Why is Solo Leveling like... that?
So, I've been watching the Solo Leveling anime adaptation and somehow even though the animation is fun and the battles are cool it feels so... vapid and irritating to me, and honestly kinda worrying about what this says about the future of shounen anime?
Like, these power fantasy protagonists are so shallow and irritating. It's like someone took Alucard from Hellsing and decided to only adapt the part of him that's OP but then made anything else about him bland a f. It feels like a freaking elementary school kid fantasizing about beating up his bullies wrote this. His motivations are extremely vapid, he's basically like "I gotta get this Cure All pill for my mom who's in a comma! Oh, who's my mom? You don't need to care about her like... at all. No need for her to have a single scene, or anything to make anyone watching give a fuck about this person supposedly moving the plot forward! She's just a thin excuse of a goal cause otherwise I have no excuse running around killing shit and people!"
And he's such an unimaginative men's fantasy too. The hottest girl randomly likes him already from meeting him because he is special (in this case, because he doesn't smell), he doesn't have to learn to collaborate and have teamwork since his whole thing is that he's so strong as an individual anyone else is by contrast a flea. Like literally the whole fantasy he is fullfilling is that he is some ultimate hyperindividual in need of no one.. how is this interesting storytelling?
If you compare the story to something like Dungeon Meshi for example, I can't even name one character here who has an interesting personality or character design, they are all bland, and everyone is just there to gawk and remark on how amazing the protagonist is by contrast.
And then of course his father who was missing for 10 years didn't just say he went to buy milk and walked out on them, HE'S ACTUALLY A SUPER DUPER WOW POWERFUL DUDE AND LIKE- YOUR DADS HAVE NOTHING ON MY DAD OK!
Like it's so vapid and superficial and the cool moments make me feel so... empty. I mean the first couple episodes in that freaky secret dungeon were cool, even the first time he killed that team that tried to murder him and that rich kid I was kind of invested, but by now the show is just a repetition of him "completely by chance" lucking into crazy scenarios, revealing himself as crazy op and everyone clapping and thanking him for being so powerful compared to how useless they were and of course commenting constantly on what a special boy he is. Like... whoever wrote this or loves this story needs therapy for real.
Did the writer get publicly humiliated for having a small dck or something and he has like... crazy intense fantasies where he needs to be told he's done a good job over and over again or what??
It also worries me because if this is what's being produced and is popular right now over, idk shows that have *some* cool and powerful battles and power fantasy *elements!* maybe, but focus on character development, relationships, world-building, IDK, ANYTHING NOT SUPERFICIAL OR ABOUT SOOTHING SOMEONE'S FRAGILE EGO, then this is basically the evolution of the isekai problem and where it's heading towards! Or to be more precise, I am afraid we're gonna keep seeing shows about people being these weird, neoliberal hyperindividual miracle protagonists, who "don't need anyone" and everyone just admires them for how special they are, where the rest of the people don't even feel real but more like "things" the protagonists earn, and nothing with emotional depth happens. It's depressing honestly...
