Solo Leveling is an exceptional piece with high-scaling battles, great main character, and high attention to detail. Although flaws exist in this 12-episode animation of the manhua, the adaptation itself copies the manhua exactly with added background scenes to add more detail to the story. While at first the anime focused on the story in its first two episodes (not bad episodes, but not good either), the animators have done a great job at balancing the story with fight scenes peaking viewers' interest and curiosity.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Summary:
There are two main worlds in Solo Leveling: Earth and The Dungeons where monsters come from. In order to fight against these monsters, the government sends hunters who have an assigned ranking (which can't be changed) from E to S Rank. These hunters then get compensated based on their guild or what reward is inside these dungeons. E-Rank Hunter Sung Jinwoo applies to be a hunter to pay off his mother's healthcare as she was in a devastating incident leaving her bedridden. Known as the "Weakest Hunter" in the world he gets ridiculed by other hunters and has to fight extremely to survive even in the weakest of dungeons. Eventually, death arrives at Sung Jinwoo's doorstep, however, when he is about to die, a peculiar "system" pops up asking him if he wants to live. Sung Jinwoo accepts the system and the system provides him with tasks to do in order to increase his power and rank (only an ability Sung Jinwoo can do and no other person can). The story is setted on Sung Jinwoo's path of leveling up and facing enemies both humans and monsters to find a something to heal his mother.
I look at three components when reviewing an anime:
1. Plot
- Main Character Progression
– Supporting Characters
- Pacing
2. Fights
– Villains
– Animation
– Powerscaling/Worldbuliding
3. Misc
– Music
- Opening/Ending
1. Plot:
Main Character Progression:
Sung Jinwoo is one of my favorite anime main characters because of this show. He starts off wimpy, but has a strong desire to survive which is respectable. In his first two episodes he shows that even though he is ridiculed he can remain calm and stoic. During the events of the double dungeon right after the statue god starts murdering people, Jinwoo depicts his adaptability and iq to the group allowing them to survive by using him as the sacrificial pawn. He glows up after completing the system tasks and gains a whole new sense of perspective. Jinwoo learns more about the game and adds skills which I think is probably the most important progression for him and his role and character change with his appearance as well. This can be seen where he faces his first red name enemy and initiates the attack instead of defending like he did against the wolves. His perseverance and grit are the emotions that seem monumental to me and is why I like him so much. Overall Jin Woo's character is a masterpiece.
Supporting Characters:
Solo Levelling lacks in supporting characters. Jinho is the only major supporting character shown throughout multiple episodes as he acts like a beneficiary to Jinwoo. Jinho is okay and is somewhat written well like his problems within his family and his expectations he has to meet. However, he doesn't contribute much to the story in a way that's monumental of impact-changing. No other characters really matter at least in these 12 episodes as it is mostly focused on Jinwoo.
Pacing:
The overall dynamic of the plot has plenty of ups and downs. I do like it's pacing a lot though. I love how the battles for Jinwoo don't strand over multiple episodes, but each battle has its own episode and there's also a story interchanging with every fight scene. However sometimes the sequence gets repetitive, this is seen when Jinwoo loses his teleportation stone and has to deal with the consequences during his fight after Igris and with the first boss of the solo dungeon. However, even with the cliche involved with the placing it's still peak.
Score: 8
2. Fights:
Villains:
The monsters in this show deserve their own award. While they don't talk or have any quotes they look terrifying ash and actually look scary. There's not much to say about them, but those monsters look tough like Cerberus. I thought Jinwoo was gone after that to be honest.
Animation:
A1 deserves high remarks for their adaptation of the manhua. This might make it anime of the year (yes ik anime like rezero, mushoku tensei, bleach, and slime are coming out too). The animation is sick, Jinwoo's shadow when he kills the guys in the dungeon or when Igris was fighting Jinwoo both have to be seen. Also it's not just for these fight scenes, but every fight scene where Jinwoo has to fight a boss or even the minions like the wolves in the beginning are animated to perfection. The fight scenes are great, sound effects good, and the struggle shown by Jinwoo seems to be real.
Powerscaling:
The only real powerscaling were the nametags of the villains (green, yellow, or red[most dangerous]). Jinwoo's skills though are kind of similar to That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime as he obtains a bunch of skills, but utilizes them in distinct ways. The stealth skill is the one I like the most cause he looks badass and I give props to the author to make it seem like it is an actual videogame.
Score: 10
3. Adaptation:
Music/Misc:
I love the music in Solo Leveling. The one's that hit the hardest are the Dark Aria OST (gave me chills down the spine) and the opening music (japanese guy rapping in english). I love how they incorporate the music to the fight scenes to add more emotion. Other than that, the voice acting for solo leveling was alright. Jinwoo's voice actor gives proper emotion, but I didn't like some characters like the B-Rank Healer who sounded kind of petty (I probably just didn't like her lol). There wasn't anything wrong about it and it just made it a more enjoyable watch.
Opening/Ending
The opening for Solo Leveling is mid af. It starts off like any plain isekai show where they fight monsters, but in this case they fight ants (probably some foreshadowing). The ending although it didn't meet the hype it was still great. Jinwoo's arise to Igris looked cool ash and I give props to the animators for their animation of Igris's aura.
Score: 9
Don't mind the critics of Solo Leveling when you watch this show. While there are some problems with the plot, you'll definitely enjoy the show because of it's fight scenes and animation. This definitely lives up to the hype and has a potential spot of winning AOTY especially with Cour 2 coming out this year as well.
PS: This is my first written review, so cut me some slack.
