All Solo Leveling arcs are well-crafted, but what makes the Jeju Island arc stand out is the intense fight between Jinwoo and the Ant King. Isn’t it? The penultimate episode of Solo Leveling Season 2 finally adapted the most exciting battle of the acclaimed manhwa. While the anime-only fans left their seats fully impressed, some manhwa readers had complaints about the fight. That’s because manhwa readers believe the anime changed the Jinwoo vs Ant King fight, such that it is not that fulfilling.
Spoiler Warning:
This post includes heavy spoilers for the Solo Leveling manhwa and anime. Proceed with caution.
Ant King and Sung Jinwoo’s Fight: Manhwa vs Anime
After arriving on Jeju Island, Jinwoo first extracts the shadows of the dead ants and makes them fight each other. He immediately calls Iron, one of Jinwoo’s strongest shadows, and instructs him to eradicate the ants. Once they are defeated, the protagonist astonishes everyone by extracting their shadows.
In the anime, however, Jinwoo couldn’t extract the shadows of the ants as the Ant King arrives before he could do that. He was about to extract the shadows since he told everyone to keep this a secret, but he couldn’t do so as the Ant King was standing in front of him.
It’s hard to say why the anime decided to skip that part, but that made Sung Jinwoo’s entry in the anime less heroic than in the manhwa. Well, the anime-only fans may still have enjoyed Jinwoo’s entry, but the ones who have read the manhwa know that something was missing.
Jinwoo Struggles Against the Ant King, Unlike In The Manhwa
The manhwa stretched the fight a bit, but even for a second, the fandom didn’t feel that Jinwoo struggled against the Ant King. However, if we talk about the anime, there are several scenes that make us see Jinwoo’s concern. For instance, the scene when the Ant King was about to insert a sharp object into Jinwoo’s eye showcased fear or worry in our hero’s eyes.
Jinwoo clenched his teeth hard and was worried about getting hurt, so he used the Mutilation ability to escape the situation. This was a feeling that fans didn’t see Jinwoo portray in the manhwa. In the manhwa, Jinwoo dodged every attack from the Ant King easily and overpowered him with each attack. It was basically a one-sided fight in the manhwa, whereas in the anime, Jinwoo did struggle slightly and showed signs of anxiety.
This change is controversial for everyone in the Jinwoo vs Ant King fight. Some fans think that the anime made Jinwoo look weaker and less confident, which didn’t go well with his aura. On the other hand, a significant part of the fandom thinks it was a good change, as Jinwoo’s struggle against the Ant King made the fight more interesting. A one-sided fight would have been boring, as people want to have a little bit of fear for the protagonist to truly enjoy a fight scene.
There Were Fewer Dialogues In the Anime
The Ant King returns to the battlefield after killing Gyoto Ryuji and encounters Jinwoo. The S-Rank hunter was amused seeing a talking ant for the first time.
The fight begins, and the first thing Jinwoo notices is the Exoskeleton of the Ant King in the anime, as well as the manhwa. He lands a heavy blow; the anime makes us hear a cracking sound, while the manhwa gives us some dialogue.
He broke through my Exoskeleton, says the Ant King.
The anime and manhwa featured some significant changes, especially around the dialogue. Well, it’s pretty understandable that stuffing the episode with unnecessary dialogue could’ve been frustrating, so the creators made the right decision in that regard.
The manhwa doesn’t make the characters move, so it’s important for the pages to feature some dialogue for the readers to better understand the current scenario. Fans wanted to experience the fight scenes through the anime and not listen to some unnecessary lines from the source material. So, it was a rather welcoming change for the manhwa and anime readers alike.
Regardless of some changes from the manhwa, the fight in the anime was truly incredible. From animation to action choreography, everything was S-tier in Jinwoo and the Ant King’s fight. It’s only sad that we will have to wait for Season 3 of Solo Leveling to experience more fights like this.
