Have you ever noticed the similarities between Solo Leveling and One Punch Man? What really caught the audience’s attention was the feeling of One Punch Man appearing in Solo Leveling.
So what do these two works have in common that makes viewers feel that way?
Training regimen to increase strength
Let’s start with the obvious: exercise regimen. In One Punch Man, we have Saitama with a strange workout consisting of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and running 10 km every day. Then, in Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo appeared with a similar routine to complete his daily tasks.
This similarity is probably not a coincidence. Jinwoo grows in power just like in a video game, he earns rewards for completing his tasks but also risks if he fails.
It seems that the main character of Solo Leveling is searching for a type of power comparable to Saitama. But while Saitama is already “unmatched” after training, Jinwoo is still fighting to “level up”.
Classification system
In video games, S is better than A, and it seems like Solo Leveling has taken this idea and run with it. But what’s interesting here is that in Solo Leveling, we have a Hunter Association that is quite similar to the Hero Association in One Punch Man. Heroes/hunters are classified from E to S. S rank is the strongest, with full skills and equipment. There are also E-class, who are almost normal people.
For example, look at Saitama, the guy who shines in physical tests, but sucks in writing and ends up at C rank. And Jinwoo from Solo Leveling, who starts at weak E rank. But of course, that changes when he shows off his abilities and saves a group of S-rank hunters on Jeju Island, jumping straight to S-rank. The difference is that the characters in One Punch Man can stronger with no theoretical limit.
The main character possesses extreme strength
Talking about the main characters of Solo Leveling and One Punch Man, they are strong to the extreme. For example Saitama, as the name of the series suggests, he defeats anyone with just one punch.
Solo Leveling’s Sung Jinwoo started out weaker but became absurdly strong over time. And that power has no limits, Jinwoo is like a walking cheat code in the anime world. The main characters of both series are classic examples of superpowers in the shōnen genre.
Solo Leveling and One Punch Man may seem different at first glance, but they share more in common than we imagine.
