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When I read Solo Leveling last year on the homepage of my preferred manga website I went in expecting the typical edgy power up trope that plagues most stories in the isekai genre. Despite SL not being Isekai per say, I found that it was just as mediocre as most isekai stories. I read the whole thing, enjoyed it a bit for it's art and fight scenes, and then left.

By the time I had finished, I was completely unaware of the hype surrounding this series. I was unaware that it was being referred to as a masterpiece, and that it was rated among the top 15 manga, above webtoons such as "Bastard," and "Tower of God." Both of which are what I would consider legitimate masterpieces. Needless to say, I shit my pants. There were actually tears of confusion in my eyes, that this webtoon was rated up there with titles such as berserk, vagabond, and kingdom.

Trust me that in this review I am pushing all of that aside to give an honest and objective view of this webtoon. I have since reread it for the sake of accuracy in this review. So, here we go. Keep in mind that I will refer to SL to as an Isekai for lack of a better word, and for the fact that it shares many plot elements. Here, isekai will be used as the name of a comic where the main character gets strong fast.

Story (5): The story is ok. It follows the tried and true formula of making a weaker character become stronger in order to provide the reader the excitement of watching them grow faster than other characters in the story. Trust me, when I read my first isekai in the form of "Dungeon Seeker" way back in 2016, I was just as excited about it as people are with this title. There is something about this kind of story that just makes people completely ignore any substance the story may or may not have.

I have since admitted to myself that "Dungeon Seeker" is terrible. And the more times I read this kind of story, the less I enjoy it. It was for this reason that when I read Solo Leveling for the first time that I was not amused at all. Beneath all the badassery is a lack of real character development.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IS SOLO LEVELING'S WEAKEST POINT:

In the first chapter, it states how the main character WILL become the strongest S ranked hunter in the universe of Solo Leveling, which lowers possible character development in terms of strength. So... there is still room for emotional development. Nope. The main character remains calm in situations, is smart, cares about people who are close to him, is motivated, etc. The character development here is the he gets more chill and edgy. By telling the reader that the MC will become powerful, there really is no kind of character development left that would give the story substance.

Furthermore, the leveling system, similar to that of video game statistics and seen in many of the isekai genre, is used as a substitute for character development, as the reader can tangibly see how much the character has grown. Now, I admit that SL is different than other isekai in terms of the fact that none of the other characters can see their own stats. But the reader can roughly compare characters using the more widely used class system where hunters are ranked using a letter, with S being the highest and E being the lowest.

As for the dialogue, it is at times atrocious, in the first chapter there is a scene where two men are talking about the main character, and one asks the other the same question rephrased for about 2 pages. This is way to blatant to be a translation error. Having read many other korean manhwa and webtoon, I strongly believe that this dialogue is in fact part of the original pre translated webtoon.

Another thing that sucks is that all exposition in the story is stuffed down the reader's throats. Whether it be by gossiping men talking about the main character, through dudes explaining the rules of the world to people who should already know, it almost never happens naturally. The story really treats the reader like a baby, and I don't like it.

Despite the character development and dialogue, I do believe that the story is better than that of other isekai. Many in this genre feature characters that get endlessly stronger without actually introducing any conflict in the story after the prologue. I applaud Solo Leveling for setting itself apart from the rest in this very crucial way. The mc is still getting stronger, but we have been introduced to some strong enemies so in this way, Solo Leveling gets a pass. The flow of the story is really good as well, it’s very easy to read.

Characters (6): Characters in this are pretty generic personality wise, especially female ones. There are some interesting ones tho, and designs are pretty cool. I think its cool that there is more of an ensemble cast than I would have thought would be in something like this, especially one called "Solo Leveling." But there isn't enough real substance to justify a higher score here.

Art (9): Looks great, fight scenes are great. The shadow dudes look especially great. The effects shown are really immersive, and it has great choreography. Panels are well placed to great effect. Character designs are all great and unique, but sometimes contribute greatly to the edgy tone that drives some criticism of the webtoon. Doesn't bother me much but i'll take a point away.

Enjoyment (8): Its very exciting to read, and the art adds to the hype factor of the scenes. I am a very critical person so I can't in good conscience give anything other than the art a full score unless I legitimately thought the story was good:)

Overall (6): It’s good, but not great, definitely doesn't deserve all it's hype, and it only halfway deserves it's hate. I definitely don’t like it’s placement on the list because I don’t like it being the first thing people see when they look at manga as opposed to other greats. But I guess it could be an okay entry point. This is one of the most popular webtoon at the moment, and I'm sure that there are plenty of other manga/manhwa/manhua that are overrated/underrated on her so I guess it’s fine.