Summary
The Solo Leveling anime successfully adapts the manhwa and light novels without any notable negative effects, condensing and contextualizing the content to fit the anime storytelling style. The anime introduces minor changes to certain scenes and characters, such as removing the scene where Sung Jinwoo asks for coffee and changing the character who opens the double dungeon door. The anime includes early appearances of important figures, such as President Go Gunhee, to provide hints at deeper political waves to be explored in the future.
The biggest difference between Level up aloneanime and its manhwa are subtle but have a tangible effect in depicting the story in the new medium. The first episode alone shows at least ten changes, additions, or cuts that did not occur in the manhwa, covering details ranging from minor inconsistencies to creating completely new content in terms of story structure.
Despite all the changes, the Solo Leveling anime still meets high expectations, as none of the differences have any noticeable negative effects. This is quite an achievement considering the difficulty of adapting a manhwa that was adapted from a light novel. Anime needs to condense and contextualize any pre-existing content to fit the animation style of storytelling, whether that’s using scenes that are in the light novel and not in the manhwa or scenes that never existed absolutely, and A-1 Pictures did a great job.
10 Jinwoo doesn’t try to drink coffee
After the opening of the first episode of Solo Leveling, main character Sung Jinwoo is introduced as a group of low-level hunters prepare to enter a dungeon at a construction site. Everything in the scene is quite similar to the manhwa, but there is a slight difference in the way Sung Jinwoo enters.
In the manhwa, he asked the seller for a cup of coffee, but they ran out right before Jinwoo got there, giving the feeling that Jinwoo was an insignificant and forgotten part of the larger hunter collective. The anime decided to remove this pitiful scene and Jinwoo just casually greeted hunter Kim Sangshik, who retrieved a cup.
9 Kim Sangshik opens the double dungeon door
In the first episode of Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo’s group of hunters encountered something unusual in the initial D-rank dungeon they entered. A long tunnel leads to a separate room, a phenomenon known as a double dungeon, which is extremely rare. The group of 13 people (17 people in the manhwa) were wondering whether to participate or not, and in the end they voted narrowly in favor of participating thanks to Jinwoo acting as the deciding factor.
This situation is the same between anime and manhwa, but there is a slight difference between who pushes the last group to get in the door. In the manhwa, team leader Song was the one who pushed the door but in the anime, that person was Kim Sangshik. While this is only a slight variation, it would be interesting to consider how this change would affect the respective feelings of guilt present in both Song and Kim later in the manhwa as well as how it would How to convert to anime.
8 President Go Gunhee appeared early
Solo Leveling’s first volume is filled with intriguing details that fans of the manga and light novels will latch onto. The anime has a clear structure that fans will recognize the characters’ appearances in the early stages and won’t be confused as if the manhwa had too many character introductions in the early stages.
One character who appeared so early was President Go Gunhee of the Korean Hunter Association, Korea’s equivalent of a hunter management agency. However, compared to modern-day governments, this association holds relatively less power. Despite this, Go Gunhee is still an S-rank hunter, one of the strongest characters in the manhwa. His appearance in the anime’s first episode not only reminded fans of this legendary character, but also gave a hint of the deeper political waves the series would experience in the future.
7. Sung Jinwoo was stabbed by a goblin
Both the Solo Leveling manhwa and the anime do a great job of establishing Sung Jinwoo’s initial position as a weak hunter, especially in their depictions of Jinwoo as the weakest E-rank hunter. In this regard, the anime takes it to the next level, adding visceral combat details in the first dungeon that Jinwoo is seen entering.
In the manhwa, the fight scenes against goblins are quick and flashy cuts, used to compare the strength of other D-rank and C-rank hunters against Jinwoo, who can defeat a goblin. and obtained its essence stone while suffering some injuries. . However, in the anime, after this victory, Jinwoo was ambushed by another goblin and stabbed in the stomach, resulting in a terrifying wound that caused a large pool of blood to spill out from Jinwoo’s body. This was a completely new scene, further highlighting Jinwoo’s weakness.
6 Jinwoo’s weapon change options
In the Solo Leveling universe, since a hunter’s power is set constant after their awakening, weapons become extremely important. The same could be said for Sung Jinwoo, who was seen in the anime entering a dungeon at a construction site holding a knife. Later, when he fought against the goblin, the knife broke, leaving him in a dangerous situation where he was stabbed.
