041Animation columnist Faziela Harris-Davids chats about the long awaited start of the anime Solo-Leveling and whether it’s living up to the hype.
It’s 2024 and we finally have the release of the much anticipated anime, Solo-Leveling. I have been sharing snippets and trailers since last year and oh-boy, has the first 2 episodes really lived up to its hype.
Originally released as a webtoon by Chugong in 2016 on a fiction and comic platform, it was then serialized by Yen Press in English as of 2023, where it was published into 9 volumes.
With its original release expected to be in 2023 (as I mentioned way back last year) as per the announcement at Anime Expo 2022, it was then delayed and pushed for Tokyo release in December 2023.
Officially launching on Crunchyroll on 07th January 2024 in South Africa. So now moving from JJK Thursdays to Solo Leveling Sundays, what a vibe.
The opening theme is “Level” by Sawano and TXT (Tomorrow x Together) which so beautifully illustrates the opening and it’s very familiar artstyle. Think Seven Deadly Sins, and you have the same studio, A-1 Pictures.
Enough of the background, what is Solo Leveling actually about. In a world where different portals open up that let in an array of monsters, hunters must battle to protect mankind from complete annihilation and collect power stones as currency.
Hunters are those who possess supernatural abilities and are graded according to their level of power.
Sung Jinwoo is a hunter who is not quite at the peak of his game as an E ranked hunter, hunting as the sole breadwinner, with his mother in the hospital and his sister still in school. The other hunters are familiar with his infamous lack of skills, often leaving him to battle in lower ranked raids.
Spending every raid badly wounded and in the emergency for months, he is constantly saved by Lee Joo-Hee, a B-Ranked healer who is often on lower ranked raids because she cannot always handle being on the field.
After narrowly escaping a double dungeon, he is chosen by the system giving him the opportunity of a lifetime.
If you are after an anime series that has good pacing and will leave your body taking screenshots at the amount of OMG moments, then this is it. With episodes being released weekly (and we are only on episode 2) I cannot wait to see what happens next
You can go ahead and read the webnovel or manga ( as I intend to) as social media is not kind in terms of spoilers, however, as I learnt with JJK, the show will go on and it will be glorious.
Faziela Harris-Davids (Administrative Head) is an amateur artist, book enthusiast, and lover of all things anime with great respect to the works of Hayao Miyazaki. For the past 4 years, she has been harnessing her creativity through her art, becoming an indie author while growing her small business which focuses on inclusive education. Her passion for research makes her a jack of all trades while her Facilities Management degree helps her keep 041’s administrative side running smoothly. (Instagram TikTok )
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