Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Disclaimer: This Review will be mostly shi***ng on Solo Levelling, because it does so many things good, that I felt it needed some balancing and focusing on what needs improvement, despite the show being very good. I hope you can accept that, reader. I am the furthest away from ever hating on Ore dake Level Up na Ken (Solo Levelling). It's a fun little firework show. The animation is pretty much at the pinnacle of what on could expect from a visual show, pretty much like Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer). Camera work is on point, being dynamic while not being weirdo nauseating like from anyGoHands productions. The line art is perhaps simple, but never bad. It always retains the style of the original manhwa. The shots are climatic and you always know when is "sh*t about to get real". If someone wants to see how far has animation in Japan gone, Solo Levelling is one of the titles one should recommend.

But nearly 9/10? I know that it's hype as heck. Seeing numbers go up tickles the gamer part of my brain, but... Seriously? This is the thing that fights for the top of the ranking? There's way more than hype and spectacle going into animation, right?

Okay, I need to focus on what I believe is missing in Solo Levelling, to justify my whining. Let's not beat around the bush.
In my mind, it's THE STORY, CHARACTERS and WORLD BUILDING.

THE STORY is pretty much non--existent. There is no real story to Solo Levelling. It boils down to "Jinwoo keeps getting stronger to punch bigger baddies harder". There is no final goal, no underlying narrative or anything. The closest thing to a goal there is in Solo Levelling is "to punch THE ULTIMATE BIGGEST baddie, so that there are no other even bigger baddies to punch", which is... Workable as a premise, but not really groundbreaking, is it? It worked for Dragon Ball, but in the current year, I'm feeling that this schematic is a tad bit overdone. That being said, Solo Levelling isn't the worst sinner in this department, as while it lacks a good main plot, it does deliver on a decent variety of side-quests, some even proving to be quite competent, as they often showcase various-

CHARACTERS, who... Are pretty lacking. That much is pretty universal, because it applies to Jinwoo just as much as to the circle of adorators and pants glazers that this anime calls secondary characters. Because that's pretty much what we're working with here. If you're a side char in Solo Levelling, you're either:
- an involuntary fan of Jinwoo, in which case your impact on the story boils down to being jealous/thankful/shocked/amazed at what he does, or
- his rival/enemy, which means you will promptly die, hence you don't get much chance to develop a character, or if not, you'll turn into the first category.
The exceptions, that are neither of these two do exist, although they are pretty rare. That being said, in this department, Solo Levelling actually got better than last season! Some side characters did have some semblance of their own life outside of choking on Jinwoo's massive swagger.
There's also the matter of character development! Jinwoo got emotional once! He actually had a single character trait added! AMAZING! This actually saved the manhwa for me and it did save the anime a bit too, from feeling like JUST a firework show. It's still insane to me, that people lost their sh** over this. God forbid a main character loved his mother. Right? What a weakling. How could the author destroy that beautiful empty canvas of a character by painting on it? How dare he? Seriously though, I'm happy that they didn't cut it out from the anime and made Jinwoo into an unfeeling robot. Good for them. But that still doesn't excuse the-

WORLD BUILDING, that is as lazy and repetitive as it could be. Hunters, gates, ranks, skills, itemization, guilds... (sometimes there's also some towers somewhere instead of gates) Nowadays you can't really make an Urban Fantasy show without falling on to those tropes. I don't hate it maybe with a passion, but it's stale bread now. Come on. Demand better. It works, but it could be so much more. Down with the stale bread!

I like Solo Levelling. I really do. If they keep up the quality, i don't feel I'll ever stop watching this firework show. It's good enough for that. But gosh. I feel like fans deserve better than something that appeals only to their base instincts. And I get the pull of it. Everyone needs to shut off their brain every now and then, and just look at the pretty boy punching the big monster imagining that they could do the same if they were in his place. Sure.
EVERY NOW AND THEN!
SOMETIMES!
When was the last time you watched something that wasn't a "turn off your brain and enjoy the show"? When did you last see something that challenged you mentally? If recently, then pardon me. You are free to go. You are not the addressee of that attack.
But seeing how THIS is what got almost a 9, I feel like there's way more people who haven't read or seen a good story in quite a while than there are those that have.

This is good. A 7. When it's great, it's the greatest. But when it's bad, it's almost the worst. But it is not great. It does not deserve that 8. Or 9. At best I'd like to give it a 7.5

But I can't.

Thank you for reading anyway, despite me not providing you a TL;DR on the top. Even if you dislike my amateurish analysis, you have my respect for reading till the end. Kudos, dear reader.