Summary

• Solo Leveling popularized tropes in manhwa like dungeons and overpowered characters to perfection.
• The series inspired a subculture of manhwa based on the concept of "leveling up" and the word "solo."
• Omniscient Reader is a potential successor to Solo Leveling, with similar elements and a compelling story.

When Solo Leveling has lived up to these expectations and Crunchyroll's Solo Leveling documentary explores the exact factors that influenced this success and the impact of the series on the industry.

Crunchyroll's documentary titled The Leveling of Solo Leveling makes an astute observation on Solo Leveling's influence on the manhwa industry, pointing out how the series has created an entire subculture of manhwa centered around "leveling up" with similar addictive game-like plot elements.

In the documentary, Jang Hye-Kyung, the International Print Publishing Manager of D&C Media even goes as far as to claim that the word "solo" itself became somewhat of a phenomenon in the wake of Solo Leveling's success with more and more manhwa incorporating the buzzword in their titles. While Solo Leveling may not have been the first to implement these tropes, it was certainly the first to popularize them and execute them to perfection, so much so that, many of these tropes have become synonymous with the series.

Solo Leveling Inspired an Entire Sub-Genre of Manhwa

Created by Chugong and illustrated by Jang Sung-rank, Solo Leveling is the most successful manhwa ever

Solo Leveling is the first to come to mind when talking about tropes like dungeons, overpowered main characters, game-like mechanics, and necromancer characters. As the documentary points out, Solo Leveling showed great promise even as a web novel and rightly exploded in popularity when adapted into a webtoon. One might argue that Solo Leveling is so well known that not only the tropes it uses but also the word "solo" itself has become inseparable from the series.

Solo Leveling's Korean title can also be translated as "I Alone Level Up."

As such, as the documentary claims, there did indeed come many manhwa that used "solo" or "na honja," which means "I alone" in Korean or some variation of it in their titles after Solo Leveling's release. Some of these include Solo Glitch Player, I Alone, The Lone Spellcaster, The Lone Necromancer, Leveling Up Alone, and Solo Eating to Overpowered. As indicated by their titles, many of these series share common elements with Solo Leveling, be it an apocalyptic setting, hunting monsters, or the journey of a weak protagonist leveling up and getting stronger like Jinwoo. However, not all manage to make the most of these tropes as well as Solo Leveling did or tell as compelling of a story.

Solo Leveling's Only Potential Successor is Yet to Hit the Screen

Omniscient Reader is just as deserving of an anime adaptation

While there are many manhwa like Solo Leveling that is worthy of an anime, it has to be Omniscient Reader.

Overall, Solo Leveling is one of the few manhwa series with such an extensive global fanbase and has surely even introduced many new readers to the vibrant world of Korean manhwa. As such, Solo Leveling's impact on the industry as well as readers is undeniable, and it is easy to see how it may have created its own distinct subculture.

Solo Leveling is available from Crunchyroll.

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