Ore dake Level Up na Ken Season 2: Arise from the Shadow 俺だけレベルアップな件 Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

2025 winter | Episodes: 13 | Score: 8.8 (312122)

Updated every Sundays at 00:00 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Synopsis

Sung Jin-Woo, dubbed the weakest hunter of all mankind, grows stronger by the day with the supernatural powers he has gained. However, keeping his skills hidden becomes more difficult as dungeon-related incidents pile up around him. When Jin-Woo and a few other low-ranked hunters are the only survivors of a dungeon that turns out to be a bigger challenge than initially expected, he draws attention once again, and hunter guilds take an increased interest in him. Meanwhile, a strange hunter who has been lost for ten years returns with a dire warning about an upcoming catastrophic event. As the calamity looms closer, Jin-Woo must continue leveling up to make sure nothing stops him from reaching his ultimate goal—saving the life of his mother. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Voice Actors

Ban, Taito

News

Reviews

Caeruleus_CCXVI
04/16/2025, 07:27 PM
5.75/10 ~ its fine Every season we get shows with massive praise and hate, and honestly most of them are fine and deserve neither the hype nor the hate. And solo leveling is just that. Honestly the biggest crime Solo leveling does (more season 1 then 2) is how unsuited the studio that animated was for the job, Season 1 was a laughable job to depict one of the most stunning webtoons ever made and the product, much like tower of god was just not great. Season 2 of solo leveling does step it up a bit, but when compared to its peers of Demon slayer,MHA, Kaiju #8 it just doesnt stack up. Sure the one thing that Solo does better then the rest is the whole "aura" thing... but I dont care one way or another about how kool someone looks while they do the thing, so its lost on me. - Characters are flat as a doorknob - Story is weak as hell - the world is interesting but with the lack of good character or storytelling this is lost - they emphasize the little video game moments of stats/accomplishments/items received for all of 2 frames, usually amounting to sub 1 second log sequences that you literally have to pause and rewind to read what is being said, bit annoying. - they skip so many sequences and just say "yeah this happened", like common show, not tell. - there are literally no stakes, powerful person does powerful things and it gets kinda boring watching him turn every situation into a XP farm lol I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone, even fight wise the show is pretty lacking, when I read other reviews or talk to people about it IRL, I often ask myself if we watched the same thing.
Royalnut
04/13/2025, 06:28 PM
What makes something art is what you take away from it, and after watching Solo Leveling, all I was left with was the typical "powerful hot dudebro guy is powerful and kills things very powerfully", but with too much animation budget. The fights were cool, the animators did an amazing job, it's just too bad they had to animate this slop with less flavor than plain yogurt. Remove the budget and what are you left with on paper? The world has a problem, and an even bigger problem is coming. A dude with a twink build is weak but needs to be strong for moneyand family reasons. He becomes a kind of chosen one, gets bestowed some mysterious power, then becomes handsome and powerful (and literally taller for some reason lol). This is an okay start but certainly isn't anything new. Could you not apply that sentence to dozens of Shonen series? But anyway, this all plays in the backdrop of several organizations that play really, really rudimentary political games you'd come to expect from isekai trash like this. Of all those boring-ass office scenes, all they amounted to was: There's five guilds, they engage in power struggles like nations do, a sixth one is trying to form, the MC is important in that balance of power, and we're keeping an eye on that there MC I tell you whut. Sometimes a third of the whole episode is nothing but these boring office scenes, and a third of the runtime is spent trying to tell me THAT?? That's it?? It's importance theater. A bunch of suited up stern looking anime tough guys look out giant office windows with their back turned to the other character, hands behind back in the most pretentious way possible, saying lines in this silly melodramatic tone that would otherwise read like they're out of the Wikipedia article on the show's plot. It's just silly. Again, if you take away the budget, if you take away how attractive the characters look and sound, if you take away the painstakingly animated blood and guts, you're left with utter silliness. Do you think there are characters in this show? Really? Okay, here's a few lines from the show. I want you to name the character that said each line: "That wasn't even a warm-up." "What happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon, right?" "I have a wife a-and kids!" **minutes upon minutes of explaining something** **directly tells someone what matters to them in dialogue to artificially raise the stakes of them dying right before they die** Answer? Several characters have said all of these lines multiple times because nearly every character is exactly the same. Calm, cool, collected, calculating, mysterious vibe, know-it-all, melodramatic, self-serving in a way that leads to their downfall, or comically selfless to where everyone likes them (but only if they're hot), and maybe a dash or two of bloodlust. Boom, 99% of the cast accounted for. What happens when you can't tell characters apart from their dialogue lines? It means no one cares when they have fun, cry, die, or anything. Nobody cares. The show's producers used the poorly written characters and dialogue as an excuse to set up for the power trip fantasies and cool way-over-budget fight scenes. The audience feels the same way. These nothing characters and boring dialogue are the vegetables before the wagyu steak, the pauses to introduce a sense of pace between the cool fight scenes and power circlejerks. We look on in morbid curiosity as yet another nothing character with "a wife and kids" is decapitated or torn in half. "Fuck his wife and kids" we all say in unison. "Fuck them". It's bad, thanks for reading.
bram024
04/09/2025, 10:49 AM
This anime is severely overrated All the core issues from season 1 remain fully intact—if anything, they're even more noticeable now. The animation remains the show’s strongest (and only real) asset. It’s fluid, dynamic, and visually impressive, with some undeniably great-looking moments. But great visuals alone can’t save a show this hollow. The characters continue to be painfully one-dimensional. Jinwoo, in particular, feels like he was written by a teenager's self-insert fanfic fantasy: hot, cool, strong, mysterious—but with zero actual depth. There’s no emotional weight or growth behind any of his actions. He’s just an aura plank that walks into every scene with the same stoic lookand broken powers, and everyone around him falls over in awe like it’s the first time they’ve seen him do this. Again. The story is equally lifeless. It’s just the same recycled scenario over and over: all hope is lost, the stakes are high… until Jinwoo shows up and one-shots the big bad in the most nonchalant way possible. Rinse and repeat. These “hype moments” are supposed to be cool, but they fall completely flat because there’s nothing grounding them—no tension, no real struggle, just forced spectacle. What’s worse is that the strength Jinwoo constantly flaunts never feels earned. He gets more powerful through a series of relatively easy fights, and then uses that power in… more relatively easy fights. The pacing still suffers, jumping between slow drags and rushed exposition, and the shallow script gives the voice actors (at least in the dub) almost nothing to work with. There’s still not a shred of originality or personality here—just glossy animation masking a soulless power fantasy.
NotShit
04/01/2025, 06:36 AM
Solo levelling might be the best piece of media ever crafted. At first i wasnt too into it because the mc looked like a wimp who even i could beat in a fistfight, but the end of season 1 is where my mind changed. He's cool and strong, can fight whatever he sets his mind to, and he's nonchalant about it too!! While watching season 2 i realized something, i found the mc attractive and by the end of it i fully realized i was gay all thanks to Sung Jin Woo... Solo levelling changed my life and i can't express how much it means to me Strong reccomend toanyone!
will-o-wave
03/30/2025, 05:51 AM
I actually liked solo leveling S1 from the perspective of someone who never read the manhwa. At the time, I didn’t have many complaints. But now, here we are in S2. It’s not like this season is bad when it comes to delivering an experience. The action is still top tier, but that’s already a given for this series so I won’t go into detail praising it. Honestly I don’t even know how else people could praise it aside from the action, animation, art style and music? The same goes for its flaws, how else could people criticize it besides calling it simple and generic?Personally i never had major issues with the story. Like I said I enjoyed s1 even though it didn’t bring anything new to the table. It’s a very beginner friendly anime and even for veteran anime fans, not everything has to be complex or groundbreaking. So what else does this season offer? It keeps things straightforward, dungeon expeditions, key power ups and major battles that deliver that solo leveling excitement. However, if you’re a decent anime watcher, not even a full on veteran, just someone with around 300+ anime entries like me, you’re bound to experience a lot of déjà vu. My mind kept screaming, "Bruh am I rewatching an anime I’ve already seen?" This feeling built up to the point where it became mentally exhausting, especially during the Jeju Island part. It felt like I was watching one of my favorite arcs from another anime being ripped off. It left me with this emotional void fighting a monster I would already seen before just in a different form. Jinwoo’s character also feels much less likable this season. He comes off as edgy with little to no personality compared to s1, except for ep 9 and the finale, but even then, it still feels empty. Most fights lacked tension and when there was tension it often felt artificial. On a side note unrelated to SL, I find it funny that some of my friends won’t watch stuff like wind breaker (the delinquent anime) just because it only offers a good amount of fight choreography but lacks a strong story. Yet they’ll watch solo leveling any day even though the same logic applies. What more does this series have to offer?(The difference is that one is non-fantasy). I guess people will always prefer to hype fantasy action, no matter how generic the story is just like solo leveling and demon slayer. But no matter how successful these types of anime get they’ll always face criticism for their simplicity. If you’re wondering why I felt that way watching this season, it’s because H×H and SL's Ant Arc but i won’t go into detail since it's a spoiler free review i guess. I wasn’t sure how to put into words what I was feeling while watching the latter half of the series. Something about it triggered a strange, almost panicked reaction in me. At first, I couldn’t figure out why, but after thinking it over, I ended up writing this review in the mixed 'feelings' section just to get that feeling out of my system. Just a warning though, you probably couldn’t relate. Is this anime worth watching? Yes, if you’re just looking for cool MC moments, back to back. It has this vibe where you can almost feel like you’re the MC yourself, owning that protagonist energy (just me trying to look at it from an action lover’s perspective lol). But it might be a bit hit or miss if you're more competitive when it comes to watching things and want an emotional or meaningful payoff. Overall, 10/10 production quality from A-1 Pictures, but solo leveling s2 itself? I'd rate it between 6 and 7 out of 10. Hopefully this review doesn’t come across as discouraging anyone from watching Solo Leveling. I’m just sharing my personal thoughts about it, and it’s actually my first time reviewing something too.
38strontium
03/30/2025, 05:37 AM
I'm relatively new to the anime fandom, only having watched 20 or so animes. Till now, there hasn't been one anime where I thought it was actually horrendous. This is the first show I've rated less than a five. This show does so many things wrong I actually cannot comprehend how it's sitting at a 8.88. Story? bland. Characters? non-existent. Themes? unexplored. Entertaining? uh, sometimes I guess. This season was uninteresting and bland all the way through. In my opinion, this show did nothing right, fights had no substance, the characters are even real characters, only exisiting to glaze Jin-woo. His loss of humanity is a halfassedplotline and not really that engaging or interesting since they don't really explore it. The writing was not only bad, but also insanely repetitive. Jin-woo fights boss -> "arise" with nothing interesting to latch onto. No real emotion, themes or anything. Even visually, it's all the same. These villains have zero personality and only serve as a villain of the week type thing. This show can't even make up for all of its flaws with comedy or animation. Because while I think the animation is good, it's not that groundbreaking. This show also just takes itself way too seriously for what it is. Like, I understand that people watch this only for the fights and aura, but the only other pure battle shounen I've watched, Jujutsu Kaisen, does everything this show does, but better in literally every single way you can think of. Better characters, better fights, better themes, better comedy, more substance, more entertaining and the list just goes on. Power fantasies shouldn't be excused for having horrible characters and story. You can focus on battles and aura while being, funny and intersting. This is the most nothingburger anime I've seen.
TheScarletCutter
03/30/2025, 03:18 AM
Oh fuck, this series. Solo Leveling has always been an interesting case to me when it comes to looking at its advantages and disadvantages, and, uh… let’s just say that it’s interesting in many ways that turned it into a toilet water fiasco. You see, this show has been depicted as the basic bitch action series with not much to offer and based on my observation, that is for a compelling reason. To add more salt into the wound, however, this trainwreck suffers from far more problems than one meets the eye, all of which we will tackle the more we yap. This series isso flawed to the very core that it’s actually obliviously astounding. Solo Leveling can’t really get even some of the simple stuff remotely right. In case you missed it by that point, the whole premise behind the series is pretty simple. The whole story starts with a man named Jin Woo who lives in a strange world full of powerful monsters and magic users. He then wakes up and ventures on his own journey to see where things are going. Unfortunately, for him, he has to face the strongest entities known to reality. He has to try hard to get all of his shit together in order to stand a chance. Add on that he may have a miserable life and that puts him into a lot of consequences. Despite all of this, he still stands up to them and eventually gets stronger. I’ll have to admit that I do like the idea behind this. Yes, what it offers may be kind of basic, but I still like the idea of someone getting their things together to counter their biggest obstacles. Heck, it can apply to anything. Even some of the most vanilla of action stories can have something like this and go quite well as long as the rules of keeping your storytelling is given at hand. Unfortunately, though, this will never apply to Solo Leveling, and S2 doesn’t change it up. Despite the otherwise basic premise being actually a bit more thoughtful than one would say otherwise, any sort of potential is negated very hard. Of course, it’s not like we expect a lot of philosophical stuff or political discussions akin to that of LotGH, Gundam, or whatever involved (okay, there are actually political discussions involved but more on that). As we all know by now, the action is this show’s main nucleus and this is where we see a bigger picture here. A good action series for me is when there a consistent buildups paired with choreography involved within polished stakes, all while still having good direction as well as character writing just like any other type of story. Stuff like Fist of the North Star, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Gurren Lagann, for example, and for contrast, follow this criteria quite well, regardless of flaws. While Solo Leveling having a lot of action scenes isn’t remotely a bad thing by itself, the number of issues plaguing Solo Leveling is so glaring that the whole series has to pay not one but hundreds of heavy tolls. Yes, there are some break-time scenes, but those aren’t important enough to affect the story all that much. The whole aura farming gimmick wouldn’t really be enough to excuse this series. For starters, this has some of the most blatantly obvious asspulls any piece of fiction could ever make. Despite Jin Woo starting pretty weak, he gets “some” powers, and surprise, surprise, he becomes the anime equivalent of a Nokia phone. Sure, him being an overpowered edgelord can look kind of cool but it gets stale really fast, especially when he’s just like that for the whole show. It doesn’t matter if you put in a mage, it doesn’t matter if you put in a summoner, it doesn’t matter if you put in an eldrich abomination, and it doesn’t matter if you put in a shitpost that cracks jokes about how a pebble can tank a nuclear explosion, Jin Woo will just one tap any and all of them into their bumfuck graves. The reason why this is so baffling comes down to one word, “indication”. We don’t really see how Jin Woo even becomes so overpowered in the first place, even by video game standards. The plot turns him into an indestructible brick just to move the plot forward. If he’s absurdly broken, then what’s the point of introducing him as a weakling? None of his struggles or hell, even his ideals (if there’s any) matter anymore if you just turn him into a brute-ass silent god. Still on the topic of indication, I can’t express any further just how bad the world-building is. Again, the whole mysterious monsters and magic users thing is pretty badass. On top of them looking very cool, there’s lore to them that could spice the story further. Aside from their origins, their connections with the strange world are very enticing and could even show some sort of meaning. Not the most accurate guess explaining those things on their own but even then, let’s at least hope that they’re far more compelling than Jin Woo’s journey. Well, not really. Despite those things having any sort of potential, just like the Jin Woo adventure segment we talked about earlier, they were thrown into the dumpster for some reason. They’re cool-looking, sure, but there is no elaboration on how they’re formed in this place, let alone having any sort of relationship with the present terminus or how Jin Woo wanders around. Yeah, I know that what we’re set in is a game but just because the world is a game doesn’t mean we don’t need context as to how we end up here. So we’re just living in an MMORPG we wouldn’t give a flying damn about and every edgy pawn on sight is just Jin Woo’s everyday happy meal. Yeah, we have political discussions regarding the world, but again, they aren’t compelling enough to highlight anything. They’re just there to excuse something or make assumptions. And all of the inconsistencies and asspulls are just in one virus, by the way. Do you wanna know what other virus we’re also conflicted with? Boredom. This shit is fucking boring. Just to chuck in another veggie into the milkshake, the one other glaring flaw is repetition. And I don’t just mean repetition, this goddamn show has the tendency to repeat the same stale-ass story format for the whole series. Other titles like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Sword Art Online (again, for contrast) are action series that suffer from poor writing, but at least they still entertain me with a lot of toys to play with, even if they don’t boost their story at any point. Do you know the whole “Jin Woo gets waked, punches a monster, and then gets OP as hell” kind of thing? Not only is that bad writing on its own, but this has been extrapolated in every single episode, and it’s outright dreadful to look at. We get it; Jin Woo is absolutely broken, and he flings his enemies into the trash can. You don’t really need to shove that right into our faces if you’re showing us what your series looks like. Notice how everything I rambled so far talks about the entire series as opposed to the second season itself, but to be honest, that’s actually true. Season 2 as we’re still talking about right now is the same shit stain as its predicessor. It has a dreadful story formula: the protagonist being overpowered without any bit of context, the worldbuilding being shoved into the gutter, some talks involved but none of the topics remotely matter at all, no stakes, no change of pace. Oh, but don’t you worry! Season 2 actually gets a change of pace, heck, a dedicated episode, in fact! This episode shows Jin Woo showing “emotions” (more on that) towards his mother now that his mother has woken up from her coma. This sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Sure thing, until you, once again, take a look at the lack of context. The biggest issue here is that we really don’t see any chemistry between or background within the two. Yeah, they’re a part of the family, and they’re happy that they’re together again, but what about it? What is the relationship between Jin Woo and his mother like? Is the mother also an aura farmer or at least used to be one? What are their connections within the world? Better yet, how do they end up in said world? Do you wanna know the worst part? His family will soon be forgotten the moment the story moves to the next arc. So even though Solo Leveling finds itself “a bit more variety”, this whole dedicated episode was infinitely more funny than remotely emotional. And for the cherry on top of the horseshit sunday, this whole series has the tendency to copy something from Hunter x Hunter. Now, let’s admit that most stories aren’t original themselves but learning from other things is absolutely fine as long as you still differ your properties from others. With Solo Leveling, though, not only does it take something from Hunter x Hunter, but it outright plagiarizes it. What I’m talking about is the Chimera Ant arc. Both HxH’s ant arc and SL’s ant arc are way too similar. Both arcs focus on expanding the biology of ants with their magic, and their key characters eligible for their premises are stronger variants that appear to be ultimate life forms. The only difference I see is that the Chimera Ant arc is actually solidly written. Even if it’s my least favorite Hunter x Hunter arc, it still connects with the overall story of HxH very well and greatly expands on what Nen powers are. It also has Meruem, arguably one of the best villains in the medium. By comparison, Solo Leveling’s bootleg ant arc is nothing but filler. Even if it’s related to the story, it’s just a nothing burger just for the protagonist could easily feast on. Pair this with the aforementioned issues and it just makes the experience even more blatantly painful. If you see my laptop play the whole show again while I refuse to take another look, just assume I’m watching hippopotamus documentaries on my phone. Distraction is the key to preservation. Well gee, isn’t that a striking parallel? So we rambled about how the story and directing suck donkey bananas. Is the character writing at least decent? NO. These sore losers can be summed up in two words: “budget mannequin”. They are complete nothing-dolls that are either cheap plot devices or just exist as backgrounds. Starting with the aura farmer himself, Sung Jin Woo. He’s just a power fantasy stick. That’s the best way to describe him. He has no personality, no backdrop, literally nothing about him. He’s the soulless Gary Stu that’s used to excuse the story’s OP MC fetish. I hate using the term “Gary Stu”, but again, that’s really true. At least Kirito from SAO has some hobbies, has a husband-to-mother relationship with Asuna, and can be quite dorky at times. Not that they make his character much better but there are some things to him. Convincing Jin Woo to find a much more convenient change of pace is like teaching a group of jellyfish how to build a LEGO figure. As for the side characters… I mean, if you want to talk about any of them then sure. But once again, they’re just nothing to talk about. The shadow guys? Who cares about them when they’re moving JPEGs? The statue of god? He’s more memorable through memes with his funny edgy face. Jin A? Might as well see her appearance in pornography instead. Some edgy abominations, including a Meruem knock-off? Gone, reduced to killbinds. Hae in? Okay, I guess she’s probably the coolest character in the series, but even then, you degenerates already know what you have on your hands for her, given that she’s yet another living nothing burger. Every side character, despite having their own purposes, turns out to be useless because the show has a weird obsession with glazing on Jin Woo and his dull-ass “aura”. The character writing involved is less than worthless. While Solo Leveling sucks dick and will always remain that way, there are some things we could compliment, even if they’re not enough to save this bottom of the barrel Webtoon series. The animation and character designs are really good. Even though they may not be the best, they’re at least pleasant to have. The same cannot be said with the music and voice acting, however, especially in the English version, where Kargalgan sounded like a 14-year-old trying to roleplay as a Star Wars villain. Both Ban Taito and Aleks Le for JP and EN respectively did great as Jin Woo though, so shoutouts to them. Every single problem Solo Leveling has committed would have been avoided if it learned not to set its food in a mud puddle. The most glaring flaws throughout the series are so obvious, yet they’re replicated over and over, and over again. It doesn’t even succeed in popcorn entertainment. Trying to enjoy this series is like slowly watching paint dry. It has a change-of-pace episode that’s more unintentionally comedic. And worst of all, it attempted to copy something from another series and called it a day. To put it shortly, Solo Leveling S2 and Solo Leveling as a whole is OFFENSIVELY BLAND. There’s just NOTHING going for it.
timmy7188
03/29/2025, 10:33 PM
It a masterpiece can't wait to the third season I hope don't have to wait to long and I hope they don't cancel it Story is fantastic. I recommend to other anime fan to watch it Characters made right Solo Leveling s2 has flashy action and animation. Goes without saying A-1 and Sawano delivered yet another masterclass this season. I am big fan of animation series wish they do more like solo leveling big thumbs up for the writers,producers and the actors. Solo Leveling" isn’t just an anime—it’s an experience. From jaw-dropping action sequences to deep character growth, it masterfully combines every element needed for an unforgettable adventure deliveringnon-stop excitement from start to finish.
phantom346
03/29/2025, 08:34 PM
Watching this show felt like sitting through a series of Let’s Play videos on Youtube: a meaningless waste of time but somewhat entertaining. If you replaced Jinwoo in this show with Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei, all the people screeching about how good this show is would go run and hide back in their basement. You'd ruin both shows at the same time. Replacing the core of Mushoku character development and storytelling with a bland nobody with zero personality at the same time replacing the core of Solo Leveling's power fantasy since nobody wants to go around fantasizing about being a pedophile. This is the new brandof isekai where instead of fantasizing about killing yourself/getting run over by a truck and reincarnating in a brand new world, OP with no problems to trouble you, now you fantasize about going into a 'dungeon' and coming out OP af with special treatment from god himself and nobody can ever reach your heights except you. You can never get genuinely invested in anything Jinwoo does because the outcome is always the same old predictable, boring smut-fest. There are no stakes in a show where the only possible outcomes for a fight are win or lose because Jinwoo is always going to win. There are no characters in this show besides Jinwoo and so there’s nothing for us to latch onto besides his trials and tribulations which frankly shouldn't even be classified as such. This show treats side characters as disposable props rather than fleshed-out individuals with a not so subtle dig at their “no potential for growth” status contrasting Jinwoo’s. Characters exist solely to highlight Jinwoo’s superiority or to be rescued, stripped of their agency. Female characters feel especially lackluster as they exist purely to be cheerleaders for Jinwoo’s power trips and validate him, regressing sexist tropes back another 100 years. The animation is superb as is the case for most of A-1 Pictures’ works. They’re a fantastic animation studio. Villains are the lifeblood of a show and they make or break shows for me. There are no villains here, except mindless monsters and one-dimensional ‘bad’ guys. So bad. The glaringly obvious rip-off of Hunter x Hunter is disgusting. The author basically wrote fanfiction for what if the Chimera Ant arc had Superman appear out of nowhere and solve all of our problems for us. OMG wHaTaGrEaTiDeA Remember when all the critics complained that Demon Slayer was nothing but a simple story with flashy animation? That series somehow still had 750 times more character and structure than this. If you stripped away all of the slick animation, you’d be left with a PowerPoint presentation titled, “Why I’m Cool:” By Sung Jinwoo.
Shineix
03/29/2025, 03:08 PM
I needed to write a review after seeing that Solo Leveling is somehow rated above an 8. This might be one of the most bland, worst written and basic animes of all time. Before I continue basic ≠ bad but in this situation it really does and I'll break it down. First the main character, Sung Jin Woo was actually decent in season 1 but in season 2 he just becomes unbearable, constatnly acting emotionless, edgy and aura farming and it's not even a joke. He has no development, themes or anything, I thought he might've been like a pillar of hope type character but clearlythe author just wants a bland self insert protagonist to get fame. Second the side cast, obviously Solo Leveling is a solo show revolving around SJW but that doesn't mean the side cast needs to be non-existent, there are many cases of animanga with side casts that are few and have not much screen time but are still amazing. Finally the story, this I actually won't complain about because it's supposed to be action based and actually has some decent bits to it. Overall, a show that had alot of potential but is extremely overrated, if you want to see flashy fights and animation just say that no need to overrate this show.
Bardwyne
03/29/2025, 02:45 PM
Just as the last season, Solo Leveling s2 has flashy action and animation, but ultimately it's pretty substanceless - relying on hype and "aura" rather than characters or narrative. Considering that, It also takes itself way too seriously. Even for those who specifically want action they may find themselves uninterested in the fights due to a lack of compelling motivations or interest in the combatants. And even if that isn't an issue - plenty of shows could scratch the same itch for surface level action and hype, some of which are more technically impressive or otherwise better. But if all you need is some cool fights andhype - this is your jam. If not, you're better off looking elsewhere.
sakajii
03/29/2025, 11:00 AM
Solo Leveling is a show that only gets better as it goes on. Season 1 wasn't bad, but it did feel slower and a bit over-hyped, and now looking backwards, it was still an amazing set-up for the story, as season 2 has blown it out of the park. This show is obviously not meant for everybody, it's a power-fantasy, but this doesn't mean that it is bad. For this genre, Solo Leveling has probably the most exquisite look and most amount of effort poured into it. If you were to compare Solo Leveling to some other popular action anime, there are some major differences,for example, side characters are often given less time. This is not a flaw though, as this just means that the time and focus is put into developing Sung Jinwoo's character instead, giving us the most cold, aura-heavy protagonist we've seen in a while. The cool and edgy dial has been turned up to eleven, creating some of the most chill-inducing action packed scenes and it's beautiful. Solo Leveling did suprise me a lot though, with one of the most unexpected emotional scenes I've seen. I'm not sure what made it so different and heavy-hitting, but the scene where Sung finally achieves his goal, the reason he had been getting stronger for all this time, hit like a truck. This show is sure to get a season 3, since season 2 has been such a success, and as Sung keeps getting stronger, it's likely season 3 will be even more hype, raising the stakes even higher.
