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Having finished the manhwa I feel I know enough about this already to give a review. First up is the technical quality of the anime, it's fairly run of the mill as far as modern anime go. Animations are okay but nothing to write home about, they could be smoother and more grounded feeling but it's never jarring. Atrocious cgi cars and buildings of course, extremely bland background art elsewhere. Art style is just like the manhwa, meaning bland lol. Music is bland but it gets me tapping a toe at least, oddly my favorite tune is the boy band opening, it toe taps the ... hardest but it's a limp toe tap. I should be clear, this is a pretty bland looking anime. Nothing offensive, mostly, but also nothing that makes you go "whoah." Sharp and clean computer generated lines, generic animations, safe by the book character designs, boring background art, bland.

Then we mosey on over to the story, without spoilers it's grade A basic, if you've seen an isekai you are already familiar with the core elements of Solo Leveling. Only difference is the portal mechanic, it's more or less the only innovation but I'm no master of isekai, perhaps it's already been done. This isn't really a repackaging or fresh take on the genre either, it's mostly just Korea trying to muscle in on that sweet sweet isekai money. Not trying to offend anyone with that either, Korea is late to the comic/anime party and is still playing catch up, but I bet some serious bangers pop up in the next few years.

I've saved the characters for last, as I find them the most disappointing. Throughout the manhwa there is literally not a single character I care about, and I doubt the anime will do anything to change that. They are all so safe and by the book, a couple come close but even they are too tropey and unoriginal, vanilla flavored if you will. Perhaps though I'm being too critical, it's hard to innovate when you're walking in the footsteps of others.

I guess I lied, this is the real last bit, because I gotta say I do love the pacing of Solo Leveling. Quite frankly it's the only thing that kept me reading in the first place, and will probably also keep me watching out of sheer boredom. So often shonen/isekai suffer from pacing problems, even my personal favorite One Piece has god awful pacing, either the anime is stretched thin due to the manga not being complete, or the author just spends time waffling over things that ought not be waffled over. However Solo Leveling does not and will not take the foot off the gas pedal, maybe it slows down a bit here and there but it is constantly progressing, and therein lies it's greatest strength: it takes you for a ride and makes you want to keep reading despite it being kinda bland and a bit soulless and sorta unoriginal. Again maybe too harsh, it's not all those things in a bad way, just a "I've seen this already" sort of way. In any case this is pure boys gonna be boys content, slaying monsters, saving broads, male fantasy relationships, diving into dungeons, need I go on? It's content by the boys for the boys. Which isn't really a bad thing, honestly I'm kind of jealous of the kids who get to experience Solo Leveling as their intro to anime, cause it would probably be pretty dope. Sadly though, it's just kind of boring after you've seen enough anime.

For anyone profile diving I give the anime a 6 and the manhwa 7 simply because I prefer reading things, it lets my imagination go wild whereas anime constrains it to the screen.

So is this one for you? Well the first few episodes are a bit boring, then the gas pedal is pushed down and it doesn't let up. If you like boys club action packed anime then this one will probably push the right buttons.

Apparently a re-write is in order, guess I just have to be more critical this time around as I was trying to be nice last time. I sort of handicapped myself by not trying to offend anyone, let me give the uncut version of my review:

The good: First up comes the art, it's great! I think if you have two eyeballs and lack drain bamage it's fairly obvious that this is a gorgeous anime. The art was done with care, and the digital set designs are half decent, which is getting rarer and rarer to find due to the overworked and underpaid artists of Japan ... (and elsewhere for that matter!). Animations themselves leave a bit to desire though, hair floats unnaturally, surfaces lack depth, and the characters look rather 3D CGI-ish at times - especially in action scenes.

