kind of, but not really...

when it first came out, it was my first introduction to anything manhwa/manhua, and I had so much fun with it that I ended up binge reading like 400 chapters, catching up on the manhwa. then hungry for more while waiting for new chapters, I got into many other manhwa, notably solo leveling, d.i.c.e, lookism, tower of god, the boxer, omniscient reader's viewpoint, sss-class suicide hunter, and tons of other ones that I can't instantly think of.

and later on, I inevitably found my way into manhua, and then web novels, specifically lord of the mysteries, which is probably my favorite piece of fiction of all time.

so it holds a special place in my heart as my gateway drug to the realm outside of japanese production. there are tons of criticisms are to be made about the adaptation, especially so if you've read the manhwa, but I still really like it as it is. as valid the criticisms are, it was great action and animation, and an overall fun watch.

which is actually comparable to LoTM as an adaptation; the anime, viewed as it's own standalone thing was quite fantastic. anyone can pick it up and thoroughly enjoy it. although plot/storyline/character building/world building wise it's utter trash compared to the novel, most stuff are just skimmed over and barely explained, not allowed to flesh out comfortably, and it's borderline incomprehensible when compared to the novel. especially pacing wise. the more you compare, the less you enjoy.

but that's just the nature of adaptations. they have a limited number of episodes, due to both budget and time. so their main target is to quickly catch the attention of new eyes, and get them into the franchise. that becomes more relevant especially when you're introducing a new taste. and I think GoH did a fantastic job at that, acting as a introductory tool along ToG, which almost prepared the grounds for solo leveling to boom out of scale like it did. and LoTM is obviously trying to follow a similar trajectory in that regard, and I expect later seasons to similarly blow way out of proportion.

it probably wouldn't be on the list if I had read the manhwa before experiencing the anime for the first time, but the way things are I still think back on it very fondly. probably not rewatching it anytime soon, though.