I saw this got made into an Anime recently after something like 15 years it's been on manga form. This series seems to be one of those you have to like if you're a 'true fan' of Anime/Manga, otherwise you lack Otaku creds. Along with Jojo's adventures, they appear to be the equivalent of the Panzer Dragoon Saga of manga/anime. But whereas Panzer Dragoon Saga can at least argue the reason why you've never heard of this game is because it was on a system that was dead, you can't say that for manga since people aren't exactly attached to which guy serializes manag. Sure if you're not on Shonen Jump you get less exposure, but Fullmetal Alchemist was on a relative no-name serialization (well everything is no-name compared to Shonen Jump) and it sure had no problem gaining a wide audience.
Level E was the MMORPG before there was MMORPG, and Man In Black before there was Man In Black. The story features Prince Stupid (that's his name though he's usually referred to as The Prince), the smartest person in the entire galaxy and heir to some kind of galactic empire. His goal in life is put as many people (especially Earthlings) in eternal torment. Earth has been colonized thousands of alien species but only very few earthlings are aware that alien death stars are orbiting earth and ready to nuke it at a moment's notice. Now, Level E is obviously very good. It's not like a bunch of guys just decided to vote on a random manga you've never heard of as prerequisite for Otaku creds. At 3 volumes it's roughly comparable in size to Azumanga Daioh, and while I enjoyed Azumanga Daioh there's no way seeing this series makes you some kind of connoseiur or a better person compared to someone who has not. The Prince is a very interesting character. The problem is that there is pretty much nobody else that's interesting until Princess Luna appears right before the end of the last volume. While The Last Boss (that's really his name too) could have been a worthy adversary to The Prince, he too only has very limited exposure and you just can't make very interesting characters on 5 pages of manga.
People like to say Level E is great because you can never tell what's going on and I guess feeling like a fool somehow validates your existence because if you feel like a fool that means the author must be a super genius, because it can't possibly be because the reader was just stupid. For one thing most of Level E is completely impossible to second-guess. Not because it's bad, but because The Prince basically has godlike powers and he's very whimsical about using these powers. One of the mini arcs has another alien species attempting to subvertly wiped out the human race, and they're easily crushed since no evil force is a match against the supreme evil being of the galaxy who wants Earthlings to be his guinea pigs forever, and I think you're supposed to feel bad for the guys who are trying to wipe out humanity because they picked the wrong race and wrong evil to mess with. The Prince is pretty similar to Star Trek's Q, but on humanity's side there isn't a Jean-Luc Picard and it just doesn't work out if you don't got an equal battle, and Princess Luna comes in way too late to have any lasting impact on the story.
Level E is also the MMORPG before MMORPG even existed. The Color Rangers arc, probably the biggest arc of the series, involves The Prince kidnapping 5 random kids and put them in a real-life MMORPG simulator. Togashi has a ton of gamer cred, and indeed rumor often says HXH is delayed because he's playing the latest Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/MMORPG. The story is filled with RPG cliche but it's also constantly reminding that in real life (fantasy?), the dragon usually wins. It's pretty funny when you see the Color Rangers hit level 50 and the first encounter was against a level 1300 Dragon Knight boss. The Last Boss even makes a credible attempt to assassinate The Prince sort of like what Darth Vader did, but of course since The Prince is more evil than any villian known in fiction he managed to avoid this treachery.
As far as I know the Anime wasn't really that well received, but it's not bad either. If Azumanga Daioh is a warm-hearted story about the daily lives of your average high school girls, then Level E is a warm-hearted story about the daily lives of your galactic super villian. Besides, next time you can say you've seen Level E to prove you got Otaku creds!
Level E was the MMORPG before there was MMORPG, and Man In Black before there was Man In Black. The story features Prince Stupid (that's his name though he's usually referred to as The Prince), the smartest person in the entire galaxy and heir to some kind of galactic empire. His goal in life is put as many people (especially Earthlings) in eternal torment. Earth has been colonized thousands of alien species but only very few earthlings are aware that alien death stars are orbiting earth and ready to nuke it at a moment's notice. Now, Level E is obviously very good. It's not like a bunch of guys just decided to vote on a random manga you've never heard of as prerequisite for Otaku creds. At 3 volumes it's roughly comparable in size to Azumanga Daioh, and while I enjoyed Azumanga Daioh there's no way seeing this series makes you some kind of connoseiur or a better person compared to someone who has not. The Prince is a very interesting character. The problem is that there is pretty much nobody else that's interesting until Princess Luna appears right before the end of the last volume. While The Last Boss (that's really his name too) could have been a worthy adversary to The Prince, he too only has very limited exposure and you just can't make very interesting characters on 5 pages of manga.
People like to say Level E is great because you can never tell what's going on and I guess feeling like a fool somehow validates your existence because if you feel like a fool that means the author must be a super genius, because it can't possibly be because the reader was just stupid. For one thing most of Level E is completely impossible to second-guess. Not because it's bad, but because The Prince basically has godlike powers and he's very whimsical about using these powers. One of the mini arcs has another alien species attempting to subvertly wiped out the human race, and they're easily crushed since no evil force is a match against the supreme evil being of the galaxy who wants Earthlings to be his guinea pigs forever, and I think you're supposed to feel bad for the guys who are trying to wipe out humanity because they picked the wrong race and wrong evil to mess with. The Prince is pretty similar to Star Trek's Q, but on humanity's side there isn't a Jean-Luc Picard and it just doesn't work out if you don't got an equal battle, and Princess Luna comes in way too late to have any lasting impact on the story.
Level E is also the MMORPG before MMORPG even existed. The Color Rangers arc, probably the biggest arc of the series, involves The Prince kidnapping 5 random kids and put them in a real-life MMORPG simulator. Togashi has a ton of gamer cred, and indeed rumor often says HXH is delayed because he's playing the latest Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/MMORPG. The story is filled with RPG cliche but it's also constantly reminding that in real life (fantasy?), the dragon usually wins. It's pretty funny when you see the Color Rangers hit level 50 and the first encounter was against a level 1300 Dragon Knight boss. The Last Boss even makes a credible attempt to assassinate The Prince sort of like what Darth Vader did, but of course since The Prince is more evil than any villian known in fiction he managed to avoid this treachery.
As far as I know the Anime wasn't really that well received, but it's not bad either. If Azumanga Daioh is a warm-hearted story about the daily lives of your average high school girls, then Level E is a warm-hearted story about the daily lives of your galactic super villian. Besides, next time you can say you've seen Level E to prove you got Otaku creds!
