After watching the Anime of the Year (2025) series “Solo Leveling” on Crunchyroll, which was beyond amazing, I naturally decided that I wanted to read the manga series. First of all, the publication is set up like a western comic rather than a traditional manga, reading it left to right as opposed to right to left. It is also printed in colour, which looks fantastic and matches up wonderfully to the anime series.

I was more than excited to see that the anime series matches up to Vol. 1 perfectly, why ruin a good thing? Set in modern day South Korea, we have our main protagonist, Jinwoo Sung, who is your classic underdog, weakest of the lot but a heart and soul of a warrior, who experiences the most traumatic “near death” experience only to come out on the otherside. However, he is certainly not the same person who entered that otherworldly dungeon at the start of the volume. Set in a universe where doorways to other worlds open up randomly on earth, filled with differedt ranked monsters and gems that provide a different kind of energy to the human world, humans who “awaken” as hunters raid these dungeons, kill the monsters, gain treasures and close the portals to stop the monsters from raiding the human world. Jinwoo Sung is one such hunter, and as I said before, the weakest of the lot. However, his background story cries for empathy, working as a hunter to pay for his sister’s education and to care for his comatose mother, he repeatedly endures severe injuries and near death experiences to care for his family. Until this last experience changes everything.

The story is set up like a quest game, defeating monsters of different levels until you defeat the boss monster of the dungeon, taking the treasures left behind by the monster you kill. While the story follows Jinwoo Sung, there are a whole range of complex characters that he interacts with who have their own stories that tug at the heart strings. Whether you’re a fan of manga, or anime or both! I highly recommend both series, bearing in mind that the manga series is completed (as far as I know) and Crunchyroll has only released seasons one and two, the third season not expected out until 2027 (argh!).

This defintely a story of strength, growth, dedication and relationships. I personally cannot wait to keep watching Jinwoo Sung grow as a character and see where his Solo Leveling journey takes him.

Green Mage