Many manhwa readers around the world can commonly agree that <em>Solo Leveling</em> is a great gateway series, but not necessarily the ultimate offering of the medium. The series handles its concepts exceptionally well, rewarding readers who stick around for the long haul with more than the average power fantasy. However, manhwa encompasses much more than just aura and leveling up.
It’s certainly true that the medium is saturated with hits capitalizing on popular formulas like isekai, villainess, and apocalyptic urban fantasy. At this point, it’s part of their charm as they still work to subvert reader expectations and keep them on their toes. Many manhwa that surpass Solo Leveling thrive on what makes them different in meaningful ways.
The Greatest Estate Developer
A common complaint about Solo Leveling is that its protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, loses much of his personality by the halfway point. While later arcs serve up some of his most iconic moments, it’s difficult to overlook how stiff his character truly is. In contrast, Lloyd Frontera, a character from a fantasy novel inhabited by the protagonist Suho Kim, practically overflows with personality.
It is a common rite of passage for newcomers to see the many absurd, contorted faces of Lloyd Frontera when discovering The Greatest Estate Developer, truly an experience Solo Leveling could never hope to provide.
The Greatest Estate Developer begins like any typical isekai, featuring Suho falling asleep and slipping into the fantasy novel he’s reading. Incarnated as the scumbag Lloyd Frontera, he must dig his family out of debt. Fortunately, with Suho’s civil engineering background, he has just the solution. It’s a wildly inventive isekai premise and a wholly chaotic yet unique webtoon series.
The Greatest Estate Developer is available to read on Webtoon.
The World After the Fall
A more direct in-genre comparison, singNsong’s The World After the Fall effectively doubles down on what makes Solo Leveling great, down to a similarly dire apocalyptic setting while enhancing it. While sharing the same publisher with Redice Studio, The World After the Fall’s insane art and character designs from Undead Ttalgi immediately sweep fans of Solo Leveling up with excitement.
Following Jaehwan, The World After the Fall plunges its setting into chaos as towers engulf the world, seemingly ravaging humanity in the process. As Jaehwan progresses in this new reality as a Tower Walker, he learns the truth about its regression system and how it affects the timeline, opting instead to pursue the truth.
The World After the Fall can be read on Webtoon.
Eleceed
From the same author as Noblesse, Eleceed’s series had high expectations that were exceeded in remarkable ways. While Solo Leveling quickly feels formulaic even in its latter half, Eleceed blends excellent action with extraordinary renditions of environmental effects and lightning and is surprisingly hilarious.
Eleceed tells the story of Jiwoo, a pure-hearted boy who lives alone and chooses to invest in cat accessories and food despite never having a cat. Here he meets Kayden, an extremely powerful awakener in the body of a cat who bonds with Jiwoo as other awakeners attempt to pull him into their world.
Eleceed can be read on Webtoon.
Tower of God
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While their art comparisons are more lop-sided in favor of Solo Leveling’s,
Tower of God has superior world-building…
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