Solo Leveling review

TheBishList12
Apr 16, 2021
After being in the anime/manga community I too came across the overly popular manhwa called solo leveling. With its 8.9 score and strong reviews, I expected a so-called masterpiece, but oh boy was I wrong.

This review will contain spoilers you've been warned!

First, let's talk about the story, but there is nothing really to talk about. It's your generic week guy "dies" gets op powers and beats the shit out of everyone he doesn't like. BuT hE hAs To Do DaIlY qUeStS tO gEt StRoNg yeah no shit, but I don't think doing 100 push-ups a day is a big enough quest on its own to get this powerful this fast. It's nothing special compared to an MMORPG power fantasy, but it has so many weaknesses and plotholes. First of all the world around us and how it works is extremely poorly written with little to no explanation whatsoever (like the gates or the government or even the classes like mage or assassin are just thrown at us out of nowhere). The other major problem is the repetitiveness of the story. Every so-called "arc" can be summarised in a short sentence, which is: Good guy goes into the dungeon, something bad happens, but it doesn't really matter because the good guy will always win at the end. (Even though it's my personal opinion I hated how the always referred to the first quest of the story multiple times even though it happened like 15-20 chapters ago) The "bad guys" are plain with no original motives or powers whatsoever. And sometimes the story just straight up makes no sense at all (a criminal who's most likely "C" tier gets defeated by an "E" lvl dungeon boss, or the main character can clear an "S" type dungeons defender but then struggles against a "C" type dungeon boss and a "B" type assassin right after, even though the hunters can fell the strength of monsters or others, but they clearly can't use this ability when it can be used effectively in certain situations) And oh boy the dungeons. Every dungeon feels the same, maybe except for the first one. I didn't understand why the writers refused to use more complicated, puzzle-like dungeons (like the first one in the story). I think it would have made a huge difference, because as I mentioned earlier every dungeon follows the same roots, which gets old early on.


The "Characters"
You may be wondering, why I used the marks, but let me tell you, how weak these characters are. Weak isn't even fitting. They are disposable and hollow. Even though we get some character introduction very early on, it is truly disappointing how little their development is. For example, we get a younger sister, an ill mother, a cute healer, and 2 old geezers, but they just feel like clouds floating in the air, with no effect on the world nor the story. Same with the villains. No originality, no foreshadowing, we just get to the next arc, Great! time to meet a new template bad guy. BUT WORST PART IS NON OTHER THAN THE MAIN CHARACTER HIMSELF. in the first chapters, he feels much more relatable being weak and wanting to overcome the weakness, but he just becomes a plain "edgy badass" main character with no characteristics. He just does whatever he wants with no consequences, and he just doesn't feel like a real character anymore.


The only positive element is the art. It is truly breathtaking. Every page feels like a masterpiece when you look at it. The colors and the poses are all well-fitting, it's just sad that it is the only thing keeping this manhwa alive in my personal opinion.


If you just want to read something, where you don't have to use your brain. and just turn the world off for a couple of hours, you can go ahead and enjoy this killing/edgelord orgy. I don't think it is totally unreadable or unenjoyable, but I just can't see the point of this being the most popular/highest rated manhwa on the website.

I started Solo Leveling with high expectations, and I really wanted to like it as much as others did, but the more I read the more problems and holes I found. The whole story just feels empty. It has no soul to it. If I have to compare it to something, I would say it's Sao's edgy older brother but sadly nothing else.


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Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling
Autor Chugong
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