Solo Leveling [Light Novel] Vol. 7

This book is a mixture of good and perhaps not bad things, but definitely meh things, so it's hard to say whether or not I enjoyed it.

Some of the good things include Thomas and Jinwoo's date, which is very cute. Thomas is very in love with Jinwoo and perhaps the only downside is that like most of the novel, it gets very repetitive, but it's alleviated by Thomas just coming up with new ways to stay how in love he is with Jinwoo. Most everyone except the Lizards, Hwang brothers, and Jay Mills are in love with Jinwoo to some degree, so it's not that unusual, but it is kind of funny how many times we hear Thomas admit to it either in his head or aloud. Even Baek Yoonho's comments aren't as over the top as Thomas'.

Jinwoo's meeting with show more Ashborn is one of my favorite parts of the story, because Ashborn is a neat character with an interesting backstory and relationship with Jinwoo. That being said, the story is also kind of lame (maybe that's the English translation and it sounds better in Korean, I don't know), and just feels kind of half-assed to fill in plotholes rather than be its own thing. Though I do appreciate that there's a canon intersex character. Jinwoo's reaction to that is... not the best, shall we say? But it's a nice addition at least have that.

Also sad to see how much the manhwa team just unnecessarily inserted Christianity into the visuals for the angels because there's nothing in the novel text that indicates that at all. It's nice to at least have a version of the story where that's not an issue, since I imagine when the anime eventually gets here, like most of the anime thus far, it'll keep Dubu's designs.

I also love Igris finally getting to talk and the reminder that Jinwoo finds Igris' voice very distracting.

Ilhwan defending Jinwoo is also lovely but feels kind of arbitrary and almost like Chugong forgot he was a character until we got to this point in the story, because he doesn't appear much if it all between when he disappeared from lock-up in the US to now. I also don't know why Jinwoo didn't go and have a moment with his mother and sister about Ilhwan's actual death (like if he wants to protect them from the loss, sure, but he doesn't even think about it at all, he just lets Jinho cry on him). He just feels very disconnected from his family, despite clearly caring about them in other ways.

A major issue in this volume is the repetition and the Jinwoo-obsessiveness is raised to ridiculous levels. It's not surprising the story focuses so intensely on him, given the work title (I mean why are you surprised that in the book called "Only I Level Up" (Korean)/"Solo Leveling" (English) that the protagonist is the only character that levels up and has any development of any kind?). It just gets kind of silly. There's no real tension in any of the fights because usually only two things happen: people will get injured/killed until Jinwoo shows up, and/or Jinwoo will save people before they can get injured/killed. The extras have so little personality that it's hard to get attached to them. On the rare occasion people actually get hurt/killed before Jinwoo gets there, he'll get upset and then probably not think about them again (except for Go Gunhee and his father).

The Jinwoo focus is to the point that you feel kind of bad for everyone else in the narrative. We're told about these vast armies of Hunters that stand zero chance up against enemies Jinwoo can deal with single-handedly, and ultimately end on people going "wow, how cool is Jinwoo". It's almost funny at one point because while Canada did get shafted a lot in this narrative, I guess because the US is on Jinwoo's side at this point, Jay Mills sort of brings up a good point that's been kind of forgotten for a bit: people use the gates for jobs, and Jinwoo is ostensibly blocking people from earning money. And yes, why care about money when the world is at stake, and a lot of the people getting shafted most are rich Hunters anyway, but still, the story does kind of toss out a lot of the heavy world-building for a lot of repetitive chapters about people being wow'd by Jinwoo in one way or another.

The "romance" with Cha Haein is just bad. Like it wasn't good to begin with and it didn't get better, and at this point we're meant to believe Jinwoo likes her, and while he says at much, I don't get why he liked her in the first place, considering how harshly he treats her when she tries to apply to Ahjin. He had way more chemistry with Joohee, and for all that relationship wasn't without its issue and I can't say I'm a fan of it either, it just made a whole lot more sense than Jinwoo and Haein. They're cute together, I guess, but it feels weirdly forced.

I still plan to finish this series because I do want to see how the novel version goes, but if I hadn't already known how the story ends, I'd have dropped it here or before this. And even then, if the manhwa did as close an adaptation of the story ending as it did the rest of the novel, I'm really unexcited. That being said, it is again interesting how much the manhwa shifted around: Song Chiyul being a swordmaster and Cha Haein's teacher isn't shown until this volume, but it appears near the beginning of the manhwa (which was kept by the anime). It's a neat way to better explore characters earlier and make them feel like a part of the world.

All in all, it's fine enough as a volume in the book, but I can't say I recommend it. "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" and "S-Classes that I Raised" are far better dungeon/level-up Korean webnovels than this, though sadly this is the only one at present with an official English translation (though Yen Press/Ize Press has the license to ORV and said they'd release the novel last July, so what are y'all doing?). Even "Lout of Count's Family" is more enjoyable than this, mostly because while the protagonist is beloved by just about everyone and Super Cool TM, the whole cast gets development and their own narratives, and it's at least starting its English release in September 2024. show less

TBC