keirashii
03/29/2025, 10:40 AM
This review contains spoilers. If we were to find the death of creativity at the end of the world, it would be at the bankrupt core of Solo Leveling's decrepit body, it would have a twisted dagger in one hand and a bag of money on the other. This is not only a review for S2, but also S1. Had to publish this review many times since MAL didnt show it in full because of how long it was. When we digest art, we naturally strive for some kind of value in what we are absorbing, be it thematic, a vision, a philosophy, technical value, legacy, extensive storytelling,worldbuilding, etc; examples abound, works such as Monogatari are endorsed for their thematic depth, potent dialogue and strong emotion with a great cast of characters; even with artpieces in the same shounen branch as Solo Leveling such as Chainsaw Man, a show that is very fun while maintaining a concise script and a constant, charismatic attitude. For technical merit, anime such as FLCL or Akira provide enjoyment in animation, scene composition, character design and choreographies for general design connoisseurs, Hunter x Hunter has a fleshed-out worldbuilding and a legendary power system for people who want to delve deep into a place of wonders, Ghost in the Shell is acclaimed for its philosophy, incredible thematical value, complex social intricacies and the powerful vision it holds, and I can name many more examples—however, Solo Leveling has no value that one can appreciate. It is the equivalent of a soggy french fry presented with a pink bow, eating expensive instant noodles; although completely vacuous, it has the audacity of presenting itself as something better or more innovative despite being the exact same slop that preceedes it, I honestly believe that Solo Leveling is the greatest demonstration of what consumerism and capitalism can do to art in the form of anime, being tremendously derivative, unoriginal and yet presenting itself as something bigger, improved or "peak" and the fact that something like this succeeds so much and influences the creation of a famous gacha game and so many copycats shows the true nature of Solo Leveling—one that is more malicious than you might think. I will not deny anyone of watching this, and its fine if you had fun—I had fun too, and I'm having fun while writing this review, but Solo Leveling doesnt feel right to me, and thus I had to write something on why I feel like this. Now, did I expect the newgen Hunter x Hunter, or a thematically impactful and masterful artpiece a la Monogatari, or a legendary technical piece like Akira, a beloved underdog story a la Hajime no Ippo or just an absolute masterpiece in general? Not really, obviously, I already knew what I was getting into from the beginning, so my standards werent sky high, hell they werent even like, low standards at all, but I expected AT LEAST a minimum of decent storytelling, interesting combats or coming of age nuance—perhaps that was my key mistake, as you cannot ask even the minimum from a product made purely to be consumed and nothing more. Remember, the excuse of "its a power fantasy bro just watch it" doesn't work, we can criticize the shoddy elements of a narrative even with this into account, many forms of art are technically a "power fantasy" such as videogames like ULTRAKILL, which I actually really like. In this videogame you incarnate the strongest prime machine built for a massive war, named V1, who can feed of blood to function and kill entire armies of hellish monsters and gods alike, who was built to be the deadly counter to a gigantic robot who could destroy entire mountains—ULTRAKILL is clearly a power fantasy, yet it is FAR and away superior in grace, depth and execution than Solo Leveling—ULTRAKILL is actually fun and enjoyable too! One of my favorite games, Cruelty Squad, also has power fantasy elements and actively deconstructs that type of story. Also, to note, "Aura" and "hype moments" have their place in storywriting, Chainsaw Man, for instance, uses them excellently, but a proper narrative drive needs to be established, Solo Leveling forgets about this. Slop Leveling, Solo Glaze, ZZZolo Leveling, Solo Slop or Solo Leveling is not only a deeply terrible anime, it is more than that; to me, this is the absolute emblem of acute consumerism in anime, one that leads viewers to digest works without any thought or mentality. What can one get out of Solo Leveling but wasted time? Nothing, I believe, nothing but time spent on a soulless product, created purely for an extreme capitalistic machine and to influence hundreds of copies. Solo Leveling is perhaps the flag bearer of artistical degradation in anime, a drooping mess managed by corporative clutches that oppress art and force it to be soulless, yet they cynically use it to inflate their colossal pockets. Solo Leveling was socially engineered to fit perfectly into the market mold; therefore, this is not an artpiece in any way whatsoever, but rather a derivative product directly baked in the putrid bowels of absolute capitalism, perfectly engineered to be tasted in the right way and without any reflection, without any lesson, without any theme, without any fun or artistical value; this is Solo Leveling, a corpse with well-applied thanatoesthetics by A-1 Pictures, something that has no aspirations whatsoever, it is the maximum hegemony of the anti-art in anime, one which cynically presents itself to be more than it really is. A work that inspires no one, that gives nothing, which desires and pursues nothing at all. It is therefore completely and irrevocably useless. AI-generated without being made by AI. Sterile, a black hole of creativity not worthy of attention, and because of this nature, Solo Leveling has no spirit, it is no-more than an amalgamation of previous power fantasies and derivative tropes with a fancy and pretentious veneer. If the name of this show, by itself, doesnt make you cringe, its content will probably do—if even this is not enough, then I envy you. For some reason, Sloppy Leveling can get away with murder as long as it delivers Tiktok aura, and I'm not sure why. And listen, this will be a weird point, but I think it's relevant to make this comparison. Sword Art Online was rightfully pummeled to hell and back, it is THE anime community's punching bag; from the many essays of Mother's Basement to Digibro's own videos smashing the series to bits or the hundreds of posts detailing the massive amount of flaws in SAO. In our current day, it is indeed the equivalent of beating a dead horse, as there must not be a single uncriticized aspect of that work; however, I haven't seen a similar reflection or act with Solo Leveling and its clear excess of mediocrity, there is much more acceptance towards Solo Leveling and I really don't know why, when in reality these two works basically rub shoulders with each other and are extremely similar? Sung Jin-Woo is Kirito, Hae-In is basically Asuna (in fact, I predict that they will be in a relationship, this was written around S2E3 for the record) and, just like in SAO, the rest of the "characters" revolve around Jin-Woo. The protagonist is also an obnoxious gigachad who is super OP, who breaks the rules of his own universe, kills any tension, everyone is looking to recruit him, both shows have mistakes and clichés all over the place, both are power fantasies, both have barebones world building... etc, I really don't know why Solo Leveling isn't judged more harshly, when it's such a lazy and clearly lifeless work. As of writing this review, it is THE HIGHEST RATED SHOW in Crunchyroll, why is it that this show succeeded so much, then? Why are Solo Leveling and Sword Art Online treated so differently and yet what makes them so similar? Similarly to Sword Art Online, Solo Leveling is incapable of doing anything through sheer talent, just like its main protagonist, and therefore must have relied on something else that might be more effective, and I believe that'd be the times in which we happen to live. Just so you know: I AM NOT saying that this applies to every viewer who has watched Solo Leveling, I AM NOT saying this applies to you, dear reader, who might've actually enjoyed this work because you had something to binge after work or class; however, I do believe that it is a factor that can be attributed to the overwhelming success of this work. Today, it is more than clear that there is a burgeoning powerlessness on a large part of the youth; they feel ignored by a world that renders them powerless, a helplessness that saps their vigor; this is a bureaucratic world of entangled orders which makes them feel impotent. Solo Leveling is, in any case, an escapist panacea for this lost youth; a vapid, non-sensical power fantasy that can provide temporal refuge, a mere distraction without any flavour. Solo Leveling is clearly made as a bandaid to a planet-sized issue, as a mere temporal "power drug" for people, escapist heroine—everything in this work is engineered towards that malicious, hidden goal of pure consumerism and unbridled escapism without value—all of this disgusting concoction finally baked in A-1 Pictures' hell furnace. Solo Leveling for sure found a big part of its success thanks to appealing to this impressionable audience, I'm not virtue signaling, but rather indicating a huge part of Solo Leveling's overwhelming achievements. Power fantasies and escapism are common in media, especially anime, but Solo Leveling might be the leading man of this trend in anime, shows akin to "RESURRECTED IN A DIGITAL WORLD AND MY MAGIC KILLS EVERYONE IN ONE HIT?! AND I'M SURROUNDED BY HOT BABES?! HOLY SHIT?" are obviously of low-quality and very trashy, but they do not intend to have pretensions at least, they are unabashedly trash even with just a simple look. Solo Leveling, however, has a pretentious veneer and (very, very rarely) convincing makeup done by A-1 Pictures—all of this falls off with a closer inspection of its anatomy. Therefore, after this introduction, I will begin to tackle specific points of this show. 1. The Absolute Lack of a Story Well, but you'll argue: “What do you mean there's no story? It must have a story” And, well, technically yes; but it's more of a story because the author *felt obliged* to attach a story to this rather than something told by passion; it's a camouflage to use as a shield and sword against any allegation that this is nothing more than an empty, BAD and tawdry power fantasy with no shame whatsoever. The synthesis of this story is Sung Jin-Woo getting incredible power out of the blue, in a convoluted and boring way, and he becomes a very mighty and stoic guy with a lot of life hacks, and proceeds to become mightier and more boring ad infinitum, the reason behind Jin-Woo's actions feels shoehorned and underbaked. There is no story, the only "story" per se is the constant masturbatory session from the author and the entire world he has created to cater to Sung Jin-Woo's microscopical peepee. When we are treated to plot points, like Hwang's own vengeance to track down Jin-Woo, it is quickly dealt with and forgotten to priorize our main character's banal power trip (seriously, where is Hwang???) Like, nothing feels tied together; Solo Leveling is as pretentious yet as vacous as a plain bread with a pink bow, with no spine or spirit; the main defense I've seen for this is "it's not that deep" as if this were an Aegis shield to dispell any criticism—sure, a show can not delve deep and yet be good, an example of this is Mob Psycho, a show that doesn't really have a "deep" story per se, but it makes up for this with a charismatic attitude and style, even aboarding interesting themes like Mob's social anxiety and self superation; yet Solo Leveling, nevertheless, doesn't have any of this, if you're gonna have a more "superficial" plot you NEED to make up for this, Mob Psycho, apart from what I've mentioned, also has an unique art direction and the character cast is decent and relatable enough; what does Solo Leveling have to make up for this THIN VENEER that we are obliged to call "plot"? A barebones world, a terrible self insert as main character, addons as characters, non-dialogue, incoherent direction, inconsistent style, boring combats, no themes of any kind, splendid anticlimax, no tension, no stakes, no earned empowerment... like there is genuinely no excuse. This pseudodefense of "just turn your brain off" or "just have fun lol" are completely ridiculous when you consider the fact that everything else also fucking sucks, and that something can be good while also being fun! Why do we need to stand for such a shit story just because "muh animation n budass chudructer" elements that, in this show, arent even that special? Isnt 100% Shigeo Kageyama badass? Or Hayakawa Aki? Or Guts? Or Kusanagi Motoko? And every single one of these characters are far, FAAAAAR better than Jin-Woo in any way too. Why do I have to accept this terrible storytelling and excuse, no, GLORIFY utter slop with such asinine claims? WHY cannot fun, cool stuff and quality of storytelling coexist? "Just have fun lol" is an idiotic fallacy when you realize this. Solo Leveling even fails in trying to do a "good" power fantasy. Regarding the overall world in this anime: We are fed with rotten breadcrumbs, basically. We are shown a flashback to Jeju Island at the beginning, but nothing else with substance, there's just a straight-up time skip. There is no common thread leading these characters, no interesting events that precede Sung Jin-Woo, no worldbuilding, it feels more like a collage of cool and badass scenes rather than a work with a well-knitted story of its own. There is no overarching union that unites these characters, no common goal to aspire for, no trajectory or road to speak about or anything relevant per se, it is a spectacle of incoherent scenarios and situations where the main theme is a constant glorification of our main character. There are interesting points to tackle, like the sorcerer who is mentioned in Jin-Woo's powers or the PTSD in hunters, but these two easily observable things, conveniently, are never brought forward. If there was a feeble story, it died in the power vomit that is this hack authors' writing and his idealization of Sung Jin-Woo. This world feels dead, there are no stakes or any plotlines beyond budget Chimera Ant, which is fucking lame, hilariously derivative and terribly anticlimactic. Sung Jin-Woo's reasons to-be and motives are flabby and weak, merely vague reasons, nothing more, and nobody else has an interesting motivation with weight in this universe and story. There is nothing to grasp. There is obviously a reason for these weaknessess, and that is probably the author planning his self-insert first before the story. Solo Leveling has no story because the author probably didnt plan to make one in the first place, the power fantasy of the bully doing the bullying is the "story" we are offered. Why do we have to stand mediocrity because it's a microscopic bit better than ABSOLUTE shit we have already seen? Yeah, this show is not "I get Giga Amazing Powers and Turn into a Chad and I can Kill Everything and My Smell Attracts Sexy Powerful Women!" but... yeah, that actually... sounds exactly like Solo Leveling. Sometimes we'll get these faux breadcrumbs of "muh identity issues" but they're overshadowed by how edgy, out-of-place, underdeveloped and tacky they tend to be, with Jin-Woo looking like LowTierGod and saying "huh... I always wondered if you could feel FEAR..." close enough, welcome back, Sasuke Uchiha. 2. Sung Jin-Woo and his Addons' Bizarre Adventure I can say with utmost certainty and confidence that there are no characters in Solo Leveling either. But how? Simple, no character beyond Sung Jin-Woo is anyone we can get to know, there is no one we can empathize with or grow fond of, there is no one we can deepen our bond with; rather than an actual cast of characters it is “Sung Jin-Woo and the addons that surround him” because there is genuinely NOTHING engaging about the pseudocharacters we are exposed to. They typically have a trait that flanderizes them, they change erratically to adhere to a non-existent story, or they shift characterization to serve the protagonist in some way. Of course, characters appear and disappear as the author deems relevant to further elevate his protagonist. EVERYTHING revolves around him. Characters hold nothing at all, the "S class" title and the "aura" thing loses all weight VERY fast, to a ridiculous point. Later on, the S-hunters are reduced to mere fodder to set up the scene for Jin-Woo. Not only this, but the cast is tainted by insufferable nationalism, the author insists on painting the Japanese as absolutely egotistical and manipulative, and the United States as an alienating metropolis represented by a narcissistic Korean immigrant—who later on gets beaten by a Korean, father of Gigachad Sigmalord—all incapable of proper cooperation and international organization in the face of global adversity such as the ants. Theres no subtleness about the obvious and insufferable nationalism in this work—Goto, the strongest Japanese hunter, who fought against Jin-Woo, is apparently off-screened??? Characters get presented to just get off-screened, one-shotted or exiled after few episodes—the japanese getting the worst treatment—all while Jin-Woo delivers the strongest dose of slop power-toupee imaginable. The character designs are uninspired and generic to death, their personalities are terribly one-note and underdeveloped, with a tendency to revolve around Jin-Woo, with the cherry on top being A1 Pictures' limited artistical vision and expertise in Dorito phenotype. Jin-Ho is the classic "comedy relief friend" archetype of our protagonist, someone who never truly gets developed upon, someone who starts and ends behind the main characters' shadow, someone whos end is generic and obvious; he begins with his barebones motivation and he ends with the same barebones aspiration but modified to glorify the protagonist; apart from being occassional comedy relief, there is not much to his character, since he eventually falls into just being "the main character's friend" and getting stuck behind Jin-Woo's shade. Like everything else in this show, his insecurities and the relationship he has with his brother are overshadowed in a grandiose way to prioritize his relationship with Jin-Woo instead; this causes his character to absolutely fall behind and never get a truly satisfying arc, as his development is at the mercy of Sung Jin-Woo, and his feeble pseudoarc is looking very sloggish, with inconsequential acts and very insubstantial dialogue. Apart from his truly nothingburger personality, exclusively dedicated to celebrate Sung Jin-Woo, Jin-Ho's design is nothing special, he looks like a washed down version of Yuuji Itadori, just boring as fuck honestly. We never truly see Jin-Ho follow his path as a honorous tank, mighty hunter or paladin either, as this facet is quickly dropped in favour of catering for Jin-Woo's colossal ego. My prediction is that his guild issue will be solved by him just joining Jin-Woo's guild (Jin-Woo WILL lead a guild, because this appeals to the huge boner that the author has for his own MC) as the vicemaster. Jin-Ho is utterly barebones, only serving a purpose for comedy relief and to stroke the main character's ego. Again. He's not a character, but rather an addon; if Joo-Hee was the initial romance and friend that Gigachad Jin-Woo grows apart from, Jin-Ho is the comedy relief and new main source of egostroking for our main character, someone who constantly emphasizes just how powerful Jin-Woo is—another addon, at last. We eventually get a female version of Jin-Ho named "Esil" who is a busty, cute demon girl, because of course Gigachad Sigmalord gets that—Esil gets enamoured of the protagonist within mere minutes and proceeds to follow him around, by the way. Jin-Ho is eventually seldom vanished from the show to focus on Jin-Woo's toupee, his demon waifu with gargantuan breasts and his sexy tradwife. He just... disappears, for most of the second season, and he receives no valuable characterization or interaction. 1. Jin-Ho knows Jin-Woo, he praises him. 2. Jin-Ho befriends Jin-Woo, tries to lead a clan, priorizes Jin-Woo. 3. Jin-Ho gives up dream, decides to be Jin-Woo's right hand (probably) Cha Hae-In is the modern-day Asuna, a submissive-yet-powerful Stacy who will eventually fall in love with Sung Jin-Woo and form the absolute duo of a Mary Sue and a Gary Stu, a diahrrea-worthy connection between two characters who do not exist in a composite form, and then create a family of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, how adorable! Hae-In is shy, awkward, unaware of common social stuff but SUPER powerful and practically an idol!! At some points, Hae-In feels like the counterpart to Jin-Woo; whereas some male viewers might feel oriented to self-insert as Gigachad Sigmalord who easily courts every woman, the very few female viewers might, probably, view themselves as this easy-to-assume beautiful and capable young girl who is OBVIOUSLY destined to be the ultimate waifu of our Chad protagonist. This trait, where she senses a good aroma emitted from Jin-Woo, allows the author to isolate her from the possibility of engaging with other characters, and it kills her already small characterization to a point where she HAS to rotate around Sung Jin-Woo exclusively. Hae-In is this gross dichotomy of a compliant waifu and, at the same time, the classic "strong woman" archetype who is strong, with no personality, no fun and capable of anything, sports, bureaucracy, being a hunter, you name it; I call it gross because its a duo of traits clearly seeking for utter dominance by the isolated male character, Sung Jin-Woo—the only hunter who smells good to her—along with subordination and complete flanderization of this female character in exchange for waifu pandering, knowing this author's shenanigans, this character assassination is very predictable, just absolute "GIGACHAD SIGMALORD SMELLS GOOD TO ME OMG". Asserting dominance over Hae-In—who is the strongest female hunter in Korea—elevates Jin-Woo's character as "THE ULTIMATE GIGACHAD SIGMALORD ALPHA MALE!!!!" even more, accentuating this shameful power fantasy further beyond—she will still be infatuated by him despite Sung Jin-Woo being one unappealing son of a bitch—she, and many other female characters, of course. Hae-In is clearly made to sell dakimakuras, she is THE uberwaifu in Solo Leveling, a female self-insert & power fantasy and another egostroke for Jin-Woo. Not a character, but an addon for our protagonist; again, the fact that everyone smells badly to Hae-In except for Jin-Woo shows just how ostentatious this is. Moreover, Cha Hae-In is just bland and has very little screentime, whenever she appears, it's for fan-service, pandering, for nothing or to stroke Jin-Woo's onion even more; her dialogue and personality are barebones, and her character design is generic blonde with huge milkers. HE HAS TO ACQUIRE AND DOMINATE THA STRONG WOMUN!!!! Its clear that a relationship will surge between these two, and she'll become a housewife, as it is the logical outcome of a patriarchal self insert knowing a female cliché self insert, two pieces of plain bread liking each other, and one more victim to the classic female character treatment in shounen shows—before our eyes, modern Asuna and Kirito. When executed badly, this is one of the worst archetypes ever, and the author is a hack who cannot write, so of course they'll pull off this absolutely shit female character. Jesus fucking christ, she barely knows Jin-Woo and shes already worrying of what he might think of her, and how to pander to him, this is absurd; even as she appears later on in the S-class training, the first thing she does is presence Gigachad Sigmalord and say stuff about him. Afterwards, Gigastacy Tradwife is traumabonded to Gigachad Sigmalord thanks to the latter saving her after Bootleg Meruem's attack... never thought I'd write that sentence. Truly a match made in narrative hell. Cha Hae-In is nothing but plain eye-candy without any personality or characterization. She was purely made to serve Jin-Woo and replace Jae-Ho as THE uberwaifu. 1. Hae-In is presented to us as THE most powerful female hunter that we know of. 2. Hae-In knows Jin-Woo. Everyone else is STINKY except for Gigachad Jin-Woo, who smells like Old Spice. 3. Hae-In is infatuated with Jin-Woo, reduced to his love interest, subdued and flanderized. There are more addons, but they aren't really anything worth your time. And, finally, our protagonist, brace yourself. First off, this fraud is ANTI AURA. You cannot tell me that this glorified hentai protagonist with no charisma or charm has "aura" like, that is so untrue. Look at someone like Samuel Rodrigues from Metal Gear Rising, or any character from Devil May Cry, or any character from NieR:Automata, or Project Moon, or from Shin Megami Tensei, and as much as I'm not in very good terms with Attack on Titan, even Levi from Shingeki no Kyojin, all better characters than Slop Leveling's MC too. Sung Jin-Woo??? No way he has any aura whatsoever. Anyways. Jin-Woo is representative of the broken youth who aspires to an impossible ideal. Sung Jin-Woo starts as a reserved and insecure person, a victim under the conditions imposed on him and his lineage, as he must take care of his mother and sister while being a hunter of the lowest possible rank; not only this, he is the WORST hunter of the WORST rank, so much so that he was called “The Weakest Weapon of Mankind” a nickname that, however, is weirdly mentioned very rarely, and that in the 2nd season ceases to exist at all—you would think that someone like that would be recognized in an infamous way, yet this infamy is very quickly forgotten. Jin-Woo is the archetype of the young man who is powerless in front of the powers on his country, he is a humble boy with straight jet-black hair and an average height, he is somewhat geeky and hardworking; considering all this, there is a clear connection with what I mentioned before and with Jin-Woo; he is CLEARLY a representation of that insecure young man that the show absolutely panders to; then, post-resurrection Sung Jin-Woo is a harmful power fantasy, a power fantasy for boys to self-insert themselves into him and believe themselves to be elevated into this role of the paternal alpha male capable of everything. This power fantasy engineered towards powerless young people is not only seen in the appearance of the protagonist or Hae-In, but in that the source of our MC's power literally relies in a blessing of RPG powers and the fact that he's the only one idolized by the old patriarch, Goo-Hee—something that obviously puts him above the herd, outside of the MATRIX!!!! Sung Jin-Woo is above le normies, they do not undastand. Despite his previous personality, Jin-Woo in only four episodes and through many scripted conveniences, exposition, deus ex machinas and classic elements of a shoddy power fantasy grows into what he, as a boy of a broken and manipulated youth, aspires to be: the ideal patriarch, a nationalistic, narcissistic, materialistic, paternalistic, breadwinner, boring and businesslike emblem of machismo; without any nonsense, without any flaw, without any art, without any introspection, without any whimsyness, he is the soporific and egotistical ideal to which many young people, under the oppression of a patriarchal plutocracy, aspire every day; with which they are nevertheless deceived, for this is nothing but an unattainable and harmful ideal; Sung Jin-Woo by becoming the character I satirically call “Gigachad Sigmalord” becomes this archetype I have just mentioned, an apathetic, sleep-inducing walking collection of tropes. This anime sells a falsehood, a pill that gives a dangerous fantasy, and even moreso in a country like South Korea that is going through very tense cultural and ideological wars. Sung Jin-Woo develops, in an absurd and abrupt manner, practically unbelievable features and becomes nearly devoid of emotion, there's practically no trace of his past personality. This show wants to sell us this false idea of an underdog growing up, but it's wildly ineffective considering that Sung Jin-Woo gets an RPG power dropped on him from the sky—something that would be somewhat excusable, except that this power is practically a life hack that covers everything Jin-Woo needs and makes him obscenely powerful from the get-go, also betraying the main theme of "hard work" in this anime—all given to him by a God who has yet to be explained, with conditions that have not yet been properly explained, and that everything in this story is fabricated for him to succeed—unlike in real life of course, where for the VAST majority of the population everything is against them. He is not only a blatant self-insert but also a Korean Superman of sorts, he is the prototype of the patriarchal Korean man who dabbles in individualism and pure ego; the insufferable type you'd see flauntering about their capital and achievements in work, yet have absolutely no soul at the same time—just like how this show flaunters animation yet has no real substance. Sung Jin-Woo starts with Joo-Hee, the latter tries very hard to make him pay attention to her and yet Jin-Woo barely gives her some breadcrumbs, keeping her at a remarkable distance and never getting emotionally vulnerable with her; the same thing happens with Jin-Ho, whom he treats as a “haha look how funny he is, what a funny friend, he is my funny friend haha lol” in this tremendously false and unconvincing way, all the relationships Jin-Woo establishes with the rest of his addons are absolutely superficial and boring, without any tension or substance, without any philosophy or emotion, without any attention to details. Jin-Woo is supremely bland and boring, which is catastrophic considering EVERYTHING revolves around him, his underdog story is unconvincing, and his introspection is remarkably shallow and ends in the blink of an eye, like his extremely dumb "me vs me" part in the Class Selection quest, something that goes nowhere and is executed in a corny way; you'd think someone who was given such colossal power would spend it pondering, constantly thinking about how to use this power, how it can affect him and others, and yet this show prefers to focus vastly more on how BADASS he is and how COOL he is!!!! And how smart, and how strong, and how fit, and how insightful, and how he dominates women, and what a good businessman he is, and everything!!!!! Jin-Woo does everything!!!!! Including killing his own anime's stakes, of course. He's not only a stupidly overpowered protagonist, but he also has this smug attitude that grows old QUICKLY; you need to have talent to pull off a likable smug character, but this author has no talent at all in storytelling. His blink-and-you'll-miss it montage of workout undermines the faux growth of our protagonist due to how generic and far-fetched it is and because the restrictions in this world make it suspiciously convenient for him to grow, his underdog status changes in the blink of an eye, and his vast amount of hacks makes it so its impossible to care for him and his underdog story, so when he goes full smug grindset stoic Gigachad Sigmalord it's just... so lame. Jin-Woo is just a walking deus ex machina. When we are presented with stuff like the venom that Jin-Woo might use as a double-edge tactic, it goes nowhere because OH he's immune to poison and crowd control alterations so he can use this without any downsides!!!! Why? Because fuck you!!!! Oh wait his MP is being drained out... HE HAS MP POTIONS!!!!! Oh wait he's about to die. OOPS he hadn't done his daily quests yet!!! Oh wait, he's about to lose to an enem- LOL NO, his skill levels up conveniently!!!! When he was about to go OOM vs the high shaman orc and he popped out an MP potion, refilling his MP bar... I nearly went insane. This is not even taking into considerations his dumb shounen badass boosts where he goes full-on edgelord Shadow the Hedgehog mode and he beats the shit out of enemies who were towering over him in power. Jin-Woo kills any tension, has no value as a character, he gets insane power extremely fast without earning this empowerment, so all of this underdog story is complete and utter faux nonsense, hes impaired by weak characterization, his dialogue is a nothingburger, he has no interesting philosophy or moral compass, no introspection, his combat style is boring, his interactions with the rest of the cast are superficial, his backstory is terrible, he has no interesting emotions or thoughts, his character design is barebones, etc. Sung Jin-Woo is, also, obnoxious and unpalatable, not only because of the aforementioned traits, but also because of his tendency to overlook the emotions of others, do irrational shit and to be spiteful for completely absurd reasons; the latter is even shoehorned to be a motivation for this character, but it is rather irritating, as this black-haired cringelord prefers to be an insufferable jerk and hold a grudge in the most forced and clichéd way possible, despite the completely understandable and fair situation in which he found himself into; Sung Jin-Woo's raison d'être, his sick mother, is presented in a very weak and cheap way, with only a few brief scenes showing super-flat “feelings” on Jin-Woo's part and zero reflection, absolutely nothing else—the most emotion between them, that he showed for his MOM IN A COMA, was touching her hand. More than anything, it feels like the self-insert came first AND THEN the author remembered that he needed to give a background to his Frankenstein monster, but he probably got lazy and made the most clichéd and boring backstory possible, written with a