[00:02] originally released on the internet back in July of 2015. And history will recognize that moment as being as important as The Second Coming of Christ, despite the fact that people who only watch anime at the time were busy
[00:15] delivery drivers who can go back in time, sweatuitwearing nobodyies, and also the only accepted representation of Canada in decades by that point. Mona readers, however, were witness to one of the greatest stories ever told. At least
[00:32] that's probably what they would tell you and probably still would tell you. Cut to 8 years later, and it was announced that A1 Pictures was helming an anime adaptation of said greatest mana to ever grace the internet. With A1's history,
[00:45] fans of the series expected themselves to be eating quite well once the show finally launched, getting to witness what Peak looks like. as we watched the story's protagonist, Sunjin Wu, get curb stomped in Ultra HD, didn't you know
[00:59] that suffering and trauma can be cinematic? Anyways, while the notoriety of the series enjoyed some recognition during its mana days, once the anime took off, Solo Leveling's popularity began to skyrocket, but only like a
[01:12] little bottle rocket in your backyard at first, enough for like the neighbors to see it and then notice it and get unduly sprayed. But the series's true highlights were yet to come because once season two launched, it was all over.
[01:27] bad sense of, you know what I mean? Because as I sit here, Solo Leveling enjoys enough notoriety that I do not think it would be wrong to call it one of the most popular anime of all time, if not the depending on how you want to
[01:42] compare it historically to like One Piece. But it's a whole different can of that today. What we are going to get into is some of the meat and guts of this series to see what parts of it are worth the hype and what parts have been
[01:54] overblown a bit. To skip to the end of the video for a moment, would I recommend this anime? Yes. It's a series I heavily enjoyed my time with. Should you watch it? Also, yes. And I found it easy to watch as well. It's it's
[02:08] background while you're on a stairmaster or something. Would you enjoy it? Well, probably if the existing demographics are anything to go by. The show is popular for a reason. Is it good though? Is it good
[02:25] though? Is it good? No, it's art. Ladies, gentlemen, and others. My name is Arata and welcome to Glass Reflection. Let's jam.
[02:41] is, the story mostly, because it's the show's simplest aspect, and honestly, I believe its simplicity is paramount to understanding its popularity. Solo Leveling is a modern power fantasy that sees its main character, Sun Jin Wu,
[02:54] gain fantasy RPG-esque magical powers. But he's not alone in this, at least at the start. The world of solo leveling is very similar to our own except that throughout that world or in this case South Korea where the story takes place,
[03:07] magical portals or gates as they are called open up that lead to various fantasy dungeons. Within these dungeons, humans are able to awaken supernatural abilities and powers to become hunters.
[03:20] Specialized humans that can tackle these dungeons and clear them. Not only for are dangerous and clearing them and removing them is beneficial for society, but also for the general prosperity of the human race, as each dungeon contains
[03:34] riches and a wealth of fantasy objects and materials. By the time our story begins, gates have been around for a while, such that hunters who utilize them have been measured and categorized into various ranks and skill levels.
[03:47] Sunjin Wu, our protagonist, is rank E, the lowest available rank, and does his despite his lack of good abilities, because his mother is in a kind of coma, and he hopes to support her, as well as save his younger sister from having to
[04:01] be placed in dangerous situations like crawling through a dungeon for money. Unfortunately for him, the world has a different plan. As on one faithful day, Sun Jin Wu and a party of hunters end up in a dungeon raid gone wrong, leaving
[04:15] him abandoned and left to die against an overwhelmingly powerful and smiling statue. But at the moment before his death, he gets a mysterious message available only to him. Would he like to level up? A prompt no human has before
[04:30] seen. He survives this double dungeon of horrors and ends up fully recovering from the event. but now keeps getting similar prompts that appear before him. Like the world suddenly reveals that it's all been a video game the whole
[04:43] time, but now he's a player instead of just another NPC. He's able to level up to gain skills and abilities that go far beyond what any human has ever gained beyond what any human has ever gained before. But now many questions arise.
