appearing all over the world out of nowhere and people start awakening magic abilities in order to close these gates. Our main character is a man dubbed "The Worlds Weakest Hunter", Sung Jin-Woo, who joins these raids in order to pay for his comatose mothers treatment and his younger sisters education. After a raid gone horribly wrong, Sung Jin-Woo awakens an ability that enables him to level up his abilities, which is unheard of. The story follows Sung Jin-Woo's growth as a person and a hunter. The mystery and high-stakes in this manhwa make it an enticing story to follow.

Art: 10/10
This is where Solo Leveling shines above all it's competitors.
What starts off as mediocre art suddenly improves drastically to become pure joy to look at, I've never seen manhwa done so beautifully.
It's so unique you can't really compare it to art you see from something like OPM for example. Each panel is a sight to behold and truly makes you appreciate it on a whole other level. Keeping in mind it's released on a weekly basis which is unbelievable.

Character: 9/10
Unique characters with good character development throughout the series. For most of the series the way they introduce new characters at the right rank milestones for Sung Jin-Woo is executed very well and at multiple times in the series will you go like: Whoah, holy... what a badass character.

Enjoyment: 10/10
In every aspect this is a masterpiece to behold and I urge you to give this a fair chance, you will not be disappointed, I guarantee it.

Overall: 10/10
Hands down one of my favorite reads ever, it's captivating and you may find yourself re-reading the series over and over again without even giving it another thought. There are quite a few minor and somewhat major changes done compared to the light novel, but in my opinion most of them have been positive changes.

What are you waiting for? Join the shadows!

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