Otalku Cafe - Solo Leveling

One of the final anime of the winter season I have to review is a show that came into the season with hype beyond measure, and I’d say it mostly lived up to that, and it is Solo Leveling. The show, which is uniquely adapted from a Korean manwha, is set in Korea and is a world that has supreme monsters that live in gates, and occasionally come out to reek havoc on mankind as well. This world has special humans called hunters, who awaken predetermined powers which allows them to fight these monsters. The story follows a supremely weak hunter named Sung Jinwoo, who’s nicknamed the weakest hunter in the world, as he grows from the weakest to literally the strongest after a life altering event occurs in the first 2 episodes of the series. 

I’ll start with what did not make this show a 5/5. Simply, the pacing. The pacing in the middle seemed a bit slow, and though I enjoyed all 12 episodes the season put out, there were times in the middle where I was simply pleased with the episode, but not jumping out of my seat in shock or joy as I did in other episodes early on and towards the end of the series. Outside of that, the show was phenomenally adapted, with incredible animation, very solid musical composition, and a story that is shaping up to be every bit of the incredible one that many of the manhwa readers have bragged to me about for many years now. The action is wonderful and plenty gorey, which is always welcome by most viewers. 

To be frank, I would have loved to give this show a 5/5 out the gate, but I’ve learned that with presumably long running shows, it’s best to start a bit lower so that the show has room to grow and doesn’t disappoint you as the series progresses. So for that, I gave this show, available on Crunchyroll, my strongest 4/5 I could give it. This is one everyone should check out!! 

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