Picked this one up mostly on the “not much else airing” logic again. It’s the one everyone’s calling Solo Leveling-adjacent: regression, revenge, magic relics, a protagonist who already knows how the next fight goes. Nine episodes in (three to go, finale’s the 23rd), here’s where I’ve landed. Watched dubbed, for what it’s worth.
The Solo Leveling comparison. It’s uncanny how much this feels like Solo Leveling, and I can’t fully put my finger on why. The systems are different (relics vs. leveling), the setting’s different. But something about it lands the same, and my best guess is it’s the protagonist: same flavor of quiet, already-knows-how-this-goes overpowered lead who the show builds everything else around. Once you notice it you can’t unnotice it.
The premise. Jooheon dies in the present, gets sent back to before “Tombs” and “Relics” started popping up worldwide, and spends his second run stacking advantages he shouldn’t have yet. It’s a clean enough hook on paper. The show just doesn’t do much with it beyond “he already knows, so he wins.”
The Jooheon problem. This is the actual issue, not the premise. He’s not an underdog with foreknowledge, he’s just better than everyone at everything, and his stated motivation is closer to “be pettier than my past self” than anything resembling a goal. There’s no fight in this show where I’ve believed for a second he could lose. Once or twice that’s fine. Nine episodes of it gets old.
Animation. Studio EEK is competent but not doing anything that’ll stick with me. Fights are readable, nothing more. Not a Heavy Knight-tier visual selling point here, it’s coasting on the source material’s popularity, not the craft.
The dub. Cast is solid enough, but there’s one genuinely annoying quirk: the glowing status-screen pop-ups (the game-like ability notifications Jooheon interacts with constantly) don’t get translated into English. So even watching dubbed, you’re stuck flipping subtitles on anyway whenever one of those matters. A couple of reviews also flag stiff facial animation and some inconsistent censorship as ongoing issues, for what it’s worth.
Worldbuilding. Genuinely the more interesting part, when it bothers. The relic lore (the Crow being a betrayed god-relic, the whole “abuser of relics” angle) is more compelling than the revenge plot wrapped around it. I’d almost rather watch the show about the relics than the show about Jooheon.
Where it’s landed for me: comfortable background watching, not appointment viewing. I’ll finish it since it’s short and there’s nothing else on, but I’m not champing at the bit for episode 10.
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