Solo Leveling was one of the biggest successes of last year’s anime season, but for whatever reason, it didn’t resonate with me. The concept showed promise: portals to dungeons opened with different monsters able to break into our world. As a counter, certain humans developed abilities to fight monsters, and now going into dungeons is a way to acquire powerful magic to power our world. Most threats are now taken care of before they attack civilians.
Sung Jin-woo is such a hunter but he is E-rank, so weak as to be useless, and hunters are stuck at the level they awaken to. That is until he sacrifices himself to save his fellow hunters. Now, he is able to see a computer screen that gives him missions and ways to level up until he is not only an S-rank but perhaps the strongest of all of them.
He evolves from the nice guy to an emotionally distant badass, which at first made me worried he wouldn’t be as interesting. But he is fundamentally doing a lot of leveling up because he can then acquire a cure for his sick mother. He does become stronger and stronger to the point that he seems unbeatable, which seemed to me to make him less compelling.
I was wrong.
There should be a name now for the phenomenon of getting to a second season of a show where the first season didn’t work for you that all of a sudden just clicks. It has happened to me too often, and it happened with Solo Leveling. When season one ends, Sung Jin-woo gains a new ability: to raise the dead as soldiers in his fights. This makes him even more powerful and dangerous, seemingly unstoppable, Yet, the show continued to find ways to make the battles interesting. We continue to be invested thanks to the fighting visuals, the appearance of his undead army, and the confusion and awe these elicit. He isn’t just a blunt instrument; he is constantly thinking about his opponent and what he needs to do to succeed and how to make certain that those around him are kept safe.
Sung Jin-woo, while definitely not the most emotional character, still has a core sense of decency that makes you root for him. He saved a low rank hunter, Yoo Jinho, who is the son of a powerful industrialist. They then worked together to get permission to enter dungeons and help Sung Jon-woo level up. While Yoo Jinho looked up to him and was trying to bond more and hoped Sung Jin-woo would help him form a guild, Sung Jin-woo seemed to be viewing it more transactionally, especially with his focus on strengthening up to save his mother. But Sung Jin-woo is starting to think more about helping Yoo Jinho out. That moment just made me smile, that Sung Jin-woo hadn’t forgotten the friend that had helped him early on.
Plus, as a lover of romance in almost anything, I find Solo Leveling handled it subtly. Lee Joohee was the nice girl who alway looked after Sung Jin-woo and seemed to maybe have a crush on him. His change in position and her dealing with the drama of the dungeon that gave Sung Jin-woo his leveling up powers have made that seem unlikely now, but they still have a bond that brings out some good moments in both of them. Now a new person has emerged that seems more likely. Cha Hae-in, another S-rank hunter, who finds the smell of hunters disgusting, doesn’t have that reaction to Sung Jin-woo, and with just a few lines of dialogue and little interaction I am already feeling chemistry between them.
Beyond Sung Jin-woo the world itself has become more complex this season. Other hunters’ motivations have started to be revealed, as well as the international sense of balance of power based on how many powerful hunters a country has. The mystery of the program that is helping Sung, and where the dungeons are coming from and what they mean long term, is being hinted at but they are doing it in a way that, while compelling, it doesn’t take up a lot of the story, and you can enjoy episode to episode the adventure going on. In fact even if that mystery doesn’t get revealed fully or is somewhat disappointing, I cannot imagine that it will take away from the journey the show has taken us on, because of the beautiful animation of the complex fights that keep you engaged.
Solo Leveling‘s immense popularity puts it squarely in competition for Outstanding Animation Program at the 2025 Emmy Awards. Yet, it makes sense with how easy it is to jump into this world and get into the action no matter where you start with this show. As someone who has been advocating for anime to get into this category for several years, if Solo Leveling is the one who breaks down the barrier for the medium, then I will not complain.