As described earlier, this second goblin confrontation is a fresh take on the anime, but there is one more difference. In manhwa, Sung Jinwoo did not enter this dungeon with weapons. In the flashback he had in chapter 4 of the manhwa after he entered the same dungeon, Jinwoo mentioned that he no longer hunted with weapons because the weapons he was capable of easily broke and his profits did not outweigh the costs. This further emphasized Jinwoo’s desperate struggle as a hunter to earn money for his mother’s medical treatment.
5 Yoo Jinho and Han Song-Yi co-star as cameos
Manhwa Solo Leveling features a select number of beloved characters, and the anime creators know exactly which characters to choose to satisfy fans’ expectations. In the first episode of the anime, there is a scene where the hunters are tested for rank and undergo the association’s initial training. This scene only serves to further contextualize the world-building of the anime.
However, what was included in the Easter egg was the appearance of Yoo Jinho, a D-rank hunter and Sung Jinwoo’s final vice president, and Han Song-Yi, an E-rank hunter who was a classmate. of Jinwoo’s younger sister.. Both characters have different levels of relationship with Jinwoo in the manhwa, but the appearance of Jinho and Song-Yi together becoming strangers after awakening is an interesting and refreshing gift for manhwa fans.
4 Jinwoo is portrayed as a little less lonely
As the main character of the series called Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo is said to be someone who often works alone, as in the manhwa, he constantly enters dungeons and his future game-like profession shows allowing him to fight alone optimally. The anime hasn’t progressed that far yet but already signs of difference in this regard can be observed.
When Jinwoo entered the construction site and greeted hunter Kim Sangshik for the first time, he was taken away by another unnamed hunter and he walked around the construction site to greet the group members. Kim said he was saying hello because his appearance was a sign that the dungeon would be easy. However, in the manhwa, Jinwoo continues to be unable to buy a cup of coffee and is then confronted by physician Lee Joohee. Additional interaction between Jinwoo and my groupUltimately, the anime gave a slightly closer sense of friendship, which was soon shattered by the other hunters’ cruel treatment of Jinwoo.
3 Cha Hae-In appeared impressively
With the first episode of Solo Leveling focusing relentlessly on S-rank hunters, it was inevitable that the production would miss hunter Cha Hae-In, vice president of the Hunter Association at the time.. The Hunter Guild led by S-rank mage Choi Jong-In is the strongest guild in Korea, but that is not the reason why Hae-In’s appearance is so exciting for fans.
In manhwa, Hae-In doesn’t appear until chapter 65, but she quickly developed into the main female role of the series. The anime’s decision to include a dazzling scene of Hae-In stopping a purse snatcher with her signature graceful movements was wise, as it certainly stirred the hearts of even manhwa fans. longtime fans as well as newer fans.
2 Anime in Japanese
Related
Solo promotion English voice cast revealed
Solo Leveling, one of the most anticipated anime series of 2024, will soon release its English dub and the cast has now been revealed.
With the Solo Leveling anime being produced by A-1 Pictures, a Japanese studio, much controversy and speculation is bound to arise along the thin cultural lines that need to be walked. Of course, the original light novels and manhwa were written in Korean, but with the anime adaptation created by a Japanese studio, The voice actor’s original language is Japanese. This raises many questions for fans who know about future installments where Sung Jinwoo and other hunters interact internationally.
Luckily, the international release of the anime tried its best to maintain consistency despite the language change, but the version broadcast in Japan had the Japanese name substituted (Shun Mizushino for Sung Jinwoo) and locations in Japan (Tokyo for Seoul), citing localization reasons. to increase the immersive element for Japanese viewers. Such changes caused major waves when announced nearly two years ago, but with the international release on January 6 retaining the Korean title, the controversy over the language change appears to have died down. come into view.
1 The introduction to Jeju Island never happened
The opening of the first episode of Solo Leveling begins with a flashback to the Korean island of Jeju and the explosion of the S-Class Gate causing the island to be flooded with giant killer ants. This extended opening scene serves as a great way to lay the groundwork for the series’ universe, while also treating longtime fans to cameos from famous S-rank hunters like Baek Yoonho , Choi Jong-In and Min Byung-Gyu. , who only appears later in the manhwa adaptation.
Furthermore, This entire display is not shown anywhere in the manhwa. While this event fits into the overall story of Solo Leveling, the actual expedition depicted in the anime has never been drawn before. The design of the ants is taken directly from the future Jeju Island arc, in which Jinwoo and other S-rank hunters attempt to retake the island one last time, and only references previous failed expeditions. just added to manhwa. This conveniently leaves a perfect gap for the anime to fill in at the opening of the series.
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