Season 1 has a nice introduction, with how events in the first episode developed and concluded in the next one. It was thrilling to see whether the characters will be capable to solve the challenge and the many sacrifices they had to do to survive, showing their honest side, and how impactful what happened there was for them.
After the first and second episodes, the rest of the season was a bit slow and spent more time with the main character training and giving some focus to the secondary characters, which's a plus since the manhwa barely did something with them, but that's it. A lot of time, the protagonist is in some place leveling up by killing monsters - or humans if he doesn't have a choice - but there are times where he felt more challenged because of some unexpected situations, making it a bit more entertaining than usual to watch; then there's the rest of the characters, which they didn't do much, most of them did few things here and there but nothing major. The whole first season felt like an introduction, being there to introduce characters, setting up future events, and having the protagonist grinding levels to be ready for those future events.
Aside from characters, the world building is lacking a bit on development. For an anime where characters have to fight inside of dungeons, there's not much information about it, the series shows how dungeons affected human society in many ways: the economy, health (for the better or worst), or hunters' influences over society; but not much about a simpler topic: the dungeon itself. What's the dungeon's ecosystem? Are there even food (plants or something edible) in that place? If not, then how can monsters stay alive in such a rocky area? Or why a lot of dungeon are rocky lands? The dungeon's world building is just as important as any world building in the series, and such a relevant topic being wasted for unknown reasons
To finish things up, Solo Leveling is an anime that has many ideas placed in the table but just a few of them gets to stand out. Throughout the first season, the main focus are the main character and the fights, the rest are either showing up a bit to let the viewers know that they exist or just there being overshadowed by those two. Hoping season 2 get to focus more than just the main character and fights.
After the first and second episodes, the rest of the season was a bit slow and spent more time with the main character training and giving some focus to the secondary characters, which's a plus since the manhwa barely did something with them, but that's it. A lot of time, the protagonist is in some place leveling up by killing monsters - or humans if he doesn't have a choice - but there are times where he felt more challenged because of some unexpected situations, making it a bit more entertaining than usual to watch; then there's the rest of the characters, which they didn't do much, most of them did few things here and there but nothing major. The whole first season felt like an introduction, being there to introduce characters, setting up future events, and having the protagonist grinding levels to be ready for those future events.
Aside from characters, the world building is lacking a bit on development. For an anime where characters have to fight inside of dungeons, there's not much information about it, the series shows how dungeons affected human society in many ways: the economy, health (for the better or worst), or hunters' influences over society; but not much about a simpler topic: the dungeon itself. What's the dungeon's ecosystem? Are there even food (plants or something edible) in that place? If not, then how can monsters stay alive in such a rocky area? Or why a lot of dungeon are rocky lands? The dungeon's world building is just as important as any world building in the series, and such a relevant topic being wasted for unknown reasons
To finish things up, Solo Leveling is an anime that has many ideas placed in the table but just a few of them gets to stand out. Throughout the first season, the main focus are the main character and the fights, the rest are either showing up a bit to let the viewers know that they exist or just there being overshadowed by those two. Hoping season 2 get to focus more than just the main character and fights.