Solo Leveling Season 1 Review
Is Solo Leveling, the manwha-turned-anime phenomenon that just ended its first season, pure power fantasy? Absolutely, but it’s a power fantasy that works because of how it breaks down the barriers between real life and gaming. Wouldn’t it be cool if your post-workout exhaustion were relieved instantly, and you could see tangible results right there and then? Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could see yourself become smarter, stronger, and more perceptive just because of a few completed chores? Sung Jinwoo’s unique circumstances in an MMORPG-inspired world of missions and monsters may be ludicrous, but they’re fun to watch, too. Solo Leveling is clearly a show made by gamers, for gamers, translating the mechanics, the tropes, and even the tedious parts of gaming into captivating animated form.
It’s a fresh coat of paint on an old anime standby: The training arc. Once the most hapless and unskilled member of the dungeon-trolling masses Solo Leveling refers to as “hunters,” Jinwoo finds himself the only one of these magically equipped adventurers capable of growing in strength, “leveling up” as if his life were a game. This is what makes or breaks Solo Leveling, and it’s the best part of the anime. The fights in Season 1 reflect this, feeling very much like the power progression in a Soulslike. When an enemy is too strong, Jinwoo simply leaves to farm experience with lower-level monsters, then he returns and the fight is manageable. It’s silly, clever, and thrilling.
A-1 Pictures delivers a stunning action show with plenty of eye candy in the form of dazzling visual effects and dynamic fight choreography, and a stunning soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano. After a while, however, the combat starts to feel empty, too easy, and devoid of stakes or tension. Even in the finale, when a quest pits Jinwoo against wave after wave of armored soldiers, the overwhelming number of enemies doesn’t amount to much of a threat (at least not for long). But this is a feature of Solo Leveling, not a bug: Eventually, every fight becomes too easy for Jinwoo, which makes the arrival of a new challenge all the more exciting because the rest of the season has taught us the difference in difficulty between, say, slaying a pack of wolf monsters and defeating a towering knight in crimson armor. The cycle of quests, raids, and repetitive monsters may grow weary, and it doesn’t help Jinwoo’s development as he’s essentially just going through the motions without much agency or nuance in the writing. Still, as the final moments of the season show (and as readers know), this is merely the prologue to a larger, more meaningful arc for Jinwoo.
The first episode of Solo Leveling was an effective introduction to its world, which the rest of the season expands in interesting ways. The ramifications of an economy driven by monsters, raids, and mana crystals are explored in subplots about rival guilds fight over the rights to raid portals, where they can not only mine crystals (which results in profits) but also to train new hunters. Yet despite all this, Season 1 is smart enough to remind us time and again that what’s become big business to some is the prevention of armageddon to others.
We meet a wide range of hunters, too, including a Suicide Squad-like team sprung from prison to assist Jinwoo in a raid and toxic turncoats who take advantage of the lack of supervision or consequences in dungeons to kill their teammates at will. This fleshes out the world of Solo Leveling and adds to the impact of Jinwoo’s increasing abilities: Other characters’ reactions demonstrate the improbability of his growing strength, and the story gradually reveals that the monsters are evolving, becoming a greater threat to the average hunter. Jinwoo has changed the game, but the game changes right back.
It all builds to a much-anticipated moment from the manwha – the namesake for both the Season 1 finale and Solo Leveling’s newly announced upcoming second season. It’s a fantastic adaptation of the scene, with fluid and detailed 2D animation, particularly in the design of the shadows. No more prologue: The latest and greatest of Jinwoo’s miraculous acts signals Solo Leveling’s transition into its main story – and shows the anime living up to its hype. The original webtoon served as an introduction to the format for many people, with a simple story whose mass appeal, cool art, and exciting fight scenes opened the door to a plethora of similar gaming-inspired power-fantasies Season 1 of Solo Leveling shows why this story captivated audiences, with every episode boasting at least a few moments where you can’t take your eyes off the screen.
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