Solo Levelling is perhaps one of the most frustrating series I have read. It is addicting, hype, and badass as hell. But it has massive flaws that prevent it from being any more than average.

First, let's start with the good aspects of this series. Solo Leveling is entertaining as all hell. The artwork in this series is incredible. It is very stylistic and pleasant to look at. The artwork looks especially godly during the action scenes. Damn those action scenes. They utilize the scrolling format of digital manwha to an incredible extent. This artist NEEDS to do more work because his art was the strongest aspect of this series. The series also has very cool character and monster designs as well. In short, the visual aspects of this manwha are incredible. The artwork, character design, world design are all great and the fights are some of the most fluid and dynamic I have seen in a comic.

However, Solo Leveling starts to fall apart once you take a closer look at the story and characters. The beginning of the story(first 10 or so chapters) is really strong. It introduces a brutal and terrifying world with a protagonist who seems to be an underdog. However, after the inciting incident, the series goes down a repetitive and boring path. The story of Solo Leveling is somewhat non-existent. There seems to be no specific end goal to the story. It is just the protagonist Sung-Jin Woo leveling up, kicking ass, and being awesome. Jin Woo starts with a solid motivation and character but soon just becomes a badass and handsome hero who never loses. He suffers from extreme Kirito Syndrome albeit he is one of the better OP power fantasy MCs I have seen. His motivations become insignificant halfway through the story, and it is hard to tell what makes him tick as a character other than wanting to level up and become the strongest. Other characters in Solo Leveling exist... And that's about it. The characters are lacking in any depth or complexity outside of basic archetypes and none other than the protagonist contributes to the plot in any way. I can count on one finger the character names I remember other than our hero. Also, none of the side characters win any fights. I mean NO FIGHTS at all. If your name is not Sung-Jin Woo, you might as well be fodder.

That all sums up my feelings on Solo Leveling. It is the definition of comfort food in comic book form. It rides entirely on its art, fights, and badassery of the main character to carry it. However, if you are interested in a fun action fantasy series, then I would say Solo Leveling fits the bill.