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ChapterBrief · Reviews
Eleceed review: Son Jeho and Zhena's WEBTOON action manhwa, 400+ chapters, ongoing. Does the Jiwoo-Kayden dynamic hold up over 400 chapters?

WEBTOON / Naver
Score
Eleceed is one of the better long-running action manhwa on WEBTOON because it hasn't abandoned its character writing at 400 chapters. The Kayden dynamic still works. For action manhwa readers who want weekly output with a genuine comic spine, this is a reliable pick.
Eleceed review question that matters: does a character dynamic stay funny and specific at chapter 400, or does it collapse into formula? Most action manhwa can't answer that: they resolve the early-arc relationship into something more serious by chapter 100 because the humor doesn't survive power escalation. This Eleceed review is interested in whether it does.
Eleceed.
Solo Leveling.
The Eleceed review answer: mostly yes.
Jiwoo Choi has reflexes like a cat. He finds an injured cat that's actually Kayden (the world's most powerful Awakened human, currently trapped in an undignified animal body). Kayden can't get out without Jiwoo. Jiwoo now has the most dangerous trainer alive. Their mutual dependency is the engine.
The world: Awakened are people with supernatural abilities, organized into ranked associations with their own politics and power structures. Jiwoo enters this world without knowing any of its rules. Kayden knows all of them and can't act on any of them while he's a housecat.
The Eleceed review's case for the series is built on one specific claim: the comic premise doesn't get retired as the stakes rise. Kayden's situation (genuinely humiliating for someone with his history) is still the series at chapter 300. It's darker by then, more loaded with what his past was. But it's still there.
For the full arc breakdown and what to expect from 400+ chapters:
Eleceed Reading Guide →
Eleceed's setup sounds absurd: a shape-shifting S-rank awakener hiding in a kitten's body. The series makes it work through character writing.
The Eleceed review has to note the art trajectory because it's one of the stronger arguments for reading the current chapters over just sampling the early ones.
Zhena's early work is clean and readable but not exceptional. The action sequences in the first hundred chapters show the limitations: speed lines and impact frames that work fine without doing anything remarkable. By the Korean associations arc (roughly chapters 100-250), the art has developed noticeably. The spatial sense in fights is cleaner, the character expressions have more range, and Zhena is doing more interesting things with composition.
By the international arc, the combat sequences are among the better action art running on WEBTOON right now. This matters because action manhwa art quality tends to slip at this length. Writers and artists working on weekly schedules for five-plus years usually show it somewhere. Eleceed hasn't: the craft has gone in the right direction and held there.
The character design distinction between Jiwoo (earnest, slightly messy) and Kayden (precise even in cat form) is maintained across 400+ chapters. Small detail, but these visual identities eroding is where long-running series quietly lose their grip on what made them work early. Eleceed's haven't.
Zhena's art improvement across 400+ chapters is one of the more interesting craft arcs in ongoing manhwa. Early chapters look different from the current run.
The specific reason this Eleceed review rates it above the genre average for long-running action series is what the series does with Kayden's history as it becomes relevant.
The early arc's humor about Kayden is surface-level: powerful person, undignified body, constant indignity. That's inherently funny for a few hundred chapters. What stops it from being just that is the series gradually revealing who Kayden was before the cat situation. His relationships with other Awakened, his history as an operative, what he was willing to do and what it cost: that context changes how his current situation reads. The humor about the cat body starts carrying the weight of everything he's lost access to.
Jiwoo doesn't change the same way. He's consistent across 400+ chapters: the same genuine warmth, the same inability to be intimidated correctly, the same instinct to help strays before he thinks about training. This sounds like a limitation. In practice, it makes Jiwoo the series' stability. Characters around him change and escalate; he responds to each situation from the same internal position. The Eleceed review finds this a deliberate structural choice: Jiwoo as the fixed point that the increasingly complicated Awakened world runs up against.
Their dynamic stays alive because both characters continue to develop in their own directions rather than converging. They need each other differently at chapter 400 than they did at chapter 20. That's the actual achievement.
For where Eleceed sits in the action manhwa landscape:
Best Action Manhwa 2026 →
The foundation arc (roughly chapters 1-100) is the strongest for character work. The Korean associations arc (chapters 100-250) is the strongest for combat. The international arc (chapters 250+) is where the series expands its scope and costs some of the early intimacy in exchange.
This Eleceed review's honest position on the international arc: it's the hardest section to stay invested in. New named characters arrive quickly, the geographic and political complexity multiplies, and the series occasionally loses track of Kayden's particular dynamic with Jiwoo in favor of advancing larger plot threads. Readers who find themselves drifting in this section aren't wrong: it's the weakest material in the series.
It recovers. The later chapters in the international arc find their footing, and the individual combat sequences are the best art Zhena has produced. But this Eleceed review won't pretend the first hundred chapters of the international arc are as tight as the foundation section.
The pacing overall is fast for 400+ chapters: there are no extended filler arcs, no tournament structures that stretch past their welcome. The series' weekly schedule has been consistent since October 2018, which is an achievement in itself. Whatever creative compromises a weekly production schedule requires, the pace hasn't produced obvious dead weight.
This Eleceed review rates it 8.6/10. The character dynamic between Jiwoo and Kayden holds at 400+ chapters, the art has improved without losing the original style, and the weekly update consistency is unusual at this series length.
The honest downsides: 400+ chapters with no announced end is a real commitment, and the international arc trades early-arc intimacy for scope in a way that some readers will find less satisfying. Fast Pass keeps the newest chapters behind a paywall, though the free daily pass option means staying current costs patience rather than money if you plan ahead.
For action manhwa readers: this is reliable, well-paced, and more character-specific than most series at this length. The anime adaptation (DandeLion, 2026, Crunchyroll) will make entry easier once it airs, but the 340+ chapters the anime won't reach are the series at its best. Start reading.
Is Eleceed worth reading?
This Eleceed review says yes: for action manhwa readers who want long-form weekly output. The character dynamic holds at 400+ chapters, the weekly schedule is reliable, and the art quality is better now than at the start.
How many chapters?
440+ ongoing. No announced completion.
Is it free?
Free on WEBTOON with daily passes. Newest chapters behind Fast Pass (Coins).
Is there an anime?
DandeLion Animation, 2026, Crunchyroll. No specific air date confirmed.
How does it compare to Solo Leveling?
Different structure entirely. Solo Leveling is a complete power-escalation arc with a solo protagonist. Eleceed is a two-lead ongoing series with character comedy at its center. Not directly comparable.
What is it about?
Student with cat reflexes finds an injured cat that's actually the world's most powerful Awakened stuck in an animal body. The Awakened has to train the student while unable to act on any of his own abilities. Their dependency drives the series.
About the author

Senior Manhwa Critic & Analyst
Manhwa critic and former Korean-to-English webtoon translator with 8 years reading across 40+ genres. London-based. Tracks everything from power-progression to slice-of-life romance.
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