Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

imo I felt like this season is what people think Solo Leveling S1 actually was Like, it's still not terrible and better than some of the other shows people wanted to win Crunchyroll 2024 AOTY, but I felt that Solo Leveling made a grave error at the end of S1. At the end, they made Jinwoo a "Shadow Monarch" so once he beats enemies, he can just add them to his team like Pokemon. Since Jinwoo is so strong now, they also have to stop making human antagonists since I feel like at this point, Jinwoo is now the strongest hunter alive. And that's part of theproblem. I didn't believe once that Jinwoo would ever lose.

It also allows for him to just throw shadows at grunts like Pikmin and show off how he's gone from a level 1 crook to a level 35 boss and these fights may work for certain shows and it is very possible to write a story about a boss who can summon grunts at shit but that's not what Solo Leveling felt like to me in S1. Sure, he basically went "ah! now I don't have to be Solo Leveling anymore!" but idk. We still get a lot of Jinwoo action but I just don't like the fact that he can absorb shadows and use them to fight for him, that feels so antithetical to what I liked about Solo Leveling S1.

In general, I found it harder and harder to care about the story this season. I thought the Demon's Castle arc was pretty solid, had a good emotional moment at the end. But the ice elves, the orc council, even Jeju Island, they all felt lacking beyond Hype and Aura for me.

Jeju Island in particular is super hyped up but, like, other than "the fate of the country and/or world", Jinwoo has no personal attachment to Jeju Island iirc? He just kinda shows up because he's Jinwoo and he has to.

It's not like his friends are forced to go there. It's not like it'll help his mom's condition. It won't help him find his dad. The villain didn't personally piss him off. The third Jeju Island raid gave him 0 trauma.

I feel like in general, this is where the bland side cast bites the show in the ass.

I still like Jinho but Song-yi was also a fun character. I prefer the low-tier goobers who have to cling onto Jinwoo rather than the S-rank ones. The only one I even think is worth mentioning is Hae-in. I mentioned her last time but she actually has some sort of relevance here... and by that, I mean she's another jobber used to make Jinwoo look stronk just like everyone else but this time, there's a little spark of romantic interest. Every other hunter is apparently uh oh stinky but not Jinwoo, no no, Jinwoo "smells good".

In general, my credit to S1 for not making Jinwoo THAT big of a chick magnet has dissolved into thin air. Off the tippity top of my head, I can remember at least 3 girls Jinwoo could have pulled if he wasn't so Aurasexual.

The OP and ED are infinitely worse than S1's but the sound is still good. The animation looks fantastic at times.

Maybe this is the natural ascension of Solo Leveling. Now that Jinwoo is powerful, it just becomes the battle shounen junk food slop everyone has criticized it to be. It's not terrible or anything but to be honest, my desire to watch it from now on isn't very high anymore.

Also there's a character named Hanekawa and I pogged so maybe it's still peak...