lukewarm and flimsy pencil—the show barely touched on this theme, and yet it's treated as the Jin-Woo's absolute reason. Sung Jin-Woo's core motive is flabby and weak, his emotional state inconsistent and confusing, his mother is brought up as a fundamental reason for his grind but the audience is hardly shown these emotions and feelings that Sung Jin-Woo feels for her, the author prefers to drive his empty work into a ridiculous power fantasy instead of delving deeper into his character's psyche—but, to be fair, when he tried to do this, it was absolutely lame and ended up with an edgy shoehorned Nietzsche quote, and lets not forget the cringey ME VS MY INNER DEVILS melodramatic part in the last episode of season one, what a wasted opportunity, this goes nowhere afterwards and no introspection is done. All of this are such sudden and underdeveloped things that they strike as superficial and, rather than deepening the story, they just turn into unfiltered cringe, especially considering how Jin-Woo outmatches everyone; nobody is worried by the fact that he might not reach what he wants, since Jin-Woo just mogs everyone and everything in every way, he is full of hacks for every situation and his characterization lacks all substance. Jin-Woo is Saitama without the charisma. One as an author MUST build this sympathy and make his character earn the empowerment, but Solo Leveling fails at this. Amazingly hollow. His decisions are also irrational and unlikable, causing unnecessary suffering, like doing a strength test against the Ant King when he was OH so worried about Cha Hae-In, like??? Are you a fucking idiot??? This is so incoherent, theres zero sense of urgency. This protagonist is not only lazily written and highly embarrassing, but he ALSO kills all the suspense of his own work, as he evolves into the phenomena I baptized as "GIGACHAD SIGMALORD," a walking deus ex machina who grows his power exponentially while the rest are forced to stagnate, our GIGACHAD SIGMALORD does some push-ups, some squats and THEN he grows several centimeters tall, his jaw sharpens like a Dorito and becomes bigger, his body acquires an abnormal complexion, his vocal cords deepen and other ludicrous changes happen, like getting absurd gear out of the blue, skills leveling up in convenient moments, downright hacks and RIDICULOUS amounts of experience; not only this, Solo Leveling's plot loves to force events and empower Jing-Woo in an absurd way to do impossible things, such as perfectly resisting the total attack of a monster that was way ahead of him by several levels or, even before becoming a Chad, BEING ABLE TO FLEE FROM THREE GIANT WORMS, IN A DESERT, JUST AFTER BEING HOSPITALIZED, we are talking about pre-chadification Sung Jin-Woo, or outrageous and eye-rolling shounen boosts. At this point, the vapid fantasy is very clear, and the author has no qualms; all the waifus instantly feel an infatuation for chadified Sung Jin-Woo, as if he releases some kind of reproductive pheromone or something, it's super ridiculous and blatant, all the women in this work are transformed into love interests and simps of Jin-Woo—although, admittedly I don't expect good female representation from SOLO LEVELING of all shows; of course, our individualistic Gigachad with the sigma mindset doesn't give a second of the day to these succubi—except for modern Asuna, who he'll undoubtedly court. Despite the enormous power he acquired, everyone conveniently ignores his nickname and bad reputation as “Mankind's Weakest Weapon” and everyone's IQ is reduced when they are around him, as no one asks questions, no one is inquisitive enough about how he suddenly hit such a radical change of personality and physique, NO ONE asks anything about him, no one is able to fight correctly when around him, it's extremely convenient—the guys in black who follow him are impossibly inept, and dont even try in intercepting Jin-Woo. Sung Jin-Woo has to be one of the worst "protagonists" in anime history, an obvious self-insert with powers of all kinds, zero personality and introspection, dense yet also a waifu attractor at the same time, with a lazy and impossible development, who fights in a boring way, with no interesting dialogue and devoid of any philosophy or interesting moral code. Jin-Woo sucks. He is the modern-day Kirito. I hate this smug little shit, Jin-Woo doesn't receive NEARLY ENOUGH punishment compared to how OP he gets. His mere pretense of a backstory is dumb as shit and non-sensical. Sung Jin-Woo's nature as a hunter is vaguely tempted upon but quickly dropped in favour of more dumb tropes. Moreover, Jin-Woo's raison d'etre (his mom) is built in a weak way, as shown by the widespread negative reaction that this plotpoint got.. apart from the reaction of fans expecting more of the same thing. I'm aware that actions usually mean more than words, but was it so hard to replace some of the idiotic power fantasy stuff or dumb unnecessary dialogue for more thoughts or dialogue of Jin-Woo with his mother? Or some flashbacks? We get an ATOM of a flashback just as Jin-Woo remembers the cause of her burn in her neck, but thats the only thing that pops up to build this relationship; maybe someone else knows her, or expresses her emotions or condolences at Jin-Woo's mom being hospitalized for a lethal disease (BARELY anyone reacts upon this woman suddenly being healed from an incurable sickness, this is never again touched upon). This man, who was alleged to be losing his humanity (where did that go lol) in both S1 and early-mid S2 is crying rivers because of his mom being healthy again; of course, that is perfectly reasonable for a normal person, but not for this dude who was "GAZING AT DA ABYSSSSSSSS" or who "WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU FELT FEARRRRRRR" or "FIGHTING AGAINST MUH INNER DEEEEMONSSSS" "IM DA NECROMANCER BABYYYY" just a while ago while recruiting literal demons, like it completely undermines this "inner darkness" or "losing humanity" plot point, as this sequence shows that this never mattered at all and it went nowhere, a waste of time. Imagine if, his reaction at seeing her healthy again, was numb and he expressed a lot of impotence and inner struggles at this reaction, leading him to make less use of his skills and focus on other stuff, that'd been more interesting I believe and wouldnt be such an anticlimactic ending, the objective would then metamorphise and give Jin-Woo SOME character, it would be another layer of depth, AND it'd lead this "losing humanity" dumb plot somewhere. But no, it's instead delivered as a poorly-built climax, a waste of time, another thing that Solo Leveling cannot execute properly, falling in a hole of tropes and clichés. The scene was so awkward too, lol. The narrative line isnt properly established, so all of this emotion falls flat on its face because the show was more focused in doing dumb unnecessary shit rather than developing this, it's so badly done that the only thing one feels is disappointment and time lost. The show puts all of its effort and attention into Jin-Woo and everything else is neglected, yet Jin-Woo himself is terrible, thus Solo Leveling ends up being... nothing, this leads us to my next point. 3. Solo Leveling is Supremely Boring and Spineless There are many legendary anime fights one can mention, examples abound; but is there even ONE battle in Solo Leveling that is memorable? Honestly, I don't think so, and I always find myself laughing whenever a random Fraud Leveling post pops up on Twitter, flaunting about aura and battle choreography, and then they're showing the plainest piece of white bread imaginable. They all end in a very anticlimactic and lame way, Jin-Woo has hacks for every kind of situation; everyone fights in a boring style, you have the cliché paladins, the tanks, generic spellcasters, assassins with the typical stuff like stealth or killing blows, bland warriors who warrior'd their way into battle, bow dudes, average Joes and then Jin-Woo is everything, except for a healer, oh oops that isnt true, he has HP POTIONS and CURE ALL ANTIDOTES—really, there's nothing interesting or minimally captivating about this anime. The tension is never there and the battles are predictable and with very underwhelming finales, a great example of this is the Cerberus that Sung Jin-Woo kills, as the combat ends with the protagonist simply stabbing an INFERNAL THREE-HEADED GIANT DOG in the eye and that's enough to kill it???? And I am not even tackling about the absolute creative bankruptcy in this monster design. Am I the only person who finds this extremely boring and anticlimactic? Moreover, the battles that look promising, such as Jin-Woo's new party vs. the orcs, are also ruined by the author's INABILITY to not aggrandize his protagonist; I was expecting a dirty, complicated but satisfying battle—however, the author decided that having Sung Jin-Woo do everything to make them win was a superior outcome. I expected Cha-Hae to help him with the orc chief and have a cool fight where both excel and form a combat synergy; however, we just get more slop from the one and only Jin-Woo, with the cherry on top being that Cha-Hae now gets flustered upon seeing our protagonists CHAD power. Also, the action itself isnt even good: Apart from the anticlimax, many of the shots were boring, with constant camera shots to instant decapitations or incoherent lights clashing, bad CGI like the orcs battling with the shades, or the shades themselves being extremely clunky, there is no strategy whatsoever, the asinine battle choices, off-model characters and more. Solo Leveling is also fucked by its ABSURD use of vertical progression and a poor worldbuilding, both of these flaws directly makes it so the author needs to glaze Jin-Woo constantly, in dumb ways, for him to prosper; the restriction put in place for hunters not only kills the little thematical value of this show, but its also a bullet to the foot as a writer. But what about the villains? Well, exactly as you'd expect, boring McBaddies with no substance. There is no valuable exchange of ideas whatsoever. Even in this aspect—the action and the animation—where this anime should triumph, Solo Leveling disappoints. Choreographies such as the one in Jin-Woo vs Baran are dizzy and annoying; with confused lights flying everywhere, boring ahh Clash of Clans fights and non-sensical movements, absurd close-ups or camera shots and an insane incapability to make a coherent battle that you can properly follow, all with a predictable ending; meanwhile, the animation is worsening overtime and has no proper identity or sense of style. Bosses usually die in a few hits from our protagonist, yet he resists EVERYTHING and never faulters. EVEN what should be the best thing in this show is weak and cliché. And this guy, THE DEMON MONARCH, who resisted everything thus now and barred Jin-Woo's summons, is distracted by a girl throwing a thing to him which didnt cause any damage whatsoever while he's handling Sung Jin-Woo in close combat, that's contrived bullshit; plus, this dude who CLEANED Jin-Woo is suddenly overwelmed by him? Or why didnt his dagger rebound to him? Why didn't he drink a potion and use his shades to overwhelm Baran when he dropped his summons? It's not like you cant drink a potion while moving or something. These battles are sooooooooooo boring, superficial and predictable its absurd. Fight against Ignis is based on pure raw and convenient luck with a contrived mistake, while the battle against frost elves was derivative, boring and predictable—like everything else, also repeating every mistake with off-model shades and terrible choreographies. Mind you, Jin-Woo vs Baran was the HUGE hype of this season, yeah, that predictable monster of the week slop without any nuance was the most hyped thing in this show. Pathetic. "Totally not Meruem" and his arc are also hyped as fuck but they end up being another predictable slog with no nuance, with lazy deaths and poorly-done sequences; at this point, they have completely given up and resort to instadeaths and battles with a non-existent dynamic or minimal exchange. Bootleg Meruem will just change his fighting style, in an irrational way, to appeal for both the nationalism of this work, for fanservice and to let the anime glaze Gigachad Sigmalord, like one poster said in the forums: "One shot the Japanese only, he only slapped the Koreans for X reasons, only for then to be useless agains Jinwoo. Consistency all over the place." and Jin-Woo wins the fight because of a deus ex machina. This shit looks like a stagnant turn-based game rather than real time action, it is very clunky and boring to watch, all of this with a complete lack of a build-up and proper narrative. Thats the thing about Slop Leveling, even what SHOULD BE its strongest aspect is noticeably feeble. It is an incoherent mess of tropes, idiocy and irrational decisions. Solo Leveling's poor structure, the OP protagonist and his deus ex machinas negate any kind of tension and excitement that the fights may have, even if this show tries to gaslight you otherwise—as far as I know, the biggest strategy Sung Jin-Woo displayed so far is TAKING HEIGHT AGAINST THE ENEMY, and that's it, everything else is solved by conveniences, mere chaddisms or hacks. Sung Jin-Woo's sidekicks are usually worthless, standing around watching, being annihilated by the enemy, glazing him after Gigachad Sigmalord demolishes the enemy or plainly doing nothing, all while our protagonist does the work. Tense scenes and battles will suddenly cut away to repeat information we already know, to show reactions for the thousandth time or to demonstrate the foul inner soliloquy of these pseudocharacters, inner speeches that prove and display little to nothing of value and grace; many times, Solo Leveling will treat these thoughts or hype moments (usually from Jin-Woo) as grand revelations, incredible climaxes or impressive ploys, but they are usually obvious narratives and things the audience can interpret for themselves without a third party, and they all fall flat— there is no value here. Some shounen, such as Jujutsu Kaisen, can save a shred of dignity with fights and action, Solo Leveling doesn't even have this gambit, as no battle has been interesting or has had a modicum of tension. Solo Leveling's direction and action is derivative and fruitless, truly without any soul, just like its worldbuilding. We have no reason to care for Chaddified Jin-Woo, there are no stakes, there is no reason to care for anything or anyone in Solo Leveling as they are unlikeable or very one-note. Also, levels indirectly restrict the author's liberty, since the only way to respond to Jin-Woo's excessive amount of hacks is by upping the monsters' level in a grotesque verticality; but, meanwhile, everyone else stays in the same place, essentially a lame vertical loop of apathy and boredom where only Jin-Woo gets stronger and the rest remain in a pit of mediocrity: > le stronger monster is here! > Jin-Woo kills it, gets more chaddified > le stronger monster is here! > Jin-Woo kills it, gets more chaddified ad nauseam As a fellow writer, I believe that some ideas should probably be kept in the writers vault for a reason! And no, your show being called "Solo Leveling" doesnt justify creative bankruptcy and complete neglect of your work's characters, this argument is absurd. 4. A trite meandering from non-characters There is not much to say about this; of course, I don't expect a dialogue masterclass from Solo Leveling of all shows anyways. The dialogue in Solo Leveling tends to be "from X to Y" with characters just going by the tide. We get no interesting philosophy or phrases from anyone in this show, not even a modicum of anything; we are usually presented with a situation and the characters will replicate what the audience is already thinking, or say derivative things, with constant cuts and exposition of stuff we already know or things other characters already know; do you remember any iconic or notable dialogue in this show? Not that this should be the forte of this work, of course, but it doesnt even achieve the bare minimum, you could erase all the dialogue in Solo Leveling and it would function anyways, it really adds nothing. One of the moments I remember, because of how dumb this was, is this specific interaction between Jin-Woo and Joo-Hee, the context is that they are both going to enter a dungeon and Joo-Hee isnt very sure, since some party members are criminals, it looks generally sketchy: Song Jin-Woo: You cannot go, Jo-Hee, it's dangerous. I'll go. Joo-Hee: No, if you go, I will go too. Song Jin-Woo: Alright. Well, THAT WAS FUCKING EASY. You know she cannot do this, its a dangerous instance, Jin-Woo knows of her issues, yet he is convinced with such trite. Had Jin-Woo been developed in a better fashion she would not have been in danger again and the audience would be more inclined to sympathize with them; however, this is not the case, and Jin-Woo will let Joo-Hee give up even her life for a character who gives her nothing in exchange, who encourages her to participate in an instance that puts her life in danger and has probably made her trauma worse; it's frustrating and very unnecessary, it shows not only the lack of synergy and substance between these two, but also how unlikeable Sung Jin-Woo is even if hes supposed to be likeable by the author's standards. Solo Leveling is packed with boring exposition interactions and utterly soporific mundane chatter. Just completely worthless. When our characters explain their battle strategies or stuff they like, it is in the most spiceless and deadpan way possible. Characters will just spit nothingburger dialogue with a cinematic blandness and simple camera shots, its like asking ChatGPT to make dialogue for you. Another instance that hits me as bad dialogue is this one: Jin-Ho tells Sung Jin-Woo that Song-Yi is a minor Sung Jin-Woo: "So?" And now, due to your incompetence in writing proper punchlines and jokes, you have a good amount of people who equate your protagonist to Epstein—seriously, just read the MAL forums on this episode; all because you couldn't deliver the joke in a right way, and due to the contrived scenario and NON-EXISTING synergy between these two (Jin-Woo and Jin-Ho). Or so many instances where Sung Jin-Woo compares his life to a videogame, or anytime the characters use RPG language (bosses, dungeons, mana... really) It is seriously cringe, or where Jin-Woo will straight-out spit the most cliché phrases in existence. I feel like not using straight-up RPG terms in a non-isekai anime is kind of an unspoken rule honestly. The women who see Jin-Woo will normally goon about his body in the most masturbatory and grossly erotic way possible (talking about the author) and people will normally suck him up—those who don't, normally meet dire consequences. A lot of characters are suddenly broken apart to favor Sung Jin-Woo, such as the B-Class Tae-Shik who is suddenly revealed to be Jeffrey Dahmer for some fucking reason, of course, he's the same guy who quotes Nietzsche in the most ridiculous way; he also dons some of the tackiest dialogue ever, trying so hard to be creepy but instead he ends up being edgy, his case never comes back again. Solo Leveling's pathetic attempts at emotional or introspective dialogue are lame, and many times end up having very few stakes or weight in the actual plot or characters, or just being executed in the most absolutely cliché way imaginable, without any elegance or nuance. 5. Solo Leveling is a Frankenstein Monster The worldbuilding in Solo Leveling is a VERY unpleasant and non-immersive pastiche of realism, soft-medieval aesthetics, generic fantasy, soft politics and finally, the cherry on the cake, RPG terms and mechanics used in a non-ironic way, the labor of the hunters is a bastardized version of Hunter x Hunter's hunters but without Togashi's fascinating pen and paper, but most of all, the worldbuilding doesn't feel cohesive, nor does it make much sense. Somehow, the author figured that condemning his characters to stay in the same social and power echelon was a good idea, while his main character could just improve indiscriminately—this not only kills any kind of tension, intricate development or interest—again, writers can ditch or modify ideas while writing their stuff if its needed!!—but also thematically betrays one of the great pretensions of Solo Leveling, which is “work hard and you'll get what u want” which of course tends to be another malicious lie in a top-down, classist, "meritocratic" and corrupt society like the one in Solo Leveling, where your birth and latent power dictates your position forever; and, following this, for some reason, S-class hunters have the freedom to commit whatever debauchery they want, above and beyond any law; and this is one of the most ridiculous things in my opinion, One Punch Man manages to establish an alliance, such as the Hero Association, with problematic and contrasting personalities, all of whom function under a common allegiance of protecting humanity; however, the political associations in Solo Leveling are constructed in a flimsy and vague manner, with a rare lack of laws, punishment, information, associations and moral codes to limit individuals with this incredible power, both for the S-class and the hunters who are dedicated to killing others; it is so disastrous, in fact, that these peculiarities in the worldbuilding break any immersion and interest, turning certain situations into an eye-rolling or contrived or bland mess. The magic stones that dungeons offer monopolize almost all things and energy sources, making the development of this world extremely boring and purely based on a single resource—it is a very effective way to reduce the quality and variety of your worldbuilding, just base it all around a single thing without development. Solo Leveling feels like a world scared of showing or developing itself, aesthetically unpleasing and inconsistent. Solo Leveling's society is vaguely organized around the dungeons for how important they are, there is no science or knowledge or government organism specifically designed to better understand them, post-dungeon reports are very poorly controlled and there is virtually no introspection into what could have been done better, what could have been avoided, hunters are also badly treated and managed as a resource; overall, everything feels very sloppy for a job that has been going on for many years, one which brings home some of the most important resources, VERY little information is also given to ensure the highest possible safety of the hunters, which is strange considering the lethality of this job; yes, there is some randomness attributed to dungeons and their nature, but this is also the case in many real life occupations such as mining or mountaineers, and yet we create many laws, protective measures and items to protect these workers, this is not the case with Solo Leveling hunters; for example, in the case of Tae-Shik, his punishment is barely addressed, no detailed report is given on such a political and relevant issue, we are not given more information on how these kinds of situations are handled or how they are dealt with publicly, and soon this opportunity to delve deeper into this world is abandoned, later on he's never mentioned again—all of this is crazy when Solo Leveling takes hunting as such an important job, the whole anime is based around this, but the occupation by itself is “explained”and "tackled" in such a vague way that it is pitiful. S-hunters just wander around without weapons, people are noticeably lax while going through the city, they are weirdly relaxed even though portals have been known to be breached, etc. It feels so alien. Moreover, apart from Jin-Woo, not only is the S class' character design utterly bland and without any personality, but they are USELESS and almost never there for raids, are they so seemingly occupied that they can never give support and associations have to bring civilians and average Joes to further lose workers? These stupid incompetent morons from the association are registering the danger of ants WHEN THE CITY IS ALREADY IN RUINS AND A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DIED lol, like this worldbuilding is BARELY glued together, how come there are no external security measures of any kind around the portals or the beasts that dwell there when they've already been recorded to have escaped into the real world when hunting has become SUCH an important job? Why is there so little analysis around hunting? Why is this world SO feeble? Now, the second season shoehorns some type of "hell" which is vaguely mentioned by Esil, someone who is just brushed off the show when she serves her purpose as an addon and walking exposition. Hunter x Hunter was able to combine several styles in a cohesive way thanks to Togashi's talent, who managed to connect many different worlds and unite them in a mix that captivated the world of anime and manga, practically raising worldbuilding standards and inspiring many artists; however, Solo Leveling achieves nothing, it would be an insult to Togashi's magnanimous work to compare it to a soulless aberration like Solo Leveling. The worlds of SL feel alienated, dull and disconnected, you'll see a mention of the United States and its hunters, the only thing we see of this idea with so much potential for international politics is some random metropolis and one of the antagonized characters (Hwang) is depicted as an unabashedly selfish, Americanized narcissist—who is then beaten up by the father of our main character, Il-Hwan Sung, this and the Jeju Island arc are a great example of the pedantic nationalism in this work, along with the fact that all the japanese are presented as directly egotistical, apathic, murderous or malicious. There are a lot of questions to be asked with the world order regarding hunters, but Solo Leveling refuses to provide answers and instead offers soulless slop, goofy power fantasies, etc. Each character has a generic, random style: you have a paladin, then another guy with a sword, a guy with a dagger, japanese dude with a katana, sorcerers—the sorceresses are, funnily enough, in lingerie and semi-nude or with an exaggerated and impractical cleavage—and these guys will act exactly as you expect them to act; not even the acclaimed S-ranks look imposing, they are simple Joes without any trait that makes them interesting to the eye, in another work they could perfectly be side characters that are abandoned, but here they are taken as absolute icons; later on, when Gigachad Sigmalord surges as an S-class, we get nothing of how the lower classes live in this world, amplifying this disconnect even more. Overall, it makes for a world devoid of immersion and originality. Incohesive, boring and poorly built. Bland, without a sense of proper aesthetic or style. Solo Leveling is worth nothing visually, it doesnt matter just HOW MUCH budget A-1 Pictures puts into this thing, as its aesthetic is fundamentally flawed due to being lost, bland and not properly defined. The combats feel lost, disoriented, with no proper build-up or nuance, more like a child playing PEW PEW with toys. It is really such a shameless Hunter x Hunter ripoff, at the end of Season 2 there is literally a budget Meruem and the budget Ant Queen from HxH. I am really gaslighted, by this anime, to believe that a modern world as such didnt contribute in the creation of magic stone atomic power; even more, I'm led by this anime to believe that they didnt nuke the shit out of Jeju Island before these bitches could even fly; EVEN MORE, I am led to believe that all of the nations in the world are just ignoring this surging threat, yes it's happening on another country, but international associations and alliances exist for a reason! Or is the entire world just completely disconnected one from the other? Or is everyone enemies with each other? I can understand Japan and South Korea being in a feud or a disconnection, but the USA and South Korea?????? This worldbuilding is stagnant, null and worthless, scared of showing itself and completely incoherent, without any sense of self whatsoever. 6. Solo Ending After this entire diatribe, I have nothing more to say about this abomination. Solo Leveling is, essentially, an ontologically rotten piece. I'm not saying you can't watch Solo Leveling by the way, I'm not the anime police, but I felt the need to express all of this as it is so blatant and absurd to me. I saw a comment on Reddit that said "Solo Leveling is the equivalent of eating cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire year because the story boils down to JUST Jinwoo. Jinwoo saves his friends, Jinwoo killed the demon king, Jinwoo has the best powers, Jinwoo owns the best weapons, Jinwoo mowed his neighbor's lawn, Jinwoo paid off my college loans. It's Jinwoo 24/7. There's no fucking variety." and I don't blame them for having this conclusion, as it's absolutely and completely true. In any case, Solo Leveling is the upmost example of not having a spirit or artistical drive, and one of the worst animes I've ever watched. Terrible worldbuilding. Terrible characters. Terrible story. Terrible comedy. Terrible villains. Terrible battles. Terrible character designs. Terrible everything. Classic A-1 Pictures animation with a big budget, like applying makeup to a corpse. Everything I've seen thus far has been bad, yet the most loyal Solo Leveling fans will operate in sunk cost fallacy with claims like "bro believe me it gets better" as if the build-up and introduction to a climax didnt matter at all, as if everything we are watching was perfectly fine enough, as if we had to ignore everything just because the terrible becomes a bit less terrible later on, even if that climax will be based on this TERRIBLE build up; as far as I know, the only merit of Solo Leveling is knowing how to capitalize and be released in the right time, Sung Jin-Woo will just continue to get stronger, and when this show finishes absolutely nothing of value will have been lost. The build-up? Feeble. The characters? Worthless. The action? Anticlimactic. The plot? Bland. The battles? Incoherent. The dialogue? Unnecessary. The emotion? Ridiculous. The pacing? Irrational. The sidecast? Non-existing. The power fantasy? Insipid. No matter how much makeup you apply, its still a corpse at the end of the day. Because of everything I've said, Solo Leveling deserves the minimum score in every way, there's nothing salvageable.
whereismyisekai
03/29/2025, 10:11 AM
One of the best shows ever where’s my next season ASAP , can’t believe people are complaining, they are ridiculous, every anime is a great anime , I give 10 stars for any anime since I love anime , solo leveling infinity/10 what a great show . The story is very unique has a lot of world building which is awesome . I love world building it really takes the viewer into the protagonists point of view . The art style is amazing , infinity/10 what a great show . The characters are built in a great way , as we see the main characterprogress and the difficulty of the battles match his abilities as he gets stronger which is cool . Animation is amazing . I highly doubt anyone can leave a lackluster review whilst being serious , I’m convinced that they are just trolls who live in basements and to be honest if this show doesn’t garner their recognition they need to just stop leaving reviews to be honest , always someone complaining its ridiculous, like I said every anime is a 10 for me
Flacion
03/29/2025, 09:41 AM
Jin-woo is back and he is climbing his way up the ranks, now with his newly risen shadow army. In this season do we follow Jin-woo in moving up the ranks, while he starts to interact with the higher influenced people in Korea. This brings on new and stronger opponents and allies, as he looks towards curing his mother and conquering new enemies. The plot of the show goes through multiple arcs of the story, with some being shorter ones and others longer, which together builds upon the previous season. These arcs starts bringing us deeper into the lore of the world and pushes characters to newlimits, while introducing new faces to the cast. The plot still focuses around Jin-woo and his journey, so while the plot does highlight some stuff developing in the world, are most plot centered around Jin-woo. All of this results in a very linear story which is easy to follow but is not one with many twists and turns. When it comes to the characters do we have the same tendencies as the previous season, which is high focus on Jin-woo and only a little time to the side characters. But even though we mostly see Jin-woo, does it not mean we don't get any progression on him. We see him having to face different situations, realise how he has changed and need to figure out his new priorities, though it could have been done with more detail so it would have had a greater impact. We also do get some more focus on the side characters, compared to the previous season, so we see more of their abilities and personality. But overall is it still mostly a one man show, with the occasional side characters to support him through the season. Looking at the animation and art style of the show, are they as good as the first season. They do not hold back on any part, the detail level is high both in the high speed action scenes and outside of them. Which helps supporting each an every aspect of the show. One thing that is important to note, is that the show puts a lot of focus on action, with many other aspects lacking behind. This is not necessarily bad, since it was like this in the previous season, but it is a choice and can be important to remember before watching this season. So, overall is it a great continuation to the show, with it keeping the same level as the previous season and building upon what came before. So if you liked the previous season can I only recommend watching this.
