Solo Leveling Seasons 1 and 2

With the release of the Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive game I decided to catch up with the world of Solo Leveling, a series that's been immensely popular. An adaptation of a Korean manwha from 2016, the series is set in a world where portals appear at random leading to dungeons. At the same time, humans around the world are gifted with an "awakening" that grants them powers to defend humanity from the beasts within these realms. Ranked from S to E class, if they decide to become Hunters, they must clear each dungeon before the time runs out and a "dungeon break" occurs, releasing untold horror into our world. Once awakened, a human's power level is set and can't be changed, except in the extremely rare case of a "reawakening". 

Jinwoo Sung barely ranks as an E class hunter, known as the worst in the business, he takes any mission he can get to help  his family - his sister is in high-school, his father has disappeared and his mother is in a coma. Jinwoo has plenty of heart, but not much muscle.

The Jinwoo we first meet is weak but smart, with good instincts

All this changes when he encounters a rare "double dungeon", where one dungeon appears inside another. There, he meets "God" who proceeds to wipe out the majority of his party, with Jinwoo barely surviving the experience himself by managing to figure out and follow the rules of the dungeon - subsequently he's granted the status of "Player". From this moment on, he has the ability to level up his power, learn new skills and become, perhaps, the most powerful hunter of all.

I'd originally avoided Solo Leveling for two reasons - one, it's not a terribly original premise. Any number of fantasy/gameplay anime exist, from .Hack to literally any Isekai you can imagine, the idea of a "worthless" individual being granted special powers and leveling up throughout the series has been old-hat since the likes of Bleach, and I didn't fancy the ride. The second reason was the well-noted bloodthirstiness of the show, which isn't my cup of tea. True, give me a show as well written as Berserk and I can still enjoy it, but gore for it's own sake holds no appeal for me. Could Solo Leveling be a rare exception?

The answer is yes - the hype is well deserved. Firstly, Jinwoo may be an archetype, but he's a badass one when he gets going. It's quite surprising how fast the Jinwoo we first meet vanishes with a ripped, taller and more confident version of himself. What's more the world that's set up is quite familiar - competing agencies recruiting powered individuals to compete for portal access and the treasure they contain is another well-used trope, but what Solo Leveling gets right is characterisation. Just about everyone introduced to the show is interesting and relatable. Even the comic-relief characters refrain from being annoying, their earnestness being a saving grace in many cases. I knew a lot about Solo Leveling through cultural osmosis, but it was far better than I had expected.

What really sells it is the hero's journey Jinwoo is on. The powers he develops are genuinely interesting, his use of them developing as he grows. As an unbeatable ultra-chad he could be hard to relate to, but the element of light that drives him into the darkness is fascinating to watch. Hes smart, capable and confident, the sort of male hero we just don't have in the West any more (short of Amazon's Reacher perhaps). It helps that the fight scenes throughout are superb, no matter his power level. The direction and production that come courtesy of A-1 Pictures is first class, with the camera swooping in and out of the action, providing point-of-view shots and generally keeping the whole thing extremely sharp and enjoyable. Short of Demon Slayer I can't think of another anime that has such incredible battles, though I can't help feeling that Sakamoto Days could be drastically improved if the creative team behind Solo Leveling had been given the assignment.

Season 1 covers the introduction to the world, Jinwoo's transformation and how he learns to adapt to his new powers. He keeps his leveling up secret, playing a cat and mouse game between the guilds to keep his independence and concentrate on the primary goal of caring for his family. The transformation is kept quite fun - the hospital nurses fawning over the ripped version of Jinwoo is amusing, gently easing a clueless young man into his new place in the world order. By series' end, we have a capable and confident protagonist to get behind, ready for season 2.

Jinwoo's abilities help him build an army

The scope of the world expands in the second season, with more focus on larger politics, the dungeon-break incident that took over an entire island and the emerging threat as the beasts stationed there evolve and start to roam toward the mainland. Japan and China become embroiled in the crisis, their own S-Rank players coming to the fore (in Japan's case, very briefly!) There's excellent worldbuilding and progression here, battles that top even those in the first season and some interesting character dynamics popping up all over the place. The only fly in the ointment is that production on a season 3 hasn't been announced and speculation is rife that the show is looking at moving into movies to maintain the production standards and grab a bit of that theatrical release money that anime has been helping itself to over the last few years. A live-action adaptation is also on the cards, though I'm less confident that the supernatural elements and incredible cinematography can be replicated there.

What's important for now is that season 2 wraps up well - it does what it needs to in order to hint at larger machinations yet to come, characters emerging from the shadows to comment on what's transpired, but it's a satisfying end-point for now, with whatever route they choose to carry on with being most welcome when it's finally announced.

So in short, the show won me over. Yes, I was a bit put off by the gore - watching teenage girls getting eaten or having their heads ripped off is still a real turn-off, but there wasn't anywhere as much of this as I had feared; in all probably less than 3 or 4 minutes of footage across 2 series (though brutally animated when it occurs) so I can get over it. It does make it all the more satisfying when Jinwoo turns up and kicks ass, plus the score is superb, ably augmented by openings from Hiroyuki Sawano and LiSA for seasons 1 and 2 respectively. 

I binge-watched both seasons over a weekend and loved every minute of it (aside from the 3 or 4 minutes highlighted!) If you enjoy a power-fantasy anime with outstanding production values then this is for you.