Anime Review: Solo Leveling Season 1

Ah, Solo Leveling (Ore dake Level Up na Ken)… one of the most-hyped anime of the season. In an instance that has become far too common for me these days, I’m in the process of reading the comic (manga, manhwa, whatever you would like to call this) and reviewing it for Yen Press, so I’m pretty far ahead in the story. Typically, I end up dropping these shows because no matter how good it is, I’m watching something brand-new, and yet, it feels like a repeat. It happened with so many other shows to where I get satisfied with hearing how the characters sound and then the will to watch the next episode is all but dead.

That’s just me, though. I’m here to tell you if Solo Leveling Season 1 worth YOUR time… so, is it?

Let’s Go.

The Story

Ants.

They’re big, they’re mean, and they’re coming for your land! Typical weaponry is ineffective against them so do you to Plan B… send out humans with superhuman powers, known as Hunters, to kill them. Hunters are ranked as S, A, B, C, D, and E. After our action-packed introduction, we are given a glimpse at someone so bad, that he could be F-Rank if there was such a thing: Jinwoo Sung. He signed up to tag along on a D-Rank dungeon but he shows up in tatters as he had just come from an E-Rank dungeon where he almost died.

Yikes.

Throughout the land, portals (or gates as they call them) open up and magical beasts that can only be killed by hunters are inside. The job of the hunters is to kill them and close the gate, taking any spoils for themselves. Jinwoo is doing this because he has a family to take care of. He has a sister who has her dreams and aspirations and their mother who is in the hospital with some sort of disease. Their father seemingly went out for cigarettes and hasn’t come back either so it’s up to Jinwoo to be the man of the house and the primary breadwinner.

So, he does this by risking his life inside of dungeons because being a hunter is supposed to be more lucrative than selling Family Mart fried chicken. In the D-Rank dungeon, he kills his first goblin and gets a shard. Then, he gets attacked by another one, and his cheap dagger breaks on him. Thankfully, Joolee is there, has an obvious crush on him, and is a complete tsundere, but knows healing magic and saves his life… not without a stern talking to, though.

Once the dungeon is cleared, they notice that the gate isn’t closing. They find a tunnel down to a hidden boss room. Our first episode ends with most of the party getting completely annihilated. It’s time for our main protagonist to AWAKEN! By doing so, Jinwoo is now at the mercy of The System. Nobody knows just what The System is; however, it has given him an alternative way to level up… solo (get it?)

From here, Jinwoo continues to obey the system and get stronger; however, it comes at a cost… one that’s not truly stated but one that you (and he) learn over time… that the more he becomes a bloodthirsty killing machine, the more emotions Jinwoo “loses.” They’re not gone for good, though… it’s just that his mindset transforms and his character completely changes.

As Jinwoo progresses, he levels up; however, he doesn’t have a way to truly measure himself. He just keeps going through whatever challenges The System throws at him while, in the real world, he takes on C-Rank gates alongside Jinho who has kind of become his cheerleader. Of course, Jinwoo can’t keep all of his secrets for long as the world is beginning to turn its eyes on him along with some of the top guilds in Korea.

Just when he thinks he’s got all of that under control, it’s time for a class change quest where I have a feeling he will ARISE to a new level… solo.

The Characters

There seem to be three main characters here so let’s start with the obvious!

Jinwoo Sung is, as described before, the weakest hunter in the world. It is explained through him that the world suddenly had these gates appear to another world. When this happened, people awakened with powers and became known as hunters. Hunters form raids and enter these portals to defeat dungeons and bosses so that the gate can close, thus sparing the world from the gate’s inhabitants from entering. Jinwoo is one of the ones who awakened but his mana and power are virtually non-existent. After completing the trial, he has a “second awakening” but his power never increases. Instead, he’s given video game-like quests in order to power up and I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at ONE of them.

In order to level up, he has to do 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and run 10 km every single day. If he does, maybe ONE day he can PUNCH his way through a dungeon and finally become a MAN.

As far as personality goes, Jinwoo is pretty vanilla. Yes, he has determination and yes, he feels sorrow for himself and wishes he could improve but he doesn’t have any outstanding qualities about him. So far, he just seems like a plain main character that you can find in just about any fantasy anime or isekai series today. Still, it works.

Next up we have Joohee Lee… the obvious love interest (or not…) It’s evident right off the bat that she has taken a liking to Jinwoo. She has a bit of a tsundere attitude about her but it’s not glaring and over-exaggerated. She cares about Jinwoo to the point where she puts her own health at risk by expending all of her mana to heal him. She’s even looking forward to Jinwoo taking her out to dinner once all of this is over. If that doesn’t scream love interest, then I don’t know what does.

