The Solo Leveling god statue gave viewers chills from the first two episodes. His smile in particular is disturbing, yet it is the whole scene that has brought back memories among audiences of dark fantasy anime.
Some smiles do not leave you indifferent, and anime fans know this better than anyone. In the most fashionable work of the start of 2024, there is a face which will have marked many spectators: that of a frightening statue, clearly reveling in the terror she produces on Solo Leveling’s hunters as she decimates them.
The anime from studio A-1 Pictures adapts a famous manhwa, these Korean comics that scroll on the Internet. And faithful to the work known to many readers, the series takes up one of the emblematic antagonists from the beginning of the story, in its smallest details: the statue of the “god” in the whole first double-dungeon, at the bottom of one of these portals which began to appear ten years earlier in the world of young Jinwoo.
However, some of these details raised eyebrows among fans of dark fantasy animated series. Because they immediately recalled a very similar situation, in another equally iconic anime of the genre: Attack on Titan.
Attack on Titan fans compare ‘god’ statue to famous titan
A dark aesthetic, a harsh tone and helpless characters facing disproportionate power: the introduction of Solo Leveling is very similar to that of Attack on Titan.
Even if the plots differ greatly in the rest, there is a passage which brings them together: the one where the hero is undermined, reminded of his situation as a weak and powerless creature in the face of forces far surpassing him – and on top. In Attack on Titan, Eren watches a giant with a terrifying smile devour his mother, and the boy can only flee, abandoning his innocence and his childhood, destroyed under the creature’s countless teeth.
In Solo Leveling, the “god” statue is just as terrifying and overpowered… and it sports the same smile that’s a little too full of teeth. So, plagiarism, homage or coincidence?
Attack on Titan x Solo Leveling pic.twitter.com/vHA91AH6sX
— Attack on Titan (@AoTJewels) January 14, 2024
Of course, the rest of the story differs greatly from one work to another. Where the story around Eren will focus on the desire to annihilate the titans – before taking a new turn in its final part – that of Jinwoo will address themes more reminiscent of video games.
At least, initially: but we won’t spoil the plot of Solo Leveling further here.
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