[04:57] Why was he given this power? What can he use it for? Is there any challenge that he cannot face? The answer to these questions are who knows everything and absolutely not. The problem I have with the overall story of Solo Leveling is
[05:13] that after two seasons, there arguably isn't one. At least not one that I would say justifies the amount of episodes that the show has had thus far, Sunjin Wu continually gets stronger. And throughout both seasons, he defeats new
[05:26] enemies only then to use necromancy on them and summon them to an ever growing undead shadow army. like he's collecting freaking Pokémon. But for the most of freaking Pokémon. But for the most of it, the question of why gets ignored.
[05:39] Unless the answer happens to be because why not? I mean, look at him. He can why not? I mean, look at him. He can grind. He's one of us. He's a gamer. Sure. A not insignificant reason behind Sunjin Wu's desire for more power and
[05:54] higher levels is because he seeks a cure for his mother's comate, which conveniently involves him going on a fetch quest handed to him by the system and forcing him through an a series of ever growing in difficulty dungeons that
[06:08] are only ever just slightly below what he can handle skill-wise at any given time. It's like any dungeon he tackles has been level synced so that he can handle it and get the most optimal amount of exp. But like completing that
[06:21] the two seasons. And once that's completed, he ends up immediately almost getting wrapped up into the role of world savior purely because he can't be he has at this point and no one else has the abilities necessary to defend
[06:36] against the evermounting dangerous threats that are coming after the human race. because yeah, now this is a man who can solo bosses with a hoodie and vibes. He attracts women because they like the smell of his sweat. And again,
[06:49] all of the challenges before him are only just hard enough to be challenging, but not so large that it's actually deadly for him. Sure, the show says that they're deadly, but we aren't ever shown that. And the series has done little to
[07:03] give us any sort of hint that Sun Jin Wu might lose his plot armor at any given time. We know he won't. So eventually the story tries to you know move on to other characters once in a while who can die or be mutilated in various ways cuz
[07:17] we already know Sunjin Wu once he arrives on the scene all the enemies are the larger point I have about the characters of solo leveling in that characters of solo leveling in that beyond arguably Sunjin Wu there are no
[07:30] characters there are not what I would call characters in this story they are more like ideas of characters. I mean, I could say that all of the characters are just NPCs and they're largely bland and one-dimensional on purpose in order to
[07:43] tie into the whole system being like a game system and Sunjin Wu is the player and everything around him is like an RPG simulator. But that ultimately gives the it deserves because I very much doubt
[07:56] that all of the characters were written this way to be intentionally one-dimensional. It's just how they ended up. I can look at a character like this one for example and describe her as a healer with a savior complex and then
[08:10] literally all of her interactions with the plot and our protagonist are shown through the lens of that very simple description. That's her. That's who she is. We aren't given much else about her
[08:23] character beyond that. If anything, she is probably the closest we're going to go beyond a oneline description because she also has some subplots about her massive anxiety and desire to avoid danger, which is why she partners up
[08:36] with an E-rank like Sunjun Wu in the first place at the start of the story despite having the aptitude of a much more skilled hunter. But that's kind of it. That's the depth of her character. And then she gets tossed away as soon as
[08:49] Sunjin Wu gets his glow up and needs a much more powerful and confident female character to Woo, someone who can waltz into a dangerous gate with no plan and a pickaxe only to then watch Sunjin Wu raffle stomp a bunch of fantasy orcs.
