Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Alright. This is literally the most hated anime I have ever seen since Sword Art Online. Never saw SAO, was never interested. Never seemed like my cup of tea, and none of it ever appealed to me in the slightest. People called this show the modern-day SAO, which has made me avoid it like the plague. I started hating Solo Leveling before even watching it. It looked like mid Shounen slop. Keep in mind that, as I write this review, I have seen a wide range of anime, encompassing many different genres. My go-to anime is usually ones with in-depth, complex writing, and a compellingnarrative. I much prefer slower, philosophical anime that shines in the writing, rather than in its production value.

This is the first time that I actually agree that the show is average, generic, and simple. When I initially saw clips and art from Solo Leveling all over the internet, I thought; ''wow, this looks like the most mid Shonen slop.'' It is. But you know what? I don't care. The execution of it is so captivating and brilliant, it does not need to be anything deeper. I love it for what it is. It is essentially a generic power fantasy anime, about a weak MC that becomes OP. It sounds boring because it has been done so many times before, but where this differs, it was done extremely well. Seeing Jin-woo become stronger over time just brought me nothing but excitement and entertainment. At a certain point in your anime-watching journey, when you've discovered the best of the best in terms of writing and dug out the roots of what makes writing in anime so excellent and profound, you find yourself just wanting to take a break for a bit, cool down, and just watch something simple. Purely simple. No inner conflicts, no emotional rollercoasters. Just something exciting and entertaining. That's it. And that is what Solo Leveling has given me. It executed the simplest story there is to be told in anime, in its highest fashion and form. And I love it. The animation is breathtaking and exhilarating. The soundtrack accompanies this a lot (I mean, would you be surprised knowing the OST was from the same person who wrote the soundtrack for AOT?).

I did not expect to like this at all, but I absolutely did. And I do not care what anime veterans have to say. I am a veteran myself, I have seen the tip and bottom of the iceberg, and I still love this. Why? Because it is a show you need to see from the right perspective. If you make a grilled-cheese sandwich and expect the flavor of a Michelin-star dish, you will be severely disappointed. But does that mean a grilled cheese sandwich is bad? No, it doesn't. Unless you are lactose-intolerant. Like a grilled cheese, Solo Leveling is the same. It is mid, average, Shonen slop, but it fucking works. It actually fucking works.