Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadow is the second season based upon the South Korean web novel and is 13 episodes long. Takes place in a world where some of the population awaken latent abilities (magical, physical etc) and they are ranked as Hunters from S class to E class. The reason being that gates open with monsters inside. These Hunters need to enter the gates and clear the dungeon inside, otherwise the monsters would get out and destroy the world.
The anime follows Sung, who was a Hunter of the weakest class. However, in the previous season, after a near death experience, he can “level up”, the only one to do so, and rapidly gains strength. By the end of the first season, he was already overpowered, and, in this season, he continues to be overpowered. Early on, the anime teases about the secret behind his powers, as well as the gates and monsters. You have some suspicions based on the clues provided.
The anime makes it appear that leveling up is easy for Sung, given that we’re shown that he gains multiple levels every time he defeats some enemies and a boss. It severely cheapens the result, and makes it feel that he doesn’t deserve the power. The first season had this issue, where Sung can just take on anything that are much more powerful than him with little issues (yes, he’s shown to be “struggling”, but that’s all for a minute or two). While the issue still exists this season, it manages it a bit better.
In fact, the season starts off strong. Sung joins a raid and shows off his new powers. It tries to paint him as the underdog, where higher ranks look down upon him given he’s still officially an E rank Hunter. Sung proves them wrong and it paints a bleak picture where most of the Hunters are horrible terrible people. One thing though is that the anime shouldn’t have used a ranking system, as it’s just pointless when the protagonist doesn’t fit into any of those ranks and can easily mow down anything and everything.
The anime also tries to play it cool, to the point where it feels like it’s trying too hard. Compare Sung from before to now, and you can see that he has completely changed from the scrawny kid into the super cool guy that’s powerful, handsome, and popular. It’s a dramatic change whereby he’s a completely different person that is unrecognizable from before. He then just… stays there without developing much more as a character. Despite what the plot tries to show, there are no stakes and no effort. We know that Sung will easily overcome all those that go against him.
The second half of the season becomes more predictable with its plot developments though. When Sung sets out to complete what he started, and clears a massive dungeon, the anime skips through most of it until the final dungeon boss. Even the final dungeon boss isn’t important enough to have more than a third of the episode, so it feels incredibly rushed and underwhelming. All the powers that Sung rapidly gained feels like you were told he got them, rather than seeing him earn them.
Given Sung’s basically cheating with his powers, there are no stakes or tension anymore. Everyone else is rendered useless and is easily overpowered by the enemies that appear. Only Sung can save the day and while every protagonist has plot armor, it’s just too obvious here that there is no challenge anymore (and to make matters worse, he continues to severely outclass others when he gains even more convenient powers each time). His personality is now too cool and stoic (perfect for a self-insert protagonist) but this makes him too bland and generic.
The anime consistently pulls scenarios from other anime but doesn’t do much with it. It feels cliched and generic, and the plot can feel like a mishmash of ideas that doesn’t coherently gel together. Despite its attempts, there is no overarching goal or objective, apart from Sung encountering more enemies so that he can get stronger. That lack of objective is what makes the fights, no matter how flashy they are, somewhat pointless and lack any sort of stake.
Overall, Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadow is an improvement over the first season in many ways. However, it doubles down on all its flaws as well. Sung lacks personality, and every other character is a “hi and bye” moment because as soon as that story arc is over, they are regulated into the background. Sung far outclasses everyone else so much that it’s boring, because before the fight even starts, you’d know Sung will save the day and win without any issues. While a power fantasy can be fun and enjoyable, Solo Leveling trends more towards the generic side.
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