Marinate1016
03/29/2025, 08:52 AM
No amount of memes or social media posts could ever make me hate Solo Leveling. No, Solo Leveling doesn’t have the strongest story, yes Jinwoo aura farms every episode and beats the bad guy, yes A-1 and Sawano help take this series to new heights, but is it a crime to just enjoy shows for the spectacle? At the end of the day, anime is about entertainment and pushing the envelope of the animation medium, which solo leveling does. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, it’s sort of like expecting every meal you eat to be a Michelin star restaurant. It’s ok to enjoya fast food meal every now and again if you just view and accept it as such. That’s basically how I feel about Solo Leveling. It’s not the best anime ever, but it is very enjoyable and unlike many people, I actually enjoy the story, characters and premise. Season 2 was only an upgrade in every way for me and is a must watch for any action or sakuga fan. While I don’t think Solo Leveling’s story is the best, I have to say I’m in the minority of people who actually think it’s kind of good? Sure, it’s slow to play out, but there’s been a clear goal in this series from day 1, curing Jinwoo’s mother and not so subtle hints about the magic beast gates/raids being more than they seem. Season 2 builds on this by clearly setting up some greater power that’s pitting humanity against the magic beasts. For what reason? We don’t know, it’s a slow build up, but I completely disagree with the logic that “Solo leveling has no story” I really enjoy the mystery and speculating every week about what’s going on in the world. If you’re looking for something extremely complex then yea, Solo leveling isn’t going to knock your socks off, it’s unashamedly a power fantasy, but if you go in with an open mind and actually analyze it in good faith I think many people will agree that there’s a decent amount of intrigue here. My one real complaint with Solo leveling is that Jinwoo feels so one dimensional. It’s like he actually regressed as a person, but improved as a hunter since he got his abilities. Sometimes it feels like watching a cardboard cutout rather than a person. That’s just me speaking as an anime only who’s only got these two seasons to go off of though. I assume he’s going to actually change as the story goes on and new threats emerge, but damn he just feels so edgy in this season. This isn’t entirely out of place given the stuff he’s been through in the past, his family situation, etc., but I would like to see a little more personality! Goes without saying A-1 and Sawano delivered yet another masterclass this season. I think the OST is even better, the OP with my goat Felix from stray kidz and LiSA has been on repeat nonstop since it dropped. The fights in this season surpass the first and the art is very good as usual. The production quality is amazing, it’s one of the best looking anime out there and it just reaffirms my belief that A-1 pictures at their best are as good as anyone in this industry. SAO Alicization, 86 and now Solo Leveling have shown that they have arrived and are here to stay. So many times during this season I just found my jaw on the floor with how great the choreography and storyboarding looked. Bravo. If you step back and simply consider Solo Leveling as an easily digestible feast on the eyes with a simple, but interesting plot, you’ll enjoy this. If you come into it trying to be an anime critic and nitpick every aspect of the series, you’ll be miserable. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular manhwa ever. Solo leveling season 2 gets 9 out of 10
Tkit
03/29/2025, 08:39 AM
This is genuinely the most pathetic new mainstream anime I've seen. Solo Leveling shows no ambition, no effort and no emotion. Even if considered among the big range of slop power fantasy it is one of the blandest of guilty pleasures one can have. There is no skill in terms of writing here, therefore it is critical to have a thorough look at Solo Leveling's animation and how it handles its role as said power fantasy. Those are its only values and even here it is overhyped and lacking. Everything here is made to revolve around our great Sung lil-bitch. Structure of the story and the'characters' are here to highlight how cool the mc is and to react to how cool he is, that is their whole goal. Every female is made to start lusting over Sung except for his family, which is also here to show that he is cool and cares about his family, beside that they react (as the rest of npcs do) to his epic aura. Story in here follows roughly this structure: Sung 'needs to get stronger' (we will get back to it) He goes to grind, which goes effortlessly He encounters a boss which is strong enough to warrant a longer fight, but still never had a chance to beat him. Throughout or at the end of those steps there are many npcs to react to his awesomeness Repeat 7 times Finish it with a super boss which trashes npcs, but ends up destroyed like the rest The worst part about this awful story is how easily it could have been improved. Why Sung lil-bitch needs to get stronger? To get money for his sister and find a way to save his mother. Why isn't there a time limit to this? His mother can just lay in bed for the next 10 years and his sister was doing fine even without the money. All they had to do was having his mother get so ill that she would die in two months or something and have it destroy her body. Same with the sister, just have her in heavy debt and maybe forced to work some side job that is dangerous and hinders her school life. Those are the smallest, easiest to implement changes and already you have some urgency, drama and tension which don't exist in this show as of now. Sung himself could have been also easily improved. Show hints at his moral fall but does nothing with it. Dude casually murders someone because in the state of panic a frightened npc attacks him. There are moments when he lacks empathy and comments on it, why isn't it expanded into something meaningful? Instead he is just cool, edgy and always wins. That is what I mean by the lack of ambition, the power fantasy aspect is just MC STRONG with no creativity or ability. The fact that this show doesn't seem to realize how much it sucks is very frustrating. Anime genuinely tries to have me worried about the moron npcs like they are people or something. Oh no, will the sniffa lady designed to be in love with lil-bitch die on the first real mission I see her on? Oh no will those heroic fighters get wiped out (repeat 6 times)? Same with the mc. The funniest shit is how they try to build tension for every unlosable fight. I loved for example the epic music for the 1st episode fight between a summon and random bear, truly an epic face off. Even the premise of the show is abandoned. I know it is called Solo Leveling, but instead of just having grind from games they could have brough some fun gaming strategies. Never have I seen Sung go 'this fight looks tough let me buff myself, setup some traps and creativly use some skills/equipment' its always just SMASH or SLASH. Enough about obvious flaws, let's talk visuals. Solo Leveling is widely considered pretty which is true, it is also important to note that second season has a much better production quality than the first one. On the other hand one hears so much about said quality that you might expect something revolutionary like a consistent peak animation, I'm here to say that that is not the case. Before we focus on the fights it is important to acknowledge that we don't always have said fights and outside of them anime decreases in quality. Its not awful, it is just standard, sometimes lighting will be pretty cool tho. In the fights by far VFX are the best, some elemental spells look beautiful. Lightning, particles, etc. are cool and movement made slick. Fights have quite a few animation highlights to the point that sometimes we even get some decent choreography. It happens quite rarely (most prominent in the 6th episode). It is quite a high accomplishments for a slop anime, but it is important to remember than it has been done better before. Most disappointing were the backgrounds which at least sometimes existed in fights, but beside that weren't doing anything too impressive. You can see what I mean in the 12th episode. We change the fight to those controversial floating lines which always when executed correctly exists to highlight good background animation, but here said background is either non existent or gray and boring, with not much of anything going on. Talking about the climactic fight it was the biggest disappointment of Solo Leveling. 60% was just slapping each other, there was the aforementioned fumble with lines and the rest was also just vfx line attacks followed by damage, it looked cool, but was weaker than most of the other big fights of this series. Whole scale of the action sequences can't be handled by the anime. All the time we have big team fights and with so many individuals we often get to see a lot of poor cgi, which extends to cars as well. To wrap it up, yes fights look good, but not good enough to carry this disaster on its own. That is why you can only enjoy this show if you can get entertainment from its super boring form of a classic power fantasy. You may say I'm nitpicking, but you have to realise that if all you have is animation than that is the level of scrutiny you are going to get. I genuinely believe that instead of watching this hit piece of shit you should invest 10 minutes of your life on research and you will easily find a truly good anime that has good animation and/or good power fantasy.
Ionliosite2
03/29/2025, 08:38 AM
If I haven’t been clear before, because I didn’t do a review of such a soulless and manufactured, by-the-numbers product like the first season of this show, then I will just say it clearly, I loathe Solo Leveling, I’m disgusted by it, it’s one of those abominations called “Webtoon adaptations” that are a completely different medium creeping into anime by the power of American companies such as Crunchyroll, who shamelessly shill these Korean series and call it “anime”. Can you really see this series and tell me that it was made because the author has anything worth to tell? Of course not, because Solo Levelingis even more shameless than any generic low quality isekai that get forgotten a day after they finish airing that people have been complaining about for like a decade now. In fact, Solo Leveling reminds me of this absolutely terrible isekai called IseLeve, because in that show this fat ugly guy suddenly stumbles upon powers and from one day to the other becomes this super hot guy that girls fawn over everywhere he goes, and he is so OP he can basically do anything, and that show was mind numbing. If you ask me if I prefer to watch that show or Solo Leveling, then I would watch that one again, these two shows are basically the same, but one was rightfully relentlessly mocked while Solo Leveling gets praised to high heavens by “people” who sound no different from bots, as I have never seen an organic Solo Leveling discussion, when I say that Crunchyroll has people shilling it, I mean it seriously. This series couldn’t possibly have been written by someone older than 13, this show is an infinite repetition of itself and there’s absolutely no variation at all, you can easily see the formula: jobbers get sent to a dungeon, they get defeated by the super strong enemy, MC appears and easily defeats the super strong enemy, rinse and repeat until the end of times. Even before the anime came out, I saw people comparing it to SAO, but there isn’t much similarities between these series beyond the game mechanics, and while they make sense in SAO because they are inside a literal videogame, in Solo Leveling they just are there for the protagonist. I mean, at least SAO isn’t shameless enough to make Kirito’s friends completely useless, they get their time to shine and sometimes Kirito faces hurdles that he couldn’t complete if he didn’t have these companions, but Solo Leveling is different since, in its absolutely moronic world building, people cannot get stronger except for the MC, so even S-Ranks are absolutely useless in comparison to the protagonist, because fuck any character who isn’t the protagonist, right? And this protagonist whose name I couldn’t bother to remember is a wet tissue of a character, it’s basically seeing a caricature of a caricature of a caricature, this guy has no character at all, I don’t think you could give me a description of his personality because he doesn’t have one, I have seen people describe him as an “aura farmer” and I don’t know what the fuck that even means, it seems like words randomly put together by an AI or maybe something a 12 years old kid on TikTok came up with, but anyhow, there aren’t characters in this show, because only the protagonist matters and he doesn’t have a character. The plot of this series is also palpably non-existent in ideas, it’s basically a ripoff of the author’s favorite light novels and at some point he decided to add some parts of Hunter x Hunter, but as the author has absolutely no ability to write and you could probably find something better written in Wattpad, these little points of the so-called plot fall so flat on its face that you will feel that you wasted your time, because, as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, this show is just a repetition with no variation where the GOD CHAD MC beats everything effortlessly because of his gifted powers, because unlike what some people tell you, no, he didn’t work hard for his powers, even Saitama worked harder for them and the way Saitama got so powerful was literally told as a joke for the series, but this series take itself super seriously as if it wasn’t some kid’s wet dream where even his smell makes girls wet. Did you expect some kind of good soundtrack because of Hiroyuki Sawano? Prepare to be disappointed, because this is the driest soundtrack he has ever composed, it’s like this series is lacking so much on having people with soul working on it that it removes the soul of people that are talented, I mean, it doesn’t matter if you think Sawano can get repetitive after a while, but he has composed extremely recognizable and unforgettable stuff, the fact that I don’t hear in my head a single track this series had should tell you all. Did you expect good animation because it was A-1 Pictures? Well, think again, some battles are literally colors traveling around the screen with absolutely no choreography to speak of as if you’re watching Dragon Ball Z, but that’s a 300 episodes long anime, it at least has an excuse to have many lows in animation and even then it tends to have much better battle choreography than this show, I’m not going to say the animation is low quality all the time, but it definitely isn’t the best A-1 Pictures have put out even in recent years and I don’t consider them even close to the best studios. Did you expect literally anything at all because of the popularity? Sorry to ruin it to you, but there’s nothing for you to be attached to here, no plot, no characters, no nothing, I refuse to believe people who praise this aren’t bots or shills, it’s obvious that Crunchyroll is going to far lengths to promote the series and you have seen this kind of thing with basically every Webtoon adaptation, this isn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last poisonous plague that will come out from there. I think I’m disappointed in myself for getting so far into this show, it’s probably the most uninteresting Korean adaptation I have seen so far, which is an extremely high bar because no other “Crunchyroll Original” originated from Korean has been interesting in the slightest, it is honestly embarrassing that something like this is even allowed to exist and to be considered one of the best Korean series, do Webtoons really have nothing worthy to offer aside from porn? I have seen better writing in porn than in this. Recently, I was sick for like 10 days with ugly coughs and even felt like I was getting choked when going to bed because of all the phlegm, and that’s probably a better experience than watching these Webtoon adaptations, and the fact that we are getting another one next season seems dreadful, I’m probably going to watch it and give it a 1/10 again or simply not watch it at all, but the problem is not if I’ll be watching it or not, the problem is that these products are worthless garbage that doesn’t deserve being called anime, even if you were to call them such, you would have to be either a kid or have never seen anything else in your life, anime or not, to be impressed about a show so devoid of everything such as Solo Leveling, everything about this show is as artificial as the jawline surgeries that are so popular over Korea. Thank you for reading.
jahver
03/29/2025, 08:30 AM
“Y’all got any good writing?” “We got hype moments and aura.” Season 2 of Solo Leveling is more of the same; more irritating pseudo-chuuni sophistry, more interchangeable sakuga-interested fight scenes designed to be reposted rather than enjoyed, more characters with increasingly similar names we have to pretend care about, procedurally generated “TOP TEN COOLEST ANIME ENTRANCES”-ass entertainment wrapped in a layer of undeserved pretension. Clearly something’s working, though, because this is currently the twenty-fifth highest rated show on here and one of the most viewed series ever on Crunchyroll. Streaming sites crash whenever a new episode comes out. I’ve seen more people talk about Solo Leveling inthe past three months than the most recent MCU flop. I’ll give the show credit and say it looks appealing, because I’m not deliberately obtuse enough to pretend the flash over substance angle isn’t exactly what thrives in this modern viewing environment where everything has to be as concise as possible. But flash over substance implies the existence of any kind of substance at all. It’s just under 300 chapters worth of Timmy’s middle school Wattpad ego trip about beating up the mean kids at school after getting bullied for the last time, Tails Gets Trolled if the ironic self-awareness was feigned. This is not the kind of work that deserves a full-scale anime production, but you can chalk it up to corporate suits who keep throwing money at D-grade internet fanfiction until it becomes the “next big thing”. You wouldn’t be reading this if not for them, because Solo Leveling as a concept wouldn’t have advanced past the dumpster of the online serialization where it belongs. The characters are still one-note and unlikeable. I don’t even know what Sung Jinwoo’s goal is anymore. The impetus for his transformation into an emotionless RPG slave is resolved by the halfway point of the season when he wakes his comatose mother. The moment where he heals ger is the single best moment in the entire show, because as SJW cries tears of relief, he begins to feel like a real person, someone you can sympathize with and relate to, if only for a minute (elevated to tearjerker levels by Taito Ban’s vocal performance); it comes as no surprise that this is the most disliked episode of the season. Apparently having the self-insert main character show any sort of convincing human emotion signifies that he “lost his aura”, because the only thing that matters now is how an anime presents itself and not what it stands for or how it conveys ideas. I’m not sure why people prefer that Jinwoo be an emotionless Gary Stu so badly like it’s a good thing if a character never feels or reacts to anything going on around them. Make him cry more! Even a smile or two would be enough! I can’t believe I’m defending fucking Solo Leveling – from its own fanbase no less – but the moment the show threatens to become watchable, they all seem to turn on it. The story seems to bend over backwards to make SJW the strongest and most competent character in any given situation, which makes for an exhausting watch experience. His biggest trial this season is getting grazed by one of the bosses he’s fighting. He either defeats every single enemy without breaking a sweat or he lets his shadows do all the work for him. I couldn’t take any aspect of the narrative seriously after Jinwoo easily killed a supposedly unbeatable monster as everyone looked on in shock for tenth time in the span of five episodes. The only other times Jinwoo shows any appeal is when he foregoes his job as an S-rank monster hunter to hang out with his mom and sister to compensate for all the years of bonding his family didn’t get to experience and then go stand around on the roof of his apartment. Yet this somehow manages to undercut Jinwoo’s appeal even more as it takes place during a battle that involves several innocent people dying horribly, which could’ve been prevented had he been there. There’s layers to Solo Leveling’s incompetence – even when it’s doing something right it’s at the cost of something else like some kind of narrative equivalent exchange. RDCworld did a pretty funny video about it. Put a gun to my head and ask me to name five Solo Leveling characters and what their personalities are beyond surface-level archetypal traits. It’s impossible. Anyone who isn’t Sung Jinwoo barely services the overall narrative and I’m convinced that if you removed 75% of the supporting cast this show would be at least five episodes shorter. This season alone introduces like fifty equally terrible new hunters, monsters and civilians who all have the memorability and personality of a rock. You already know none of these unlikeable, incompetent, superficial dipshits aren’t going to matter by the end of the season because Jinwoo does all the heavy lifting for everyone else while they stand around verbally fellating him. This season even brings in a staggeringly uninteresting future love interest whose loyalty towards SJW is only justified by the fact that she thinks he smells better than everyone else – I actually paused the episode here and had to go watch an entire episode of Medalist just to get my mind off how embarrassing it was that a grown adult could write something so insipid. The only good character in this season is Esil, a demon girl who shows up as a sidekick for one episode and she is the cutest goshdarn thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t complain about her minimal presence because she’d probably be ruined if she stayed around any longer than that. The other S-Rank hunters are just as useless as they were in the manhwa. There’s this annoying nerd who looks like if Aizen was drawn by a fujoshi, some guy who turns into a werewolf, a really big dude with an afro, all of whom exist to stand around either monologuing, killing fodder enemies, or getting fodderized by the actual threats so Jinwoo can come save them – but only after standing around and letting a few of them die so he can look cool, of course. The Japanese hunters have it even worse; this is a Korean franchise after all, so anyone who represents a foreign nation is either a weaselly little bastard with no sense of honor or the most pathetic jobber on the face of the earth. And you’d better believe Solo Leveling will cut away from the fights multiple times per episode in service of another scene where these dweebs stand around in an office to deliver exposition as if they haven’t wasted enough time doing that already. The show’s pacing is dreadful to the point it keeps bringing back old plot points and then not resolving them until a later arc. Remember Wang Dong Suck’s brother who vowed to avenge his death in season 1? He gets offscreened by Jinwoo’s dad and his plotline gets dropped until the next season, where he’ll inevitably get folded again because nobody in Solo Leveling gets to do anything other than job unless they’re Sung Jinwoo. This show isn’t just derivative, it blatantly lifts storylines from series I would rather be enjoying instead. The major focus of this season aside from the endless meandering and dropped subplots is a shameless rehash of the Chimera Ant arc from Hunter x Hunter, which suffers the most from the show’s terrible pacing; despite being the selling point of season 2, it gets condensed down to three episodes which is indicative of the season’s detrimentally rapid pacing. Instead of a complex and nuanced antagonist like Meruem, the character he was derived from, Beru is just another obstacle for Jinwoo to curbstomp. SJW could be fighting some fodder enemy for all I care, because there’s no tangible conflict here like there was in HxH. I think this perfectly summarizes everything wrong with Solo Leveling; it copies better works at a surface level and retains none of the underlying themes and exchange of viewpoints that make them what they are. I mean for God's sake there’s a scene halfway through the season where Jinwoo has a flashback of his mom getting burnt to save him and it’s lifted shot for shot, word for word from one of Shinichi’s flashbacks in Parasyte. I’m not sure how Chugong even got away with this, because it’s not exactly subtle. When I was reviewing the first season, I noted that the technical competence was one of the few saving graces of the show, but now it feels like A-1 Pictures started experiencing budget cuts midway through the production. Season 1 wasn’t coming close to Dubu’s art from the manhwa, but it wasn’t constantly flipping between rejected character drawings from One-Punch Man season 2. I actually went back and compared episodes to their respective chapters, and it wasn’t even a contest between the two mediums. I can say with confidence the anime looks like a Deviantart user trying to recreate their favorite anime screencap in comparison, especially now that the overwhelming amount of off-model character art can be spotted without having to pause mid-scene like in the first season. The professionally constructed paneling and framing of certain events in the manhwa was woefully underutilized a lot of the time this season, if not outright butchered for seemingly no reason; there’s a moderately iconic panel where a villain rips off a character’s arms and walks away towards the viewer in the next panel with their opponent bleeding profusely in the background. I was baffled that such a clear-cut panel to adapt wasn’t included; rather, the director opted to show it at a different, less striking angle that made what could’ve been an effective moment of intimidation look boring in comparison. Little things like that make me wonder what the fuck is going on at A-1 Pictures and if they have any quality control in their studio. I already mentioned last season how unmemorable and samey Hiroyuki Sawano’s score for this series felt to me, but it doesn’t even sound like him now. The opening is the best sounding track of the show so far and I’m not even sure if Sawano composed it or it’s another artist trying to imitate his style. It depresses hearing such a legendary composer phone it in to this extent. Even the fight choreography feels lazier than before. The twelfth episode is painfully inconsistent in terms of consistent animation fluidity, bad anatomy and lazily rendered CGI environments, which is made even more insulting by the fact that there are some genuinely great shots when the incomprehensible direction isn’t drowning everything else; stuff during the fight like the bug’s claw hovering inches away from Jinwoo’s eye, or Jinwoo staring down his reflection on a wall of ice are visually phenomenal. It's clear the storyboarders are trying during major sequences, are their efforts are commendable. Contrarily, the final battle between SJW and Beru has them do that thing from One Piece where they turn into brightly colored streaks and fly around in midair interspersed with that nauseating faux-shakycam thing anime directors do now. I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on at certain points because the camera was moving so fast it felt like I was watching on 2x speed, or even worse, watching a fight scene from Magia Record. The final attack is portrayed by a bunch of looping frames and a lazy panning shot complete with speed lines. I’m not sure why this episode was so highly praised considering how glaringly obvious the flaws were, so I have to assume most viewers were probably too disoriented from the fight scene to notice. Giving this season a 1/10 would be dishonest because compared to the first, the positive aspects were more abundant. Unlike the previous season, there were moments that felt like they made me see what fans see in this show.Episode eight looks fantastic aside from being a genuinely enjoyable experience compared to the rest of the show, mostly in part to Yoshihiro Kanno’s storyboards. Jinwoo punches a demon in the face so hard it creates a nuclear explosion. I liked that one moment significantly more than anything else that happened this season. And as previously mentioned, episode twelve has fantastic storyboarding at times in contrast to the overcomplicated scene direction. I rarely have anything good to say about this anime, because when there are positives they hardly last more than a few minutes and make you wish you were watching something else.
ZeroMajor12
03/29/2025, 08:27 AM
Weird, isn't it? To achieve an adaptation of this caliber could still receive backlash despite being able to break the internet and servers for having episodes that continue to get better with every release. Do you want to know how I see it? People hate Solo Leveling for the same reason they hate Demon Slayer. Both are carried by the animation and soundtrack when that's the entire point of the ADAPTATION anyway. Why else would people hype up these anime anyway? They will certainly gawk at it because an adaptation like this is not easy to get when you have multiple known blunders that havebeen memed till it's dry like the Seven Deadly Frames and PowerPoint Lock. Solo Leveling is certainly a standard for a good adaptation since it respects the core elements of the manhwa and keeps it as it is for fans alike. So it's bad for an adaptation to be handled in the worst way possible, but it's also bad for an adaptation to be this good? But of course, since this is a review, I should address the anime's worst flaws just so newcomers know what they're getting into. Much of Solo Leveling's writing can be easily comprised of two things: Exposition dumps and fast-paced action sequences. The difference is as clear as black and white. Like its manhwa's counterpart, the anime reenacts that perfectly from head to toe. It's not going to be the best for newcomers or anyone who's expecting a well-written action anime. It lacks intensity since the opposition is made to be a stepping stone (like the name suggests SOLO L-E-V-E-L-I-N-G) or have its human characters act as exposition dumps since they have no other way of interacting in the world other than setting up for the next big event, which allows Sung Jin-Woo, A.K.A the biggest self-insert character for power fantasy fans to shine in and have all the smoke. However, since the name is truly Solo Leveling, it's an incredible experience for fans of the manhwa, such as me, and people who just love these kinds of fan service. It's very quick and straight to the point, which leads us right into both of the series' strongest attributes, the soundtrack, done by Hiroyuki Sawano, and the intense, slick, and beautiful resemblance of the manhwa's renowned artwork coming to life. The story and characters are decent enough so you don't cringe at them unless you're feeling a bit too critical and expecting masterclass writing. It is a wonderland for fans waiting for an adaptation like this. Despite what people might say, it is such a pleasure to find Solo Leveling basking in all its glory with the great animation and soundtrack. If there is one strength that makes Solo Leveling so addicting and satisfying to watch, it is the feeling of growth the anime consistently keeps up from start to finish. There's a gravitating and euphoric feeling watching that LVL 1 character you watch struggle from the beginning to have him stomp these monstrous forces of nature whilst constantly gaining new strength and powers. It understands how to make power fantasies work, despite being treated as a pejorative term. Solo Leveling took that term and embodied it till the end. This is why anime like this is bound to face backlash. It's not a universally loved subject for everyone, but hey, it definitely works for people out there, especially me. As I said earlier, obviously there's not going to be a lot of people liking Solo Leveling since so many flaws can be found in the anime, even content creators know it, like the MC is constantly aura farming and waiting until the last second just so he can have all the clout. Solo Leveling is an anime that sacrifices many integral parts of what makes a great anime for only a couple of redeeming attributes; art and animation. And it really paid off, because the source material isn't really known for having the best writing or characters. What fans really wanted to see was the artwork the manhwa is purely known for, and I can say without a doubt that they definitely cooked in this one. I'm not going to try to tell you that Solo Leveling is a great anime or you're wrong for not liking Solo Leveling since I lack the prowess to do that. But let's just say that Solo Leveling is like a dream come true for power fantasy fans. Am I biased for this? Yes. It is purely that in its rawest form, and I'm grateful for what the staff have managed to polish and create with the time they have. Season 2 is an upgrade from its already good prequel and managed to elevate it to the grounds of pure entertainment. Thank you for reading.

