#the manhwa kind of ends up defining the side characters in the process of drawing their appearance | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chahaeroine · 27 days ago

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Listen I'm never going to begrudge a series titled "Solo Leveling/Only I Level Up" for revolving around its sole main character. If I wanted to consume something with a rich supporting cast, I wouldn't be reading self indulgent power fantasy stories.

HOWEVER, I must say that the anime adaption does so many little things to make the side characters feel more real and integrated within the setting.

Like having Heejin, Gina, and their third friend meet up for brunch and provide supporting narration for the Lizards Arc. Or introducing many of the side characters earlier on in the story as part of the exposition, such as Go Gun-hee and other S-ranks. Kim Chul even has a brief appearance prior to the Red Gate arc where he's working out at the Guild.

These filler-ish scenes make the world and the characters seem like they really exist outside of being a live reaction reel for whenever Jinwoo does something really cool. Which I enjoy a lot. Small additions can make a big difference.

#solo leveling #comparing the novel to the manhwa to the anime is like looking at a pokémon evolution tree #it just keeps getting better #like the novel is great but is by far the source material that has the least extra details given to side characters #mostly because the side characters are mostly irrelevant to the story it tells #then the manhwa adaption had to come up with some kind of design for all the unnamed background mooks #like gina isn't in the novel at all #she's just one of the background members of the raid team that aren't named #semi and heejin have written lines but are unnamed in the novel #plus all of the japanese s ranks except for goto are unnamed and have no description in the novel #the manhwa kind of ends up defining the side characters in the process of drawing their appearance #and then the anime took those side characters and ran with them #by adding even more scenes that include them #its like that writing game where everyone takes turns adding a new sentence to a story

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