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TheSolo Levelinganime adaptation is on its way to being one of the most successful anime adaptations of the 2020s, not to mention thebest manhwa/WEBTOON anime adaptationwe’ve gotten so far.Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-continued to break records on the Crunchyroll streaming platform, garnering much more attention and hype than the first season.
With the second season having just ended, it’s time to look through some of the biggest changes theSolo Levelinganime adaptation has made from the webcomic, which, we must remember, is in and of itselfan adaptation of the original webnovel. So, how does A-1 Pictures’Solo Levelinganime adaptation differ from the manhwa by DUBU and REDICE Studio?
Exposition Hell
Solo Leveling Season 1’s Biggest Flaw
Part of what makes an idea likeSolo Levelingso prevalent in the anime and manga world is how easily understood the series' basic mechanics are. While not everyone is a gamer, the assumption is that the series' audience has interacted with and understands game mechanics, particularly those from RPGs. The ubiquity of the idea is an indicator of how easy it is to impart, and yet, unlike the manhwa, theSolo Levelinganime hobbles along in its first few episodes, trying to explain aspects like the Hunter economy, Raids and Raid Parties, the Gates, Hunter Rankings and other aspects that you’reprobably well aware ofgoing into the series anyway.
This isn’t to say that the anime should have just assumed everyone “gets it”, but more a criticism of how little faith it showed in its audience by repeating and re-explaining the aforementioned mechanics, sometimes at the expense of more interesting story elements or scenes. TheSolo Levelingmanhwa was a lot better at weaving exposition into the events taking place in the series, or into Jinwoo’s internal dialogue as heinteracted with his environment and the System. The repetitive exposition also bogged down the pacing of the story in its earliest stages, which arguably could have been a bit faster, while season 2 probably could have benefited from rifling through the story a bit slower. Sometimes, the exposition would be done clumsily, interrupting moments in the story (which Jinwoo sufficiently explains himself in the manhwa) to cut to the anime’s vehicle of exposition, Korean Hunter Association Chairman Go Gunhee.
Pursuit of Greater Thematic Exploration in the Anime
The Anime Rearranges Elements in the Story to Tell More Vivid “Sub-Stories”
Riffing off the “exposition Hell” described earlier, it is possible that the reason for some of these strange changes to the narration, and the repurposing of Go Gunhee into a vehicle for exposition, is to enable some kind of deeper thematic exploration. The anime removes Japan S-Rank Hunter Ryuji Goto’s reaction to Jinwoo’s unfathomable power in the anime to later use it to parallel Jinwoo and the Ant King in Goto’s final moments. The manhwa does not create these clear parallels between the Ant King and Sung Jinwoo, and thus features moments in which characters' thoughts provide more context tothings that the anime “shows”, rather than tells. This is an improvement that is largely at work inSolo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, which saw less of the exposition problems of the early series and tried to focus on creating more intricate “sub-stories” that we pick up on through analysis.
The anime tries to have Sung Jinwoo grapple with his humanity a lot more (a point that is explored further below), and thus has him struggle in fights that were a breeze for him in the manhwa.When he extracts Byung-Gu’s Shadowto save Cha Hae In, the manhwa has him struggle to extract him at first, but in the anime, he does so easily because Byung-Gu himself calls out to be summoned to that end. What this did was give Byung-Gu one final moment of agency in the series that solidified him in the memories of viewers, while also showcasing the kindness of Sung Jinwoo, which falls into the aforementioned grappling with his humanity that was a major component of the second season of the anime.
The Primacy of Jeju Island
The Solo Leveling Anime Starts With Jeju Island
One interesting decision in theSolo Levelinganime is the introduction of Jeju Island as a major story beat in the very beginning. It frames the events that took place on Jeju Island as crucial to understanding the “current” events of the story. The Jeju Island Raid Arc is definitely one of the most significant arcs in theSolo Levelingstoryline, and the anime places this as a major priority, cleverly building up to it in the background of the story. The final scene of the final episode ofSolo Levelingseason 1 was a teaser forthe Jeju Island Raid Arc, with a winged ant washing up on the shores of an island close to Jeju Island; the first ever indication of the evolution of the giant ant magic beasts that overran the island before the fourth Jeju Island Raid operation, a joint venture between the Hunter Associations of Japan and Korea.
Side Characters Make Early Cameos and Get More Time in the Limelight
“Cha Hae In-ssi Is Not Just a Cutie”
TheSolo Levelinganime is absolutely in love with Sung Jinwoo’s eventual wife, S-Rank Hunter Cha Hae In. While she kinda exists in the manga, the anime features her a lot more and much earlier than her debut in the manhwa, obviously positioning her as the series' belle in long, drawn-out scenes that focus on her. The intent in the anime is to give Cha Hae In more character leading up to her meeting and eventual relationship with Sung Jinwoo, which, unfortunately, isn’t very well developed in the manhwa. The positioning of Cha Hae In in the anime is almost in an understanding ofher eventual romantic relationshipwith Sung Jinwoo and thus attempts to bring her to the forefront a bit more.
