Solo Leveling has become one of the biggest hits of the Winter 2024 anime season, and it’s easy to see why. With its action-packed scenes, great storytelling, and major character development, many looked forward to every episode released. Hence, as the first season’s final episode featured Sung Jinwoo finally delivering the series’ iconic word “arise,” loyal fans wanted it to be perfect, to the point that they threatened the English dub voice actor Aleks Le to say it correctly. But instead of being intimidated, Le just made fun of their threats and even warned them to change the word.
In a post on his TikTok account, Le revealed that he received thousands of comments about the “arise” scene in the Solo Leveling Season 1 finale. And though he understood fans’ excitement, he warned them that if they continued to spam his comment section with threats and continuously threaten him, he would change the word “arise” to something comical.
“I’m gonna change it to wake up,” he said. “I’m gonna change it to wakey wakey.”
If these two words wouldn’t work, he also threatened to use “get up buddy,” “erect,” and “it’s time for school.” But kidding aside, Le asked fans to be patient, not overhype themselves, and watch Solo Leveling Episode 11 this weekend. At the same time, he will do his own thing while waiting for the release of the final episode’s English dub.
“Please, please watch that one first because we worked hard on it, and I literally coughed up blood,” he continued. “I’m not even kidding. I coughed up blood the next morning.”
His post then showed how he gave his all while voicing Jinwoo, with all his muscles and veins protruding as he growled. As he asked fans to see how tired he looked while working on the anime, he invited them to watch the penultimate episode to give him some motivation to do the finale.
“One last thing, the Japanese was already amazing,” he added before the clip ended. “So, alright, that’s it.”
Le is a 25-year-old voice actor from Vietnam. Aside from Solo Leveling’s Jinwoo, he also voices Zenitsu Agatsuma in Demon Slayer and Gamma 1 in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Will there be Solo Leveling Season 2?
Solo Leveling Season 2 was officially announced after the release of the first season’s final episode, and it would be called Arise from the Shadow. The anime dropped a short announcement teaser that gave a glimpse of Jinwoo’s past as he started his journey to become humanity’s greatest hunter. As the preview ended, it showed the reawakened version of himself after dramatically leveling up with the help of the System.
The second season is expected to adapt the manhwa’s Red Gate Arc, which features a special gate that seals off after humans pass through it. In his effort to expose Han Song-yi, a newbie E-Rank hunter and his sister’s friend, to the world of hunters, he will get the help of Chief Ahn Sangmin to secure spots for the White Tiger Guild's training exercises for new recruits. However, the two will 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. It was 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 illustrated by Jang Sung-ruk (Dubu), with its first season ending in March 2020, while the second 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.
In addition, the manhwa was adapted into anime by A-1 Pictures, with the first season released from January to March 2024. A second season was officially announced. It streams in North America on Crunchyroll. It also has an upcoming K-drama adaptation, a spin-off webtoon, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, and a role-playing video game, Solo Leveling: Arise, by Netmarble.
So far, there are no words yet on when Solo Leveling Season 2 will be released. Solo Leveling Episodes 11 and 12 English dubs are scheduled to premiere on April 6 and April 13 on Crunchyroll. Just like Taito Ban, who voices the Japanese version of Jinwoo, Le also deserves praise for the work he does for the anime. In fact, his revelation of coughing up blood just means he's also putting his life on the line to give life to his character.
