Compilation movie plus the first two episodes of the second season of "Solo Leveling."
Personally, it's an anime that captivated me quite a bit despite its simple premise.
It's often said that the first three episodes of an anime are what determine whether you continue watching or not, and in the case of "Solo Leveling," this happens as early as the first and second.
The course of the first season shows the evolution of Sung Jin-woo's character, who goes from being the worst warrior in the world to constantly leveling up until he becomes a killing machine. Perhaps this evolution is what makes the series and the character most interesting.
Slowly, he becomes a darker and more fearsome being, even going so far as to murder human beings because the system demands and demands it; otherwise, the consequences would be undesirable.
The end of the first season is epic and sets a high bar for the start of the second season.
The first two episodes are... incredible... the changes in the animation are noticeable, the plot gets even darker, and the class Sung evolved into to become "Necromancer" gives him a certain Pokemon master look trying to "catch them all."
Clearly, it has the makings of becoming the anime of these times in the Shonen demographic, alongside Kaijuu No. 8, perhaps, although below the blockbusters like Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, One Piece, and others. That doesn't mean it's not a highly recommended series in a genre as overused as this one.
Updated March 29, 2025.
Having already finished the second season of the series, I can't contain my excitement.
We all know it's not the most original manga/anime in the world, but what we do know is that week after week, it broke the internet. The weekly cliffhangers, the epic adventure, and the action kept us on the edge of our seats, day after day, week after week.
This isn't just about the animation, which is incredible in itself.
It has a lot to do with the editing, the script, the moments... it would be simplistic to say that a series that leaves us feeling like this is overrated.
How Jingwoo defeats the Ice Elves, how he appears in Dungeon A to fight the Shaman Ogre, how he enters the Demon Tower to defeat the ultimate boss, or how the events on Jeju Island unfold with Beru are insane. All of this in 13 episodes; there's no filler, no time wasted. We waited a week to see 25-minute episodes that felt like they would last five.
I'm not going to oversell a series that's about what it is, but really, I think in March, we had the anime of the year.
Now we wait until 2026.
