(CR) Solo Leveling

[Mad Pierrot]

Man, this suddenly got darker. Jin killing humans was something I didn't expect to see even if it was selfdefense. In the end it really reminded me of Shield Hero but more violent

[Greenish Growth]

I do like how Korean fantasy fighting main characters are more likely to kill their murderous antagonists than their Japanese counterparts.

Although...they can also have a number of fantasy fighting main characters that are overly smug and treat their followers with jerk-like troll behavior.

[frodonk]

Originally Posted by Rasty

^ The dungeons are managed by the government. He would have to come into "another dungeon" with other people and there would be a record of him going in, so how would he explain how he got the crystals there?

Yeah I didn't really think that though enough

I also forgot about the essence stone from the boss also being valuable, so in terms of money the mana crystals doesn't really matter in the long run.

[Twi]

My only gripe is that they had the System tell him to do it as an emergency quest.

I don't know if it was him rationalizing "defeat" with "kill" or the System being explicit, but from my perspective it took the choice of how to deal with them out of his hands and told him to act in accordance to what it wanted or he'd face a penalty, which usually involves putting him in a situation where he does it or he suffers for it a fate that runs the risk of killing him.

It might be a cultural thing, but it feels he basically lost his freedom of choice the moment he went into that he went into the chamber with the others and now he's being conditioned by that System to be what it wants. If it orders him to do something, he's got no say in it because he dies. Right now its to his benefit since its prioritizing his survival and allowing him to spec how he "builds" himself, but in the end it still benefits the System because for whatever reason it wants him strong. What if it eventually orders him to target someone he has no gripes with or someone who has done him no wrong?

He's basically this things puppet, no matter how strong he gets.

[Dengar]

It's mostly a cheap way to make it seem like Jinwoo has not lost his purity.

[Frontier]

To be honest knowing his frustrations and attitude towards people up to that point, it's not like it had to really twist his arm. It just made him double down on it.

[Frontier]

Woo is clued in on yet another incident of Jinwoo inexplicably surviving a dangerous situation...though he seems more interested in Dongsuk's brother, Dongwoo .

Jinha looks really cute in her loungewear and in full little sister mode, especially hanging out with her brother .

A little less pleasant is Jinwoo reflecting on how ruthless and merciless he was against fellow human beings, and the effect that has on his humanity, even if he's resolved he'll do it again...if not just for himself, but for his family .

Well, good to know that he now has a natural detox buff, even if it means he can never get drunk. But that'll probably come in handy, especially if he ever needs to drink someone under the table .

Jinho is smart enough to not blab about Jinwoo's power (especially because Jinwoo might kill him if he did), but also smart enough to know Jinwoo is his best chance to raise his rank up enough to become a guildmaster and help his families' company. The only problem is Jinwoo feels he's too powerful for even the amount of money Jinho is offering and doesn't think it's a good deal. I feel bad for Jinho, I thought they were becoming real buddies .

Junichi Suwabe as Dongwoo!? And he's already plotting to kill Jinwoo and Jinho. The only thing they've got going for them is he's tied up with work !

A run with his sister where he leaves her in the dust also leads Jinwoo to realize he can hit a cap on his daily quests and get a secret reward...with an offer he can't pass up, an S-level dungeon with an elixir of life that could cure his mom !

But of course such a rare dungeon also has a huge Boss protecting it...Cerberus! And it utterly thrashes Jinwoo and pretty much shrugs off most of what he throws at at it! He's lucky he's able to kill the heads by stabbing their eyes, but even then it ups its rage and goes even more ferocious after him! Also, Jinwoo has HP !

Good thing Jinwoo has the in-game store and his detox ability to be able to ingest and recover with poison! And the will to stab and stab even while he's getting chewed on .

So not the Elixir of Life but the formula for making it and the knowledge that he'll have to quest through the castle to get the materials...but if he struggled so much against the guard dog, he doesn't stand a chance in the castle. So he'll have to level up even more to save his mom .

[Dengar]

Why is that guy just crushing a phone and a clipboard? That's so dumb. I bet he'll die like a dog when he goes up against Jinwoo.

And now he goes into an S-Rank dungeon, despite being more or less around B-rank in strength.

Aaand the miniboss turns out to be a total pushover because of his plot armor.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Dengar

Why is that guy just crushing a phone and a clipboard? That's so dumb. I bet he'll die like a dog when he goes up against Jinwoo.

And now he goes into an S-Rank dungeon, despite being more or less around B-rank in strength.

Aaand the miniboss turns out to be a total pushover because of his plot armor.

He's got so much strength and rage over his brothers' death, he needed to smash something .

I mean, he barely managed to win that fight, that he struggled so much is precisely why he's going to level up more before going for the rest of the dungeon because he knew he wouldn't be able to get past it.

