Solo Leveling season 2 is the most popular anime of Winter 2025.
Solo Leveling season 2 debuted on January 4 and has now aired two episodes. Set in a world where the appearance of mysterious gates endangers public safety, the story follows the rise of Sung Jinwoo from an E-rank hunter (the weakest hunter in humanity). Become the strongest hunter.
After the portals appeared, humans began to gain extraordinary abilities to fight the threat. Because modern machines were ineffective against the monsters residing in the gates, humans awakened magical powers to fight them.
However, hunters could not upgrade their skills no matter how hard they trained, making Jinwoo the only exception thanks to the mysterious system. Solo Leveling part 1 ended with Jinwoo gaining the abilities of a Necromancer. Not only does he continue to level up, but he also has an army of shadows at his disposal.
After becoming significantly stronger than before, Jinwoo was able to fight off any threat. The first two episodes of season 2 adapt the Red Gate arc from the manhwa. However, the anime is significantly faster paced than the manhwa, causing some scenes to not appear in the film.
Solo Leveling part 2 removes scenes to make the pace faster
The first season of the Solo Leveling anime adapted 45 chapters from the manhwa in 13 episodes, creating a pretty good pace. However, the first two episodes of the second season adapted ten chapters of the manhwa. Because of the faster pace, it's understandable that the anime would remove a few scenes.
For example, in the scene in chapter 46, before going to Jinah's school for a parent-teacher meeting, Jinwoo stopped by a bank to get a debit card and update his account. The staff was amazed at the huge amount of money Jinwoo owned.
Later, another scene was cut where Jinwoo met Jinah's teacher, who complimented him for his appearance. Or the scene in chapter 48 when Woo Jinchul drives Hwang Dongsoo to the Red Gate, where he asks about his brother's funeral.
Additionally, in the anime, we don't see scenes of Jinwoo completing his daily quest inside the dungeon. He even told the other hunters that there would be punishment if he didn't, leaving them speechless.
Another example is in chapter 55, when Jinho misunderstood Jinwoo's relationship with Songyi. In the anime, Jinho doesn't ask Jinwoo if he should call Songyi “miss” as a way to acknowledge their relationship. We also don't see Jinwoo trying to clear up the misunderstanding by explaining that Songyi is just his sister's friend.
Although the anime does not exclude key scenes, it subtly removes some parts of the conversations to develop the story faster. The fight scenes also seem a bit shorter than the first season, but it's still adapted well nonetheless. This second season aims to adapt several storylines such as Red Gate, Demon Castle, Rank Recheck, Hunter Guild Gate, Return to Demon Castle and maybe even some parts of Jeju Island.