Ore dake Level Up na Ken Season 2: Arise from the Shadow 俺だけレベルアップな件 Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

2025 winter | Episodes: 13 | Score: 8.8 (312122)

Updated every Sundays at 00:00 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Synopsis

Voice Actors

Ban, Taito

News

Reviews

Caeruleus_CCXVI
04/16/2025, 07:27 PM
5.75/10 ~ its fine Every season we get shows with massive praise and hate, and honestly most of them are fine and deserve neither the hype nor the hate. And solo leveling is just that. Honestly the biggest crime Solo leveling does (more season 1 then 2) is how unsuited the studio that animated was for the job, Season 1 was a laughable job to depict one of the most stunning webtoons ever made and the product, much like tower of god was just not great. Season 2 of solo leveling does step it up a bit, but when compared to its peers of Demon slayer,MHA, Kaiju #8 it just doesnt stack up. Sure the one thing that Solo does better then the rest is the whole "aura" thing... but I dont care one way or another about how kool someone looks while they do the thing, so its lost on me. - Characters are flat as a doorknob - Story is weak as hell - the world is interesting but with the lack of good character or storytelling this is lost - they emphasize the little video game moments of stats/accomplishments/items received for all of 2 frames, usually amounting to sub 1 second log sequences that you literally have to pause and rewind to read what is being said, bit annoying. - they skip so many sequences and just say "yeah this happened", like common show, not tell. - there are literally no stakes, powerful person does powerful things and it gets kinda boring watching him turn every situation into a XP farm lol I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone, even fight wise the show is pretty lacking, when I read other reviews or talk to people about it IRL, I often ask myself if we watched the same thing.
Royalnut
04/13/2025, 06:28 PM
What makes something art is what you take away from it, and after watching Solo Leveling, all I was left with was the typical "powerful hot dudebro guy is powerful and kills things very powerfully", but with too much animation budget. The fights were cool, the animators did an amazing job, it's just too bad they had to animate this slop with less flavor than plain yogurt. Remove the budget and what are you left with on paper? The world has a problem, and an even bigger problem is coming. A dude with a twink build is weak but needs to be strong for moneyand family reasons. He becomes a kind of chosen one, gets bestowed some mysterious power, then becomes handsome and powerful (and literally taller for some reason lol). This is an okay start but certainly isn't anything new. Could you not apply that sentence to dozens of Shonen series? But anyway, this all plays in the backdrop of several organizations that play really, really rudimentary political games you'd come to expect from isekai trash like this. Of all those boring-ass office scenes, all they amounted to was: There's five guilds, they engage in power struggles like nations do, a sixth one is trying to form, the MC is important in that balance of power, and we're keeping an eye on that there MC I tell you whut. Sometimes a third of the whole episode is nothing but these boring office scenes, and a third of the runtime is spent trying to tell me THAT?? That's it?? It's importance theater. A bunch of suited up stern looking anime tough guys look out giant office windows with their back turned to the other character, hands behind back in the most pretentious way possible, saying lines in this silly melodramatic tone that would otherwise read like they're out of the Wikipedia article on the show's plot. It's just silly. Again, if you take away the budget, if you take away how attractive the characters look and sound, if you take away the painstakingly animated blood and guts, you're left with utter silliness. Do you think there are characters in this show? Really? Okay, here's a few lines from the show. I want you to name the character that said each line: "That wasn't even a warm-up." "What happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon, right?" "I have a wife a-and kids!" **minutes upon minutes of explaining something** **directly tells someone what matters to them in dialogue to artificially raise the stakes of them dying right before they die** Answer? Several characters have said all of these lines multiple times because nearly every character is exactly the same. Calm, cool, collected, calculating, mysterious vibe, know-it-all, melodramatic, self-serving in a way that leads to their downfall, or comically selfless to where everyone likes them (but only if they're hot), and maybe a dash or two of bloodlust. Boom, 99% of the cast accounted for. What happens when you can't tell characters apart from their dialogue lines? It means no one cares when they have fun, cry, die, or anything. Nobody cares. The show's producers used the poorly written characters and dialogue as an excuse to set up for the power trip fantasies and cool way-over-budget fight scenes. The audience feels the same way. These nothing characters and boring dialogue are the vegetables before the wagyu steak, the pauses to introduce a sense of pace between the cool fight scenes and power circlejerks. We look on in morbid curiosity as yet another nothing character with "a wife and kids" is decapitated or torn in half. "Fuck his wife and kids" we all say in unison. "Fuck them". It's bad, thanks for reading.
bram024
04/09/2025, 10:49 AM
This anime is severely overrated All the core issues from season 1 remain fully intact—if anything, they're even more noticeable now. The animation remains the show’s strongest (and only real) asset. It’s fluid, dynamic, and visually impressive, with some undeniably great-looking moments. But great visuals alone can’t save a show this hollow. The characters continue to be painfully one-dimensional. Jinwoo, in particular, feels like he was written by a teenager's self-insert fanfic fantasy: hot, cool, strong, mysterious—but with zero actual depth. There’s no emotional weight or growth behind any of his actions. He’s just an aura plank that walks into every scene with the same stoic lookand broken powers, and everyone around him falls over in awe like it’s the first time they’ve seen him do this. Again. The story is equally lifeless. It’s just the same recycled scenario over and over: all hope is lost, the stakes are high… until Jinwoo shows up and one-shots the big bad in the most nonchalant way possible. Rinse and repeat. These “hype moments” are supposed to be cool, but they fall completely flat because there’s nothing grounding them—no tension, no real struggle, just forced spectacle. What’s worse is that the strength Jinwoo constantly flaunts never feels earned. He gets more powerful through a series of relatively easy fights, and then uses that power in… more relatively easy fights. The pacing still suffers, jumping between slow drags and rushed exposition, and the shallow script gives the voice actors (at least in the dub) almost nothing to work with. There’s still not a shred of originality or personality here—just glossy animation masking a soulless power fantasy.
NotShit
04/01/2025, 06:36 AM
Solo levelling might be the best piece of media ever crafted. At first i wasnt too into it because the mc looked like a wimp who even i could beat in a fistfight, but the end of season 1 is where my mind changed. He's cool and strong, can fight whatever he sets his mind to, and he's nonchalant about it too!! While watching season 2 i realized something, i found the mc attractive and by the end of it i fully realized i was gay all thanks to Sung Jin Woo... Solo levelling changed my life and i can't express how much it means to me Strong reccomend toanyone!
will-o-wave
03/30/2025, 05:51 AM
I actually liked solo leveling S1 from the perspective of someone who never read the manhwa. At the time, I didn’t have many complaints. But now, here we are in S2. It’s not like this season is bad when it comes to delivering an experience. The action is still top tier, but that’s already a given for this series so I won’t go into detail praising it. Honestly I don’t even know how else people could praise it aside from the action, animation, art style and music? The same goes for its flaws, how else could people criticize it besides calling it simple and generic?Personally i never had major issues with the story. Like I said I enjoyed s1 even though it didn’t bring anything new to the table. It’s a very beginner friendly anime and even for veteran anime fans, not everything has to be complex or groundbreaking. So what else does this season offer? It keeps things straightforward, dungeon expeditions, key power ups and major battles that deliver that solo leveling excitement. However, if you’re a decent anime watcher, not even a full on veteran, just someone with around 300+ anime entries like me, you’re bound to experience a lot of déjà vu. My mind kept screaming, "Bruh am I rewatching an anime I’ve already seen?" This feeling built up to the point where it became mentally exhausting, especially during the Jeju Island part. It felt like I was watching one of my favorite arcs from another anime being ripped off. It left me with this emotional void fighting a monster I would already seen before just in a different form. Jinwoo’s character also feels much less likable this season. He comes off as edgy with little to no personality compared to s1, except for ep 9 and the finale, but even then, it still feels empty. Most fights lacked tension and when there was tension it often felt artificial. On a side note unrelated to SL, I find it funny that some of my friends won’t watch stuff like wind breaker (the delinquent anime) just because it only offers a good amount of fight choreography but lacks a strong story. Yet they’ll watch solo leveling any day even though the same logic applies. What more does this series have to offer?(The difference is that one is non-fantasy). I guess people will always prefer to hype fantasy action, no matter how generic the story is just like solo leveling and demon slayer. But no matter how successful these types of anime get they’ll always face criticism for their simplicity. If you’re wondering why I felt that way watching this season, it’s because H×H and SL's Ant Arc but i won’t go into detail since it's a spoiler free review i guess. I wasn’t sure how to put into words what I was feeling while watching the latter half of the series. Something about it triggered a strange, almost panicked reaction in me. At first, I couldn’t figure out why, but after thinking it over, I ended up writing this review in the mixed 'feelings' section just to get that feeling out of my system. Just a warning though, you probably couldn’t relate. Is this anime worth watching? Yes, if you’re just looking for cool MC moments, back to back. It has this vibe where you can almost feel like you’re the MC yourself, owning that protagonist energy (just me trying to look at it from an action lover’s perspective lol). But it might be a bit hit or miss if you're more competitive when it comes to watching things and want an emotional or meaningful payoff. Overall, 10/10 production quality from A-1 Pictures, but solo leveling s2 itself? I'd rate it between 6 and 7 out of 10. Hopefully this review doesn’t come across as discouraging anyone from watching Solo Leveling. I’m just sharing my personal thoughts about it, and it’s actually my first time reviewing something too.
38strontium
03/30/2025, 05:37 AM
I'm relatively new to the anime fandom, only having watched 20 or so animes. Till now, there hasn't been one anime where I thought it was actually horrendous. This is the first show I've rated less than a five. This show does so many things wrong I actually cannot comprehend how it's sitting at a 8.88. Story? bland. Characters? non-existent. Themes? unexplored. Entertaining? uh, sometimes I guess. This season was uninteresting and bland all the way through. In my opinion, this show did nothing right, fights had no substance, the characters are even real characters, only exisiting to glaze Jin-woo. His loss of humanity is a halfassedplotline and not really that engaging or interesting since they don't really explore it. The writing was not only bad, but also insanely repetitive. Jin-woo fights boss -> "arise" with nothing interesting to latch onto. No real emotion, themes or anything. Even visually, it's all the same. These villains have zero personality and only serve as a villain of the week type thing. This show can't even make up for all of its flaws with comedy or animation. Because while I think the animation is good, it's not that groundbreaking. This show also just takes itself way too seriously for what it is. Like, I understand that people watch this only for the fights and aura, but the only other pure battle shounen I've watched, Jujutsu Kaisen, does everything this show does, but better in literally every single way you can think of. Better characters, better fights, better themes, better comedy, more substance, more entertaining and the list just goes on. Power fantasies shouldn't be excused for having horrible characters and story. You can focus on battles and aura while being, funny and intersting. This is the most nothingburger anime I've seen.
TheScarletCutter
03/30/2025, 03:18 AM
Oh fuck, this series. Solo Leveling has always been an interesting case to me when it comes to looking at its advantages and disadvantages, and, uh… let’s just say that it’s interesting in many ways that turned it into a toilet water fiasco. You see, this show has been depicted as the basic bitch action series with not much to offer and based on my observation, that is for a compelling reason. To add more salt into the wound, however, this trainwreck suffers from far more problems than one meets the eye, all of which we will tackle the more we yap. This series isso flawed to the very core that it’s actually obliviously astounding. Solo Leveling can’t really get even some of the simple stuff remotely right. In case you missed it by that point, the whole premise behind the series is pretty simple. The whole story starts with a man named Jin Woo who lives in a strange world full of powerful monsters and magic users. He then wakes up and ventures on his own journey to see where things are going. Unfortunately, for him, he has to face the strongest entities known to reality. He has to try hard to get all of his shit together in order to stand a chance. Add on that he may have a miserable life and that puts him into a lot of consequences. Despite all of this, he still stands up to them and eventually gets stronger. I’ll have to admit that I do like the idea behind this. Yes, what it offers may be kind of basic, but I still like the idea of someone getting their things together to counter their biggest obstacles. Heck, it can apply to anything. Even some of the most vanilla of action stories can have something like this and go quite well as long as the rules of keeping your storytelling is given at hand. Unfortunately, though, this will never apply to Solo Leveling, and S2 doesn’t change it up. Despite the otherwise basic premise being actually a bit more thoughtful than one would say otherwise, any sort of potential is negated very hard. Of course, it’s not like we expect a lot of philosophical stuff or political discussions akin to that of LotGH, Gundam, or whatever involved (okay, there are actually political discussions involved but more on that). As we all know by now, the action is this show’s main nucleus and this is where we see a bigger picture here. A good action series for me is when there a consistent buildups paired with choreography involved within polished stakes, all while still having good direction as well as character writing just like any other type of story. Stuff like Fist of the North Star, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Gurren Lagann, for example, and for contrast, follow this criteria quite well, regardless of flaws. While Solo Leveling having a lot of action scenes isn’t remotely a bad thing by itself, the number of issues plaguing Solo Leveling is so glaring that the whole series has to pay not one but hundreds of heavy tolls. Yes, there are some break-time scenes, but those aren’t important enough to affect the story all that much. The whole aura farming gimmick wouldn’t really be enough to excuse this series. For starters, this has some of the most blatantly obvious asspulls any piece of fiction could ever make. Despite Jin Woo starting pretty weak, he gets “some” powers, and surprise, surprise, he becomes the anime equivalent of a Nokia phone. Sure, him being an overpowered edgelord can look kind of cool but it gets stale really fast, especially when he’s just like that for the whole show. It doesn’t matter if you put in a mage, it doesn’t matter if you put in a summoner, it doesn’t matter if you put in an eldrich abomination, and it doesn’t matter if you put in a shitpost that cracks jokes about how a pebble can tank a nuclear explosion, Jin Woo will just one tap any and all of them into their bumfuck graves. The reason why this is so baffling comes down to one word, “indication”. We don’t really see how Jin Woo even becomes so overpowered in the first place, even by video game standards. The plot turns him into an indestructible brick just to move the plot forward. If he’s absurdly broken, then what’s the point of introducing him as a weakling? None of his struggles or hell, even his ideals (if there’s any) matter anymore if you just turn him into a brute-ass silent god. Still on the topic of indication, I can’t express any further just how bad the world-building is. Again, the whole mysterious monsters and magic users thing is pretty badass. On top of them looking very cool, there’s lore to them that could spice the story further. Aside from their origins, their connections with the strange world are very enticing and could even show some sort of meaning. Not the most accurate guess explaining those things on their own but even then, let’s at least hope that they’re far more compelling than Jin Woo’s journey. Well, not really. Despite those things having any sort of potential, just like the Jin Woo adventure segment we talked about earlier, they were thrown into the dumpster for some reason. They’re cool-looking, sure, but there is no elaboration on how they’re formed in this place, let alone having any sort of relationship with the present terminus or how Jin Woo wanders around. Yeah, I know that what we’re set in is a game but just because the world is a game doesn’t mean we don’t need context as to how we end up here. So we’re just living in an MMORPG we wouldn’t give a flying damn about and every edgy pawn on sight is just Jin Woo’s everyday happy meal. Yeah, we have political discussions regarding the world, but again, they aren’t compelling enough to highlight anything. They’re just there to excuse something or make assumptions. And all of the inconsistencies and asspulls are just in one virus, by the way. Do you wanna know what other virus we’re also conflicted with? Boredom. This shit is fucking boring. Just to chuck in another veggie into the milkshake, the one other glaring flaw is repetition. And I don’t just mean repetition, this goddamn show has the tendency to repeat the same stale-ass story format for the whole series. Other titles like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Sword Art Online (again, for contrast) are action series that suffer from poor writing, but at least they still entertain me with a lot of toys to play with, even if they don’t boost their story at any point. Do you know the whole “Jin Woo gets waked, punches a monster, and then gets OP as hell” kind of thing? Not only is that bad writing on its own, but this has been extrapolated in every single episode, and it’s outright dreadful to look at. We get it; Jin Woo is absolutely broken, and he flings his enemies into the trash can. You don’t really need to shove that right into our faces if you’re showing us what your series looks like. Notice how everything I rambled so far talks about the entire series as opposed to the second season itself, but to be honest, that’s actually true. Season 2 as we’re still talking about right now is the same shit stain as its predicessor. It has a dreadful story formula: the protagonist being overpowered without any bit of context, the worldbuilding being shoved into the gutter, some talks involved but none of the topics remotely matter at all, no stakes, no change of pace. Oh, but don’t you worry! Season 2 actually gets a change of pace, heck, a dedicated episode, in fact! This episode shows Jin Woo showing “emotions” (more on that) towards his mother now that his mother has woken up from her coma. This sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Sure thing, until you, once again, take a look at the lack of context. The biggest issue here is that we really don’t see any chemistry between or background within the two. Yeah, they’re a part of the family, and they’re happy that they’re together again, but what about it? What is the relationship between Jin Woo and his mother like? Is the mother also an aura farmer or at least used to be one? What are their connections within the world? Better yet, how do they end up in said world? Do you wanna know the worst part? His family will soon be forgotten the moment the story moves to the next arc. So even though Solo Leveling finds itself “a bit more variety”, this whole dedicated episode was infinitely more funny than remotely emotional. And for the cherry on top of the horseshit sunday, this whole series has the tendency to copy something from Hunter x Hunter. Now, let’s admit that most stories aren’t original themselves but learning from other things is absolutely fine as long as you still differ your properties from others. With Solo Leveling, though, not only does it take something from Hunter x Hunter, but it outright plagiarizes it. What I’m talking about is the Chimera Ant arc. Both HxH’s ant arc and SL’s ant arc are way too similar. Both arcs focus on expanding the biology of ants with their magic, and their key characters eligible for their premises are stronger variants that appear to be ultimate life forms. The only difference I see is that the Chimera Ant arc is actually solidly written. Even if it’s my least favorite Hunter x Hunter arc, it still connects with the overall story of HxH very well and greatly expands on what Nen powers are. It also has Meruem, arguably one of the best villains in the medium. By comparison, Solo Leveling’s bootleg ant arc is nothing but filler. Even if it’s related to the story, it’s just a nothing burger just for the protagonist could easily feast on. Pair this with the aforementioned issues and it just makes the experience even more blatantly painful. If you see my laptop play the whole show again while I refuse to take another look, just assume I’m watching hippopotamus documentaries on my phone. Distraction is the key to preservation. Well gee, isn’t that a striking parallel? So we rambled about how the story and directing suck donkey bananas. Is the character writing at least decent? NO. These sore losers can be summed up in two words: “budget mannequin”. They are complete nothing-dolls that are either cheap plot devices or just exist as backgrounds. Starting with the aura farmer himself, Sung Jin Woo. He’s just a power fantasy stick. That’s the best way to describe him. He has no personality, no backdrop, literally nothing about him. He’s the soulless Gary Stu that’s used to excuse the story’s OP MC fetish. I hate using the term “Gary Stu”, but again, that’s really true. At least Kirito from SAO has some hobbies, has a husband-to-mother relationship with Asuna, and can be quite dorky at times. Not that they make his character much better but there are some things to him. Convincing Jin Woo to find a much more convenient change of pace is like teaching a group of jellyfish how to build a LEGO figure. As for the side characters… I mean, if you want to talk about any of them then sure. But once again, they’re just nothing to talk about. The shadow guys? Who cares about them when they’re moving JPEGs? The statue of god? He’s more memorable through memes with his funny edgy face. Jin A? Might as well see her appearance in pornography instead. Some edgy abominations, including a Meruem knock-off? Gone, reduced to killbinds. Hae in? Okay, I guess she’s probably the coolest character in the series, but even then, you degenerates already know what you have on your hands for her, given that she’s yet another living nothing burger. Every side character, despite having their own purposes, turns out to be useless because the show has a weird obsession with glazing on Jin Woo and his dull-ass “aura”. The character writing involved is less than worthless. While Solo Leveling sucks dick and will always remain that way, there are some things we could compliment, even if they’re not enough to save this bottom of the barrel Webtoon series. The animation and character designs are really good. Even though they may not be the best, they’re at least pleasant to have. The same cannot be said with the music and voice acting, however, especially in the English version, where Kargalgan sounded like a 14-year-old trying to roleplay as a Star Wars villain. Both Ban Taito and Aleks Le for JP and EN respectively did great as Jin Woo though, so shoutouts to them. Every single problem Solo Leveling has committed would have been avoided if it learned not to set its food in a mud puddle. The most glaring flaws throughout the series are so obvious, yet they’re replicated over and over, and over again. It doesn’t even succeed in popcorn entertainment. Trying to enjoy this series is like slowly watching paint dry. It has a change-of-pace episode that’s more unintentionally comedic. And worst of all, it attempted to copy something from another series and called it a day. To put it shortly, Solo Leveling S2 and Solo Leveling as a whole is OFFENSIVELY BLAND. There’s just NOTHING going for it.
timmy7188
03/29/2025, 10:33 PM
It a masterpiece can't wait to the third season I hope don't have to wait to long and I hope they don't cancel it Story is fantastic. I recommend to other anime fan to watch it Characters made right Solo Leveling s2 has flashy action and animation. Goes without saying A-1 and Sawano delivered yet another masterclass this season. I am big fan of animation series wish they do more like solo leveling big thumbs up for the writers,producers and the actors. Solo Leveling" isn’t just an anime—it’s an experience. From jaw-dropping action sequences to deep character growth, it masterfully combines every element needed for an unforgettable adventure deliveringnon-stop excitement from start to finish.
phantom346
03/29/2025, 08:34 PM
Watching this show felt like sitting through a series of Let’s Play videos on Youtube: a meaningless waste of time but somewhat entertaining. If you replaced Jinwoo in this show with Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei, all the people screeching about how good this show is would go run and hide back in their basement. You'd ruin both shows at the same time. Replacing the core of Mushoku character development and storytelling with a bland nobody with zero personality at the same time replacing the core of Solo Leveling's power fantasy since nobody wants to go around fantasizing about being a pedophile. This is the new brandof isekai where instead of fantasizing about killing yourself/getting run over by a truck and reincarnating in a brand new world, OP with no problems to trouble you, now you fantasize about going into a 'dungeon' and coming out OP af with special treatment from god himself and nobody can ever reach your heights except you. You can never get genuinely invested in anything Jinwoo does because the outcome is always the same old predictable, boring smut-fest. There are no stakes in a show where the only possible outcomes for a fight are win or lose because Jinwoo is always going to win. There are no characters in this show besides Jinwoo and so there’s nothing for us to latch onto besides his trials and tribulations which frankly shouldn't even be classified as such. This show treats side characters as disposable props rather than fleshed-out individuals with a not so subtle dig at their “no potential for growth” status contrasting Jinwoo’s. Characters exist solely to highlight Jinwoo’s superiority or to be rescued, stripped of their agency. Female characters feel especially lackluster as they exist purely to be cheerleaders for Jinwoo’s power trips and validate him, regressing sexist tropes back another 100 years. The animation is superb as is the case for most of A-1 Pictures’ works. They’re a fantastic animation studio. Villains are the lifeblood of a show and they make or break shows for me. There are no villains here, except mindless monsters and one-dimensional ‘bad’ guys. So bad. The glaringly obvious rip-off of Hunter x Hunter is disgusting. The author basically wrote fanfiction for what if the Chimera Ant arc had Superman appear out of nowhere and solve all of our problems for us. OMG wHaTaGrEaTiDeA Remember when all the critics complained that Demon Slayer was nothing but a simple story with flashy animation? That series somehow still had 750 times more character and structure than this. If you stripped away all of the slick animation, you’d be left with a PowerPoint presentation titled, “Why I’m Cool:” By Sung Jinwoo.
Shineix
03/29/2025, 03:08 PM
I needed to write a review after seeing that Solo Leveling is somehow rated above an 8. This might be one of the most bland, worst written and basic animes of all time. Before I continue basic ≠ bad but in this situation it really does and I'll break it down. First the main character, Sung Jin Woo was actually decent in season 1 but in season 2 he just becomes unbearable, constatnly acting emotionless, edgy and aura farming and it's not even a joke. He has no development, themes or anything, I thought he might've been like a pillar of hope type character but clearlythe author just wants a bland self insert protagonist to get fame. Second the side cast, obviously Solo Leveling is a solo show revolving around SJW but that doesn't mean the side cast needs to be non-existent, there are many cases of animanga with side casts that are few and have not much screen time but are still amazing. Finally the story, this I actually won't complain about because it's supposed to be action based and actually has some decent bits to it. Overall, a show that had alot of potential but is extremely overrated, if you want to see flashy fights and animation just say that no need to overrate this show.
Bardwyne
03/29/2025, 02:45 PM
Just as the last season, Solo Leveling s2 has flashy action and animation, but ultimately it's pretty substanceless - relying on hype and "aura" rather than characters or narrative. Considering that, It also takes itself way too seriously. Even for those who specifically want action they may find themselves uninterested in the fights due to a lack of compelling motivations or interest in the combatants. And even if that isn't an issue - plenty of shows could scratch the same itch for surface level action and hype, some of which are more technically impressive or otherwise better. But if all you need is some cool fights andhype - this is your jam. If not, you're better off looking elsewhere.
sakajii
03/29/2025, 11:00 AM
Solo Leveling is a show that only gets better as it goes on. Season 1 wasn't bad, but it did feel slower and a bit over-hyped, and now looking backwards, it was still an amazing set-up for the story, as season 2 has blown it out of the park. This show is obviously not meant for everybody, it's a power-fantasy, but this doesn't mean that it is bad. For this genre, Solo Leveling has probably the most exquisite look and most amount of effort poured into it. If you were to compare Solo Leveling to some other popular action anime, there are some major differences,for example, side characters are often given less time. This is not a flaw though, as this just means that the time and focus is put into developing Sung Jinwoo's character instead, giving us the most cold, aura-heavy protagonist we've seen in a while. The cool and edgy dial has been turned up to eleven, creating some of the most chill-inducing action packed scenes and it's beautiful. Solo Leveling did suprise me a lot though, with one of the most unexpected emotional scenes I've seen. I'm not sure what made it so different and heavy-hitting, but the scene where Sung finally achieves his goal, the reason he had been getting stronger for all this time, hit like a truck. This show is sure to get a season 3, since season 2 has been such a success, and as Sung keeps getting stronger, it's likely season 3 will be even more hype, raising the stakes even higher.
keirashii
03/29/2025, 10:40 AM
