Animation (and Comics) after 30

Title: SSS-Class Revival Hunter (Original title: SSS급 죽어야 사는 헌터)

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2021-?

Country: South Korea

Genre: Action

Status: Ongoing (review as of chapter #114)

Platform: Tapas (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Sure, if you like this kind of thing

My rating: 3/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

After watching Gigguk's latest video on the rise of "regression" series, I thought I'd give a few that he mentions a try. First on the docket was SSS-Class Revival Hunter, which I was honestly underwhelmed by given Gigguk's glowing review. The series is basically on par with Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader, which does put it head and shoulders above most "a gate/dungeon/tower opens up in the real world, some people get superpowers, and the loser protagonist somehow gets a super-OP skill and now heads off to level his way up to the top" series. Frankly I could end this review right now with: "if you liked those series, go read SSS-CRH, but if not, don't."

Warning, spoilers ahead

SSS-CRH's biggest flaw is that it doesn't offer much we haven't seen before. Sure, there are enough distinctions (especially in the beginning) that it feels like we're not just reading a clone of similar series that came before, but the similarities overwhelm the differences (especially as the series goes on). Most of the series' novelty comes from the protagonist's ability: he goes back in time 24 hours every time he dies and it's stackable, allowing him to rewind the clock as far and as many times as needed. This means that rather than the cliche of the hero facing impossible situations and somehow just barely eeking out the necessary power to overcome them, the hero gets unlimited redos; the challenge isn't even about winning anymore, it's in seeking the ultimate outcome for the situation. So while this is an infinite-leveling power fantasy, there's a puzzle/strategy element to it with a heavy dose of unwavering persistence (the protagonist will die hundreds if not thousands of times and as excruciatingly or painfully as needed to accomplish his objective). This twist also allows the protagonist to be kind and caring rather than ruthless because the entire premise is about how many other people he can save and how many missions he can clear with an "optimal ending." Unfortunately this is undercut somewhat by how calculating and cunning he acts, because once the series becomes a puzzle of how to obtain the best ending, the characters he meets inevitably become little more than chess pieces he can utilize to obtain said best ending.

The series' negative qualities really drag it down into the realm of forgettable: the setting is super generic, the art is good but also super generic, and the abilities the protagonist gathers are nothing new (and in some cases, practically identical to those of other series). The protagonist is also pretty bland, and I worry about how long the series is going to go for (114 chapters in we just cleared floor 25 of 100). But the biggest problems with the series are shared with its genre brethren. For example, all characters other than the protagonist are mere two-dimensional pawns: either challengers to defeat, or potential allies to win over (in the case of SSS-CRH, it's almost always the former leading to the latter). This is extremely common in infinite-leveling series, especially when the protagonist has an ability they must keep secret from every other character, however it's not inevitable (Hand Jumper's protagonist also has a time-leap ability she must keep secret, however the series still manages to have decently fleshed-out secondary characters, and Hero Killer has the OP protagonist getting treated as a pawn rather than the other way around). Another example of a cliche weakness: every challenge in SSS-CRH is overcome with the protagonist as the UMVP (ultra-most-valuable-player). The side characters help out here and there, but their help was always orchestrated by the protagonist in the first place. After all, the protagonist never needs saving if he can go back and try again as many times as he likes (or use the time loop as a means of grinding until he obtains enough strength to solo the challenge). Even the most cliche Shonen Jump series at least have moments where the protagonist's efforts are insufficient and the day is saved by someone else (or the day isn't saved at all).

I'm not terribly bullish on the direction of the series; SSS-CRH was at least entertaining until we hit the library arc (tower levels 21+), then a few things started going wrong. The pace slowed way down, the dialogue weakened significantly [note: I did not realize there was an official translation so I read a fan translation; perhaps the official translation does not have this issue], and the "solutions" to challenges began to feel very hand-wavy with a lot of "the plot dictates the action, rather than the reverse." Mostly though, by creating a scenario where the characters have to travel into books of different genres, this was an opportunity for the series to refresh itself by breaking out of the tropes and cliches of the "monster gate" genre and explore a fresh setting. Instead I felt like the series just became worse, by first being a weak martial arts series, and then an absolute flop of a romance series. (To be fair, there are some redeeming moments during the martial arts arc, but the romance arc read like an unintentional parody of some of the worst examples of the genre.) I'm still not sure what to make of the latest few chapters... the protagonist actually falls in love with and marries a character in a book in the tower? She's essentially a double-NPC! And the way the protagonist goes from being completely clueless about love and dating to "taming a shrew" in a matter of chapters... Plus now the deeply-in-love married couple are just going to part ways and live their separate lives except for occasional meet-ups? I think the concept of having two lonely regressors meet each other and fall in love because they're the only people in the entire world who understand each other is actually quite brilliant, but the new regressor starts as a psycho crazy bitch then shifts to compliant useful chess piece fast enough to give you whiplash. This series was never great at character development, but it really stumbles hard during the romance arc.

There's nothing in the series that's explicitly offensive to the older crowd: no sexualization of minors (there are hardly any minors to speak of), no "teenage antics" (again, most characters seem to be in their 20s-30s and act their ages). So if you enjoy the infinite-power-leveling genre, you should feel confident in starting this one. Just don't expect it to break beyond the well-established limits and weaknesses of the genre.