Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow
Well, that surely was a solo leveling experience… Hi! My name is SenpaisThighs and I like stories where the writer is able to flex their creativity, that have fun, multifaceted characters, that have a layer under the story for me to pick out, and battle shonen hype! Not too bizarre, maybe even pretty typical, but you wouldn’t believe it when I tell you that, despite how apparently awesome Solo Leveling is, it only really hit 1 out of 4 of them to a satisfactory degree. Here’s the stat spread (from E to S Rank naturally): Creativity - B Rank Characters - D Rank Depth - E Rank Hype! - D Rank BeforeI get into each stat and the reason for my ranking, let me just preface this by saying that I AM taking season 1 into consideration for this review. Reason being is that this really does just feel like a continuation of a story, not really its own arc like say the Chimera Ant arc vs Greed Island. And also, I mean, c’mon, anime is the only medium that splits their seasons up silly like this. 13, 20 minute episodes are hardly anything as it is. Anyways…
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CREATIVITY - B RANK
This is creativity: “What if instead of GOING to the isekai world, the isekai world came to US?” In all seriousness, whenever they introduced the gimmick of the entire show, I could kind of understand why Solo Leveling got as popular as it did. It’s like if your character from Skyrim (except in modern day) acquired like, meta-sentience and could see all the gamey elements of their game--yeah I get it, that’s fun. It’s intriguing, it’s flexible, and seeing how the story shows Jinwoo’s step-by-step thought process when confronted with these classic game-like quandaries was by far the most enjoyable part of the show. There was actually a good amount of deliberation that went into these parts. You never knew what kind of ability the System would throw at him next or how he would go on to use it. Alright, so why not A or S Rank then? This is when I talk about the show's motivations and scenarios and twists and turns, seriously some 14yo FanFiction dot net level creativity. Get this: A zero-to-hero story set in a society where you’re either an EPIC S Rank or a lame (fart noise) E Rank, and they fight things like goblins and orcs and big spiders and big ants, and the heroes mom has caught anime death disease and his dad is actually (spoiler) which might be why Jinwoo is (spoiler + one of my least favorite tropes ever), but and there is this looming threat, butt the hero is a total badass who never loses, also popular with the ladiessss.
I don’t know, man. It’s like the writer found the most basic story template he could find which he then attached Solo Leveling’s gimmick to. I even began being able to guess how the story would proceed at a couple points. I will say though that, even though the worlds they go to and the mobs they fight are pretty generic, I almost don’t mind that aspect too much. Feels intentional and gives a certain charm I suppose, if only because of Solo Levelings aforementioned gimmick.
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CHARACTERS - D RANK
Let’s go back to Skyrim real quick, my first character, an Argonian named Gabeeja, had more personality than Jinwoo has, and all he could do was yell and shout. I don’t know if leveling your intelligence makes you boring as fuck, but then I remember he wasn’t really any better before becoming solo leveling man. It’s honestly a good thing episode 2x happened to give him the tiniest bit of dimension to his character. I could forgive it if the supporting cast were interesting, I mean it isn’t unusual for the main character to be plain for their more interesting counterparts to play off of them, but then the supporting cast are boring too. Antagonists are even worse, considering 99% of them are one-off, generic video game bosses. I only like the characters as far as what they fundamentally represent: Chivalrous knight = me like. Guy who picks on those weaker than him = me no like. Just basic human nature shit. Character designs are mostly boring too, so I can’t even like them through appearance (except for the demon girl >///<). Only reason I didn’t give it an E Rank is because of the rich kid and some of the S Rank hunters, and I also don’t really even know what an E Rank would look like honestly, but this one has to be close.
Let me go back to Jinwoo real quick as maybe you thought that, because he is a power fantasy main character, he's SUPPOSED to be uninteresting. I want you to take a look at these 3 characters who could also fall under a power fantasy character: Saitama, Frieren, and Guts. Whether it is Saitama’s gimmick where he goes from silly egghead, bumbling hero → deadly serious expression saving the day punch, or Frieren as this living legend and what she herself as an elf represents for the stories theme (“time”), or Guts, his edginess, his history, and the raw struggle he puts forth against inhuman foes; every single one of these characters have SOMETHING going for them whilst still delivering on their badass moments. Jinwoo is quite literally just a receptacle for “wew dat guy is baaaaadassss” moments. Always winning doesn’t help for character growth as it is. No friction. Maybe people self-insert? Not something I do so I wouldn’t know. Maybe it’s just about the catharsis of being so overpowered? Personally, I can’t take character’s like Jinwoo seriously. I kept cracking jokes to myself the entire time. It’s also wasteful imo. You could achieve that catharsis in a WAY more spectacular fashion. Well anyways, I’ll go more into how this hinders the “hype!” ranking later on--all these ranks kind of connect to one another.
