Let me explain.
Solo Leveling follows Sung Jin-Woo in your typical power fantasy story of "the world's weakest hero" turning into the #1 hero in the world. There are no deep themes, and it doesn't try to do anything new. It is exactly as it sounds. Just another power fantasy story. But this story is by no means bad just because it doesn't try to do something different. Now, is it the 28th best manga of all time and the number one manhwa ever created? No. Absolutely not. And it's puzzling to me why this would get such high scores and not something like say, Sword Art Online when they're basically the same thing. And so I went on to looking to MAL reviews for answers... and came with absolutely nothing.
The main points people in their reviews have made is basically that "This isn't your typical power fantasy" but then do nothing to reinforce their point. They just say "This story is extremely good." and leave it at that.
Now let me tell you that this manhwa is actually a good manhwa. Now it seems that I'm contradicting myself, right? Except not. I never said that this story is bad. It's the opposite actually. I compared it to SAO earlier but I gotta say that this is a lot better of a power fantasy story. This story does everything it tries to do extremely fucking well. The art is godlike, with full-colored panels to better understand and enjoy everything that happens. The hype moments of the previously weak guy destroying the top hunters are extremely well done and I really enjoyed it. If you enjoy power fantasy stories, then this is one of the best you can find. And this is why I changed my score from a 5 to a 6 after a second reading.
At first I was annoyed that this manhwa was getting amazing ratings when it was nothing more than an average power fantasy story. But after a second reading I realized that this story doesn't try to be a thought-provoking masterpiece or anything. It just tries to be your average power fantasy story, and the execution is perfect. So it's not really that average. In terms of power fantasy stories at least.
Oh yeah, don't try to argue that Sung Jin-Woo is a good character because at first he's the weak loser and then we see him rise and become the badass hero. I say that because I saw a lot of people just saying "Characters (10/10): We see the character as a weakling and we follow him as he becomes strong...". He's a perfect character just without the strength. He doesn't have any flaws. It's literally what everyone shits on SAO about and it's basically every isekai MC. It's not deep. Being weak isn't a character flaw. If a character's only flaw is being weak, it's not a good character. So yeah. Good art (10/10), a bit above average story just because the world has some original aspects (6/10), bad characters (4/10), high enjoyment cause of very well executed hype moments (9/10). Overall rating: 6/10.
CONCLUSION: If you want a geniunely good and innovative story, search elsewhere. But if you want a power fantasy story, you're in the best place you could ever be.
Side note: One thing I realized after seing this rare case of a typical power fantasy getting amazing ratings is that, generally, people don't search for stories with good writing. They mainly just want something they'll enjoy. And I think people started hating on SAO because a minority of reviewers were really loud about how bad the writing is and then, after listening to the points the reviewers made, the general anime community realized how bad SAO was and started shitting on it. But I think people actually enjoyed it. I know I did at least. But I also gave it a low score. Why? Because just because something is bad, doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. So when the anime of Solo Leveling releases, and the masses get a hold of it, I personally think it just might become the next SAO as in that everyone is gonna start hating on it. But who knows. This is just a wild guess.
