Review of Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

All I’m saying is—the only fun characters in the show are the Shadows. They have more personality than most of the actual characters, especially the damn side characters, Imagine me I read the entire webtoon and the novel back when I was dumb enough to consume everything, even trash. And yet, I can’t remember a single character’s name after a few months. That’s rare, because even Fairy Tail, which I watched years ago, I can still remember at least the main freaking cast! The whole thing exists just for Jinwoo. He is the world. The people around him? They're just background. The men admire him, thewomen—God forbid there’s ever a woman who doesn’t fall for him the second she sees him, even though he just looks like a regular handsome Korean guy.
The enemies? All the same. They exist just to make Jinwoo look stronger. No one can rival him or compete with him. Unlike in anime like Hunter x Hunter (Gon and Killua) or Naruto (Naruto and Sasuke), where you see many different characters that pose real challenges or at least rivals that would keep or try with jinwoo.

With Solo Leveling, sure, Jinwoo fights “tough” enemies, but you know he’ll beat them. He might turn them into shadows or just move on, but the outcome is always the same—he wins, I also hate how he views his past self with disgust, like he was weak and pathetic. That same “weak” version of him never gave up. He kept fighting and worked hard to provide for his family. That was his good side—intelligent and determined. That side helped him overcome so much. But it never comes back, and the story barely acknowledges his intelligence again, The first episode was amazing—really. But after that, the show just becomes a massive waste of potential. Great animation can get you far in the anime industry, but if your story is repetitive and your main character lacks real depth or personality, it won’t hold, You can write a strong character like Saitama or Mob, and they still have depth. Jinwoo? One moment he’s cold, then he’s cool, then goofy, then a crazy battle addict. But none of those traits stick—they show up once, then disappear. He just stays in that shell of “I’m cool and cold, and I’m better than everyone.”

Side note: the whole system gimmick was cool at first. The game-like leveling up, the stats—it made the early episodes fun. But by the end of Season 1 and 2, they completely forget about the system. His level jumps randomly, and we don’t even see how. They just dropped the gaming concept altogether.