YMMV / Solo Leveling

• Awesome Art: One of the primary reasons this series became as popular as it did is because of the absolutely gorgeous artwork provided by Jang Sung-rak's webtoon adaptation.
• Awesome Music: With Hiroyuki Sawano in charge of the anime OST, you know that things are going to be awesome.
  • "Dark Aria <LV 2>" is a dark and epic piano and orchestral theme that plays during the moment in Episode 6 when Jin-woo decides not to hold back anymore against his fellow Hunters who want him dead.
• Ending Fatigue: The epilogue in the webtoon adaptation goes on for 21 chapters, which can feel like a drag when a good portion of it is just setting up Jin-woo's son, Sung Su-Ho, for the Ragnarok sequel.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Early on, there was a one-off nurse that had the hots for Jin-woo when the latter was recovering in the hospital, and she got to see his trained up body after he started relying on the Architect's game system. Some were hoping that she would make more appearances down the line.
  • If comments in the various places hosting the manhwa are anything to go by, Esil the demon girl from the Demon Tower subplot.
• Escapist Character: Sung Jin-woo started as a very weak Hunter who later finds that he possesses a special ability that would let him improve by leaps and bounds. Said ability allows him to become the strongest Hunter in his country, if not the world by the mid-story, something which leaves every other characters in absolute awe.
• Fan Nickname: Sung Drip-Woo, thanks to Sung's ability to wear lots of clothes with style.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the most common criticisms of the series is that it rushed through the endgame war against the Monarchs. As a result, the Monarchs never really get a chance to stand out as characters other than Dragon Emperor Antares to a small extent, and that was only because he was the Big Bad. The rushed content also resulted in Sung Jin-woo's later additions to his shadow army, such as Jima, Greed, and Bellion, barely getting any development, or moments to stand out, compared to his earlier shadow soldiers.
• Memetic Mutation: The Statue of God's◊ Slasher Smile has gotten this treatment.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • You could say this about any of the human cast not named Sung Jin-woo. Since Jin-woo is the only character capable of continuing to gain strength thanks to the Architect's game system, not a single character is able to keep up with him since every other Hunter is stuck at whatever Power Level they started off at. Thus, as the series continues to move along, it becomes more and more apparent that the side characters just don't matter. That it's only Jin-woo and his shadows who are actually able to battle it out against the more higher-powered enemies of the series. Especially the Monarchs.
  • A lot of readers found it to be a complete waste that Esil, a cute demon girl, dropped out of the story after Jin-woo completes the Demon Tower Quest. Granted, Esil and the other tower demons were all already dead given that the quest was based on a past event, but that still didn't stop people from wishing to see her again. At the very least, she makes a few brief cameos near the end of the webcomic.
  • Hwang Dong-Su, the Korean Hunter that's been trying to kill Jin-woo due to the latter killing his brother, eventually gets turned into one of Jin-woo's minions as a shadow named Greed. However, Greed's obtained so late in the series that he ends up never getting any moments to shine like Jin-woo's other shadows.
  • The Chinese Seven-Star Hunter, Liu Zhigang, can come across as this as he basically has very little scenes in the story despite how often he is brought up. He only has two notable action scenes that were basically cleaning up Sung Jin-woo's fights, killing ants that escaped from Jeju Island and giants that escaped the S-rank gate in Japan, but nothing spectacularly interesting enough to stand out to explain his unique ranking in China and why he finds Sung Jin-woo so interesting.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Midway through the series, Cha Hae-In displayed interest in trying to join Sung Jin-woo's Ahjin Guild, which could have allowed her to appear more and fight alongside the main character. However, this idea ended up being dropped and forgotten about once it turned out that Hae-In couldn't pass the test to beat Jin-woo's shadow warriors.
  • The last couple chapters has Jin-woo use his reward from the Rulers to go back in time to basically redo his entire journey so that no one other than his Monarch enemies actually dies this time around. Said adventure had potential to greatly lengthen the series, yet it all gets skipped over in order to bring the series to a swift end.

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