With its action-packed scene and incredible character development, Solo Leveling Season 1 has taken Sung Jinwoo’s story to an all-new height. Fortunately, his journey to become humanity’s greatest hunter is not yet over after the anime announced the coming of its second season following the first-season finale. That said, its director, Shunsuke Nakashige, promises to do his best after revealing his hard work for the series to the point that he already coughed up blood and was even hospitalized.
Fans might have heard of Taito Ban coughing up blood after giving his all while voicing Jinwoo in the first episodes of Solo Leveling. Little did fans know that Nakashige has suffered the same, and the revelation comes from the director himself in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
While thanking fans for watching the entire 12 episodes of the first season, the storyboard artist revealed that the hardships of working on its illustrations began as the story progressed. Despite that, he was thankful to be able to work on it with the help of the anime’s entire team. And with Solo Leveling Season 2 officially announced, there’s one thing he wanted to do aside from giving his best again.
“I'll sleep a lot and do my best!” he said. “Last year, I was hospitalized because I was vomiting blood like Shun-kun.”
Shun-kun is Jinwoo’s name in the Japanese version of the anime. Though this frightening turn of events had happened last year, fans filled his post’s comment section with well-wishes. They also asked him to take care of himself and take some time off while thanking him for his hard work for the series.
What to Expect from Solo Leveling Season 2
The first season saw the transformation of Jinwoo from the renowned weakest E-Rank hunter to one of the strongest fighters by leveling up his abilities with the help of the System. The final episode showed a massive change in his character after defeating the mage-type magic beasts and an enormous golem and becoming the Shadow Monarch.
Solo Leveling is expected to adapt the manhwa’s Red Gate Arc. The Red Gate is a special gate that automatically seals off when humans pass through it. Jinwoo will contact the White Tiger Guild’s 2nd Division Management Department chief, Ahn Sangmin, and his sister’s friend, Han Song-yi, to make them join the White Tiger Guild's training exercises for new recruits. However, things will go awry after they find themselves trapped in the Red Gate.
You can read the synopsis below:
In an attempt to expose Han Song-Yi, a newbie E-Rank and one of his sister's friends, to the dangers of hunting, Jinwoo reaches out to Ahn and gets them both spots in one of the White Tiger Guild's training exercises for new recruits. However, things go horribly wrong when they find themselves trapped inside a Red Gate.
The anime is based on the South Korean web novel of the same title by Chugong, first serialized on KakaoPage in July 2016 and was later published on D&C Media’s Papyrus label in November 2016. Yen Press has licensed the novel in English. It was then adapted into a webtoon with illustrations by Jang Sung-ruk (Dubu), and its first season ended in March 2020, while the second season was released from August 2020 to December 2021. It has collected nine volumes as of August 2023. Yen Press has also licensed the webtoon in English.
A-1 Pictures produced its anime adaptation, with the first season released from January to March 2024. A second season, titled Arise from the Shadow, was officially announced. The anime streams in North America on Crunchyroll. It also has an upcoming K-drama adaptation, a spin-off webtoon titled Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, and a role-playing video game called Solo Leveling: Arise by Netmarble.
So far, there are no words yet on when Solo Leveling Season 2 will be released. But with a major cliffhanger and the continuation of Jinwoo’s transformation, fans will surely look forward to seeing the next episodes.