This review contains spoilers. If we were to find the death of creativity at the end of the world, it would be at the bankrupt core of Solo Leveling's decrepit body, it would have a twisted dagger in one hand and a bag of money on the other. This is not only a review for S2, but also S1. Had to publish this review many times since MAL didnt show it in full because of how long it was. When we digest art, we naturally strive for some kind of value in what we are absorbing, be it thematic, a vision, a philosophy, technical value, legacy, extensive storytelling,worldbuilding, etc; examples abound, works such as Monogatari are endorsed for their thematic depth, potent dialogue and strong emotion with a great cast of characters; even with artpieces in the same shounen branch as Solo Leveling such as Chainsaw Man, a show that is very fun while maintaining a concise script and a constant, charismatic attitude. For technical merit, anime such as FLCL or Akira provide enjoyment in animation, scene composition, character design and choreographies for general design connoisseurs, Hunter x Hunter has a fleshed-out worldbuilding and a legendary power system for people who want to delve deep into a place of wonders, Ghost in the Shell is acclaimed for its philosophy, incredible thematical value, complex social intricacies and the powerful vision it holds, and I can name many more examples—however, Solo Leveling has no value that one can appreciate. It is the equivalent of a soggy french fry presented with a pink bow, eating expensive instant noodles; although completely vacuous, it has the audacity of presenting itself as something better or more innovative despite being the exact same slop that preceedes it, I honestly believe that Solo Leveling is the greatest demonstration of what consumerism and capitalism can do to art in the form of anime, being tremendously derivative, unoriginal and yet presenting itself as something bigger, improved or "peak" and the fact that something like this succeeds so much and influences the creation of a famous gacha game and so many copycats shows the true nature of Solo Leveling—one that is more malicious than you might think. I will not deny anyone of watching this, and its fine if you had fun—I had fun too, and I'm having fun while writing this review, but Solo Leveling doesnt feel right to me, and thus I had to write something on why I feel like this. Now, did I expect the newgen Hunter x Hunter, or a thematically impactful and masterful artpiece a la Monogatari, or a legendary technical piece like Akira, a beloved underdog story a la Hajime no Ippo or just an absolute masterpiece in general? Not really, obviously, I already knew what I was getting into from the beginning, so my standards werent sky high, hell they werent even like, low standards at all, but I expected AT LEAST a minimum of decent storytelling, interesting combats or coming of age nuance—perhaps that was my key mistake, as you cannot ask even the minimum from a product made purely to be consumed and nothing more. Remember, the excuse of "its a power fantasy bro just watch it" doesn't work, we can criticize the shoddy elements of a narrative even with this into account, many forms of art are technically a "power fantasy" such as videogames like ULTRAKILL, which I actually really like. In this videogame you incarnate the strongest prime machine built for a massive war, named V1, who can feed of blood to function and kill entire armies of hellish monsters and gods alike, who was built to be the deadly counter to a gigantic robot who could destroy entire mountains—ULTRAKILL is clearly a power fantasy, yet it is FAR and away superior in grace, depth and execution than Solo Leveling—ULTRAKILL is actually fun and enjoyable too! One of my favorite games, Cruelty Squad, also has power fantasy elements and actively deconstructs that type of story. Also, to note, "Aura" and "hype moments" have their place in storywriting, Chainsaw Man, for instance, uses them excellently, but a proper narrative drive needs to be established, Solo Leveling forgets about this. Slop Leveling, Solo Glaze, ZZZolo Leveling, Solo Slop or Solo Leveling is not only a deeply terrible anime, it is more than that; to me, this is the absolute emblem of acute consumerism in anime, one that leads viewers to digest works without any thought or mentality. What can one get out of Solo Leveling but wasted time? Nothing, I believe, nothing but time spent on a soulless product, created purely for an extreme capitalistic machine and to influence hundreds of copies. Solo Leveling is perhaps the flag bearer of artistical degradation in anime, a drooping mess managed by corporative clutches that oppress art and force it to be soulless, yet they cynically use it to inflate their colossal pockets. Solo Leveling was socially engineered to fit perfectly into the market mold; therefore, this is not an artpiece in any way whatsoever, but rather a derivative product directly baked in the putrid bowels of absolute capitalism, perfectly engineered to be tasted in the right way and without any reflection, without any lesson, without any theme, without any fun or artistical value; this is Solo Leveling, a corpse with well-applied thanatoesthetics by A-1 Pictures, something that has no aspirations whatsoever, it is the maximum hegemony of the anti-art in anime, one which cynically presents itself to be more than it really is. A work that inspires no one, that gives nothing, which desires and pursues nothing at all. It is therefore completely and irrevocably useless. AI-generated without being made by AI. Sterile, a black hole of creativity not worthy of attention, and because of this nature, Solo Leveling has no spirit, it is no-more than an amalgamation of previous power fantasies and derivative tropes with a fancy and pretentious veneer. If the name of this show, by itself, doesnt make you cringe, its content will probably do—if even this is not enough, then I envy you. For some reason, Sloppy Leveling can get away with murder as long as it delivers Tiktok aura, and I'm not sure why. And listen, this will be a weird point, but I think it's relevant to make this comparison. Sword Art Online was rightfully pummeled to hell and back, it is THE anime community's punching bag; from the many essays of Mother's Basement to Digibro's own videos smashing the series to bits or the hundreds of posts detailing the massive amount of flaws in SAO. In our current day, it is indeed the equivalent of beating a dead horse, as there must not be a single uncriticized aspect of that work; however, I haven't seen a similar reflection or act with Solo Leveling and its clear excess of mediocrity, there is much more acceptance towards Solo Leveling and I really don't know why, when in reality these two works basically rub shoulders with each other and are extremely similar? Sung Jin-Woo is Kirito, Hae-In is basically Asuna (in fact, I predict that they will be in a relationship, this was written around S2E3 for the record) and, just like in SAO, the rest of the "characters" revolve around Jin-Woo. The protagonist is also an obnoxious gigachad who is super OP, who breaks the rules of his own universe, kills any tension, everyone is looking to recruit him, both shows have mistakes and clichés all over the place, both are power fantasies, both have barebones world building... etc, I really don't know why Solo Leveling isn't judged more harshly, when it's such a lazy and clearly lifeless work. As of writing this review, it is THE HIGHEST RATED SHOW in Crunchyroll, why is it that this show succeeded so much, then? Why are Solo Leveling and Sword Art Online treated so differently and yet what makes them so similar? Similarly to Sword Art Online, Solo Leveling is incapable of doing anything through sheer talent, just like its main protagonist, and therefore must have relied on something else that might be more effective, and I believe that'd be the times in which we happen to live. Just so you know: I AM NOT saying that this applies to every viewer who has watched Solo Leveling, I AM NOT saying this applies to you, dear reader, who might've actually enjoyed this work because you had something to binge after work or class; however, I do believe that it is a factor that can be attributed to the overwhelming success of this work. Today, it is more than clear that there is a burgeoning powerlessness on a large part of the youth; they feel ignored by a world that renders them powerless, a helplessness that saps their vigor; this is a bureaucratic world of entangled orders which makes them feel impotent. Solo Leveling is, in any case, an escapist panacea for this lost youth; a vapid, non-sensical power fantasy that can provide temporal refuge, a mere distraction without any flavour. Solo Leveling is clearly made as a bandaid to a planet-sized issue, as a mere temporal "power drug" for people, escapist heroine—everything in this work is engineered towards that malicious, hidden goal of pure consumerism and unbridled escapism without value—all of this disgusting concoction finally baked in A-1 Pictures' hell furnace. Solo Leveling for sure found a big part of its success thanks to appealing to this impressionable audience, I'm not virtue signaling, but rather indicating a huge part of Solo Leveling's overwhelming achievements. Power fantasies and escapism are common in media, especially anime, but Solo Leveling might be the leading man of this trend in anime, shows akin to "RESURRECTED IN A DIGITAL WORLD AND MY MAGIC KILLS EVERYONE IN ONE HIT?! AND I'M SURROUNDED BY HOT BABES?! HOLY SHIT?" are obviously of low-quality and very trashy, but they do not intend to have pretensions at least, they are unabashedly trash even with just a simple look. Solo Leveling, however, has a pretentious veneer and (very, very rarely) convincing makeup done by A-1 Pictures—all of this falls off with a closer inspection of its anatomy. Therefore, after this introduction, I will begin to tackle specific points of this show. 1. The Absolute Lack of a Story Well, but you'll argue: “What do you mean there's no story? It must have a story” And, well, technically yes; but it's more of a story because the author *felt obliged* to attach a story to this rather than something told by passion; it's a camouflage to use as a shield and sword against any allegation that this is nothing more than an empty, BAD and tawdry power fantasy with no shame whatsoever. The synthesis of this story is Sung Jin-Woo getting incredible power out of the blue, in a convoluted and boring way, and he becomes a very mighty and stoic guy with a lot of life hacks, and proceeds to become mightier and more boring ad infinitum, the reason behind Jin-Woo's actions feels shoehorned and underbaked. There is no story, the only "story" per se is the constant masturbatory session from the author and the entire world he has created to cater to Sung Jin-Woo's microscopical peepee. When we are treated to plot points, like Hwang's own vengeance to track down Jin-Woo, it is quickly dealt with and forgotten to priorize our main character's banal power trip (seriously, where is Hwang???) Like, nothing feels tied together; Solo Leveling is as pretentious yet as vacous as a plain bread with a pink bow, with no spine or spirit; the main defense I've seen for this is "it's not that deep" as if this were an Aegis shield to dispell any criticism—sure, a show can not delve deep and yet be good, an example of this is Mob Psycho, a show that doesn't really have a "deep" story per se, but it makes up for this with a charismatic attitude and style, even aboarding interesting themes like Mob's social anxiety and self superation; yet Solo Leveling, nevertheless, doesn't have any of this, if you're gonna have a more "superficial" plot you NEED to make up for this, Mob Psycho, apart from what I've mentioned, also has an unique art direction and the character cast is decent and relatable enough; what does Solo Leveling have to make up for this THIN VENEER that we are obliged to call "plot"? A barebones world, a terrible self insert as main character, addons as characters, non-dialogue, incoherent direction, inconsistent style, boring combats, no themes of any kind, splendid anticlimax, no tension, no stakes, no earned empowerment... like there is genuinely no excuse. This pseudodefense of "just turn your brain off" or "just have fun lol" are completely ridiculous when you consider the fact that everything else also fucking sucks, and that something can be good while also being fun! Why do we need to stand for such a shit story just because "muh animation n budass chudructer" elements that, in this show, arent even that special? Isnt 100% Shigeo Kageyama badass? Or Hayakawa Aki? Or Guts? Or Kusanagi Motoko? And every single one of these characters are far, FAAAAAR better than Jin-Woo in any way too. Why do I have to accept this terrible storytelling and excuse, no, GLORIFY utter slop with such asinine claims? WHY cannot fun, cool stuff and quality of storytelling coexist? "Just have fun lol" is an idiotic fallacy when you realize this. Solo Leveling even fails in trying to do a "good" power fantasy. Regarding the overall world in this anime: We are fed with rotten breadcrumbs, basically. We are shown a flashback to Jeju Island at the beginning, but nothing else with substance, there's just a straight-up time skip. There is no common thread leading these characters, no interesting events that precede Sung Jin-Woo, no worldbuilding, it feels more like a collage of cool and badass scenes rather than a work with a well-knitted story of its own. There is no overarching union that unites these characters, no common goal to aspire for, no trajectory or road to speak about or anything relevant per se, it is a spectacle of incoherent scenarios and situations where the main theme is a constant glorification of our main character. There are interesting points to tackle, like the sorcerer who is mentioned in Jin-Woo's powers or the PTSD in hunters, but these two easily observable things, conveniently, are never brought forward. If there was a feeble story, it died in the power vomit that is this hack authors' writing and his idealization of Sung Jin-Woo. This world feels dead, there are no stakes or any plotlines beyond budget Chimera Ant, which is fucking lame, hilariously derivative and terribly anticlimactic. Sung Jin-Woo's reasons to-be and motives are flabby and weak, merely vague reasons, nothing more, and nobody else has an interesting motivation with weight in this universe and story. There is nothing to grasp. There is obviously a reason for these weaknessess, and that is probably the author planning his self-insert first before the story. Solo Leveling has no story because the author probably didnt plan to make one in the first place, the power fantasy of the bully doing the bullying is the "story" we are offered. Why do we have to stand mediocrity because it's a microscopic bit better than ABSOLUTE shit we have already seen? Yeah, this show is not "I get Giga Amazing Powers and Turn into a Chad and I can Kill Everything and My Smell Attracts Sexy Powerful Women!" but... yeah, that actually... sounds exactly like Solo Leveling. Sometimes we'll get these faux breadcrumbs of "muh identity issues" but they're overshadowed by how edgy, out-of-place, underdeveloped and tacky they tend to be, with Jin-Woo looking like LowTierGod and saying "huh... I always wondered if you could feel FEAR..." close enough, welcome back, Sasuke Uchiha. 2. Sung Jin-Woo and his Addons' Bizarre Adventure I can say with utmost certainty and confidence that there are no characters in Solo Leveling either. But how? Simple, no character beyond Sung Jin-Woo is anyone we can get to know, there is no one we can empathize with or grow fond of, there is no one we can deepen our bond with; rather than an actual cast of characters it is “Sung Jin-Woo and the addons that surround him” because there is genuinely NOTHING engaging about the pseudocharacters we are exposed to. They typically have a trait that flanderizes them, they change erratically to adhere to a non-existent story, or they shift characterization to serve the protagonist in some way. Of course, characters appear and disappear as the author deems relevant to further elevate his protagonist. EVERYTHING revolves around him. Characters hold nothing at all, the "S class" title and the "aura" thing loses all weight VERY fast, to a ridiculous point. Later on, the S-hunters are reduced to mere fodder to set up the scene for Jin-Woo. Not only this, but the cast is tainted by insufferable nationalism, the author insists on painting the Japanese as absolutely egotistical and manipulative, and the United States as an alienating metropolis represented by a narcissistic Korean immigrant—who later on gets beaten by a Korean, father of Gigachad Sigmalord—all incapable of proper cooperation and international organization in the face of global adversity such as the ants. Theres no subtleness about the obvious and insufferable nationalism in this work—Goto, the strongest Japanese hunter, who fought against Jin-Woo, is apparently off-screened??? Characters get presented to just get off-screened, one-shotted or exiled after few episodes—the japanese getting the worst treatment—all while Jin-Woo delivers the strongest dose of slop power-toupee imaginable. The character designs are uninspired and generic to death, their personalities are terribly one-note and underdeveloped, with a tendency to revolve around Jin-Woo, with the cherry on top being A1 Pictures' limited artistical vision and expertise in Dorito phenotype. Jin-Ho is the classic "comedy relief friend" archetype of our protagonist, someone who never truly gets developed upon, someone who starts and ends behind the main characters' shadow, someone whos end is generic and obvious; he begins with his barebones motivation and he ends with the same barebones aspiration but modified to glorify the protagonist; apart from being occassional comedy relief, there is not much to his character, since he eventually falls into just being "the main character's friend" and getting stuck behind Jin-Woo's shade. Like everything else in this show, his insecurities and the relationship he has with his brother are overshadowed in a grandiose way to prioritize his relationship with Jin-Woo instead; this causes his character to absolutely fall behind and never get a truly satisfying arc, as his development is at the mercy of Sung Jin-Woo, and his feeble pseudoarc is looking very sloggish, with inconsequential acts and very insubstantial dialogue. Apart from his truly nothingburger personality, exclusively dedicated to celebrate Sung Jin-Woo, Jin-Ho's design is nothing special, he looks like a washed down version of Yuuji Itadori, just boring as fuck honestly. We never truly see Jin-Ho follow his path as a honorous tank, mighty hunter or paladin either, as this facet is quickly dropped in favour of catering for Jin-Woo's colossal ego. My prediction is that his guild issue will be solved by him just joining Jin-Woo's guild (Jin-Woo WILL lead a guild, because this appeals to the huge boner that the author has for his own MC) as the vicemaster. Jin-Ho is utterly barebones, only serving a purpose for comedy relief and to stroke the main character's ego. Again. He's not a character, but rather an addon; if Joo-Hee was the initial romance and friend that Gigachad Jin-Woo grows apart from, Jin-Ho is the comedy relief and new main source of egostroking for our main character, someone who constantly emphasizes just how powerful Jin-Woo is—another addon, at last. We eventually get a female version of Jin-Ho named "Esil" who is a busty, cute demon girl, because of course Gigachad Sigmalord gets that—Esil gets enamoured of the protagonist within mere minutes and proceeds to follow him around, by the way. Jin-Ho is eventually seldom vanished from the show to focus on Jin-Woo's toupee, his demon waifu with gargantuan breasts and his sexy tradwife. He just... disappears, for most of the second season, and he receives no valuable characterization or interaction. 1. Jin-Ho knows Jin-Woo, he praises him. 2. Jin-Ho befriends Jin-Woo, tries to lead a clan, priorizes Jin-Woo. 3. Jin-Ho gives up dream, decides to be Jin-Woo's right hand (probably) Cha Hae-In is the modern-day Asuna, a submissive-yet-powerful Stacy who will eventually fall in love with Sung Jin-Woo and form the absolute duo of a Mary Sue and a Gary Stu, a diahrrea-worthy connection between two characters who do not exist in a composite form, and then create a family of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, how adorable! Hae-In is shy, awkward, unaware of common social stuff but SUPER powerful and practically an idol!! At some points, Hae-In feels like the counterpart to Jin-Woo; whereas some male viewers might feel oriented to self-insert as Gigachad Sigmalord who easily courts every woman, the very few female viewers might, probably, view themselves as this easy-to-assume beautiful and capable young girl who is OBVIOUSLY destined to be the ultimate waifu of our Chad protagonist. This trait, where she senses a good aroma emitted from Jin-Woo, allows the author to isolate her from the possibility of engaging with other characters, and it kills her already small characterization to a point where she HAS to rotate around Sung Jin-Woo exclusively. Hae-In is this gross dichotomy of a compliant waifu and, at the same time, the classic "strong woman" archetype who is strong, with no personality, no fun and capable of anything, sports, bureaucracy, being a hunter, you name it; I call it gross because its a duo of traits clearly seeking for utter dominance by the isolated male character, Sung Jin-Woo—the only hunter who smells good to her—along with subordination and complete flanderization of this female character in exchange for waifu pandering, knowing this author's shenanigans, this character assassination is very predictable, just absolute "GIGACHAD SIGMALORD SMELLS GOOD TO ME OMG". Asserting dominance over Hae-In—who is the strongest female hunter in Korea—elevates Jin-Woo's character as "THE ULTIMATE GIGACHAD SIGMALORD ALPHA MALE!!!!" even more, accentuating this shameful power fantasy further beyond—she will still be infatuated by him despite Sung Jin-Woo being one unappealing son of a bitch—she, and many other female characters, of course. Hae-In is clearly made to sell dakimakuras, she is THE uberwaifu in Solo Leveling, a female self-insert & power fantasy and another egostroke for Jin-Woo. Not a character, but an addon for our protagonist; again, the fact that everyone smells badly to Hae-In except for Jin-Woo shows just how ostentatious this is. Moreover, Cha Hae-In is just bland and has very little screentime, whenever she appears, it's for fan-service, pandering, for nothing or to stroke Jin-Woo's onion even more; her dialogue and personality are barebones, and her character design is generic blonde with huge milkers. HE HAS TO ACQUIRE AND DOMINATE THA STRONG WOMUN!!!! Its clear that a relationship will surge between these two, and she'll become a housewife, as it is the logical outcome of a patriarchal self insert knowing a female cliché self insert, two pieces of plain bread liking each other, and one more victim to the classic female character treatment in shounen shows—before our eyes, modern Asuna and Kirito. When executed badly, this is one of the worst archetypes ever, and the author is a hack who cannot write, so of course they'll pull off this absolutely shit female character. Jesus fucking christ, she barely knows Jin-Woo and shes already worrying of what he might think of her, and how to pander to him, this is absurd; even as she appears later on in the S-class training, the first thing she does is presence Gigachad Sigmalord and say stuff about him. Afterwards, Gigastacy Tradwife is traumabonded to Gigachad Sigmalord thanks to the latter saving her after Bootleg Meruem's attack... never thought I'd write that sentence. Truly a match made in narrative hell. Cha Hae-In is nothing but plain eye-candy without any personality or characterization. She was purely made to serve Jin-Woo and replace Jae-Ho as THE uberwaifu. 1. Hae-In is presented to us as THE most powerful female hunter that we know of. 2. Hae-In knows Jin-Woo. Everyone else is STINKY except for Gigachad Jin-Woo, who smells like Old Spice. 3. Hae-In is infatuated with Jin-Woo, reduced to his love interest, subdued and flanderized. There are more addons, but they aren't really anything worth your time. And, finally, our protagonist, brace yourself. First off, this fraud is ANTI AURA. You cannot tell me that this glorified hentai protagonist with no charisma or charm has "aura" like, that is so untrue. Look at someone like Samuel Rodrigues from Metal Gear Rising, or any character from Devil May Cry, or any character from NieR:Automata, or Project Moon, or from Shin Megami Tensei, and as much as I'm not in very good terms with Attack on Titan, even Levi from Shingeki no Kyojin, all better characters than Slop Leveling's MC too. Sung Jin-Woo??? No way he has any aura whatsoever. Anyways. Jin-Woo is representative of the broken youth who aspires to an impossible ideal. Sung Jin-Woo starts as a reserved and insecure person, a victim under the conditions imposed on him and his lineage, as he must take care of his mother and sister while being a hunter of the lowest possible rank; not only this, he is the WORST hunter of the WORST rank, so much so that he was called “The Weakest Weapon of Mankind” a nickname that, however, is weirdly mentioned very rarely, and that in the 2nd season ceases to exist at all—you would think that someone like that would be recognized in an infamous way, yet this infamy is very quickly forgotten. Jin-Woo is the archetype of the young man who is powerless in front of the powers on his country, he is a humble boy with straight jet-black hair and an average height, he is somewhat geeky and hardworking; considering all this, there is a clear connection with what I mentioned before and with Jin-Woo; he is CLEARLY a representation of that insecure young man that the show absolutely panders to; then, post-resurrection Sung Jin-Woo is a harmful power fantasy, a power fantasy for boys to self-insert themselves into him and believe themselves to be elevated into this role of the paternal alpha male capable of everything. This power fantasy engineered towards powerless young people is not only seen in the appearance of the protagonist or Hae-In, but in that the source of our MC's power literally relies in a blessing of RPG powers and the fact that he's the only one idolized by the old patriarch, Goo-Hee—something that obviously puts him above the herd, outside of the MATRIX!!!! Sung Jin-Woo is above le normies, they do not undastand. Despite his previous personality, Jin-Woo in only four episodes and through many scripted conveniences, exposition, deus ex machinas and classic elements of a shoddy power fantasy grows into what he, as a boy of a broken and manipulated youth, aspires to be: the ideal patriarch, a nationalistic, narcissistic, materialistic, paternalistic, breadwinner, boring and businesslike emblem of machismo; without any nonsense, without any flaw, without any art, without any introspection, without any whimsyness, he is the soporific and egotistical ideal to which many young people, under the oppression of a patriarchal plutocracy, aspire every day; with which they are nevertheless deceived, for this is nothing but an unattainable and harmful ideal; Sung Jin-Woo by becoming the character I satirically call “Gigachad Sigmalord” becomes this archetype I have just mentioned, an apathetic, sleep-inducing walking collection of tropes. This anime sells a falsehood, a pill that gives a dangerous fantasy, and even moreso in a country like South Korea that is going through very tense cultural and ideological wars. Sung Jin-Woo develops, in an absurd and abrupt manner, practically unbelievable features and becomes nearly devoid of emotion, there's practically no trace of his past personality. This show wants to sell us this false idea of an underdog growing up, but it's wildly ineffective considering that Sung Jin-Woo gets an RPG power dropped on him from the sky—something that would be somewhat excusable, except that this power is practically a life hack that covers everything Jin-Woo needs and makes him obscenely powerful from the get-go, also betraying the main theme of "hard work" in this anime—all given to him by a God who has yet to be explained, with conditions that have not yet been properly explained, and that everything in this story is fabricated for him to succeed—unlike in real life of course, where for the VAST majority of the population everything is against them. He is not only a blatant self-insert but also a Korean Superman of sorts, he is the prototype of the patriarchal Korean man who dabbles in individualism and pure ego; the insufferable type you'd see flauntering about their capital and achievements in work, yet have absolutely no soul at the same time—just like how this show flaunters animation yet has no real substance. Sung Jin-Woo starts with Joo-Hee, the latter tries very hard to make him pay attention to her and yet Jin-Woo barely gives her some breadcrumbs, keeping her at a remarkable distance and never getting emotionally vulnerable with her; the same thing happens with Jin-Ho, whom he treats as a “haha look how funny he is, what a funny friend, he is my funny friend haha lol” in this tremendously false and unconvincing way, all the relationships Jin-Woo establishes with the rest of his addons are absolutely superficial and boring, without any tension or substance, without any philosophy or emotion, without any attention to details. Jin-Woo is supremely bland and boring, which is catastrophic considering EVERYTHING revolves around him, his underdog story is unconvincing, and his introspection is remarkably shallow and ends in the blink of an eye, like his extremely dumb "me vs me" part in the Class Selection quest, something that goes nowhere and is executed in a corny way; you'd think someone who was given such colossal power would spend it pondering, constantly thinking about how to use this power, how it can affect him and others, and yet this show prefers to focus vastly more on how BADASS he is and how COOL he is!!!! And how smart, and how strong, and how fit, and how insightful, and how he dominates women, and what a good businessman he is, and everything!!!!! Jin-Woo does everything!!!!! Including killing his own anime's stakes, of course. He's not only a stupidly overpowered protagonist, but he also has this smug attitude that grows old QUICKLY; you need to have talent to pull off a likable smug character, but this author has no talent at all in storytelling. His blink-and-you'll-miss it montage of workout undermines the faux growth of our protagonist due to how generic and far-fetched it is and because the restrictions in this world make it suspiciously convenient for him to grow, his underdog status changes in the blink of an eye, and his vast amount of hacks makes it so its impossible to care for him and his underdog story, so when he goes full smug grindset stoic Gigachad Sigmalord it's just... so lame. Jin-Woo is just a walking deus ex machina. When we are presented with stuff like the venom that Jin-Woo might use as a double-edge tactic, it goes nowhere because OH he's immune to poison and crowd control alterations so he can use this without any downsides!!!! Why? Because fuck you!!!! Oh wait his MP is being drained out... HE HAS MP POTIONS!!!!! Oh wait he's about to die. OOPS he hadn't done his daily quests yet!!! Oh wait, he's about to lose to an enem- LOL NO, his skill levels up conveniently!!!! When he was about to go OOM vs the high shaman orc and he popped out an MP potion, refilling his MP bar... I nearly went insane. This is not even taking into considerations his dumb shounen badass boosts where he goes full-on edgelord Shadow the Hedgehog mode and he beats the shit out of enemies who were towering over him in power. Jin-Woo kills any tension, has no value as a character, he gets insane power extremely fast without earning this empowerment, so all of this underdog story is complete and utter faux nonsense, hes impaired by weak characterization, his dialogue is a nothingburger, he has no interesting philosophy or moral compass, no introspection, his combat style is boring, his interactions with the rest of the cast are superficial, his backstory is terrible, he has no interesting emotions or thoughts, his character design is barebones, etc. Sung Jin-Woo is, also, obnoxious and unpalatable, not only because of the aforementioned traits, but also because of his tendency to overlook the emotions of others, do irrational shit and to be spiteful for completely absurd reasons; the latter is even shoehorned to be a motivation for this character, but it is rather irritating, as this black-haired cringelord prefers to be an insufferable jerk and hold a grudge in the most forced and clichéd way possible, despite the completely understandable and fair situation in which he found himself into; Sung Jin-Woo's raison d'être, his sick mother, is presented in a very weak and cheap way, with only a few brief scenes showing super-flat “feelings” on Jin-Woo's part and zero reflection, absolutely nothing else—the most emotion between them, that he showed for his MOM IN A COMA, was touching her hand. More than anything, it feels like the self-insert came first AND THEN the author remembered that he needed to give a background to his Frankenstein monster, but he probably got lazy and made the most clichéd and boring backstory possible, written with a lukewarm and flimsy pencil—the show barely touched on this theme, and yet it's treated as the Jin-Woo's absolute reason. Sung Jin-Woo's core motive is flabby and weak, his emotional state inconsistent and confusing, his mother is brought up as a fundamental reason for his grind but the audience is hardly shown these emotions and feelings that Sung Jin-Woo feels for her, the author prefers to drive his empty work into a ridiculous power fantasy instead of delving deeper into his character's psyche—but, to be fair, when he tried to do this, it was absolutely lame and ended up with an edgy shoehorned