Solo Leveling is back after a week of recaps with a major exposition episode, extensive character setup, and the beginning of a dungeon crawl that reunites the surviving members of the double dungeon at the beginning of this season. The recap episode, labeled 7.5 to denote it as such, was extremely poorly received, especially given the action-packed episode 7. Many outlets reported the number of negative reviews and dislikes flooding the episode’s page. It has been mistakenly reported multiple times as the worst-rated episode on Crunchyroll due to its low like-to-dislike ratio, which is 31.3k likes and 66.7k dislikes at the time of this writing. . In fact, there are other shows with lower overall ratings and worse like-to-dislike ratios across multiple episodes, High Guardian Spice immediately comes to mind. In that case and certainly in this case, the reason was the bombing. The number of dislikes increased within minutes of the episode airing, meaning many of the first clickers barely made it past the opening scene.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Aniplex has released a synopsis so early in a long period of time. series, but in this case, there may be a reason. Jinwoo’s voice actor, Taito Ban, confirmed a few weeks ago that he had contracted Covid-19, and most people have heard about him performing so vigorously that he coughed up blood. He and all the staff worked extremely hard to make this one of the best anime adaptations in years, adding a lot more to the story and fleshing out the world of Solo Leveling is even better than the webtoon. I think the number of fans willing to be salty and not keen on the recap episode speaks to how much the series is loved; It’s a shame to see people disrespect the people who do it like this.
Regardless, this week’s episode was better received, although it still received a lot of complaints (probably because Jinwoo didn’t fight any three-headed guys). this week’s beast). However, out of the expository episodes, I think it’s actually the best one so far. (Spoiler for Solo Leveling episode 8: This is annoying)
Jobs and geopolitics
From the beginning the episode did a great job of setting up a longer term goal for Jinwoo while also surprising the audience about his present. power. He clearly wants to gather ingredients to cure his mother, but he also realizes he currently lacks the strength to do so. However, unlike his other recent wishes for power, this one isn’t about him or making up for his years of humiliation as the weakest hunter in existence. This is him setting aside some of his own desires and preferences to maximize the possibility of saving his mother. Of course, this causes him to accept Jinho’s offer to work together, although on the condition that only they can enter the dungeon. I appreciated this little reversal of a few episodes ago, when Jinwoo used a technique from someone he defeated to become stronger. It’s fitting that he gets similarly themed weapons and items to the bosses he takes down, which is pretty cool.
The webtoon doesn’t go nearly as deep as the Yoojin Construction company’s efforts to recruit S-Rank Hunters and destabilize the current balance of power between guilds. I’m glad they did, though. Just a few weeks ago, we learned about hunters outside of Korea, one of whom of course wanted to hunt down the hunters who killed his brother. It would be helpful for audiences to understand how the Hunter Association operates as a public organization, with much of the resource extraction and coordination of dungeon excursions falling to private companies. Hearing this adds an extra layer of capitalism to an otherwise fantastical setting, something that isn’t done often with so much detail. With the reveal that powerful hunters are keeping an eye on Jeju Island, the dangerous place we glimpsed earlier in the series, it’s all great news. Admittedly, some conversations were perhaps longer than necessary, but I found the dialogue engaging enough that it didn’t feel forced.
An awkward reunion while leveling up solo
The second half of the episode takes place after an urgent request for nearby hunters from the Association. With that, we get a sort of status update about some people from the double dungeon. Of course, we all know Jinwoo has undergone an incredible visual transformation, which others will notice immediately. Mr. Song has lost an arm and can no longer fight with a sword like before because he cannot be healed in time (a nice detail about healing magic). Joohee is still suffering from PTSD from the incident but appears to have been motivated to participate by her parents’ implication that she was useless. Mr. Kim and Mr. Kang lost nothing but embarrassment. All of these people are important now in ways that they weren’t before. They gave us a frame of reference for what types of hunters are out there and how different types of hunters treat Jinwoo. Seeing them interact with him now would be an interesting update on how those interactions play out. Kang Taeshik and the prisoners were clearly quite suspicious, but Kang Taeshik and the B-rank prisoners provided even more points of comparison for Jinwoo. We’ve seen him fight a lot of bosses and monsters in dungeons, for example, but right now we don’t really know what his actual rank is.
The next episode looks to be a good one, with a lot of moving parts coming together and a lot of suspicious characters appearing for the first time. Everyone who goes into this dungeon has some personal purpose, and many of them will likely conflict with each other. Even if the episodes over the next few weeks aren’t as action-packed, I hope fans can get over themselves and take the time to enjoy it. The constant demand for content at an unbelievable rate is what causes us writers to suffer terrible chronic injuries early in life and entire animation studios to burn people out . Good work is worth the wait and better working conditions are generally good.
If you enjoyed episode 8 of Solo Leveling then be sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! The series is streaming on Crunchyroll with new episodes airing on Saturdays. As of January 20, Crunchyroll is also streaming the English dub of the anime.
© Solo Leveling Animation Partners