The bad: Generic elf girl in generic fantasy land, this feels like it was meant to be an isekai. She is a sad mary sue that is, no surprise, overpowered just like an isekai character. Someone pointed this out to the author, so he stopped for a moment, scratched his head, and stared ponderously up at the myriad of speckles cast upon the cheap ceiling tiles above him. After a truly reflective and enlightening moment, he decided the MC instead of being a human out of place and time (sillybilly, that would be unoriginal) is instead a generic 1000 year old elf, but no need to worry she isn't a loli vampire (thank goodness). This way he could totally get to the depths of elf nature, something no one, ever, has ever possibly thought of doing in all these many decades of fantasy writing, nope no one has ever explored what it was like to be 1000 years old, or even better a *dun dun dunnnnn* 1000 year old ELF right? Riiiiight? Oh my, oh MY is that the ghost of JRR Tolkien with a steel chair entering the cage?!?! Sadly it's cut from a boring overwrought tapestry, and it brings almost nothing new to the table. If you haven't seen many fantasy anime or read much fantasy then this could and should be a real slam dunk. Not all anime NEED to bring something new to the table, see the shonen genre for examples, however a slow anime like this relies entirely upon vibes and originality, for me it's missing half the magic. Next up are the female characters, someone was thumping themselves heartily on the back for their supremely marketable cookie cutter female designs. They smol, they strong, they cute, they're totally waifuable, and hooboy are they going to make some money woohoo! Just fills your heart with warmth and joy, I mean who doesn't love exploiting the female form? Who needs original and or realistic female characters when you can sell cute generic anime girl figurines? Then you get the male designs, they're not much better because they look like the author scrolled google images for "fantasy anime characters" and then proceeded to mix their favorite generic bits together. Like praise be, NO one has thought of a short dwarfish character with a horned skull cap and a beard before! Mind. Blowing. Sorry to say the bad is not over yet, because the music is, just like everything else except the art, generic. You've heard these anime tunes before, sad tunes, hopeful tunes, going on a journey tunes, dramatic tunes, peppy tunes, uninspired tunes. Honestly I could go on, but I think I've proven my point. However I'll just say, this anime feels like it was designed to be safe and make money, not push the boundaries of anime as an art form.

The ugly: The story, for me this is where it falls on its face. The story is artificial, it's stiff, it's just rehashed tired anime fantasy tropes being squeezed into a pair of new jeans, and given the cute generic anime girl makeover. Other anime/manga have explored ideas of humanity far better, like Monster, Pluto, FMB, Mushishi, or To Eternity. Meanwhile Vinland Saga is 100x the fantasy anime this will ever be, and Berserk the manga lapped Frieren before it even started publication. I'd say this anime is a solid win for people who have a low bar for fantasy anime. Just saying they all bring something something new to the table. This anime is basically "we swear we're not an isekai, even though this is set in a universe that screams isekai, the plot is an isekai, and it's filled with characters that also scream isekai but are totally not isekai characters. Any questions? No? Good" Have fun reading my review again, you know who you are. Really the only isekai bit this anime is missing is a character out of place and time... Hmm.. Time... Since the cookie cutter sad elf has been around 1000 years, could you argue she is living in a different world and different time than the one she began in? Thus making it sort of an isekai? It's mental gymnastics I know, but they're all the rage these days if you take a gander at social media. On a more serious note, I'd call this isekai adjacent because it's not truly an isekai but it ticks a lot of the boxes.

Dang, this is good, like GOOD good. Bad stuff out of the way first, the music is just okay, and the female MC is absolutely infuriating, though her being infuriating is simply the result of good writing. Planetes starts off rather chaotically, with a funny scene about astronauts and diapers, but then it proceeds to open up and pull you along into the world of space trash cleanup. All the while it is just stunning to look at, the background art is masterfully done, and characters are actually unique people, ithe women aren't just cookie cutter eye candy and they have *gasp the horror* actual ... personalities! Oh by the by the animations are smooth and realistic, characters walking down a hall actually walk rather than slide, it's a miracle! Some CGI pokes through here and there but never anywhere it might detract or pull you away from the story. If you're looking for a slow burn anime full of drama, with a touch of comedy, good character development, and a decent dose of romance all while it hits you in the feels and takes you on a journey through space, well then lads and ladies this one is for you.

