The Solo Leveling anime has been a sensation since its debut, but the adaptation made changes that not all fans of the original work will like.
Solo Leveling has released six episodes to date, and one thing is certain: it has won the hearts of viewers. Between its interesting concept, striking visuals and excellent animation from the renowned studio A-1 Pictures, the series has made its place among other dark fantasy productions.
But initially, Solo Leveling is a novel and a manhwa, these South Korean comics that are generally consumed while scrolling on the Internet. The young hero Sung Jinwoo, first shown as humanity’s weakest dungeon hunter, experiences a marked improvement after a grueling passage through a portal. And his story was followed in the webtoon by a whole community of ardent fans, who were eagerly awaiting the anime.
If the studio was able to honor the story invented by Chugong and drawn by Dubu (Redice Studio), aficionados still noted some changes. And some don’t please everyone.
Warning: this article contains slight spoilers from upcoming episodes of Solo Leveling.
Solo Leveling fans mixed about the anime adaptation
Solo Leveling is a violent story, which explores the depths of the human soul and plunges its characters into critical situations, but Chugong also integrates a lot of humor into its story. Which is not conveyed enough in the animated series for the taste of some fans.
In any case, this is what emerged from a dedicated thread on Reddit: “It’s a good thing to make the series more serious, but I really hope that they will include a few more comedic scenes later on for blow, like with Iron and the other shadows who act like idiots.”
This is about pets, which Sung Jinwoo will soon be able to create from the souls of deceased people or creatures. The Iron in question is actually a former A-rank hunter who died during a portal raid, and whom Jinwoo will add to his collection of shadows. The familiar will become a recurring soldier of the hero, and its appearances will be as muscular as they are amusing, bringing a comic note to sometimes difficult fights.
Faced with the Internet user’s reflection, another responded on the Reddit subject, expressing his concern: “The fact that the shadows act like idiots was part of their charm. They all had personalities thanks to these quirks. If we remove them, what is left? Soulless henchmen.”
Other Internet users, however, do not share this opinion. For them, the gap between the dark subjects of Solo Leveling and the shadow pranks shown in a more “chibi” (i.e. “small” , “cute”) drawing style would not work for the anime.
In any case, this is what one Reddit user points out: “It’s definitely a good thing. In the manhwa, it seemed comical, which is strange given the situations. In my opinion, SL works best as an entirely serious series without those ridiculous anime facial expressions. You can have comedy, just don’t overdo it. I’m fine with removing certain visual gags, because they really wouldn’t fit with the universe and the story.”
Episode 7 of Solo Leveling will be available on Crunchyroll on February 17.
Leave a Reply