Now, some years later, I went in with very low expectations that surprisingly fades away after each episode I've watched. I can now say that I'm in the wrong for all these years of being cynical towards such decision making from the production companies, which includes Korea’s famous publishing companies (Kakao; D&C Media), being the right thing to happen as they kept the Korean names in one of their original dubbing versions. Never in my entire life would I witness Solo Leveling's anime adaptation being an improvement, especially with the writing department where the script “stitches up” some writing elements to make certain plot points make more sense. It's even better that the Series Director (Shunsuke Nakashige) made the decision to cut out certain dialogues & comedic visuals for a more mature presentation of such adaptation. Of course there's the popular Hiroyuki Sawano helming the soundtrack of this series. This might be his best work he has done so far since I admit I've kept replaying a certain BGM tune from this series recently.
Even if I never read the source materials (trivia: SL started off as LN back in 2014), I would still enjoy each episode seeing our male protagonist Sung Jinwoo going from zero to hero in a world where magic and monsters come true. And that's where the scriptwriting elements come into play; it really improved on certain tones and supporting characters while I admit they're still two-dimensional, they're given at least decent basic characterization (in the form of anime original scenes) which was absent in the source materials, making them a bit important in the anime version though I still have to remain little expectations as character development is still based on clichéd stereotypes especially an important female character is written that way where she's part of an important subplot that feels forced/unnatural in both source materials.
Now my disappointment with this adaptation is the implementation of such scenes having many “sudden cut” transitions, especially when the episode features during Jinwoo's training in getting stronger. There would've been more emotional impact, especially for the final episode of this first cour, if such transitions are placed in a linear narrative. My other disappointment is that the character designs are “toned down” from the webtoon version despite my understanding that it's needed to implement very fluid animation, especially the action-packed scenes. Nevertheless, I can forgive the such designs as Tomoko Sudo showcased her great work being a Chief Animation Director in some of my fave episodes; she definitely should make her debut as a Series Director someday.
Alas, talented late bloomer Taito Ban (though I'm sure other dubbing’s VAs gave a great performance) has done a phenomenal job (though he must not be encouraged to go overboard) in voicing Jinwoo whose power growth/personality change can be distinguished within his tonal range changing gradually amongst some episodes. His voice acting really made me believe that there's no other male seiyuu who could voice Jinwoo, not even the more popular ones. This is a rare case where the voice casting was made with a great decision in choosing Ban (him being a semi-veteran due to voicing so many unknown background characters for several years) instead of opting for a popular-named seiyuu.
In short, I can only recommend Solo Leveling if you don't mind the story being “protagonist-centric” (note: this series’ literal title), the plot points not being written with complex topics, and the subgenre being LitRPG though the Level System/Game Mechanics implemented element makes more sense unlike the lame reason of it being “a special magic spell”. By the final episode, you'll understand why Solo Leveling became the blueprint for the many existing LitRPG-themed webtoons in S.Korea, and hopefully diehard fans of such subgenre will gladly enjoy Jinwoo's “leveling up” journey even if the execution of portraying it might become subjective to some of the subgenre’s fans.
