Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Now, I will first and foremost admit that I enjoy my fantasy and isekai slop, probably too much. In fact, I could potentially be called a connoisseur of slop at this point. To that end, I gave Season 1 of Solo Leveling a 6/10, noting how its premise and overall plot-threads were incredibly similar to the much-panned and mocked "I got a cheat skill and became unrivalled in the real-world too". However, Solo Leveling Season 2 scratched that "slop" itch for me, it really did. Not sure if this would be considered a "hot take" at this point, but this season is absolutely peak "enjoyable slop". Now,some might get uppity about me saying that, or be confused, but from a critical viewpoint, Solo Leveling, especially S2, does not do anything different in regards to the plot or story, that 90% of other slop fantasy or isekai don't also already do: The MC is OP, there are no stakes, there are hints at a harem every other episode - you get the idea.

If anything, it could be argued that I was too harsh on Season 1, because it did actually have some level of plot and character development (although lacked in world-building for me), whereas S2 is mostly Jinwoo aura farming (and some actual world-building finally).

However, the thing with Solo Leveling S2, especially compared to those other 90% of slop shows, is that it has actual production quality to it. It's not a 5FPS slide-show, with cuts and black-screens, or the fights happening off-screen to save on budget; It has actual animated fights, and beautiful ones at that.
We knew from the start that these fights would obviously end in Jinwoo's victory, but man, they were a spectacle to behold.

I briefly touched on it already, but I'm also glad that S2 included some much-needed world-building, which was sorely missing from S1. We now kind of understand the inter-guild conflicts, how countries operate, and what the gates are (kind of).

I'll keep this review brief and say that I very much enjoyed S2 of Solo Leveling, and have even already re-watched it.

I'll give it an 8/10, however I am going to put "Mixed Feelings", because it is not much more than the visual spectacle it presents. It's one of those extremely "guilty pleasure" power-fantasy shows. If the majority of the fantasy and isekai slop shows had the production quality of Solo Leveling S2, it really would not be anything special at all, but they don't, so it kind of is.