Solo Leveling is Bleach-fied SAO.

That's it. SL = Bleach + SAO. The rant below is overdone and has almost nothing to do with the title.

I think we can agree that it's not like Solo Leveling is absolute peak, but I think Solo Leveling does the bare minimum to check off the boxes of basic storytelling. And how little writing SL adds to that formula yet still manages to be entertaining is sad to see in the context of anime trends right now.

The plot points are at least partially propelled by the personal goals and motives of Sung or side characters, like Sung's desire to protect his family, Choi and Baek's bad memories from the previous ant or Kamish raid, or Jinho wanting to live up to his family. Such goals are so universal and surface level it'd be almost laughable if you showed it to an English professor, but SL makes it work by making characters consistently shown to be loyal to said goals, instead an out of pursuing nuanced character writing and failing.

SL plays it safe and boring, but keeps characters feel marginally like actual people. The fact that today's isekai trend fails to do this? Sad on the people behind and in front of the screens.

SL hangs around in the early parts for at least a season to establish stakes and skill sets. And even when Jinwoo does become OP, he's still not at the top of the world exactly with monsters and hunters that could easily outrank him at the current point in the story. It's just that the writing doesn't put him in those situations where he's bound to lose, which is understandably frustrating for people that genuinely don't like the type of writing SL presents to start with.

Seeing Sung have a significant loss only once in the beginning and getting thrashed by Igris isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it's enough for a lot of people including me. Shangri-La Frontier has a super fun "hang around in the beginning" section because it understands that the early parts of a game are hella fun, and probably does it better than SL.

Self-insert protag stories today go too fast into the final bosses and then everything after that is literally the most boring shit ever. Doesn't help that the powers are confusing or there are too many to keep count, or usually ends up with the same type of fight a lot of the time.

Sung gets a lot of powers in his journey, but the game system is there to vibe and guide, not be the holy scripture of the narrative. His powers essentially boil down to: inventory, daggers, shadows, buffs and heals without needing the viewer to remember the intricate details, just that he has them and can combine them for combos that are shown visually. Art carries.

In the state isekai anime are where the gimmick is the power, making the power narratively uninteresting wholly disregards the whole point of even having a good gimmick.

The fights have also variety: mobs, monsters, unique dungeon environments, other hunters, hired assassins, being trapped in a dungeon, sentient monsters, job classes, etc...It's not like he's stomping mostly the same guys (for now) and then keep getting more girls.

Speaking of girls the romance here is probably one of the biggest critiques besides the obvious pattern SL falls to after the ant arc. I think the problem is the depth, because leaving Joohee allows her to heal without Jinwoo's goals being hindered by her PTSD isn't a bad writing decision.

Cha on the other hand only seems to have the smell thing going on. Her character has little motivation and depth even compared to Choi, Baek, or even Min (the healer who's only shown in the ant arc). Does not pass the sexy/cute lamp test. The only piece of thematic substance is that Sung chose to be with Cha because she knows the type of life he lives as a

The pacing is basic. There's some form of downtime in between fights to reflect on what just happened or expand the world a little bit so you feel the hype on the next thing that happens within the context of said world. Basic pacing vs bad pacing with no breaks in between each story beat.

Back to characters, even when Sung does become stoic, it has a thematic backing on whether his humanity is worth the power he gets. It's only kind of addressed later on, but at least it's mentioned. The reader has a hint of reflection of what it takes to become the mc they want to self-insert to. RE:zero is better with this probably with the dying, but I can only be invested in one system-type anime at a time to care.

On a smaller writing scale, scene-to-scene, the fights are presented in a way where Sung struggles at least a LITTLE bit and has to use his head (or get pusheuxp ex machina'ed) to arrive at an at least interesting solution instead of bulldozing the dude with another beam/punch. The art still carries though.

I'm just sad that the anime trend right now is affecting the quality of writing for the shows coming out right now. Like for moe, mecha, and battle shonen at least people defended that stuff. Here it's like harem-ecchi but somehow worse. Not that every show of the isekai genre is trash, just that the bar is so low. Solo Leveling's writing quality is where is bar should be. RE:zero, Sonny Boy, and Konosuba (MT too but I don't like it) exist at least and I'm not invested in this genre nearly enough to advocate for more in this medium.