Solo Leveling was one of the web novel titles that I remember seeing promoted heavily by Yen Press. It was one of the first of these Web Novel turned Light Novel titles that got an audiobook release in the US, and generally it had a fair amount of buzz behind it. So, when an anime adaptation came up on the Seasonal charts, I decided it was time to find out what all the buzz was about.
Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a series that starts a little too slowly, and then once it gets started, doesn’t feel like it goes very far. Some of that slow start is necessary – we need to set up this particular variety of portal fantasy – this is a universe where the world is menaced by portals to dungeons that have monsters in them, which will emerge to wreck havoc if the dungeon isn’t beaten. Fortunately, some select people have awakened to supernatural powers that will let them fight those monsters. However, the types of powers and (more significantly) the level of those powers are variable, and once you’ve awakened, you can’t increase your powers (generally). However, the resources from these dungeons are worth a lot of money and have revolutionized the world, so if you awaken, even if power-level wise you kinda suck, it’s potentially worth risking your neck for the ability to get a better standard of living.
Enter Jinwoo, a young Korean man, who had awakened at E-Rank and had barely been scraping by covering living expenses and the medical bills for his comatose mother, until a dungeon raid goes spectacularly wrong, and he ends up being somewhat resurrected and now with the ability to level up – the only person in the world who has this power (which is why the full title of the Korean version is “I Alone Level Up”). Now he’s gotten the ability to challenge ever-more dangerous dungeons, though with the lingering question of what caused this and why.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate – that question is there, but it never really comes up this season. Jinwoo tends less to question his lucky break too much, and instead to just take advantage of it. Instead, the focus is more on the adventuring companies and their political maneuverings. Because in this world, Adventuring Companies aren’t just a fancy term for a loose group of adventurers, they’re the kind of groups that will have a CEO, CTO, and probably a CMO (Chief Magic Officer). It almost feels like the kind of thing that we’d get as an OVA in Bubble Economy Japan, if the Isekai boom happened then. Instead we’re getting it as a 12 episode series, and it doesn’t quite click.
Part of the problem is, as mentioned in the second paragraph, we just don’t spend that much time moving the larger plot forward, and instead handle managing a couple smaller plots. We do have a sense of a big narrative hook, leading into a large setpiece, that will be addressed next season. However, most of this season is “Jinwoo develops his new ability, comes to realize that there could be issues if it’s public, so tries to discreetly move into the realm of the power players without drawing attention to himself, while running into the seedy underbelly of the Adventurer world.”
All of that is fine, I guess. Outside of the fact that the structure of the setting makes it much more firmly anchored in the real world in ways that something like Gate isn’t, this series’ hooks almost feels more like it’s in the novelty of the whole thing. The fact that it, like God of High School and Tower of God, is a story by a Korean author, set in Korea, adapted faithfully by a Japanese studio (Mappa), with Hiroyuki Sawano collaborating with a K-Pop group on the OP.
Otherwise, the action is gorgeously animated (action has generally been one of Mappa’s strong suits), and Sawano generally does a good score, and it never was really bad enough for me to just drop it. However, while a second season has been announced, much as with Chained Soldier, this is one of those instances where, unless that season is really light, picking up season 2 isn’t necessarily a priority for me.
Solo Leveling is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
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