Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

I'm writing this review as someone who isn't part of this anime's target audience, therefore I understand why it didn't resonate with me the way it would for some people. I've watched my fair share of battle shounen and read several manhwas, tbh this would be considered one of the better ones out there. If you're looking for an action-packed anime to turn your brain off to (and by packed I mean like 90% of this is fight scenes and 10% is buildup to fight scenes) then this anime is definitely up your alley. It's right on the tin, the MC levels up on hisown and turns from sniveling weak guy to strong op guy.

Now for my (spoiler-free) complaints about this anime. Don't expect any fun background characters because we can't possibly let anyone else outshine our darling MC can we? Nope, absolutely not. Only the MC is allowed to have any sort of character depth and development even if that "depth" is the equivalent of a kiddie pool. It gets dry and annoying sometimes because clearly the author is capable of adding more detail as seen from they way they set up the S-ranks' introductions, they just actively choose not to.

Don't even get me started on the writing style. There is no such thing as showing, only telling. Instead of showing the audience that "MC is powerful enough to beat xxx character but is still weaker than xxx character" we are told that information instead. Or another case where a character deals with the weight of growing older. We get at least 5 shots of them complaining about their age like okay we get it you're old but wouldn't it be more effective to show us that instead of having them tell us? Maybe have them lose a spar to an up-and-coming hunter or give us a flashback.

There is also a conversation about the ethics of death that could be brought up and expanded upon but that's just brushed aside. It's a real shame too because the set up's just perfect.

Okay so why does this anime deserve a rating of 7? Complaints aside, it had entertainment value and it delivers exactly what it promises. Solo Leveling never strays from what it does best, fights that go kaboom that makes the MC aura farm like crazy. That level of dedication deserves some respect. The fact that the writer managed to keep the "leveling up" aspect feeling hype every single time is amazing.