Planetes was pure joy to binge, I slept on this one for way way too long!

Huh, this one almost kept me watching but it's just... Meh. On one hand I quite like the animation/art style of the characters, feels like classic anime. However that's where the good things to say about the animation pretty much end, lol. Background art is low effort, and has that weird shiny look to it like it's glazed or plastic which clashes horribly with the character art. Story wise it's freakin' WEIRD, like weirder than FLCL or Kill La Kill imo. Also the fan service is just kind of gross, it's not the "oops I stumbled into your boobs" kind of fan service, thankfully, but ... it's still just ew. Then of course come the midget anime girls, every single one is at least 2 feet shorter than the men, like ??? Sure short women exist but this feels more like a fetish to sell merch than artistic design choice. I kind of dig the music but they roll the music at really weird times, like MC is explaining something so they blast music weird. I do get what the anime is going for, the explanations clearly don't matter at all and logic is thrown out the window for fairly standard absurdist anime humor, but it just never clicks for me. This anime has tons of potential but like Fire Force it squanders it, and in a way it reminds me of Tenchi Muyo, except without the killer animation/art. Again. this one just doesn't really click for me like FLCL or KLK.

Your mileage will definitely vary on this one, depending on where you're at on the "crusty old anime fan" scale you might love it or you might hate it, I'd give it a whirl and see how you feel.

Bleh, overly glossy/shiny, and the saturation slider was cranked to 100. I do like the art but I need sunglasses to watch this anime. Don't even get me started on the MC, those eyes are over designed and distracting. Dunno why they couldn't just give her normal eyes, it reminds me of the mid 00s bug eyes in a way. Nothing to write home about with the music, pretty generic. Plot seemed interesting, but with just 3 episodes and MAL forcing me to write something about it to give my opinion well, what is there to say? Historically the first episode had quite a few ... inaccuracies, but it's anime so that's not surprising. If you like modern anime in all it's oversaturated overprocessed glory then this one might be for you.

Darn this would have been an easy 10 if it was traditionally animated. They went so hard on the stills, the static background art of the city scape, and character art style, but then just gave up everywhere else... Pluto is plagued by soulless CGI cars, CGI hallways, CGI buildings, utterly horrendous CGI fire/weather/special effects, and strange weightless uncanny movement when characters are doing simple things like walking. Seriously, there is a scene in the first episode of Gesicht walking and it looks like some slapstick 1930s character sliding along on a glass floor making whacky wailing flailing movements. Also the lighting is inconsistent to ... the point of distracting at times. Music was just okay, standard anime stuff really. Yet the story of Pluto is outstanding, it's what will hook you and not let go.

Oh no, what did they do to my boy, my beautiful S1/movie baby boy... Not even gonna touch on the story, I love me some flashbacks. Also I'm happy for all the people who enjoy the new animation style, enjoy. That being said holy smokes to my eyeballs the new animation is bad, not the characters though they flow really well but everything else around them is janky. However the art style is even worse imo. We went from crisp detailed art, richly colored and shaded to this terrible bland minimalism, cough cough budget cutting BS. On top of that why are the panning/moving CGI ... scenes looking worse than something from a PS2 game? If I want to see video game animations I'll just go play Persona 5, or 4, or 3; all of which have better quality animation than JJK Season 2. Like 80% of the scenes are drop dead gorgeous, the background artists went bananas and my hats off to them... but then the camera moves and you're assaulted with blocky 3D polygons that got flattened to 2 dimensions with the grace of a 5 year old smearing crayons on paper. Idk ya'll, I think I'm getting too old for anime. Seems like watching anime and having a large catalogue of beautifully animated shows to compare things to is a terrible double edge sword. The more you watch, the more you notice how they cut corners to save money, except they don't pay that newfound saved money to their slave labor animators, oh no it goes right to the top so it can trickle down baby. Unfortunately I guess One Punch Man now has company on my list of anime that got butchered with a change in art/animation, sigh. 3 points; 1 point for the animators that worked on the characters, 1 point for the background artists, 1 point for the audio people.