Nietzsche quote, and lets not forget the cringey ME VS MY INNER DEVILS melodramatic part in the last episode of season one, what a wasted opportunity, this goes nowhere afterwards and no introspection is done. All of this are such sudden and underdeveloped things that they strike as superficial and, rather than deepening the story, they just turn into unfiltered cringe, especially considering how Jin-Woo outmatches everyone; nobody is worried by the fact that he might not reach what he wants, since Jin-Woo just mogs everyone and everything in every way, he is full of hacks for every situation and his characterization lacks all substance. Jin-Woo is Saitama without the charisma. One as an author MUST build this sympathy and make his character earn the empowerment, but Solo Leveling fails at this. Amazingly hollow. His decisions are also irrational and unlikable, causing unnecessary suffering, like doing a strength test against the Ant King when he was OH so worried about Cha Hae-In, like??? Are you a fucking idiot??? This is so incoherent, theres zero sense of urgency. This protagonist is not only lazily written and highly embarrassing, but he ALSO kills all the suspense of his own work, as he evolves into the phenomena I baptized as "GIGACHAD SIGMALORD," a walking deus ex machina who grows his power exponentially while the rest are forced to stagnate, our GIGACHAD SIGMALORD does some push-ups, some squats and THEN he grows several centimeters tall, his jaw sharpens like a Dorito and becomes bigger, his body acquires an abnormal complexion, his vocal cords deepen and other ludicrous changes happen, like getting absurd gear out of the blue, skills leveling up in convenient moments, downright hacks and RIDICULOUS amounts of experience; not only this, Solo Leveling's plot loves to force events and empower Jing-Woo in an absurd way to do impossible things, such as perfectly resisting the total attack of a monster that was way ahead of him by several levels or, even before becoming a Chad, BEING ABLE TO FLEE FROM THREE GIANT WORMS, IN A DESERT, JUST AFTER BEING HOSPITALIZED, we are talking about pre-chadification Sung Jin-Woo, or outrageous and eye-rolling shounen boosts. At this point, the vapid fantasy is very clear, and the author has no qualms; all the waifus instantly feel an infatuation for chadified Sung Jin-Woo, as if he releases some kind of reproductive pheromone or something, it's super ridiculous and blatant, all the women in this work are transformed into love interests and simps of Jin-Woo—although, admittedly I don't expect good female representation from SOLO LEVELING of all shows; of course, our individualistic Gigachad with the sigma mindset doesn't give a second of the day to these succubi—except for modern Asuna, who he'll undoubtedly court. Despite the enormous power he acquired, everyone conveniently ignores his nickname and bad reputation as “Mankind's Weakest Weapon” and everyone's IQ is reduced when they are around him, as no one asks questions, no one is inquisitive enough about how he suddenly hit such a radical change of personality and physique, NO ONE asks anything about him, no one is able to fight correctly when around him, it's extremely convenient—the guys in black who follow him are impossibly inept, and dont even try in intercepting Jin-Woo. Sung Jin-Woo has to be one of the worst "protagonists" in anime history, an obvious self-insert with powers of all kinds, zero personality and introspection, dense yet also a waifu attractor at the same time, with a lazy and impossible development, who fights in a boring way, with no interesting dialogue and devoid of any philosophy or interesting moral code. Jin-Woo sucks. He is the modern-day Kirito. I hate this smug little shit, Jin-Woo doesn't receive NEARLY ENOUGH punishment compared to how OP he gets. His mere pretense of a backstory is dumb as shit and non-sensical. Sung Jin-Woo's nature as a hunter is vaguely tempted upon but quickly dropped in favour of more dumb tropes. Moreover, Jin-Woo's raison d'etre (his mom) is built in a weak way, as shown by the widespread negative reaction that this plotpoint got.. apart from the reaction of fans expecting more of the same thing. I'm aware that actions usually mean more than words, but was it so hard to replace some of the idiotic power fantasy stuff or dumb unnecessary dialogue for more thoughts or dialogue of Jin-Woo with his mother? Or some flashbacks? We get an ATOM of a flashback just as Jin-Woo remembers the cause of her burn in her neck, but thats the only thing that pops up to build this relationship; maybe someone else knows her, or expresses her emotions or condolences at Jin-Woo's mom being hospitalized for a lethal disease (BARELY anyone reacts upon this woman suddenly being healed from an incurable sickness, this is never again touched upon). This man, who was alleged to be losing his humanity (where did that go lol) in both S1 and early-mid S2 is crying rivers because of his mom being healthy again; of course, that is perfectly reasonable for a normal person, but not for this dude who was "GAZING AT DA ABYSSSSSSSS" or who "WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU FELT FEARRRRRRR" or "FIGHTING AGAINST MUH INNER DEEEEMONSSSS" "IM DA NECROMANCER BABYYYY" just a while ago while recruiting literal demons, like it completely undermines this "inner darkness" or "losing humanity" plot point, as this sequence shows that this never mattered at all and it went nowhere, a waste of time. Imagine if, his reaction at seeing her healthy again, was numb and he expressed a lot of impotence and inner struggles at this reaction, leading him to make less use of his skills and focus on other stuff, that'd been more interesting I believe and wouldnt be such an anticlimactic ending, the objective would then metamorphise and give Jin-Woo SOME character, it would be another layer of depth, AND it'd lead this "losing humanity" dumb plot somewhere. But no, it's instead delivered as a poorly-built climax, a waste of time, another thing that Solo Leveling cannot execute properly, falling in a hole of tropes and clichés. The scene was so awkward too, lol. The narrative line isnt properly established, so all of this emotion falls flat on its face because the show was more focused in doing dumb unnecessary shit rather than developing this, it's so badly done that the only thing one feels is disappointment and time lost. The show puts all of its effort and attention into Jin-Woo and everything else is neglected, yet Jin-Woo himself is terrible, thus Solo Leveling ends up being... nothing, this leads us to my next point. 3. Solo Leveling is Supremely Boring and Spineless There are many legendary anime fights one can mention, examples abound; but is there even ONE battle in Solo Leveling that is memorable? Honestly, I don't think so, and I always find myself laughing whenever a random Fraud Leveling post pops up on Twitter, flaunting about aura and battle choreography, and then they're showing the plainest piece of white bread imaginable. They all end in a very anticlimactic and lame way, Jin-Woo has hacks for every kind of situation; everyone fights in a boring style, you have the cliché paladins, the tanks, generic spellcasters, assassins with the typical stuff like stealth or killing blows, bland warriors who warrior'd their way into battle, bow dudes, average Joes and then Jin-Woo is everything, except for a healer, oh oops that isnt true, he has HP POTIONS and CURE ALL ANTIDOTES—really, there's nothing interesting or minimally captivating about this anime. The tension is never there and the battles are predictable and with very underwhelming finales, a great example of this is the Cerberus that Sung Jin-Woo kills, as the combat ends with the protagonist simply stabbing an INFERNAL THREE-HEADED GIANT DOG in the eye and that's enough to kill it???? And I am not even tackling about the absolute creative bankruptcy in this monster design. Am I the only person who finds this extremely boring and anticlimactic? Moreover, the battles that look promising, such as Jin-Woo's new party vs. the orcs, are also ruined by the author's INABILITY to not aggrandize his protagonist; I was expecting a dirty, complicated but satisfying battle—however, the author decided that having Sung Jin-Woo do everything to make them win was a superior outcome. I expected Cha-Hae to help him with the orc chief and have a cool fight where both excel and form a combat synergy; however, we just get more slop from the one and only Jin-Woo, with the cherry on top being that Cha-Hae now gets flustered upon seeing our protagonists CHAD power. Also, the action itself isnt even good: Apart from the anticlimax, many of the shots were boring, with constant camera shots to instant decapitations or incoherent lights clashing, bad CGI like the orcs battling with the shades, or the shades themselves being extremely clunky, there is no strategy whatsoever, the asinine battle choices, off-model characters and more. Solo Leveling is also fucked by its ABSURD use of vertical progression and a poor worldbuilding, both of these flaws directly makes it so the author needs to glaze Jin-Woo constantly, in dumb ways, for him to prosper; the restriction put in place for hunters not only kills the little thematical value of this show, but its also a bullet to the foot as a writer. But what about the villains? Well, exactly as you'd expect, boring McBaddies with no substance. There is no valuable exchange of ideas whatsoever. Even in this aspect—the action and the animation—where this anime should triumph, Solo Leveling disappoints. Choreographies such as the one in Jin-Woo vs Baran are dizzy and annoying; with confused lights flying everywhere, boring ahh Clash of Clans fights and non-sensical movements, absurd close-ups or camera shots and an insane incapability to make a coherent battle that you can properly follow, all with a predictable ending; meanwhile, the animation is worsening overtime and has no proper identity or sense of style. Bosses usually die in a few hits from our protagonist, yet he resists EVERYTHING and never faulters. EVEN what should be the best thing in this show is weak and cliché. And this guy, THE DEMON MONARCH, who resisted everything thus now and barred Jin-Woo's summons, is distracted by a girl throwing a thing to him which didnt cause any damage whatsoever while he's handling Sung Jin-Woo in close combat, that's contrived bullshit; plus, this dude who CLEANED Jin-Woo is suddenly overwelmed by him? Or why didnt his dagger rebound to him? Why didn't he drink a potion and use his shades to overwhelm Baran when he dropped his summons? It's not like you cant drink a potion while moving or something. These battles are sooooooooooo boring, superficial and predictable its absurd. Fight against Ignis is based on pure raw and convenient luck with a contrived mistake, while the battle against frost elves was derivative, boring and predictable—like everything else, also repeating every mistake with off-model shades and terrible choreographies. Mind you, Jin-Woo vs Baran was the HUGE hype of this season, yeah, that predictable monster of the week slop without any nuance was the most hyped thing in this show. Pathetic. "Totally not Meruem" and his arc are also hyped as fuck but they end up being another predictable slog with no nuance, with lazy deaths and poorly-done sequences; at this point, they have completely given up and resort to instadeaths and battles with a non-existent dynamic or minimal exchange. Bootleg Meruem will just change his fighting style, in an irrational way, to appeal for both the nationalism of this work, for fanservice and to let the anime glaze Gigachad Sigmalord, like one poster said in the forums: "One shot the Japanese only, he only slapped the Koreans for X reasons, only for then to be useless agains Jinwoo. Consistency all over the place." and Jin-Woo wins the fight because of a deus ex machina. This shit looks like a stagnant turn-based game rather than real time action, it is very clunky and boring to watch, all of this with a complete lack of a build-up and proper narrative. Thats the thing about Slop Leveling, even what SHOULD BE its strongest aspect is noticeably feeble. It is an incoherent mess of tropes, idiocy and irrational decisions. Solo Leveling's poor structure, the OP protagonist and his deus ex machinas negate any kind of tension and excitement that the fights may have, even if this show tries to gaslight you otherwise—as far as I know, the biggest strategy Sung Jin-Woo displayed so far is TAKING HEIGHT AGAINST THE ENEMY, and that's it, everything else is solved by conveniences, mere chaddisms or hacks. Sung Jin-Woo's sidekicks are usually worthless, standing around watching, being annihilated by the enemy, glazing him after Gigachad Sigmalord demolishes the enemy or plainly doing nothing, all while our protagonist does the work. Tense scenes and battles will suddenly cut away to repeat information we already know, to show reactions for the thousandth time or to demonstrate the foul inner soliloquy of these pseudocharacters, inner speeches that prove and display little to nothing of value and grace; many times, Solo Leveling will treat these thoughts or hype moments (usually from Jin-Woo) as grand revelations, incredible climaxes or impressive ploys, but they are usually obvious narratives and things the audience can interpret for themselves without a third party, and they all fall flat— there is no value here. Some shounen, such as Jujutsu Kaisen, can save a shred of dignity with fights and action, Solo Leveling doesn't even have this gambit, as no battle has been interesting or has had a modicum of tension. Solo Leveling's direction and action is derivative and fruitless, truly without any soul, just like its worldbuilding. We have no reason to care for Chaddified Jin-Woo, there are no stakes, there is no reason to care for anything or anyone in Solo Leveling as they are unlikeable or very one-note. Also, levels indirectly restrict the author's liberty, since the only way to respond to Jin-Woo's excessive amount of hacks is by upping the monsters' level in a grotesque verticality; but, meanwhile, everyone else stays in the same place, essentially a lame vertical loop of apathy and boredom where only Jin-Woo gets stronger and the rest remain in a pit of mediocrity: > le stronger monster is here! > Jin-Woo kills it, gets more chaddified > le stronger monster is here! > Jin-Woo kills it, gets more chaddified ad nauseam As a fellow writer, I believe that some ideas should probably be kept in the writers vault for a reason! And no, your show being called "Solo Leveling" doesnt justify creative bankruptcy and complete neglect of your work's characters, this argument is absurd. 4. A trite meandering from non-characters There is not much to say about this; of course, I don't expect a dialogue masterclass from Solo Leveling of all shows anyways. The dialogue in Solo Leveling tends to be "from X to Y" with characters just going by the tide. We get no interesting philosophy or phrases from anyone in this show, not even a modicum of anything; we are usually presented with a situation and the characters will replicate what the audience is already thinking, or say derivative things, with constant cuts and exposition of stuff we already know or things other characters already know; do you remember any iconic or notable dialogue in this show? Not that this should be the forte of this work, of course, but it doesnt even achieve the bare minimum, you could erase all the dialogue in Solo Leveling and it would function anyways, it really adds nothing. One of the moments I remember, because of how dumb this was, is this specific interaction between Jin-Woo and Joo-Hee, the context is that they are both going to enter a dungeon and Joo-Hee isnt very sure, since some party members are criminals, it looks generally sketchy: Song Jin-Woo: You cannot go, Jo-Hee, it's dangerous. I'll go. Joo-Hee: No, if you go, I will go too. Song Jin-Woo: Alright. Well, THAT WAS FUCKING EASY. You know she cannot do this, its a dangerous instance, Jin-Woo knows of her issues, yet he is convinced with such trite. Had Jin-Woo been developed in a better fashion she would not have been in danger again and the audience would be more inclined to sympathize with them; however, this is not the case, and Jin-Woo will let Joo-Hee give up even her life for a character who gives her nothing in exchange, who encourages her to participate in an instance that puts her life in danger and has probably made her trauma worse; it's frustrating and very unnecessary, it shows not only the lack of synergy and substance between these two, but also how unlikeable Sung Jin-Woo is even if hes supposed to be likeable by the author's standards. Solo Leveling is packed with boring exposition interactions and utterly soporific mundane chatter. Just completely worthless. When our characters explain their battle strategies or stuff they like, it is in the most spiceless and deadpan way possible. Characters will just spit nothingburger dialogue with a cinematic blandness and simple camera shots, its like asking ChatGPT to make dialogue for you. Another instance that hits me as bad dialogue is this one: Jin-Ho tells Sung Jin-Woo that Song-Yi is a minor Sung Jin-Woo: "So?" And now, due to your incompetence in writing proper punchlines and jokes, you have a good amount of people who equate your protagonist to Epstein—seriously, just read the MAL forums on this episode; all because you couldn't deliver the joke in a right way, and due to the contrived scenario and NON-EXISTING synergy between these two (Jin-Woo and Jin-Ho). Or so many instances where Sung Jin-Woo compares his life to a videogame, or anytime the characters use RPG language (bosses, dungeons, mana... really) It is seriously cringe, or where Jin-Woo will straight-out spit the most cliché phrases in existence. I feel like not using straight-up RPG terms in a non-isekai anime is kind of an unspoken rule honestly. The women who see Jin-Woo will normally goon about his body in the most masturbatory and grossly erotic way possible (talking about the author) and people will normally suck him up—those who don't, normally meet dire consequences. A lot of characters are suddenly broken apart to favor Sung Jin-Woo, such as the B-Class Tae-Shik who is suddenly revealed to be Jeffrey Dahmer for some fucking reason, of course, he's the same guy who quotes Nietzsche in the most ridiculous way; he also dons some of the tackiest dialogue ever, trying so hard to be creepy but instead he ends up being edgy, his case never comes back again. Solo Leveling's pathetic attempts at emotional or introspective dialogue are lame, and many times end up having very few stakes or weight in the actual plot or characters, or just being executed in the most absolutely cliché way imaginable, without any elegance or nuance. 5. Solo Leveling is a Frankenstein Monster The worldbuilding in Solo Leveling is a VERY unpleasant and non-immersive pastiche of realism, soft-medieval aesthetics, generic fantasy, soft politics and finally, the cherry on the cake, RPG terms and mechanics used in a non-ironic way, the labor of the hunters is a bastardized version of Hunter x Hunter's hunters but without Togashi's fascinating pen and paper, but most of all, the worldbuilding doesn't feel cohesive, nor does it make much sense. Somehow, the author figured that condemning his characters to stay in the same social and power echelon was a good idea, while his main character could just improve indiscriminately—this not only kills any kind of tension, intricate development or interest—again, writers can ditch or modify ideas while writing their stuff if its needed!!—but also thematically betrays one of the great pretensions of Solo Leveling, which is “work hard and you'll get what u want” which of course tends to be another malicious lie in a top-down, classist, "meritocratic" and corrupt society like the one in Solo Leveling, where your birth and latent power dictates your position forever; and, following this, for some reason, S-class hunters have the freedom to commit whatever debauchery they want, above and beyond any law; and this is one of the most ridiculous things in my opinion, One Punch Man manages to establish an alliance, such as the Hero Association, with problematic and contrasting personalities, all of whom function under a common allegiance of protecting humanity; however, the political associations in Solo Leveling are constructed in a flimsy and vague manner, with a rare lack of laws, punishment, information, associations and moral codes to limit individuals with this incredible power, both for the S-class and the hunters who are dedicated to killing others; it is so disastrous, in fact, that these peculiarities in the worldbuilding break any immersion and interest, turning certain situations into an eye-rolling or contrived or bland mess. The magic stones that dungeons offer monopolize almost all things and energy sources, making the development of this world extremely boring and purely based on a single resource—it is a very effective way to reduce the quality and variety of your worldbuilding, just base it all around a single thing without development. Solo Leveling feels like a world scared of showing or developing itself, aesthetically unpleasing and inconsistent. Solo Leveling's society is vaguely organized around the dungeons for how important they are, there is no science or knowledge or government organism specifically designed to better understand them, post-dungeon reports are very poorly controlled and there is virtually no introspection into what could have been done better, what could have been avoided, hunters are also badly treated and managed as a resource; overall, everything feels very sloppy for a job that has been going on for many years, one which brings home some of the most important resources, VERY little information is also given to ensure the highest possible safety of the hunters, which is strange considering the lethality of this job; yes, there is some randomness attributed to dungeons and their nature, but this is also the case in many real life occupations such as mining or mountaineers, and yet we create many laws, protective measures and items to protect these workers, this is not the case with Solo Leveling hunters; for example, in the case of Tae-Shik, his punishment is barely addressed, no detailed report is given on such a political and relevant issue, we are not given more information on how these kinds of situations are handled or how they are dealt with publicly, and soon this opportunity to delve deeper into this world is abandoned, later on he's never mentioned again—all of this is crazy when Solo Leveling takes hunting as such an important job, the whole anime is based around this, but the occupation by itself is “explained”and "tackled" in such a vague way that it is pitiful. S-hunters just wander around without weapons, people are noticeably lax while going through the city, they are weirdly relaxed even though portals have been known to be breached, etc. It feels so alien. Moreover, apart from Jin-Woo, not only is the S class' character design utterly bland and without any personality, but they are USELESS and almost never there for raids, are they so seemingly occupied that they can never give support and associations have to bring civilians and average Joes to further lose workers? These stupid incompetent morons from the association are registering the danger of ants WHEN THE CITY IS ALREADY IN RUINS AND A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DIED lol, like this worldbuilding is BARELY glued together, how come there are no external security measures of any kind around the portals or the beasts that dwell there when they've already been recorded to have escaped into the real world when hunting has become SUCH an important job? Why is there so little analysis around hunting? Why is this world SO feeble? Now, the second season shoehorns some type of "hell" which is vaguely mentioned by Esil, someone who is just brushed off the show when she serves her purpose as an addon and walking exposition. Hunter x Hunter was able to combine several styles in a cohesive way thanks to Togashi's talent, who managed to connect many different worlds and unite them in a mix that captivated the world of anime and manga, practically raising worldbuilding standards and inspiring many artists; however, Solo Leveling achieves nothing, it would be an insult to Togashi's magnanimous work to compare it to a soulless aberration like Solo Leveling. The worlds of SL feel alienated, dull and disconnected, you'll see a mention of the United States and its hunters, the only thing we see of this idea with so much potential for international politics is some random metropolis and one of the antagonized characters (Hwang) is depicted as an unabashedly selfish, Americanized narcissist—who is then beaten up by the father of our main character, Il-Hwan Sung, this and the Jeju Island arc are a great example of the pedantic nationalism in this work, along with the fact that all the japanese are presented as directly egotistical, apathic, murderous or malicious. There are a lot of questions to be asked with the world order regarding hunters, but Solo Leveling refuses to provide answers and instead offers soulless slop, goofy power fantasies, etc. Each character has a generic, random style: you have a paladin, then another guy with a sword, a guy with a dagger, japanese dude with a katana, sorcerers—the sorceresses are, funnily enough, in lingerie and semi-nude or with an exaggerated and impractical cleavage—and these guys will act exactly as you expect them to act; not even the acclaimed S-ranks look imposing, they are simple Joes without any trait that makes them interesting to the eye, in another work they could perfectly be side characters that are abandoned, but here they are taken as absolute icons; later on, when Gigachad Sigmalord surges as an S-class, we get nothing of how the lower classes live in this world, amplifying this disconnect even more. Overall, it makes for a world devoid of immersion and originality. Incohesive, boring and poorly built. Bland, without a sense of proper aesthetic or style. Solo Leveling is worth nothing visually, it doesnt matter just HOW MUCH budget A-1 Pictures puts into this thing, as its aesthetic is fundamentally flawed due to being lost, bland and not properly defined. The combats feel lost, disoriented, with no proper build-up or nuance, more like a child playing PEW PEW with toys. It is really such a shameless Hunter x Hunter ripoff, at the end of Season 2 there is literally a budget Meruem and the budget Ant Queen from HxH. I am really gaslighted, by this anime, to believe that a modern world as such didnt contribute in the creation of magic stone atomic power; even more, I'm led by this anime to believe that they didnt nuke the shit out of Jeju Island before these bitches could even fly; EVEN MORE, I am led to believe that all of the nations in the world are just ignoring this surging threat, yes it's happening on another country, but international associations and alliances exist for a reason! Or is the entire world just completely disconnected one from the other? Or is everyone enemies with each other? I can understand Japan and South Korea being in a feud or a disconnection, but the USA and South Korea?????? This worldbuilding is stagnant, null and worthless, scared of showing itself and completely incoherent, without any sense of self whatsoever. 6. Solo Ending After this entire diatribe, I have nothing more to say about this abomination. Solo Leveling is, essentially, an ontologically rotten piece. I'm not saying you can't watch Solo Leveling by the way, I'm not the anime police, but I felt the need to express all of this as it is so blatant and absurd to me. I saw a comment on Reddit that said "Solo Leveling is the equivalent of eating cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire year because the story boils down to JUST Jinwoo. Jinwoo saves his friends, Jinwoo killed the demon king, Jinwoo has the best powers, Jinwoo owns the best weapons, Jinwoo mowed his neighbor's lawn, Jinwoo paid off my college loans. It's Jinwoo 24/7. There's no fucking variety." and I don't blame them for having this conclusion, as it's absolutely and completely true. In any case, Solo Leveling is the upmost example of not having a spirit or artistical drive, and one of the worst animes I've ever watched. Terrible worldbuilding. Terrible characters. Terrible story. Terrible comedy. Terrible villains. Terrible battles. Terrible character designs. Terrible everything. Classic A-1 Pictures animation with a big budget, like applying makeup to a corpse. Everything I've seen thus far has been bad, yet the most loyal Solo Leveling fans will operate in sunk cost fallacy with claims like "bro believe me it gets better" as if the build-up and introduction to a climax didnt matter at all, as if everything we are watching was perfectly fine enough, as if we had to ignore everything just because the terrible becomes a bit less terrible later on, even if that climax will be based on this TERRIBLE build up; as far as I know, the only merit of Solo Leveling is knowing how to capitalize and be released in the right time, Sung Jin-Woo will just continue to get stronger, and when this show finishes absolutely nothing of value will have been lost. The build-up? Feeble. The characters? Worthless. The action? Anticlimactic. The plot? Bland. The battles? Incoherent. The dialogue? Unnecessary. The emotion? Ridiculous. The pacing? Irrational. The sidecast? Non-existing. The power fantasy? Insipid. No matter how much makeup you apply, its still a corpse at the end of the day. Because of everything I've said, Solo Leveling deserves the minimum score in every way, there's nothing salvageable.
whereismyisekai
03/29/2025, 10:11 AM
One of the best shows ever where’s my next season ASAP , can’t believe people are complaining, they are ridiculous, every anime is a great anime , I give 10 stars for any anime since I love anime , solo leveling infinity/10 what a great show . The story is very unique has a lot of world building which is awesome . I love world building it really takes the viewer into the protagonists point of view . The art style is amazing , infinity/10 what a great show . The characters are built in a great way , as we see the main characterprogress and the difficulty of the battles match his abilities as he gets stronger which is cool . Animation is amazing . I highly doubt anyone can leave a lackluster review whilst being serious , I’m convinced that they are just trolls who live in basements and to be honest if this show doesn’t garner their recognition they need to just stop leaving reviews to be honest , always someone complaining its ridiculous, like I said every anime is a 10 for me
Flacion
03/29/2025, 09:41 AM
Jin-woo is back and he is climbing his way up the ranks, now with his newly risen shadow army. In this season do we follow Jin-woo in moving up the ranks, while he starts to interact with the higher influenced people in Korea. This brings on new and stronger opponents and allies, as he looks towards curing his mother and conquering new enemies. The plot of the show goes through multiple arcs of the story, with some being shorter ones and others longer, which together builds upon the previous season. These arcs starts bringing us deeper into the lore of the world and pushes characters to newlimits, while introducing new faces to the cast. The plot still focuses around Jin-woo and his journey, so while the plot does highlight some stuff developing in the world, are most plot centered around Jin-woo. All of this results in a very linear story which is easy to follow but is not one with many twists and turns. When it comes to the characters do we have the same tendencies as the previous season, which is high focus on Jin-woo and only a little time to the side characters. But even though we mostly see Jin-woo, does it not mean we don't get any progression on him. We see him having to face different situations, realise how he has changed and need to figure out his new priorities, though it could have been done with more detail so it would have had a greater impact. We also do get some more focus on the side characters, compared to the previous season, so we see more of their abilities and personality. But overall is it still mostly a one man show, with the occasional side characters to support him through the season. Looking at the animation and art style of the show, are they as good as the first season. They do not hold back on any part, the detail level is high both in the high speed action scenes and outside of them. Which helps supporting each an every aspect of the show. One thing that is important to note, is that the show puts a lot of focus on action, with many other aspects lacking behind. This is not necessarily bad, since it was like this in the previous season, but it is a choice and can be important to remember before watching this season. So, overall is it a great continuation to the show, with it keeping the same level as the previous season and building upon what came before. So if you liked the previous season can I only recommend watching this.
Marinate1016
03/29/2025, 08:52 AM