One thing the anime has up on the manhwa is how much more care it gives to the side characters of the story. For instance, season 1,episode 8 of the animefocuses primarily on characters other than Sung Jinwoo, which never really happens in the manhwa. We actually see Jinho’s brother (sort of), and get some background on some of Jinwoo’s former colleagues, like Lee Joohee and Song Chiyul; how they come to the decision to return to the battlefield after the traumatic events that took place in the Cartenon Temple Double Dungeon Incident. Even Kim Sangshik, who was barely given much character in the manhwa, had his motivations explored a little, which made his death hit a little harder than it would if he was just “that one guy that left Jinwoo to die”.
SlightlyLighter on the Gore
Solo Leveling is More Fantasy than Dark in the Anime
One thing that’s especially the case in the second season ofSolo Levelingis the fact that the blood and gore have been significantly toned down from the manhwa. The anime does get incredibly violent and bloody, especially in how detailed and drawn-out Jinwoo’s first death is, but in the manhwa, there is definitely a more pronounced level of violence. SinceSolo Levelingis a TV anime, there are generally various factors that need to be considered, and elements that are more policed when it comes to television programming than there would be in a webcomic.
Assorted Easter Eggs and References that Weren’t in the Manhwa
The Solo Leveling Continues What the Manhwa Did Before It
TheSolo Levelingmanhwa understands itself as derivative of a particular kind of contemporary fantasy with video game mechanics, thus it makes various references to popular cultureand even hides Easter eggs in plain sight. The anime continues this understanding by making some very deliberate references to popular culture. For example, the giant spider Boss of the C-Rank Gate Jinwoo enters in Solo Leveling episode 6 is just a giant red spider in the manhwa, but in the anime, it has the same markings and colours as Venom from the Spider-Man comics.
During his battle against Kang Taeshik in episode 9, Jinwoo warms up like Goku did in theDragon Ball Super: Brolymovie, which was released long after that arc in the manhwa had been published. The episode aired the day after it was announced thatDragon Ballauthor Akira Toriyama had passed. The first season’sending had a sequence that made referencesto the horror gameFive Nights at Freddy’s, but also contained a bunch of thematic references and symbolism that were connected to the future of the series.
Where’s the Banter?
The Solo Leveling Anime Unfortunately Sieves Out Humour
The anime version ofSolo Levelingdoes well to improve the original story in some aspects, like increasing the impact and screen time of some of the side characters, but it also has a vastly more serious atmosphere than the manhwa. Not to say the manhwa isn’t as dark, but it peppers in moments of whimsy, humour or straight up banality in between the seriousness to round off the darker elements and make them hit a little harder. It’s the fact that the series can “goof off” amidst the violent carnage of the Dungeon, that makes the manhwa feel more entertaining at times, like how, during the Ant King battle, Jinwoo summons Tusk and tells him, “Only attack the ants, if you injure the humans I’ll never summon you again”, to whichthe High Orc Shadowgives a knowing nod.
Little moments like this that give Jinwoo, andSolo Levelingoverall, more personality and something beyond the “aura-farming”. The Shadows are the main vehicle of humour in the manwha, and it’s probably one of the thingsSolo Levelingdoes best. There are a lot of things the anime cuts out to streamline the story and its pacing, but the humour getting the chop is definitely one of the more unfortunate changes.
The Biggest Difference: Sung Jinwoo Himself
The Main Man Struggles a Lot More in the Anime
What we can consider the most significant change made in the anime is in the character and development of the protagonist, Sung Jinwoo. While he is pretty quick on the uptake when it comes to some of the darker things the System makes him do in the manhwa, Jinwoo in the anime grapples much harder with his fleeting humanity. One of the character’s most important moments is when he comes face to face with the darkness in other Hunters, when Hwang Dongsuk’s Party used him as bait for a C-Rank Boss, planning to let him die while they took down the boss and made off with the loot. When they found him and Yoo Jinho still alive, the six members of Dongsuk’s party turned on them,forcing Jinwoo to take their lives to preserve his own. In the manhwa, Jinwoo comes to accept this turn of events very quickly, killing the six and heading home to drink beer like nothing happened. However, in the anime, the event seems to have traumatized Jinwoo, as he thinks about what it means for him to have killed other people while trying to drink his beer.
Manhwa Jinwoo seems to showcase some rather psychopathic tendencies, like dropping dark quips and puns after killing magic beasts, or baiting A-Rank Hunter Kim Chul into attacking him specifically so he can justify ending him to extract his Shadow because he needed a Tankduring his battle with Barcain the Red Gate Incident. On one side, killing people is a readily accepted part of life, while on the other, Jinwoo is more torn-up about killing people because the anime version of the character has a much more fleshed out internal battle in which his humanity is constantly in question. In some ways, the anime attempts to deepen Sung Jinwoo’s journey and even make him a lot more suspicious of the System, but in the manhwa, Jinwoo is more keen to exploit it for everything it’s worth, harbouring a much colder, angrier personality than in the anime. While he gets OP in the anime, he struggles more in the fights that he steamrolls in the manhwa, and this is to tackle perhaps the biggest criticism ofSolo Leveling: Sung Jinwoo is too OP, making the stakes of every fight rather low. Like in any shōnen, we know the main character will win, but it’s more about how.