[Rasty]

They skipped the whole reasoning process of why he went to the dungeon and like this he is just an idiot risking both his life (though he had the return stone, so that can be excused), but also the only chance to save his mother that he knows (he can't get in again if he just runs away after looking inside).

Spoiler for Reasoning in the novel:

If I remember correctly, in the web novel his reasoning was, that he pretty much hit the ceiling of how much he can currently level up without instance dungeons, which he doesn't know how to get and suspects he can have only one key at a time until he uses it. It was weak, but it at least tried.

More importantly, I loved how they depicted the sister. She just feels much more real than any other anime sister I have seen in a while. Sure, she is cute and likes her brother (familiarly), but she acts pretty naturally, including some realistic minor annoying behaviors. Especially Mikawa Haruna (the VA in JP) is doing absolutely fantastic job. Hope we see more of her screentime.

[grecefar]

I like the conversation about the thirty billions. I wouldn't know what to do with so much money. I'll probably save it too.

Nice fight against cerberus but it is just a puppy.

[Rasty]

^ I liked their conversation overall. The way how the first thing she sees and asks about is the fried chicken, how she naturally takes the bag with it, how she doesn't realize she is asking about a pretty sensitive topic (the dungeon raid) but backs off when she realizes the brother doesn't want to speak about the thing (after he spaces out) or the natural care after seeing him drinking too much beer. Overal the whole flow of it was great (which is exact opposite of the whole previous episode).

In short, she doesn't come off as a heroine with a special position (blood relations), but as a real sister, a person quite close to him, but no romantic tension or anything like that.

[frubam]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I mean, he barely managed to win that fight, that he struggled so much is precisely why he's going to level up more before going for the rest of the dungeon because he knew he wouldn't be able to get past it.

I'm actually impressed by this. Most shows would have him fight the odds; struggle against adversity to get the prize. And a character that can level up(and heal on level up) as he goes along would be plenty of reason how such a char could survive the foray into the dungeon, but realistically, he decides to opt out after seeing its too much for him.

[Strahan]

Agreed. Plus he's still fairly new to his powers; I think most sane people would feel a little trepidation at the idea of venturing into a burning "demon castle" without some prep first, especially when the guard dog fucked you up that bad heh.

[Dengar]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I mean, he barely managed to win that fight, that he struggled so much is precisely why he's going to level up more before going for the rest of the dungeon because he knew he wouldn't be able to get past it.

Idk what you mean by 'barely'. He used a full recovery, and then accessed the shop for OP items to win. There wasn't any struggle.

The only reason the rest of the dungeon is "too much for him" is because he decided that it is so.

[zztop]

Originally Posted by Greenish Growth

I do like how Korean fantasy fighting main characters are more likely to kill their murderous antagonists than their Japanese counterparts.

Although...they can also have a number of fantasy fighting main characters that are overly smug and treat their followers with jerk-like troll behavior.

It's something I noticed as well with Korean webtoons when it comes to conflict; their characters are usually more smug and ruthless when it comes to dealing with antagonists, compared to the nicer gentler Japanese counterpart.

Maybe it's the reader expectations over there; they equate smug troll behaviour as the fantasy escapism for being badass and direct in ways they could never do in RL.

It's also very obvious in Korean romance fantasy for women too; compared to the kind forgiving nature of JP female leads, KR leads are more sassy, outspoken and usually less forgiving. Of course, those stories are usually heavily tied to the revenge genre so...

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Dengar

Idk what you mean by 'barely'. He used a full recovery, and then accessed the shop for OP items to win. There wasn't any struggle.

The only reason the rest of the dungeon is "too much for him" is because he decided that it is so.

He was clearly struggling to me though? Even after he used full recover and the potions his health was rapidly dwindling during the fight and he had to bear through excruciating amounts of pain to get a critical hit to kill the last head.

[The Green One]

He had to use literally all his cheat advantages to not get slaughtered in the first 30 seconds, and still almost got torn in half before he could finally kill it. He almost died at least 3 times.

That's not without struggle. Without struggle is if he killed the Cerebus without taking any damage at all.

[Decel]

Reading Dengar's comments here is like reading Guardian Enzo on the Frieren thread to me: there's a level of jadedness that's beyond salvage.

I'm rather disappointed by this series (mostly because of the editing), but it seems to be popular in its current form, and the Cerberus fight was overall pretty well done.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by frubam

I'm actually impressed by this. Most shows would have him fight the odds; struggle against adversity to get the prize. And a character that can level up(and heal on level up) as he goes along would be plenty of reason how such a char could survive the foray into the dungeon, but realistically, he decides to opt out after seeing its too much for him.

The show kind of did that though . He struggled through a fight that he definitely should have lost and got the prize. Sure he didn't get the full prize right away. But he both got the key that will let him come back and the recipe for the elixir. It didn't go all the way, but I think it went far enough that we can only give the series so much credit.

I would have been more impressed if he actually used the bail out crystal and came back for this fight at a later time. There was some restraint though.