Solo Leveling Became Major Influence on Korean Web Novels, but Not in a Good Way

Summary:

• Solo Leveling became so popular that many other authors wanted to create something similar.
• There are dozens of Solo Leveling copycats.
• Fans are exhausted from reading the same story all over again.

Unlike many anime, Solo Leveling (Ore dake Level Up na Ken) is not based on a Japanese manga, but on a South Korean web novel or manhwa, written by Chugong, which began serialization in 2016.

The anime adaptation is not the first time all eyes are on Solo Leveling, as the webnovel also created quite a commotion back in the day. It got itself a pretty big fanbase and was praised by many readers.

Back then, the overall premise of Solo Leveling, the ideas, and the setting of the series seemed fresh to the audience. Of course, there was never much novelty, since the story of a character leveling up in a game-like system wasn’t something new.

However, Solo Leveling still seemed original because there weren’t many popular series with similar ideas.

Too many copycats

As it often happens, when one thing becomes this big and popular, others try to repeat the success. And this is what happened to Solo Leveling. Authors understood that it was working and readers wanted something like that, which could mean only one thing: more series with similar premises were needed.

And thus it began, a countless number of manhwa that resembled Solo Leveling in one way or another. ‘A Returner's Magic Should Be Special’ which also includes in-game mechanics and leveling up, ‘Boundless Ascension’ with hunters that destroy monsters, ‘Kill the Hero’ where the world turns into a game. And these are just a couple of examples, there are more.

It’s very easy to find a manhwa like Solo Leveling to read because every other one is like this series. And fans are getting exhausted. They say that if they see another story with gates, dungeons, leveling up, or game-like mechanics in another Korean web novel, they will riot.

It feels like there aren’t many original ideas left, and they blame Solo Leveling for that. It’s important to say that fans still love Solo Leveling and think it deserves its success, but its influence on the world of manhwa has become unbearable.

Readers feel that it’s time to stop. Fresh ideas are the most desirable thing right now when it feels like we’ve run out of them. Reading the more-or-less same story with different characters is no longer fun, and fans think there have to be some changes.