Solo Leveling has become the G.O.A.T anime lately because of the electrifying events it featured in the latest season. Jinwoo’s terrifying power-up, his fight with the Ant King, and whatnot – Season 2 of the anime had everything.
Following the release of the tenth episode, Solo Leveling Season 2 became the most-watched anime on Crunchyroll, which eventually caused its servers to crash multiple times. With each episode, the popularity of the anime exploded, and after its final episode, it created history by receiving 700,000 ratings on Crunchyroll, which even the longest-running anime like One Piece couldn’t get. Despite having great potential, one thing that is lacking in Solo Leveling is good supporting character arcs.
Solo Leveling Isn’t a One-Man Show
The story of Solo Leveling is about an underdog protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, who would not have found a place for himself in the world if the Architect hadn’t discovered him during the Double Dungeon.
Following his confrontation with the Architect, aka Kandiaru, Jinwoo gets a heroic transformation. While his level-up is enough to hook the viewer, it also gets frustrating sometimes. That’s because, after a point, the anime starts looking repetitive.
Jinwoo starts to feel like a killing machine that doesn’t require any support to tackle the enemies in the story. However, that shouldn’t be a usual practice, though. Sometimes, the viewer feels the urge for twists and turns.
For instance, in the Jeju Island arc, Jinwoo initially refuses to join forces with the S-Rank hunters, but in the end, he is the one who clears the dungeon raid on the island. The hero is certainly the one to get the final shot in every title, but fans do like to watch the supporting characters get their share of screen time.
For instance, in anime like Demon Slayer, Tanjiro always shows up to protect humanity at the end, but the series never fails to give importance to the side characters. For example — the Hashiras in Demon Slayer or the other demon slayers like Zenitsu and Inosuke are given enough screen time to shine and show off their breathing techniques.
However, in Solo Leveling, the side characters end up looking like the background actors who are always outshone by the central character aka Jinwoo.
Solo Leveling’s Supporting Cast Deserves a Boost
Like the System in Solo Leveling blessed Jinwoo with a boost, I feel the supporting cast deserves it as well. Particularly talking about Cha Hae-In, Yoo Jinho, Beru, Go Gunhee, Thomas Andre, Woo Jinchul, and Choi Jong-In. They are way more potent than we believe, but it seems the series does not do them justice and often makes them look like bystanders.
In chapters 11-12, which were adapted in Solo Leveling Season 1 Episode 4, Hwang Dongsuk, the cunning C-rank hunter, tricks Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho and takes them into a C-Rank dungeon. But, before Dongsuk and his crew can harm both loyal hunters, Jinwoo kills the wrongdoers, making Jinho look like a spectator.
Jinwoo single-handedly defeats the Ant-King in the fourth raid on Jeju Island. Even though the other hunters on the island try harder, the monstrous ant is taken down by our hero. The most disappointing part is when Goto Ryuji, who is termed the strongest hunter in Japan, gets decapitated by the Ant King in one go. He at least deserved an ending that could justify his position.
Besides the usual S-Rank hunters, Jinwoo also overwhelms Thomas Andre, the most powerful human in existence. He wouldn’t have achieved the goal alone if Sung Jinwoo’s shadow army hadn’t backed him up. However, their share of the credit eventually goes to Jinwoo, who unleashes the final blow on Andre.
There are millions and trillions of events in the series that see Jinwoo overwhelming not only the humans or the beasts but also the god-like entities like Monarchs, that too solo. Of course, Jinwoo is a fantastic character, but my only complaint is that we won’t even remember any character aside from him when the series ends.
