Solo Leveling – Analysis

On January 6th, it debuted in the catalog of Crunchyroll the first episode of the long-awaited anime series adaptation of the novel Solo Leveling. The first season of the anime had 12 episodes (one of which was a recap) and ended on March 29th.

The novel of Chugong began publishing the work digitally in July 2016 and a webtoon adaptation was published on KakaoPage by the hand of Jang Sung-rakending in December 2021. As we previously reported, the artist Jang Sung-Rakbetter known as DUBU, unfortunately passed away in July 2022.

In the original voice cast of the anime we have Taito Ban like Sung Jinwoo/Shun Mizushino, Reina Ueda as Cha Hae-In/Shizuku Kosaka, Hiroki Touchi as Baek Yoonho/Taiga Shirakawa, Genta Nakamura as Yoo Jinho/Kenta Morohishi, Daisuke Hirakawa like Choi Jong-In/Shin Mogami, Banjou Ginga as Go Gunhee/Kiyoomi Gotō and Makoto Furukawa as Woo Jinchui/Akira Inukai

Solo Leveling Synopsis

Ten years ago, after the “Portal” that connects the real world with a world of monsters opened, some ordinary people were given the power to hunt the monsters in the portal. They are known as hunters. However, not all hunters are strong. My name is Sung Jin-Woo, an E rank hunter. I am someone who has to risk his life in the weakest dungeons, “The weakest in the world”. Without having any skills at my disposal, I can barely make money in low-level dungeons… At least until I find a hidden dungeon with the highest difficulty within Rank D! In the end, while accepting my death, I gained a new power…

Anime series with game themes or mixing fantasy are very common nowadays, since I started following the works released in the seasons I can say that they are extremely popular to the point of running over each other and looking like each other. Only those who try to do something new, with a well-crafted story or animation with unusual production manage to gain a place in the sun among so many works with the same theme. This is not the case of Solo Leveling.

Since the emergence of the new generation of anime based on games in the early 2010s, we have the factor Sword Art Online almost like a guide to what came later. Of course, we had works at the same time and based on games that gained their due prominence but that never matched the success and repercussion that SAO had in the meantime. At the same time we had what we can call clones of Kirito, characters with visual or personality characteristics close to those of the SAO protagonist. Practically, this first season of Solo Leveling It promised to deliver a revolution based on the hype that fans of the novel and the comic raised, but what I watched was a long introduction in 11 episodes.

Within a story arc there is an introduction, a development and a conclusion. In this first season of Solo Leveling we are thrown into a series of information and characters that only introduce us to future events. The idea of ​​the world and concepts presented are interesting, but some conflicts were only to be developed in the future.

Certainly the point that I found most interesting throughout this season was the dynamics based on games mixing with the human world. This brought up an interesting debate about the use of economics and the magical side being incorporated within the real world economy. Another interesting point is the incorporation of hunter work within the economic market of that world, something that ends up almost paralleling today’s informal workers.

The introduction of guilds was interesting because it shows them as companies, this is an interesting parallel since we can compare companies looking only for people with high performance. We get an introduction to how influential guilds can be in trying to control dungeons, but we don’t get a moment that shows how powerful the members of the main guilds are. At the end we have the promise of a future raid that will involve the main guilds.

I can say with certainty that this first season of Solo Leveling can be defined in two words: introduction and future. We are practically introduced to a series of concepts and information that will only be worked on in the future of the series. The only moments of conflict involving the anime’s protagonist are just to demonstrate the use of some of his abilities or to support his idea that he needs power. The other supporting characters presented throughout the season barely gain prominence or are promised to gain this prominence in the future, which ended up being a shame for some of them.

In technical matters, the production of Solo Leveling was quite competent. The characters’ looks are very characteristic and interesting, the action scenes work very well with different effects and a mix of 2D animation and CG that works really well. The series still has a very dynamic montage, mixing action scenes well with some breathing. It started to be discussed how busy production was after the recap episode, also known as episode 7.5, but I was wondering if this stop was because of the gap in production or if it was planned for the season to end exactly with a cliffhanger. its continuation.

Overall, this first season Solo Leveling it only served as a great introduction of concepts and characters and with the promise of working on the hooks left during the season in the future. The protagonist’s few conflicts served only to demonstrate his powers or to establish his quest for power, at the same time that several interesting supporting characters were introduced and left aside. The characters’ looks are very characteristic and interesting, the action scenes work very well and their editing is quite dynamic.