[09:02] The character problem gets a lot worse as the series progresses. Like cuz due to its expanding narrative about what will probably be a worldending threat, more and more hunters need to be introduced because, you know, humanity
[09:15] needs to develop a front against the various threats. But again, few of them go beyond surface level descriptions. Heck, there's more time in the narrative hunters just so that they can get killed off later for what I assume to be
[09:29] completely legitimate narrative reasons. Oh, I'm sorry, Japanese hunters, but Koreans are just built differently. Please uninstall. But like even with the Korean hunters, we can see them get put into situations that in any other
[09:43] narrative would be perfect for character growth, right? Like here, this guy is a leader who is seemingly competent. He's professional and he's reasonably calm despite the everinccreasing odds against him and his party in the scenario we're
[09:57] shown. I can't wait to see him develop because of the situ. Oh, wait. Sun Jin Wu just shows up and wipes everything out while they watch. They are worse than chopped liver here. At least chopped liver is nutritious. Like if you
[10:11] compare the characters here to something like Hiroaka for example, Hiroaka has a very large cast of characters and a world that gives them unique powers. But they're it's a good baseline for their initial personalities, so many of them
[10:27] get developed beyond that into far more interesting characters with even deeper the motivations are for the hunters in solo leveling because probably all it is some point, found out that they had like
[10:42] sort of coasted into this life of being about them because we're not shown anything to give us a reason to think otherwise. They are set dressing. They are disposable pawns to showcase how
[10:56] serious a situation might be due to their deaths. So then Sunjin Wu can swoop in, save the day, and be seen as an absolute badass. But in fairness, that's because he is. Let me be clear, watching Sunjin Wu be a badass is
[11:11] precisely why you are watching this series. And it's also why I can, despite mentioned up to this point, still wholeheartedly recommend it. A1 Pictures anime for the season that they produce things for, but with their particular
[11:27] catalog, I can never doubt the quality, the level of quality that they like to put on display. Heck, it's rumored that one scene from this show took almost a year to animate. And you can tell like most anime, of course, there are plenty
[11:40] of scenes within Solo Leveling that are fairly basic and uninspired from a animation standpoint. I would not say that the show is firing on all cylinders with its style constantly like I might with some other shows. But Solo Leveling
[11:53] is like a very good show produced for the masses where the effort for its animation is not spread out throughout its run, but saved for the select moments when it has the most impact. Cuz like I mean I've been using that scene
[12:07] against the orcs as a punchline, but in all seriousness, the amount of stellar animation and choreography on display for that scene is absolutely peak. And it's a showcase as to exactly why Solo Leveling has reached the level of
[12:20] popularity that it has. Heck, this wasn't even the biggest part of the season. Episode 24 was so hyped that they released a trailer for it, like they released a trailer for it, like publicly on social channels. That was an
[12:32] event that the season was ending and it was worth the hype because that's what this really all boils down to at the end, right? Hype and the successful conclusion to that hype. Solo Leveling can build up aspects of its admittedly
[12:46] very simple to understand narrative and then execute on it so well that it's absolutely satisfying. It is a show that is enjoyable to watch. Now, some people might come along and say, "Oh, well, if you if you turn off your brain or what
[13:01] have you, but no, you don't need to do that. You don't you don't need to turn off your brain because the show is so good. It turns off your brain for you and you can enjoy it and not even notice. We want more of that. Actually,
[13:14] the brilliance of solo leveling is that it's filled with so much mediocrity. It is such a barebones basic power fantasy with very little narratively to distinguish it from other of its ilk. And yet, my god is it satisfying to
[13:27] watch. I do not want to see solo leveling like on a list of the greatest deserves that. Entertaining is entertaining. Good is good, but I do not Because if you watch enough shitty media, you'll know that it's absolutely
[13:43] possible for content to be entertaining. You could sell out a Garzy's Wing because it's like the anime equivalent to The Room, but I don't see people putting that on any serious best of all time lists. I would not call the
[13:56] of all time lists. I would not call the anime Ghost Stories. Good, but by God should you watch the dub for it. You should watch Solo Leveling. You will most likely enjoy solo leveling. But should you be calling solo
[14:09] leveling good? Well, I certainly won't. But if you do want to know about the kinds of things that I would call good, well then I have some great news for you because I'm helping to start a podcast. Down in
[14:23] the description, you will find a link to a brand new anime podcast, Quest for the Best, where myself and two of my very good friends, Jeff Thu and Miles Athetherton, are on a quest to determine the hundred greatest anime of all time.
[14:38] quest where we will attempt to discuss and determine the validity of any individual show along with you know some sidetracking here and there as we are want to do. The first quest covering
[14:52] free and also slightly talking about solo leveling for a little bit is up now on YouTube with audio versions being available wherever you like to listen to getting this all up and running. So, we hope you enjoy our quest for the best.
[15:07] And with that unofficial sponsor plug out of the way, I leave you an immense thank you to my patrons, especially patrons like Ryen Bonapart, Omar Showman, Ross Emerson, Hector Montto Mayor, Aiden, and City Yamo because I
[15:22] cannot continue to do this without your support. So, subscribe if you haven't. Hit the like button if you enjoyed the video. And until our next reflection, whenever that may be, watch more anime and stay frosty.