Mohsin Lag 
Solo Leveling works because it understands one thing perfectly: the climb. Jinwoo doesn’t start strong — he starts as the weakest hunter alive, and the show makes you feel every step from E-rank to shadow monarch. If that’s the itch — weak-to-strong done with momentum, systems with numbers, and a protagonist who earns the power fantasy — these fifteen shows are the best versions of it. Ranked by how satisfying the climb actually is.
I expanded this list from ten to fifteen because the genre deserves it, and because half of what people recommend for this itch is garbage. Everything below has a real progression arc, not a montage pretending to be one.
Fifteen Climbs Worth Taking, Ranked
1. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
The blueprint for modern “weakest monster becomes world power”: Rimuru starts as a slime — literally the bottom of the food chain — and the show builds his rise brick by brick over multiple seasons. 8bit’s 2018 adaptation is the most satisfying long-form progression in the genre, and it’s still going.
Skip if: you need struggle. Rimuru’s path is mostly upward, and the show is honest about that.
2. The Rising of the Shield Hero
The climb from below zero: Naofumi starts framed, broke, and equipped with the only weapon that can’t attack. Kinema Citrus’ 2019 series spends its entire first season on the grind — earning stats, allies, and trust — and the payoff is proportional to the suffering.
Skip if: the early betrayal arc is too much. It’s the furnace the rest of the show is forged in.
3. Tower of God
The tower is the ultimate progression system: floors as levels, tests as bosses, and a protagonist whose mysterious past is the game’s biggest secret. Telecom’s 2020 series adapts one of the best webtoons ever made — Bam’s climb is Solo Leveling’s cousin, with more intrigue and less neon.
Skip if: you need complete seasons quickly. The anime is still climbing the tower itself.
4. The God of High School
MAPPA’s 2020 series is the pure-fight version of the climb: a martial arts tournament that escalates into gods, borrowed powers, and literal mythology. The plot moves too fast for its own good, but the fights are the best pure spectacle of any progression anime — and Mori Jin’s arc is a classic zero-to-hero.
Skip if: you need the story to breathe. This one sprints, and it expects you to keep up.
5. The Eminence in Shadow
The parody that out-climbs the competition: Cid grinds his way to overwhelming power across two lifetimes, and the comedy is that the world mistakes his obsession for destiny. Nexus’s 2022 series is the only show on this list that’s both a great progression story and a great joke about progression stories.
Skip if: you want the power fantasy played straight. This one’s laughing with you, not at you — but it’s definitely laughing.
6. Sword Art Online
The ancestor: death-game stakes, level-by-level progression, and the floor boss structure that half this genre still copies. A-1 Pictures’ 2012 series hasn’t aged perfectly, but Kirito’s climb through Aincrad is the reason the “system with numbers” anime exists at all.
Skip if: you’ve absorbed the story through a decade of memes. Then you already know — and the later arcs are better anyway.
7. Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest
The edgiest climb on this list: a “synergist” class everyone dismisses, dropped into the abyss, who crawls out as a different person entirely. The 2019 adaptation (White Fox/asread) is rough around the edges but understands the Solo Leveling core — the transformation has to hurt before it pays.
Skip if: edgelord energy puts you off. Hajime earns the attitude, but it’s a lot of attitude.
8. So I’m a Spider, So What?
The most literal “weakest monster” run in anime: a spider at the bottom of the dungeon food chain, grinding survival one battle at a time. Millepensee’s 2021 series splits its runtime between Kumoko’s dungeon crawl (excellent) and a human-side plot (less so) — but the spider’s climb is the purest progression grind ever animated.
Skip if: split timelines frustrate you. The structure is deliberate; it’s also polarizing.
9. The Misfit of Demon King Academy
The reverse-engineered climb: Anos is the strongest thing alive pretending to climb from zero, and the joy is watching the world’s systems fail to contain him. Silver Link’s 2020 series is the funniest power fantasy on this list — the “progression” is everyone else catching up to what he already is.
Skip if: you wanted a genuine underdog. Anos is the anti-underdog, on purpose.
10. Shangri-La Frontier
The gamer’s Solo Leveling: a “trash game” specialist who ignores the meta and climbs the hardest MMO in the world through skill and stubbornness. C2C’s 2023 series has the best video-game animation in anime and a protagonist whose progression feels earned because he’s genuinely good, not blessed.
Skip if: game-UI-heavy shows aren’t your thing. The HUD is the co-star here.
11. Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells
The title says the whole thing: the classmate with the weakest-looking skills, abandoned as useless, who turns those “low-level spells” into weapons of mass destruction. Seven Arcs’ 2024 series is the revenge-flavored version of the Solo Leveling climb, and it delivers exactly what it promises.
Skip if: betrayal-revenge premises feel formulaic. It’s a formula, executed with conviction.
12. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
A reincarnator starting from the bottom of two worlds’ worth of social ladders, climbing through politics as much as power. TMS’s 2021 series is the most grounded progression here — the strength gains come slower, but the world pushes back harder, and the payoff feels bigger for it.
Skip if: slow-burn pacing loses you. This is a marathon climb, not a sprint.
13. A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special
The last survivor of the apocalypse goes back in time to redo the climb with perfect knowledge — Solo Leveling’s “system” replaced with hindsight as the cheat code. Arvo Animation’s 2023 series is a smart, tactical progression story where the advantage is knowing exactly which mistakes not to make.
Skip if: time-travel do-overs feel cheap to you. The show earns it with real strategy.
14. The Beginning After the End
A king reborn in a new world, restarting his climb from zero with a lifetime of discipline — the 2025 anime of one of the most popular webnovels ever written. It’s Solo Leveling’s philosophical cousin: same system-driven grind, more focus on family and what power is actually for.
Skip if: you need the anime to be far along. It’s early; the webnovel is the full climb.
15. Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
The comedy capstone: a hero so prepared he makes the power fantasy look like good sense. White Fox’s 2019 series starts as pure parody — and then its finale reveals a reason for the caution that retroactively justifies every absurd training montage. The only progression comedy that made me emotional at the end.
Skip if: you want the climb played straight. This one’s a joke that turns serious, not the reverse.
Where to Start
For the purest Solo Leveling feeling, Tower of God and Shangri-La Frontier are the direct hits. For the grind turned into an art form, So I’m a Spider is the deepest cut. And if you’re here because you just finished Solo Leveling’s second season, our 2027 anime list has what’s coming next for the genre — including the sequels you’re already waiting for.
FAQ
Which of these is closest to Solo Leveling?
Tower of God for the webtoon structure, Failure Frame for the “weakest skill is broken” revenge angle, and Shangri-La Frontier for the game-system feel. Slime is the closest in overall trajectory — weakest monster to world power.
Do any of these have the same “system window” aesthetic?
Slime, Spider, Shangri-La Frontier, and Failure Frame all use visible game interfaces. Solo Leveling’s system is unique to it, but those four share the HUD energy.
Where can I watch them?
Slime, Shield Hero, Tower of God, Eminence in Shadow, and Shangri-La Frontier are on Crunchyroll. SAO and Misfit are also broadly available — JustWatch will confirm your region’s lineup.
