I recently watched both and really liked it.

A friend have been recommending me to watch Solo Leveling for a while now, and despite my fears of it just being another generic ass story and protagonist, I actually enjoyed it.

The only 2 complaints I can think of right now are that the other characters aren’t really that interesting outside the protagonist, so I kinda don’t care about them very much, and I think not having any commentary on the very predatory capitalism showed in the story is a bit of a let down, like, the protagonist barely makes money, there’s literal monopolization of portals and creation of guilds for profit seeking, yet there’s 0 commentary on that, unless I missed something.

That being said, I like the protagonist, he’s not an extremely evil or perfectly good guy, he’s just a dude that got dragged along and have to make some though decisions here and there.

Spoiler for the end of the season

Also, at the end of the first season the dude becomes a necromancer, and I’m a sucker for necromancy, so I’m excited to see where it goes lol.

.

For Trigun, I watched the old anime a while ago, and I thought this new one would go a completely different route, but I was gladly surprised with how it turned out. I just finished watching it and I really liked it. I never read the manga so I don’t know how close it is to the original story, but I was shocked with how different it was from the old adaptation. I remember a lot of people complaining about Vash’s new design, but honestly the only issue I have with it is that it’s a bit too simple lol, I wish his clothing was more complex/overdesigned.

Spoiler about the story

The only real complain I have with the story is that it doesn’t really tries to counter Knives’ narrative.

Like, he’s obviously right about how the plants are used and killed by humans, but he’s a genocidal manipulative race supremacist that wants to create a paradise for his species with all means necessary, and the only thing to counter his narrative is Vash saying it doesn’t need to be like that and that humans and plants can coexist, but never explaining how, never addressing the issue with how plants are used and discarded.

I really hope this gets tackled in the next season, because right now it makes it seems like Knives actions and way of thinking was justified.

It’s also mentioned how humans basically destroyed Earth and had to send colonizing ships to another planet, but there’s no deeper conversation or commentary about how that happened or why it might happen again in this new planet, the narrative is always pointed towards the whole human race being evil and being the issue, and not the current structures that make these things happen. Seems a bit shallow to me.

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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    3 days ago

    Solo levelling is South Korean manhwa, author literally died working on it, and you expect come social commentary about predatory capitalism in the age of apocalypse? On a bright side, he at least did finished it and did not filled it with completely absurd Occupied Korean chauvinism like the author of the most cringy manhwa ever, “The Gamer” (yes i’m not joking there is really shit like that out there).

    Anyway, better read some murim manhwas, they tend to be quite fun.

    and I’m a sucker for necromancy, so I’m excited to see where it goes lol.

    Nowhere, he later gets into advanced class which is technically still a necromancer but not really.

    • bobs_guns
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      3 days ago

      The Gamer is so ass. It reads like Tails Gets Trolled but without any of the good bits or funny moments.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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        3 days ago

        It was pretty fun at the beginning but then suddeenly he’s on the world conquest, enslaving people left and right, having pedo inclinations about his witch teacher and Occupied Korea is revealed to be world class superpower in magic underworld FUCKERS WHY DID YOU GET OCCUPIED AND ALLOWED USIANS TO DID ALL THAT SHIT TO YOURSELVES.

    • Kras MazovOP
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      3 days ago

      Solo levelling is South Korean manhwa, author literally died working on it

      That’s not the author, but rather the illustrator. Still, extremely fucked up, I was not aware of that. Though not surprising coming from Occupied Korea.

      and you expect come social commentary about predatory capitalism in the age of apocalypse?

      Honestly, yeah I did. Despite everything, recent big works from Occupied Korea that get’s international appraise tend to be anticapitalist or at least very critical of capitalism like Parasite and Squid Game. But maybe these are outliers, I don’t know.

      Anyway, better read some murim manhwas, they tend to be quite fun.

      Thanks I’ll take a look, do you have any recommendations? I never really read any manhwa.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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        3 days ago

        That’s not the author, but rather the illustrator.

        That’s worse, because it’s him that made that manga, plot is rather banal and characters unmemorable, but the art was one of the best.

        Thanks I’ll take a look, do you have any recommendations? I never really read any manhwa.

        Infinite Levelling: Murim is pretty fun, guy get reincarnated and even gets the magic cheat system, but since he isn’t a modern gamer but medieval Chinese soldier he can’t even understand the terminology at the beginning. Next one is Peerless Dad, about dude getting back to martial arts while raising kids. Next one Volcanic Age, i would say archetypical high fantasy murim story. Finally, Chronicles Of Heavenly Demon, basically the same as above, but protagonist is on the other side of barricade and wants to destroy murim, also noteworthy because the author resisted all the flashy costumes and most people there just go around in historical clothes.

        I kinda like murim manhwas because they are all set in China (usually in first century of Ming era but that can vary) and thus they don’t have the sinophobia included (unlike for example again Gamer which reeks of it and Infinite Levelling which also hints it often) and protagonists usually aren’t edgy bastards.

  • big_spoon
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    3 days ago

    well…solo leveling is pretty interesting for a donghua with rpg mechanics, we have a pretty cynical guy who has a pretty strong grindset and wants to fight alone