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DEPTH - E RANK
In terms of depth, I was personally finger deep picking popcorn kernels out of my teeth while watching Solo Leveling…
No, yeah, I get it, Solo Leveling isn’t that kind of show. You’re here for the leveling up and action, no thoughts. But… Did you know you can be entertaining while ALSO having depth to your story? Optimization! Also, when I’m talking about depth, I don’t necessarily mean it has to be philosophical and all that. There are so many ways you can add an extra layer to a story. I actually thought it would play around with this idea that, the stronger you become, the less empathy you’ll feel towards those weaker than you. I thought that Jinwoo would face a dilemma like that following the assassin hunter in season 1, like with the whole “if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back” thing. Just simple things like that which let me think that the writer put some love and care into their story. Oh well, this isn’t something I’m particularly judgmental about as there are plenty of shows I like that aren’t that deep, but I truly believe being able to juggle both is what separates a decent writer from an AMAZING writer.
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HYPE! - D RANK
Oof! That’s rough considering this is Solo Leveling’s selling point. It’s not my fault though! I mean, there are only so many times where a scenario like this can happen: “Uh oh! Jinwoo is in trouble! Is this it!? Is he gonna lose!? Is he!? Is he gonna lose!?? …Omahgawdd! I can’t believe Jinwoo ACTUALLY won and/or saved the day!! AGAIN!!!” before it gets boring. “Look at the way Jinwoo keeps declining job offers!” Maybe I’m just not brain dead enough to enjoy the repetition?
Funny thing is that One Punch Man is very similar to Solo Leveling, yet plays on the hype and battles and characters in a much more fun and creative way, making it an easy comparison. Let me explain:
While Saitama and Jinwoo are very different personality-wise, their roles in the story are pretty similar. They are both secretly, unstoppable powerhouses, even in their own world full of badasses, which is then played for laughs (more so in OPM’s case) or for aura farming moments. ONE, the creator of One Punch Man, understood that putting the focus solely on an all-powerful MC who wins all the time might get boring after a while. This is why he lets the various side characters (who are way more likable in general than Solo Levelings cast) shine in their own hype moments of genuine struggle, and if they are on the verge of losing, Saitama usually blunders his way onto the scene to save the day in a comedic, however, cathartic moment of hype (Deep Sea King vs Mumen Rider is a good example). Slop Leveling puts so much focus on the invincible badass Jinwoo while also simultaneously putting him in these faux perilous situations. Like, yeah, you really think I’m going to think Jinwoo is going to lose? And the way he saves people in peril is a lot less creative than OPM. The fight set-up intrigue just isn’t there. Barely any wind-up and PUNCH, just like my complaints in the JJK review except even worse. Even OPM establishes their one-off villains better. Ok, well maybe it’s just about the flashiness of the fight, right? Just turn your brain off bro and enjoy the animations and pretty colors and da goat Jinwoow! “Absolute shitema <o>” Well, I say if you are going to put all your chips on that, which I already think is wasteful from a writing standpoint, then you better go ALL THE FUCKING WAY. I was watching that part where the Korean and Japanese S-Rank hunters spar, and I was thinking to myself: how feeble. I want shockwaves to rattle the building, air pressure from the impacts to jump from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, more colors, visual anomalies from their magic wavelengths clashing, and quick bits of dialogue just emphasizing the insanity of their inhuman feats. Going back to OPM, consider the Saitama vs Boros fight, how Saitama is punted to the fucking moon and then the fight ends with the damn sky being split in half. Like, holy shit! Right?! At least Jinwoo caught that one guy's hand. That was cool, I guess…
The only thing I can really say that Solo Leveling has over One Punch Man is the “System.” There was a catharsis early on seeing Jinwoo level up and become stronger and stronger, which is honestly why I think I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2. Power leveling is like the Heat Death of the Universe for battle shonen series, and it seems like Solo Leveling is speedrunning it. Honestly, I’m kind of intrigued to see how they run with it, though I don’t know if I’ll be watching season 3 if it comes out. I think 25 episodes is long enough for me to understand what Solo Leveling is selling: power fantasy slop of the lowest quality ew.
The only part that really got me hyped in Solo Leveling was Jinwoo vs Igris. I go weak in the knees for fights that devolve into hand-to-hand fights. “Arise” and his fight with the assassin hunter were pretty cool too.
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(SECRET) MISCELLANEOUS RANK - D RANK
- Just talked about how I wasn’t feeling the hype, but I can expand on that and say I wasn’t really feeling much of ANYTHING while watching this. Humor is bizarrely nonexistent, I think I chuckled maybe once. I felt a single molecule of a tear building up during episode 2x. And that’s it. I was sitting stone-faced eating my popcorn while watching Solo Leveling. This is a show that will not be sticking with me, which is honestly the worst thing a story can do.
- 1st and 2nd episodes were genuinely good. Makes me wonder what the show would have been like if it continued the trend with each world having some kind of game-y ruleset and such alongside Jinwoo’s System.
- Don’t care for the artstyle. Probably because half of every manhwa has the same artstyle. That is to say, I’ve seen panels from the source material and it objectively looks really good. Just don’t care for the artstyle itself.
- Animation was consistently good, well, at least for Jinwoo, but hey, he’s like 90% of the fights.
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That was a lot longer than I thought it’d be. Could have made it longer honestly, though I doubt anyone, especially SL fanboys, is actually going to be reading all that anyways haha…
D Rank show btw