Despite her brashness, though, she also has her fears. Her reservations about going into the boss’ lair were quite evident of that. Her regrets afterward show that even at B-Rank, she has a long way to go as an adventurer. Jinwoo’s presence really helped her cope with it and even when it came time to choose between completing the trial or escaping, she resisted all because of Jinwoo. Her emotions were all over the place but it was a controlled chaos. You understood why she swayed from emotion to emotion and actually sympathized with her… ultimately, those emotions led her to make a rather tough decision. Could you really blame her for making it, though?

Then, there’s Jinho… aka, the male cheerleader. His father is the owner of Yinhoo Construction and as the rich kid of a richer man, he wants to make his own guild in the name of their family company and, of course, he needs two things to do that. Money (check), and someone powerful to stand by his side. That person is Jinwoo and even though Jinwoo is reluctant, he agrees… for personal gain, of course. Outside of these plans, Jino isn’t exactly bright, or strong. He’s just infatuated with Jinwoo and, therefore, is what I called him a few times now…. A male cheerleader… but a fun male cheerleader!

While those are THE main characters, there is a HUGE cast here. Jinwoo’s sister, numerous S-Rank Hunters, the members of the Hunter’s Association, multiple guilds, and Hunters from other countries. All of these play a part in the story to form a cohesive universe… something a good cast should do.

Art, Animation, and Sound

Ah, A-1 Pictures… that anime studio that makes it super obvious which ones they wish to spend their money on… hint: this was one of them.

Where do I even start? A-1 did an incredible job replicating the art style of the manhwa as much as it possibly could all while keeping it in the theme of a television anime. Of course, still-rendered images on high-quality paper will ALWAYS look better than a TV anime because you don’t have to animate a still image but A-1 did a very good job bringing justice to the art style.

While this might go into a bit of spoiler territory when Jinwoo got his new skill and we saw the shadows… I was expecting a little more than what we got. Maybe I’m just spoiled but I was a bit disappointed with their anime representation. Still, overall, this was probably one of A-1’s best efforts to make a high-quality TV anime.

Animation-wise… just wow. Your standard everyday scenes of people walking and talking were what you would expect… the standard fare… but those fight scenes… just incredible. The one that stuck out the most was Jinwoo vs Igris. Again… A-1 makes it obvious where they spend their money and this was one of those scenes where some extra yen had been paid. If there was usage of CGI, it wasn’t super apparent. It blended in and that’s how you correctly use it… but… for the most part, everything looked “hand-animated” which made it all that more special.

The Soundtrack? What do I even say here? It’s Hiroyuki Sawano. The standard OST for normal scenes was just there and in the background but it’s those insert tracks, the battles, the dramatic moments.. that is Sawano’s specialty and where he truly shines and we get all of that here. The Soundtrack is out now, by the way. Why haven’t you bought it yet? If you have, you get a cookie for doing the right thing. Go get this.

The OP and ED, though… Sawano with the opening, TK from Ling Toshite Sigure lending his band for the ED… two titans of anime music today come together and produce two BANGER songs that show be at the top of your “to purchase” list. Just amazing.

Overall Thoughts

Was this show worth the hype? Eh… as much as I gushed over some parts of it, when you peel back the colorful layers, it’s just a bit above average when it comes to a fantasy, RPG-style show. I hate to say it but it’s not a 5/5, 10/10, 100/100, or whatever your numbering system is. Put down the pitchforks… it was good but there’s only so much I can take of Jinwoo being monotone and emo. Until the very end, he’s never truly put in any type of danger. Most of the time, you’re just sitting there waiting for him to “do the thing” and win.

It wasn’t until the challenge AFTER Igris that he finally felt weak and in peril. I think the show (and the comic) could have benefitted more from that. All it did was make Jinwoo into another run-of-the-mill overpowered main character… only this time, he has the droll attitude and a pocket empty of F’s to back it up.

During the survival gauntlet, he finally has a human moment where he recalls how he was called the weakest hunter, and how he was made fun of. At that moment, he knew he F’d up. We need more of this. We need more self-doubt and a drive to get stronger. We need more insane challenges to put Jinwoo in his place. It doesn’t have to be EVERY time he goes out and does something but rather just a bit more than once in 11 episodes (the first episode doesn’t count here.)

How is Jinwoo any different from any other OP MC from a fantasy series? That’s the Achilles Heel of this show…— and it only has 12 episodes.

I’m still trying to understand how one of the most hyped anime adaptations of the modern era only got approved for 12 episodes. A second season was announced immediately following the season finale, so they knew it was going to be successful. Typically, a series with this much popularity would have been green-lit for 25 out of the gate, but I guess not. Even if we had to wait longer for it to air, I would have been fine with it.

It is what it is, though.

Despite the flaws. It hits hard, it’s entertaining, and it will scratch your fantasy action itch and possibly peel away a few layers of skin while it is at it. Go watch it.

Solo Leveling Season 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.