Solo Leveling Is Pretty Much What You Expect

Hope you like action spectacles from the non-shonen crowd.

I don’t really know if there’s any real reason to review Solo Leveling because it’s pretty much what you expect, and that’s also the reason why it’s one of the most popular anime right now. Literally everyone and their grandma knew what the series was going into it, and I pretty much got exactly that watching the show – although I will say it’s a lot more uncensored and the animation is a lot better than I thought it’d be. It’s not an inherently bad premise for a weak person to grow super strong, especially since Jin-Woo does still struggle against stronger opponents through the series. The main issue that makes Solo Leveling a power fantasy rather than a typical under dog story is that his growth happens super quick, and the story asks you to buy a lot in order to accept his glow-up into basically a completely different person.

The other issue of course is that Jin-Woo is pretty much the only important character in the series, and while there is something to be said about keeping the camera on the protagonist because it’s his story at the end of the day, that philosophy gets challenged when everybody exists solely to prop the main character up. Now the anime does try to give the cast more screen time compared to the original webtoon so that there’s some life outside the protagonist’s viewpoint, but it’s not a ton. And unfortunately, the anime loses some quality when it focuses a lot of screen time on said supporting cast because it’s clear the show has no real interest in making them standouts you’d want to cosplay at a convention.

Although to be fair, Jin-Woo doesn’t really have a memorable design suited for cosplaying either. I went to Weebcon recently and there was only one Solo Leveling cosplay (the meme statue) compared to the numerous Hazbin Hotel ones.

It’s safe to say that Solo Leveling is yet another action spectacle carried by animation, and as someone who likes action, it’s mostly entertaining when it happens. A-1 and whatever studios they partnered with put a lot of effort in making the violence visceral and the choreography top-class during the majority of the climaxes. There’s the occasional minor climax where the animation isn’t all that, but you’ll forget about it after the next episode.

Having said that, even action spectacles have levels to them, and twelve episodes is not enough time for long-running show to showcase what it can really do. But at the same time, you can’t rush the show because otherwise the good action will leave, as well as any reason to watch the show. Remember how many iffy episodes Bleach had with it’s recent seasons? Yeah, we’re far from the days when we can get something like Hunter x Hunter’s consistency for three years. Even One Piece doesn’t look consistently amazing despite all the praise it’s animation has gotten recently

I’ll say this about Solo Leveling too: it’s not boring when the action isn’t happening. I’m bringing this up because I recently finished Mashle’s second season and boy did my enjoyment decrease when the show just focused on Mash hanging out with his friends and not bullshitting his way through a problem. Guess the improved animation can’t really make Mash studying for tests exciting to watch. But Solo Leveling’s downtime is fun enough. I know some people didn’t like the episode where all the characters who survived the first major encounter ended up raising their death flags further, especially since it was after the recap episode. But I thought it was fine.

Oh yeah, one other thing I should mention. This anime has some of the worst cliffhangers I’ve ever seen. A lot of the times, it feels like the episodes at the halfway point of when it should end, and that got really annoying while watching weekly. I think it would have been better if this anime was six forty-minute long episodes rather than twelve twenty-minute ones. But that’s a minor complaint.

What more do you really want me to say? The lore is fine. The characters are fine. You know why you’re watching this, and I honestly feel like Solo Leveling fans would be less offended if you say their anime is carried by animation like when a shonen gets that accusation. That’s why they’re here after all. And nothing wrong with that.