Jeez, I really want to love this manga, the world is really cool, the art is mostly incredible, and the concept is really unique for manga. However I just can't get past the doe eyed hentai girls, and holy moly the cheesy fan service is just too much. On top of that you have some hardcore cookie cutter shonen characters, there is almost nothing redeeming about any of them, they're just there. Lastly, bad science, bad science, bad science, BAAAAAAAAAAAD BAD SCIENCE. My goodness I want to reach out and bonk the author on the head, nothing about the science in this is educational, it's ... pure fiction. For a manga that at first seems to celebrate science, it quickly turns it into a cheap gimmick that takes basic concepts and runs more wild with them than a child that's afraid of the dark.

Given the anime is starting, and this manga had blipped on my radar a few times over the last couple years I figured I'd dive into it. Gotta say this starts off a hard 10, and it remains a 10 until about the 2/3 point. Technically this is a seinen, but if we're honest it's really just a shonen with boobies, thankfully there's more boobies than cheesy fan service, so uh... Win? In any case, the art work is absolutely stunning, maybe not quite berserk levels of detailed but my goodness it's a 9.5/10. Characters are pretty cookie cutter, but you get some nice development ... that prevents them from being entirely droll, 6/10 but not in a bad way. Lore pulls very heavily from eastern religion and culture, and I think it combines and designs things in a really cool way. In terms of power ups, moves, etc, it's fairly standard in the whole "friendship and love trumps all" department. That being said the powers overall are quite cool, you can tell the author is drawing a lot from other series, while suffusing it with enough of his own flair for it to never feel like a rip off. Really cheesy move names though, even by shonen standards. However the artwork really brings the moves and combat to life, despite cheesy names and sometimes a bit of unnecessary repetition. Lastly, in terms of story it's a solid 7/10, nothing groundbreaking but it does some interesting things with a concept that hasn't been explored too much in manga/anime.

Given I haven't given it a 10 in anything, you might be wondering how it starts off as a hard 10 and stays that way for so long. Well it's ENTIRELY due to the pacing, I'd argue this as one of the best paced manga's I have ever read. Not too fast, not too slow, just the foot on the gas pedal cruising at the perfect speed for nearly the entire series. If you're a binge reader like me it's a perfect 1 day read, even a slow reader could make it through this in a week. I sincerely hope other mangaka's look at Jigokuraku as an example of a nearly perfectly paced manga.

Honestly the only downside to this manga is power scaling, and thankfully it's not until about the 2/3 point. Though I think that's just a shonen thing (I want to hammer home this is a shonen with boobies, it's not deep). Sadly the author presents a world with XYZ dangers, and then does the old shonen thing of introducing NEW characters that just waltz through the dangers with plot armor, cuz reasons. While it's not enough to bother me, it's enough to take Hell's Paradise from a solid 8 - maybe even 9, down to a 7.

Overall it starts off good, it ends good, and only some relatively common shonen issues detract from it. If you've been around the shonen block then it's flaws are easy to ignore, and it's qualities are easy to appreciate. Highly recommended.

Man, I try not to be too much of a reactionary, I like to give things a fair shot. But for the love of all that is holy in this world, just... wow... Holy moly. This has to be one of the ugliest, choppiest, cg budget cutting pieces of anti-art that I have ever laid mine own 2 eyeballs upon. This is what you get when some corporate shmuck just HAS to bring back a series for some cheap profit, but can't be bothered to do it right, nor can they even be bothered to do it wrong, it transcends terribleness. So they cut corners, ... cut frames, cut quality, cut acting, cut audio, ruined characters for cheap feels, they just kinda cut everything that gives something a heart, soul, and personality and just, well cut it out. This series is what you get when money speaks louder than brain cells. Holy moly. It's so bad I can't even comprehend how this has a score above 7, this is legit as bad as the berserk CGI fustershmuck.

Look if you like this, well dang, more power to ya I guess, you do you homie. However for someone born in ye olde days of good animation this is a wildly hard pass.