Ore dake Level Up na Ken

Humanity was caught at a precipice a decade ago when the first gates—portals linked with other dimensions that harbor monsters immune to conventional weaponry—emerged around the world. Alongside the appearance of the gates, various humans were transformed into hunters and bestowed superhuman abilities. Responsible for entering the gates and clearing the dungeons within, many hunters chose to form guilds to secure their livelihoods.

Sung Jin-Woo is an E-rank hunter dubbed as the weakest hunter of all mankind. While exploring a supposedly safe dungeon, he and his party encounter an unusual tunnel leading to a deeper area. Enticed by the prospect of treasure, the group presses forward, only to be confronted with horrors beyond their imagination. Miraculously, Jin-Woo survives the incident and soon finds that he now has access to an interface visible only to him. This mysterious system promises him the power he has long dreamed of—but everything comes at a price.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sung, Jin-Woo Main

Ban, Taito Japanese

Cha, Hae-In Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Igris Supporting

Sung, Jin-Ah Supporting

Mikawa, Haruna Japanese

Go, Gun-Hee Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Lee, Joo-Hee Supporting

Honizumi, Rina Japanese

Yoo, Jin-Ho Supporting

Nakamura, Genta Japanese

Choi, Jong-In Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Baek, Yoon-Ho Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Woo, Jin-Chul Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Takahashi, Kanako Producer

Kaneko, Atsushi Producer

Furuhashi, Souta Producer

Kang, Kyewon Producer

Reviews

Feb 18, 2026

w_minerva

Recommended

After finishing both seasons, I finally realized what Solo Leveling is all about: an action-packed Shonen where the MC gets stronger and stronger while the rest of the characters get sidelined as under leveled NPCs. In Sword Art Online, Kirito fights with Asuna and other human beings. Here, Sung Jinwoo fights with all the toys he collects from dungeons (items, weapons, etc). In this world, people are "born" into their power level, ranging from Rank E through S. If you are born Rank E, you stay rank E for the rest of your life. No amount of hard work or training will change that. Because ... Sung is the only person on Earth who "reawakened," he's also the only person who sees the world as a videogame. As a result, Sung can now gain XP, allocate skill points, and earn quest rewards. This allows him to become stronger than his current rank. The power system of Solo Leveling is designed to showcase just how OP the MC is while every other character is third-rate useless. This anime truly lives up to the name "solo" levelling because the power system is exclusive to the MC, and the MC only. Everybody else is just there to watch. The A-Rank hunters are basically useless, the S-Rank hunters just aura-farm (but end up being useless anyway), and Sung Jinwoo is a God who always comes to the rescue. Solo Leveling is like a really addicting drug with a lot of side effects. If it gets you high enough, you're willing to overlook all its shortcomings.

There are many interesting side characters in this show who were robbed of screentime because of Jinwoo's aura-farming and dungeon crawling. The boss fights and enemies are fine, but they just took too much screentime from the other characters. I don't want to see just boss fights. I want to see Sung coordinate attacks with Choi and Baek. I want to see Sung go on a date with Lee Ju-Hee. I want to see Sung and Yoon Jin-Ho have a bromance story. Anything that resembles human character development alongside the MC. But because of the how the power system is designed, and how the show is squeezed into 12-episodes, the rest of the characters are barely given any backstory or screentime, which lowers the stakes for most dungeon battles. The side characters in Solo Leveling are never introduced properly. In SAO, Kirito fights alongside Asuna and other characters. They even coordinate attacks. Because Asuna, the Black Cats, and Klein are all beloved characters, the audience is afraid to see them die. Fights in SAO keep you on your toes because any of your favorite characters might perish at any moment. Here, I couldn't care less about any of the characters Sung was protecting, let alone remember their names.

Despite all my nitpicks about this anime, the epic battles and flashy fights are way too good to ignore. If I never watched SAO or Hunter x Hunter, there's a universe where I would have given this an 8/10. I think the main reason why Solo Leveling gets a lot of flack is the way it copies a lot of elements from those shows. And knowing how MAL critics are, they will jump on that hate bandwagon despite how enjoyable the series actually is. Ignorance is bliss. Watching Solo Leveling with an open mind makes you realize just how delicious of a snack it is; a hotel snack you'll probably try once but never again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 5, 2026

Ttroy6226

Mixed Feelings

If fast food was an anime, it would be this one. Solo Leveling is a simple anime that’s easy to consume. It comes with its strengths, but much more weaknesses in my opinion.

The Strengths: Like I just said, this anime is super easy to consume because of it’s simplicity, I finished this particular season and even started the next in a matter of a few days. This anime is genuinely entertaining, there’s no denying that, the animation is beautiful and fluid, the opening is great, and Jin-Woo definitely has lots of “aura”. Any young man like me will probably enjoy this anime simply for ... the epic power fantasy.

The Weaknesses: While simplicity is a strength, it’s also a hindrance. The side characters in this show have NO development. We’re talking bottom 10% in all of anime, it’s awful how no one except Jin-Woo does anything of significance. Even Jin-Woo’s development is subpar, there’s no genuine growth at all, he just randomly changes to a total gigachad suddenly. It totally ruined the point of “Solo Leveling” because he’s already one of the strongest hunters after just a couple more episodes. The plot and world are also just too basic. I dislike how a person’s strength is literally determined by RNG. It’s a dumb concept. The plot is a linear “Jin-Woo saves the day at the last minute!” on repeat. Though at least it was fun to watch.

Overall, it’s a mixed bag. If you wanna just watch something that’s nice to look at and don’t wanna use your brain, have at it! If you were looking for real development or a cleverly made world, I’d recommend passing on this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 22, 2026

TheHolHorseDoc

Not Recommended

Funny

This is the worst shit I've ever watched in my life. School Days is better than this Cocomelon-level show.
Watching paint dry is more exiting and intriguing than watching this slop that dares to call itself an animated show.
Not uniqe at all, super predictable "writing"
The art style is the only positive, but even that is a reach.
Bad characters, obviously. No depth and side characters dont exist, like at all.
Nothing about the characters or the stories made sense from a narrative standpoint.
Anyone reading this please for the sake of your own soul don't watch this hot garbage.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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