Summary
Solo Leveling stands out as the hottest anime of 2024, breaking boundaries with RPG elements in a modern setting. The series attracted many fans, from novel readers to gamers, and capitalized on the growing popularity of manhwa. Solid production values, lively action, and stunning artwork contributed to the film's rapid rise to popularity.
While 2024 has been a great year for anime, it's safe to say Level up alone is the series that leaves the most burning impression. In just a few days since its release in early January, Solo Leveling has been mentioned as the best anime of the year. In just a few weeks, the series became one of the most watched shows in the history of Crunchyroll's streaming platform. Few anime have as exciting a start as Solo Leveling – which is even more impressive considering it's based on a webtoon that's been around for nearly a decade. All of this begs the question: what factors contribute to making Solo Leveling so popular?
Shunsuke Nakashiga's Solo Leveling, based on the web novel of the same name by Chugong that Gi So-Ryeong and Jang Sung-Rak later adapted into a webtoon, takes place in a world where powerful monsters pose a threat exists for humanity. To protect humanity are the Hunters – humans with superpowers who aim to ensure humanity's survival by defeating the monsters inside their extra-dimensional dungeons before they can invade Earth. land.
Unfortunately, not all hunters are the same. Indeed, Sung Jinwoo was known as “humanity's weakest hunter”, and he could barely survive against the weakest monsters. That is, until one day he gained the ability to quickly and continuously “upgrade” his power by converting experience gained on the battlefield into personal upgrades. The more experience he has, the more power he can harness.
Leveling up alone brings a refreshing change to the old story line
The series blends RPG elements into an urban fantasy setting
The basic reason behind the popularity of any anime is the story. Without a compelling and engaging story to keep audiences coming back for more, no other attribute will be able to sustain a series over the long term. As for Solo Leveling, while the “zero to hero” story isn't particularly unique, the way it's told is creative – and therefore engaging – at least in the beginning. The specific storytelling innovation that makes Solo Leveling so exciting is the creator's integration of role-playing game (RPG) themes, ideas, and verses into an urban fantasy adventure story.
The RPG angle in manga and webtoons is not very new but it is mainstream anime. Although isekai series have long integrated video game elements into their plots, they have always taken place in distant, fantasy worlds. Instead, Solo Leveling takes place in modern-day Korea. But the RPG story angle isn't just a bell or whistle to attract attention. It really adds value to the plot – which also makes the story more interesting for fans. One of the main benefits of integrating the RPG idea is that it makes the premise of Jinwoo being strong more believable.
The RPG story angle refreshes an idea that – on its own – might not have been able to maintain the interest of anime fans. He achieves this by “leveling up,” a popular idea in video games of performing a series of quests – some of the most difficult, monotonous – that slowly but continuously give the player Play ability to become stronger instantly. It's a clever storytelling device that allows thoughtful viewers to suspend their disbelief any further and keep coming back to see how OP Jinwoo performed in each subsequent episode.
Solo leveling has spectacularly broad appeal
The second reason why Solo Leveling is the hottest anime is because of its broad appeal to many anime fans. Anime fandom is known for its factional nature – especially when it comes to genre preferences. Indeed, as mentioned in a recent interview with Screen Rant, Jinwoo's voice actor Aleks Le pointed out that Solo Leveling breaks this barrier by offering a series that appeals to all audiences.
It has everything that anime fans or anime newcomers will enjoy. – Aleks Le
First, there are the masses of avid fans who read the novels and/or webtoons. To make sure, Solo Leveling built a huge fan base before the anime even came out. That fandom certainly contributed significantly to the initial wave of interest in the anime by creating “buzz” about the series. Second, there are fans of fantasy adventure anime in general. Indeed, adventure fantasy stories are historically some of the most beloved anime of all time. No serious adventure fantasy fan can miss out on seeing Solo Leveling when it comes out.
Finally, there are the gamers. Interestingly, the gaming community is one of the most educated, informed, and knowledgeable anime fan communities in the world. Much of their interest stems from the fact that there are many video games based on manga or anime source content. It's natural that this fan base would be interested in Solo Leveling – an anime that does many “hat tips” for the gaming community.
The solo promotion took advantage of the Manhwa revolution
While webnovels and webcomics helped make manhwa famous worldwide, the anime Solo Leveling capitalized on that popularity.
Without the growing popularity of manhwa, Solo Leveling certainly would not have achieved the widespread reputation it has today. Manhwa refers to an iteration of manga created and developed in Korea, but has largely been overshadowed by the Japanese manga industry. Indeed, for most of its history, manhwa served and focused on the domestic Korean market.
However, with the advent and spread of the Internet in the 1990s, access to manhwa became increasingly easy for people outside of Korea. As a result, manhwa has become a serious alternative for manga fans looking for something different from Western and Japanese comics. Over the past few years, this has led to a revolution in the global popularity of manhwa content. Indeed, even the creators of Solo Leveling believe that Korean manhwa is destined to surpass Japanese manga in popularity.
With so much manhwa hype circulating, the anime viewing public will be interested in not only watching an anime adaptation of a manhwa – which is somewhat rare at the moment – but also an adaptation of one of the beloved manhwa best. when. Certainly, since its introduction in 2016, Solo Leveling has grown into one of the most beloved manhwa of all time. Therefore, watching Solo Leveling is almost a necessity for anyone who is seriously interested in manhwa or who considers themselves a manhwa otaku.
Another famous anime based on manhwa is Tower of God.
Solo Leveling is just a good anime
Excellent production values helped meet viewers' expectations
The final reason Solo Leveling became so popular throughout its first season was because it was able to fulfill the common elements beyond plot that are found in quality anime – specifically action, artwork, and animation. image. In each of these categories, Solo Leveling excels. Since the plot is based on Jinwoo leveling up by fighting and defeating monsters, action is the name of the game for the series. Accordingly, there is no shortage of action to keep fans coming back for more.
Additionally, A-1 Studios, the anime production company, is equally impressive with the series' artwork and animation. To be sure, A-1 Studios has taken the webtoon's already stunning visuals to the next level. This is especially true in the vivid battle scenes and dazzling backgrounds. Accordingly, the combination of a compelling story, widespread audience appeal, a favorable anime environment, and care for basic anime elements all contribute to anime's remarkable growth. Level up alone in Winter 2024.