No amount of memes or social media posts could ever make me hate Solo Leveling. No, Solo Leveling doesn’t have the strongest story, yes Jinwoo aura farms every episode and beats the bad guy, yes A-1 and Sawano help take this series to new heights, but is it a crime to just enjoy shows for the spectacle? At the end of the day, anime is about entertainment and pushing the envelope of the animation medium, which solo leveling does. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, it’s sort of like expecting every meal you eat to be a Michelin star restaurant. It’s ok to enjoya fast food meal every now and again if you just view and accept it as such. That’s basically how I feel about Solo Leveling. It’s not the best anime ever, but it is very enjoyable and unlike many people, I actually enjoy the story, characters and premise. Season 2 was only an upgrade in every way for me and is a must watch for any action or sakuga fan. While I don’t think Solo Leveling’s story is the best, I have to say I’m in the minority of people who actually think it’s kind of good? Sure, it’s slow to play out, but there’s been a clear goal in this series from day 1, curing Jinwoo’s mother and not so subtle hints about the magic beast gates/raids being more than they seem. Season 2 builds on this by clearly setting up some greater power that’s pitting humanity against the magic beasts. For what reason? We don’t know, it’s a slow build up, but I completely disagree with the logic that “Solo leveling has no story” I really enjoy the mystery and speculating every week about what’s going on in the world. If you’re looking for something extremely complex then yea, Solo leveling isn’t going to knock your socks off, it’s unashamedly a power fantasy, but if you go in with an open mind and actually analyze it in good faith I think many people will agree that there’s a decent amount of intrigue here. My one real complaint with Solo leveling is that Jinwoo feels so one dimensional. It’s like he actually regressed as a person, but improved as a hunter since he got his abilities. Sometimes it feels like watching a cardboard cutout rather than a person. That’s just me speaking as an anime only who’s only got these two seasons to go off of though. I assume he’s going to actually change as the story goes on and new threats emerge, but damn he just feels so edgy in this season. This isn’t entirely out of place given the stuff he’s been through in the past, his family situation, etc., but I would like to see a little more personality! Goes without saying A-1 and Sawano delivered yet another masterclass this season. I think the OST is even better, the OP with my goat Felix from stray kidz and LiSA has been on repeat nonstop since it dropped. The fights in this season surpass the first and the art is very good as usual. The production quality is amazing, it’s one of the best looking anime out there and it just reaffirms my belief that A-1 pictures at their best are as good as anyone in this industry. SAO Alicization, 86 and now Solo Leveling have shown that they have arrived and are here to stay. So many times during this season I just found my jaw on the floor with how great the choreography and storyboarding looked. Bravo. If you step back and simply consider Solo Leveling as an easily digestible feast on the eyes with a simple, but interesting plot, you’ll enjoy this. If you come into it trying to be an anime critic and nitpick every aspect of the series, you’ll be miserable. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular manhwa ever. Solo leveling season 2 gets 9 out of 10
Tkit
03/29/2025, 08:39 AM
This is genuinely the most pathetic new mainstream anime I've seen. Solo Leveling shows no ambition, no effort and no emotion. Even if considered among the big range of slop power fantasy it is one of the blandest of guilty pleasures one can have. There is no skill in terms of writing here, therefore it is critical to have a thorough look at Solo Leveling's animation and how it handles its role as said power fantasy. Those are its only values and even here it is overhyped and lacking. Everything here is made to revolve around our great Sung lil-bitch. Structure of the story and the'characters' are here to highlight how cool the mc is and to react to how cool he is, that is their whole goal. Every female is made to start lusting over Sung except for his family, which is also here to show that he is cool and cares about his family, beside that they react (as the rest of npcs do) to his epic aura. Story in here follows roughly this structure: Sung 'needs to get stronger' (we will get back to it) He goes to grind, which goes effortlessly He encounters a boss which is strong enough to warrant a longer fight, but still never had a chance to beat him. Throughout or at the end of those steps there are many npcs to react to his awesomeness Repeat 7 times Finish it with a super boss which trashes npcs, but ends up destroyed like the rest The worst part about this awful story is how easily it could have been improved. Why Sung lil-bitch needs to get stronger? To get money for his sister and find a way to save his mother. Why isn't there a time limit to this? His mother can just lay in bed for the next 10 years and his sister was doing fine even without the money. All they had to do was having his mother get so ill that she would die in two months or something and have it destroy her body. Same with the sister, just have her in heavy debt and maybe forced to work some side job that is dangerous and hinders her school life. Those are the smallest, easiest to implement changes and already you have some urgency, drama and tension which don't exist in this show as of now. Sung himself could have been also easily improved. Show hints at his moral fall but does nothing with it. Dude casually murders someone because in the state of panic a frightened npc attacks him. There are moments when he lacks empathy and comments on it, why isn't it expanded into something meaningful? Instead he is just cool, edgy and always wins. That is what I mean by the lack of ambition, the power fantasy aspect is just MC STRONG with no creativity or ability. The fact that this show doesn't seem to realize how much it sucks is very frustrating. Anime genuinely tries to have me worried about the moron npcs like they are people or something. Oh no, will the sniffa lady designed to be in love with lil-bitch die on the first real mission I see her on? Oh no will those heroic fighters get wiped out (repeat 6 times)? Same with the mc. The funniest shit is how they try to build tension for every unlosable fight. I loved for example the epic music for the 1st episode fight between a summon and random bear, truly an epic face off. Even the premise of the show is abandoned. I know it is called Solo Leveling, but instead of just having grind from games they could have brough some fun gaming strategies. Never have I seen Sung go 'this fight looks tough let me buff myself, setup some traps and creativly use some skills/equipment' its always just SMASH or SLASH. Enough about obvious flaws, let's talk visuals. Solo Leveling is widely considered pretty which is true, it is also important to note that second season has a much better production quality than the first one. On the other hand one hears so much about said quality that you might expect something revolutionary like a consistent peak animation, I'm here to say that that is not the case. Before we focus on the fights it is important to acknowledge that we don't always have said fights and outside of them anime decreases in quality. Its not awful, it is just standard, sometimes lighting will be pretty cool tho. In the fights by far VFX are the best, some elemental spells look beautiful. Lightning, particles, etc. are cool and movement made slick. Fights have quite a few animation highlights to the point that sometimes we even get some decent choreography. It happens quite rarely (most prominent in the 6th episode). It is quite a high accomplishments for a slop anime, but it is important to remember than it has been done better before. Most disappointing were the backgrounds which at least sometimes existed in fights, but beside that weren't doing anything too impressive. You can see what I mean in the 12th episode. We change the fight to those controversial floating lines which always when executed correctly exists to highlight good background animation, but here said background is either non existent or gray and boring, with not much of anything going on. Talking about the climactic fight it was the biggest disappointment of Solo Leveling. 60% was just slapping each other, there was the aforementioned fumble with lines and the rest was also just vfx line attacks followed by damage, it looked cool, but was weaker than most of the other big fights of this series. Whole scale of the action sequences can't be handled by the anime. All the time we have big team fights and with so many individuals we often get to see a lot of poor cgi, which extends to cars as well. To wrap it up, yes fights look good, but not good enough to carry this disaster on its own. That is why you can only enjoy this show if you can get entertainment from its super boring form of a classic power fantasy. You may say I'm nitpicking, but you have to realise that if all you have is animation than that is the level of scrutiny you are going to get. I genuinely believe that instead of watching this hit piece of shit you should invest 10 minutes of your life on research and you will easily find a truly good anime that has good animation and/or good power fantasy.
Ionliosite2
03/29/2025, 08:38 AM
If I haven’t been clear before, because I didn’t do a review of such a soulless and manufactured, by-the-numbers product like the first season of this show, then I will just say it clearly, I loathe Solo Leveling, I’m disgusted by it, it’s one of those abominations called “Webtoon adaptations” that are a completely different medium creeping into anime by the power of American companies such as Crunchyroll, who shamelessly shill these Korean series and call it “anime”. Can you really see this series and tell me that it was made because the author has anything worth to tell? Of course not, because Solo Levelingis even more shameless than any generic low quality isekai that get forgotten a day after they finish airing that people have been complaining about for like a decade now. In fact, Solo Leveling reminds me of this absolutely terrible isekai called IseLeve, because in that show this fat ugly guy suddenly stumbles upon powers and from one day to the other becomes this super hot guy that girls fawn over everywhere he goes, and he is so OP he can basically do anything, and that show was mind numbing. If you ask me if I prefer to watch that show or Solo Leveling, then I would watch that one again, these two shows are basically the same, but one was rightfully relentlessly mocked while Solo Leveling gets praised to high heavens by “people” who sound no different from bots, as I have never seen an organic Solo Leveling discussion, when I say that Crunchyroll has people shilling it, I mean it seriously. This series couldn’t possibly have been written by someone older than 13, this show is an infinite repetition of itself and there’s absolutely no variation at all, you can easily see the formula: jobbers get sent to a dungeon, they get defeated by the super strong enemy, MC appears and easily defeats the super strong enemy, rinse and repeat until the end of times. Even before the anime came out, I saw people comparing it to SAO, but there isn’t much similarities between these series beyond the game mechanics, and while they make sense in SAO because they are inside a literal videogame, in Solo Leveling they just are there for the protagonist. I mean, at least SAO isn’t shameless enough to make Kirito’s friends completely useless, they get their time to shine and sometimes Kirito faces hurdles that he couldn’t complete if he didn’t have these companions, but Solo Leveling is different since, in its absolutely moronic world building, people cannot get stronger except for the MC, so even S-Ranks are absolutely useless in comparison to the protagonist, because fuck any character who isn’t the protagonist, right? And this protagonist whose name I couldn’t bother to remember is a wet tissue of a character, it’s basically seeing a caricature of a caricature of a caricature, this guy has no character at all, I don’t think you could give me a description of his personality because he doesn’t have one, I have seen people describe him as an “aura farmer” and I don’t know what the fuck that even means, it seems like words randomly put together by an AI or maybe something a 12 years old kid on TikTok came up with, but anyhow, there aren’t characters in this show, because only the protagonist matters and he doesn’t have a character. The plot of this series is also palpably non-existent in ideas, it’s basically a ripoff of the author’s favorite light novels and at some point he decided to add some parts of Hunter x Hunter, but as the author has absolutely no ability to write and you could probably find something better written in Wattpad, these little points of the so-called plot fall so flat on its face that you will feel that you wasted your time, because, as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, this show is just a repetition with no variation where the GOD CHAD MC beats everything effortlessly because of his gifted powers, because unlike what some people tell you, no, he didn’t work hard for his powers, even Saitama worked harder for them and the way Saitama got so powerful was literally told as a joke for the series, but this series take itself super seriously as if it wasn’t some kid’s wet dream where even his smell makes girls wet. Did you expect some kind of good soundtrack because of Hiroyuki Sawano? Prepare to be disappointed, because this is the driest soundtrack he has ever composed, it’s like this series is lacking so much on having people with soul working on it that it removes the soul of people that are talented, I mean, it doesn’t matter if you think Sawano can get repetitive after a while, but he has composed extremely recognizable and unforgettable stuff, the fact that I don’t hear in my head a single track this series had should tell you all. Did you expect good animation because it was A-1 Pictures? Well, think again, some battles are literally colors traveling around the screen with absolutely no choreography to speak of as if you’re watching Dragon Ball Z, but that’s a 300 episodes long anime, it at least has an excuse to have many lows in animation and even then it tends to have much better battle choreography than this show, I’m not going to say the animation is low quality all the time, but it definitely isn’t the best A-1 Pictures have put out even in recent years and I don’t consider them even close to the best studios. Did you expect literally anything at all because of the popularity? Sorry to ruin it to you, but there’s nothing for you to be attached to here, no plot, no characters, no nothing, I refuse to believe people who praise this aren’t bots or shills, it’s obvious that Crunchyroll is going to far lengths to promote the series and you have seen this kind of thing with basically every Webtoon adaptation, this isn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last poisonous plague that will come out from there. I think I’m disappointed in myself for getting so far into this show, it’s probably the most uninteresting Korean adaptation I have seen so far, which is an extremely high bar because no other “Crunchyroll Original” originated from Korean has been interesting in the slightest, it is honestly embarrassing that something like this is even allowed to exist and to be considered one of the best Korean series, do Webtoons really have nothing worthy to offer aside from porn? I have seen better writing in porn than in this. Recently, I was sick for like 10 days with ugly coughs and even felt like I was getting choked when going to bed because of all the phlegm, and that’s probably a better experience than watching these Webtoon adaptations, and the fact that we are getting another one next season seems dreadful, I’m probably going to watch it and give it a 1/10 again or simply not watch it at all, but the problem is not if I’ll be watching it or not, the problem is that these products are worthless garbage that doesn’t deserve being called anime, even if you were to call them such, you would have to be either a kid or have never seen anything else in your life, anime or not, to be impressed about a show so devoid of everything such as Solo Leveling, everything about this show is as artificial as the jawline surgeries that are so popular over Korea. Thank you for reading.
jahver
03/29/2025, 08:30 AM
“Y’all got any good writing?” “We got hype moments and aura.” Season 2 of Solo Leveling is more of the same; more irritating pseudo-chuuni sophistry, more interchangeable sakuga-interested fight scenes designed to be reposted rather than enjoyed, more characters with increasingly similar names we have to pretend care about, procedurally generated “TOP TEN COOLEST ANIME ENTRANCES”-ass entertainment wrapped in a layer of undeserved pretension. Clearly something’s working, though, because this is currently the twenty-fifth highest rated show on here and one of the most viewed series ever on Crunchyroll. Streaming sites crash whenever a new episode comes out. I’ve seen more people talk about Solo Leveling inthe past three months than the most recent MCU flop. I’ll give the show credit and say it looks appealing, because I’m not deliberately obtuse enough to pretend the flash over substance angle isn’t exactly what thrives in this modern viewing environment where everything has to be as concise as possible. But flash over substance implies the existence of any kind of substance at all. It’s just under 300 chapters worth of Timmy’s middle school Wattpad ego trip about beating up the mean kids at school after getting bullied for the last time, Tails Gets Trolled if the ironic self-awareness was feigned. This is not the kind of work that deserves a full-scale anime production, but you can chalk it up to corporate suits who keep throwing money at D-grade internet fanfiction until it becomes the “next big thing”. You wouldn’t be reading this if not for them, because Solo Leveling as a concept wouldn’t have advanced past the dumpster of the online serialization where it belongs. The characters are still one-note and unlikeable. I don’t even know what Sung Jinwoo’s goal is anymore. The impetus for his transformation into an emotionless RPG slave is resolved by the halfway point of the season when he wakes his comatose mother. The moment where he heals ger is the single best moment in the entire show, because as SJW cries tears of relief, he begins to feel like a real person, someone you can sympathize with and relate to, if only for a minute (elevated to tearjerker levels by Taito Ban’s vocal performance); it comes as no surprise that this is the most disliked episode of the season. Apparently having the self-insert main character show any sort of convincing human emotion signifies that he “lost his aura”, because the only thing that matters now is how an anime presents itself and not what it stands for or how it conveys ideas. I’m not sure why people prefer that Jinwoo be an emotionless Gary Stu so badly like it’s a good thing if a character never feels or reacts to anything going on around them. Make him cry more! Even a smile or two would be enough! I can’t believe I’m defending fucking Solo Leveling – from its own fanbase no less – but the moment the show threatens to become watchable, they all seem to turn on it. The story seems to bend over backwards to make SJW the strongest and most competent character in any given situation, which makes for an exhausting watch experience. His biggest trial this season is getting grazed by one of the bosses he’s fighting. He either defeats every single enemy without breaking a sweat or he lets his shadows do all the work for him. I couldn’t take any aspect of the narrative seriously after Jinwoo easily killed a supposedly unbeatable monster as everyone looked on in shock for tenth time in the span of five episodes. The only other times Jinwoo shows any appeal is when he foregoes his job as an S-rank monster hunter to hang out with his mom and sister to compensate for all the years of bonding his family didn’t get to experience and then go stand around on the roof of his apartment. Yet this somehow manages to undercut Jinwoo’s appeal even more as it takes place during a battle that involves several innocent people dying horribly, which could’ve been prevented had he been there. There’s layers to Solo Leveling’s incompetence – even when it’s doing something right it’s at the cost of something else like some kind of narrative equivalent exchange. RDCworld did a pretty funny video about it. Put a gun to my head and ask me to name five Solo Leveling characters and what their personalities are beyond surface-level archetypal traits. It’s impossible. Anyone who isn’t Sung Jinwoo barely services the overall narrative and I’m convinced that if you removed 75% of the supporting cast this show would be at least five episodes shorter. This season alone introduces like fifty equally terrible new hunters, monsters and civilians who all have the memorability and personality of a rock. You already know none of these unlikeable, incompetent, superficial dipshits aren’t going to matter by the end of the season because Jinwoo does all the heavy lifting for everyone else while they stand around verbally fellating him. This season even brings in a staggeringly uninteresting future love interest whose loyalty towards SJW is only justified by the fact that she thinks he smells better than everyone else – I actually paused the episode here and had to go watch an entire episode of Medalist just to get my mind off how embarrassing it was that a grown adult could write something so insipid. The only good character in this season is Esil, a demon girl who shows up as a sidekick for one episode and she is the cutest goshdarn thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t complain about her minimal presence because she’d probably be ruined if she stayed around any longer than that. The other S-Rank hunters are just as useless as they were in the manhwa. There’s this annoying nerd who looks like if Aizen was drawn by a fujoshi, some guy who turns into a werewolf, a really big dude with an afro, all of whom exist to stand around either monologuing, killing fodder enemies, or getting fodderized by the actual threats so Jinwoo can come save them – but only after standing around and letting a few of them die so he can look cool, of course. The Japanese hunters have it even worse; this is a Korean franchise after all, so anyone who represents a foreign nation is either a weaselly little bastard with no sense of honor or the most pathetic jobber on the face of the earth. And you’d better believe Solo Leveling will cut away from the fights multiple times per episode in service of another scene where these dweebs stand around in an office to deliver exposition as if they haven’t wasted enough time doing that already. The show’s pacing is dreadful to the point it keeps bringing back old plot points and then not resolving them until a later arc. Remember Wang Dong Suck’s brother who vowed to avenge his death in season 1? He gets offscreened by Jinwoo’s dad and his plotline gets dropped until the next season, where he’ll inevitably get folded again because nobody in Solo Leveling gets to do anything other than job unless they’re Sung Jinwoo. This show isn’t just derivative, it blatantly lifts storylines from series I would rather be enjoying instead. The major focus of this season aside from the endless meandering and dropped subplots is a shameless rehash of the Chimera Ant arc from Hunter x Hunter, which suffers the most from the show’s terrible pacing; despite being the selling point of season 2, it gets condensed down to three episodes which is indicative of the season’s detrimentally rapid pacing. Instead of a complex and nuanced antagonist like Meruem, the character he was derived from, Beru is just another obstacle for Jinwoo to curbstomp. SJW could be fighting some fodder enemy for all I care, because there’s no tangible conflict here like there was in HxH. I think this perfectly summarizes everything wrong with Solo Leveling; it copies better works at a surface level and retains none of the underlying themes and exchange of viewpoints that make them what they are. I mean for God's sake there’s a scene halfway through the season where Jinwoo has a flashback of his mom getting burnt to save him and it’s lifted shot for shot, word for word from one of Shinichi’s flashbacks in Parasyte. I’m not sure how Chugong even got away with this, because it’s not exactly subtle. When I was reviewing the first season, I noted that the technical competence was one of the few saving graces of the show, but now it feels like A-1 Pictures started experiencing budget cuts midway through the production. Season 1 wasn’t coming close to Dubu’s art from the manhwa, but it wasn’t constantly flipping between rejected character drawings from One-Punch Man season 2. I actually went back and compared episodes to their respective chapters, and it wasn’t even a contest between the two mediums. I can say with confidence the anime looks like a Deviantart user trying to recreate their favorite anime screencap in comparison, especially now that the overwhelming amount of off-model character art can be spotted without having to pause mid-scene like in the first season. The professionally constructed paneling and framing of certain events in the manhwa was woefully underutilized a lot of the time this season, if not outright butchered for seemingly no reason; there’s a moderately iconic panel where a villain rips off a character’s arms and walks away towards the viewer in the next panel with their opponent bleeding profusely in the background. I was baffled that such a clear-cut panel to adapt wasn’t included; rather, the director opted to show it at a different, less striking angle that made what could’ve been an effective moment of intimidation look boring in comparison. Little things like that make me wonder what the fuck is going on at A-1 Pictures and if they have any quality control in their studio. I already mentioned last season how unmemorable and samey Hiroyuki Sawano’s score for this series felt to me, but it doesn’t even sound like him now. The opening is the best sounding track of the show so far and I’m not even sure if Sawano composed it or it’s another artist trying to imitate his style. It depresses hearing such a legendary composer phone it in to this extent. Even the fight choreography feels lazier than before. The twelfth episode is painfully inconsistent in terms of consistent animation fluidity, bad anatomy and lazily rendered CGI environments, which is made even more insulting by the fact that there are some genuinely great shots when the incomprehensible direction isn’t drowning everything else; stuff during the fight like the bug’s claw hovering inches away from Jinwoo’s eye, or Jinwoo staring down his reflection on a wall of ice are visually phenomenal. It's clear the storyboarders are trying during major sequences, are their efforts are commendable. Contrarily, the final battle between SJW and Beru has them do that thing from One Piece where they turn into brightly colored streaks and fly around in midair interspersed with that nauseating faux-shakycam thing anime directors do now. I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on at certain points because the camera was moving so fast it felt like I was watching on 2x speed, or even worse, watching a fight scene from Magia Record. The final attack is portrayed by a bunch of looping frames and a lazy panning shot complete with speed lines. I’m not sure why this episode was so highly praised considering how glaringly obvious the flaws were, so I have to assume most viewers were probably too disoriented from the fight scene to notice. Giving this season a 1/10 would be dishonest because compared to the first, the positive aspects were more abundant. Unlike the previous season, there were moments that felt like they made me see what fans see in this show.Episode eight looks fantastic aside from being a genuinely enjoyable experience compared to the rest of the show, mostly in part to Yoshihiro Kanno’s storyboards. Jinwoo punches a demon in the face so hard it creates a nuclear explosion. I liked that one moment significantly more than anything else that happened this season. And as previously mentioned, episode twelve has fantastic storyboarding at times in contrast to the overcomplicated scene direction. I rarely have anything good to say about this anime, because when there are positives they hardly last more than a few minutes and make you wish you were watching something else.
ZeroMajor12
03/29/2025, 08:27 AM
Weird, isn't it? To achieve an adaptation of this caliber could still receive backlash despite being able to break the internet and servers for having episodes that continue to get better with every release. Do you want to know how I see it? People hate Solo Leveling for the same reason they hate Demon Slayer. Both are carried by the animation and soundtrack when that's the entire point of the ADAPTATION anyway. Why else would people hype up these anime anyway? They will certainly gawk at it because an adaptation like this is not easy to get when you have multiple known blunders that havebeen memed till it's dry like the Seven Deadly Frames and PowerPoint Lock. Solo Leveling is certainly a standard for a good adaptation since it respects the core elements of the manhwa and keeps it as it is for fans alike. So it's bad for an adaptation to be handled in the worst way possible, but it's also bad for an adaptation to be this good? But of course, since this is a review, I should address the anime's worst flaws just so newcomers know what they're getting into. Much of Solo Leveling's writing can be easily comprised of two things: Exposition dumps and fast-paced action sequences. The difference is as clear as black and white. Like its manhwa's counterpart, the anime reenacts that perfectly from head to toe. It's not going to be the best for newcomers or anyone who's expecting a well-written action anime. It lacks intensity since the opposition is made to be a stepping stone (like the name suggests SOLO L-E-V-E-L-I-N-G) or have its human characters act as exposition dumps since they have no other way of interacting in the world other than setting up for the next big event, which allows Sung Jin-Woo, A.K.A the biggest self-insert character for power fantasy fans to shine in and have all the smoke. However, since the name is truly Solo Leveling, it's an incredible experience for fans of the manhwa, such as me, and people who just love these kinds of fan service. It's very quick and straight to the point, which leads us right into both of the series' strongest attributes, the soundtrack, done by Hiroyuki Sawano, and the intense, slick, and beautiful resemblance of the manhwa's renowned artwork coming to life. The story and characters are decent enough so you don't cringe at them unless you're feeling a bit too critical and expecting masterclass writing. It is a wonderland for fans waiting for an adaptation like this. Despite what people might say, it is such a pleasure to find Solo Leveling basking in all its glory with the great animation and soundtrack. If there is one strength that makes Solo Leveling so addicting and satisfying to watch, it is the feeling of growth the anime consistently keeps up from start to finish. There's a gravitating and euphoric feeling watching that LVL 1 character you watch struggle from the beginning to have him stomp these monstrous forces of nature whilst constantly gaining new strength and powers. It understands how to make power fantasies work, despite being treated as a pejorative term. Solo Leveling took that term and embodied it till the end. This is why anime like this is bound to face backlash. It's not a universally loved subject for everyone, but hey, it definitely works for people out there, especially me. As I said earlier, obviously there's not going to be a lot of people liking Solo Leveling since so many flaws can be found in the anime, even content creators know it, like the MC is constantly aura farming and waiting until the last second just so he can have all the clout. Solo Leveling is an anime that sacrifices many integral parts of what makes a great anime for only a couple of redeeming attributes; art and animation. And it really paid off, because the source material isn't really known for having the best writing or characters. What fans really wanted to see was the artwork the manhwa is purely known for, and I can say without a doubt that they definitely cooked in this one. I'm not going to try to tell you that Solo Leveling is a great anime or you're wrong for not liking Solo Leveling since I lack the prowess to do that. But let's just say that Solo Leveling is like a dream come true for power fantasy fans. Am I biased for this? Yes. It is purely that in its rawest form, and I'm grateful for what the staff have managed to polish and create with the time they have. Season 2 is an upgrade from its already good prequel and managed to elevate it to the grounds of pure entertainment. Thank you for reading.

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Ore dake Level Up na Ken Season 2: Arise from the Shadow 俺だけレベルアップな件 Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Winter 2025 Simulcast List [Update 2/23]

Winter 2025 Preview

'Ore dake Level Up na Ken' Second Season Announces January 2025 Premiere, First Season Compilation Movie

Second Season of 'Ore dake Level Up na Ken' Announced