Episode 13 (Episode 25 overall) of Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow- was a strong end to an overall incredible season, wrapping up the Jeju Island Raid arc and teasing a few plot points for the series going forward. The season ended in a natural and organic way; it didn’t feel like much by way of pacing and tempo had to be adjusted in the final moments to fit within the boundaries of a season and I think most anyone would agree that everything was wrapped up satisfactorily. And, even though the major battle of the arc was last episode, we still were treated to a few moments of stunning animation and satisfying action as Jinwoo and the rest of the Hunters deal with the aftermath of the fights from Episode 12.
Last episode was, quite simply, fantastic. It felt like it was demonstrating proficiency in animating multiple styles of combat, from slow, methodical slugfests to high speed bouts of agility and finesse. After Jinwoo swapped places with one of his shadow soldiers, he stepped in to save the lives of the (remaining) Korean S-rank Hunters, taking on the mantle of “king of the humans” and fighting the ant king after it mutilated the Japanese S-ranks, including Goto Ryuji. He managed to counter that yet-unseen level of power in Solo Leveling with even more strength, speed, and power of his own, farming aura the entire time like he was getting paid to do it. That episode ended a flurry of parallels between the two fighters with their ultimate showdown, one in which Jinwoo was decidedly victorious.
This week’s episode was a largely faithful adaptation, with a few changes that are worth diving into and a style that’s worth praising. It was a perfect way to cap off this season.
The Jeju Aftermath
Solo Leveling opens up with Jinwoo recovering Byung-gu’s body before summoning him as a shadow soldier, all in a clear attempt to find a way to heal Hunter Cha. I have very little to criticize about this episode, but this is one moment that I think deserves a bit of it. In the manhwa, this process of summoning Byung-gu didn’t go quite so smoothly. Despite having been killed quite recently and being much weaker than Jinwoo, the summoning initially failed twice before succeeding.
Jinwoo speculates that perhaps Byung-gu himself has a strong will against being summoned before making the calculus that even if there’s something inherently wrong about raising humans from the dead, the living take precedence. Moreover, Hunter Baek’s reaction was much sharper and aggressive as he questioned what Jinwoo was doing. Finally, there was no comment about Jinwoo hearing a voice from Byung-gu.
I think the original version of this scene added the appropriate weight to Jinwoo summoning a human in this way. When he summoned Iron, he had at least some argument for self defense (even though he prompted the attack), and even then the anime saw fit to indicate he’d crossed some line. This time, he was resurrecting someone innocent with a demonstrated history of being averse to combat in general. More should have been kept in to represent the gravity of that and, more importantly, show Jinwoo’s decision making when it came to steeping himself further in darkness in order to prioritize the wellbeing of someone else.
Charitably, one could say that in the anime version of the scene Jinwoo simply lied about hearing Byung-gu’s voice. I think if that had been something explicitly shown, it’d have been an interesting change. But, as things were adapted, I think the summoning was made to be too morally righteous and not sinister enough. One place the anime can be praised for is in not showing Jinwoo summoning shadow soldiers from ants before instructing the cameraman to turn off his live feed. This prevented a weird contrast between moments when Jinwoo was okay showing his power vs not. And lastly, at least in the anime, I find it odd that Jinwoo didn’t just heal everyone in that moment, but that’s whatever.
The ant cleanup portion of the episode was relatively standard and there isn’t much to comment on. I appreciated the other Hunters getting a chance to at least be a bit useful rather than having Jinwoo solo all 4000 remaining ants, but given how much work the newly summoned Beru put in, he probably may as well have. Beru’s summoning was quite well done and went beyond how it was depicted in the source material; the chrysalis and birth effect was a really nice touch and animated quite well.
New Paths Revealed in Solo Leveling
There are a few different morsels distributed across the episode pointing at what’s next for the series. The first came early and only for a split second. Upon reaching level 100, some of the previously redacted information about the secret key Jinwoo previously received revealed itself, showing that the key allows the user to enter the Cartenon Temple. The second came via the mysterious darkness that enveloped Jinwoo when he attempted to summon Beru. The third was the reveal of a powerful hunter, Liu Zhigang, who took out scores of ants within seconds, putting him up there with Beru and Jinwoo in terms of what he can casually do.
The last few include the reveal of some mysterious enemies and another look at Jinwoo’s supposed father, all skulking about the remains of the Jeju Island dungeon. And finally, we have some balance-of-powers altering arrangements: Jinwoo deciding to create his own guild, Japan having lost nearly all of its S ranks, and a flash over to America’s hunters. These last two sets of things are definitely worth thinking about; expanding the scope of intelligent magical creatures involved in the story and widening things to include other countries both lead to certain worldbuilding and an overall increase in the amount of places Season 3 is likely to touch. Both of those changes are welcome ones for a series that has just been knocking on the door of the international and even stronger Hunters.
There were a few things that were shifted in order to reach this conclusion, but I think the anime made some wise choices to have certain scenes come around in a later season. Looking back at Season 2, Solo Leveling has done an amazing job presenting an action anime full of cool scenes, great combat, stellar animation, superb voice acting, fitting music, and just about every other box that needed checking. This isn’t the deepest or most layered story, but I don’t think it needs to be.
Where Solo Leveling excels is in strong execution of the story it chooses to put forward, maximizing what it opts to include where minimizing any ill effects of what it doesn’t. Not every story needs to have dozens of fully fleshed out characters; sometimes a story focusing on the actions of one and tangentially developing those around him can be perfectly good. And I think many fans would agree this season fits that description. A third season has yet to be announced, but staff shared some illustrations along with this season’s finale. Until Season 3 is announced, you can also quench your thirst by picking up the manhwa.
Images via Crunchyroll
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