20 Reasons Why Solo Leveling Deserves an Anime
Solo Leveling is a hit web novel from South Korea that started as a series in 2016. Since then, it has received numerous accolades from avid readers and today it has become a well-known manhwa with a huge fan base. However, what’s not so great for Solo Leveling is that there still isn’t any anime adaptation. After almost five years have passed since its release, there’s still no concrete news about a Solo Leveling anime. So, why is Solo Leveling such a popular webtoon and why does it deserve an anime anyway? If you’re a Solo Leveling fan, you’ll be happy to hear that you can learn all about this from the following article. Hopefully, all of your doubts about the much-awaited anime will have disappeared after we discuss 20 Reasons why Solo Leveling deserves an Anime and perhaps also a bit about the reasons for the delay in spite of the fact that last year, the web adaptation of Solo Leveling’s first season ended.
Storyline & Main Character
The main character in the wildly popular Solo Leveling (web-novel-turned-webtoon), according to Heroes Wiki, is a young man named Sung Jin-Woo (성진우, Seong-jin-wu). In the story, he is one of the “awakened humans” because he suddenly became capable of using mana, (a healing power/spiritual life force energy that can permeate the universe). Portals complete with monsters have started appearing on planet Earth. Hunters are individuals who had obtained some very mysterious powers following the recent invasion. They’re also part of several guilds that handle the cleaning and closing of the portals, however, that particular action can only come about if someone knocks down the final boss. In the event that they fail, the portals will eventually be left wide open, allowing in the monsters so that they can slaughter all of the human beings. And, although Sung Jin-Woo had become known as “the weakest hunter in the world”, one day, he completed a quest involving a terrifying dungeon, gaining the unique capability to “level up”, thereby becoming a “player”. After the narrow escape that came close to almost wiping out his entire group, a new and unique software called “the System” actually chooses him as its one-and-only player, granting him the uncommon ability to “level up” in strength. In fact, his leveling-up may even be above-and-beyond all currently known boundaries. Fans love following Jin-Woo on his quest to start uncovering the dungeons’ mysteries (and the source of his amazing powers) as he continues battling all kinds of human and monster foes. The only way of achieving his goals is by becoming a powerful hunter. Will he be successful now that he’s become the World’s Strongest Hunter after being reawakened and becoming a Player.?
1. Internet Verdict
The overwhelming verdict on the Internet is that Solo Leveling deserves to have an anime. In fact, a recent poll that was released by Anime-Japan 2021 indicated that it’s currently in second place among all of the webtoons being turned into animes.
2. Giving Fans What They Want to See
Basically, it’s as good as it is simply because it’s a show that’s always fair to its audience. And, although the webtoon isn’t without its downside, it never stops giving fans more of what they want to see. Solo Leveling allows fans to enjoy everything about its character-progression-arc. They have the opportunity to watch the protagonist as he gradually improves and becomes stronger instead of enduring the usual boring imagery of an OP-protagonist.
3. Social Media Demands
Forums on Twitter and Reddit have been going crazy demanding an anime adaptation. With its rising popularity, Solo Leveling is almost guaranteed to be picked up for adaptation in the near future.
4. Petition Signing Rate
Petitions on Change.org abound and the current number of petitions is currently somewhere around 200,000. However, the signing rate of the petitions actually indicates a much higher number.
5. YouTube Reviews
YouTubers who have reviewed Solo Leveling have been calling it “the story that SAO should have become”. And, Sword Art Online has been dealing with massive disappointment being stacked against it, and the primary reason for that appears to be an SOA lack of a proper storyline.
6. Industry Leaks
There has been a great deal of speculation based upon leaks about a Solo Leveling anime being already in the works. The most recent leak was found on a Chinese social media site called Weibo. It said a webtoon production of a Solo Leveling anime by Jang Sung-Rak and Gi So-Ryeong was already in the works. Another leak source was discovered on Hankyung (a Korean website). It included an interview with Noble Comics Company’s CEO. Noble is an in-house independent Kakao Page company and, in the interview, Hyun-soo Hwang stressed the popularity of this particular webtoon manhwa.
7. Amazing Response to “Tower of God”
Undoubtedly, any Solo Leveling anime will become a huge success, especially now that the “Tower of God” anime has received such an amazing response. The biggest possible glitch in a Solo Leveling Webtoon adaptation happening could be blamed on the Japanese production studios.
8. Major Studios Clamoring to do the Animation
Some of the major studios (like Mappa, Wit, and Ufotable) are in demand for handling the animation but the max votes are clearly in favor of MAPPA because most fans feel that it will do justice to Solo Leveling. Once the studio receives preliminary approval for animating it, there will be a fairly long gap (7 to 12 months) before the season will be aired. The best-case scenario would be that the webtoon adaptation will be revealed during the upcoming six months so that Season 1 premieres in late 2022.
9. More Industry Rumors
There are some very strong industry rumors that allude to Spring 2022 bringing plenty of possibilities for a Solo Leveling anime. In fact, the Official Japanese Light novel version has already been released. But, in spite of some steps in the right direction, the fans are still awaiting good news about the anime production. Recently, D&C Media has been raising their hopes by hinting at the possibility of a Solo Leveling anime release trailer.
10. Ranked # 1 on MyAnimelist
On MyAnimelist the manhwa Solo Leveling has actually been ranked first and enjoys a high score of 8.86/10 from more than 140,000 users. Sure, there are several other manhwas listed on MAL (such as The Breaker and Tower of God) that already have an anime adaptation. In addition, there’s definitely no lack of material. There’s a finished web novel plus a manhwa that covers more than a hundred chapters, which is way more than enough for producing an anime.
11. Rise to Stardom
Solo Leveling has quite a lot going for it. In fact, according to PhonesWiki, its rise to stardom and immense popularity is actually quite unexpected. However, that being said, a Solo Leveling anime adaptation has been anticipated by many fans and is expected to happen sometime soon.
12. Japanese Animation Issues Don’t Dampen Popularity
In Solo Leveling, Japan has been represented as being an antagonistic country. The majority of the villains and other side characters are depicted as being shown Japanese. OK, from other readers’ perspectives, it may not appear to be too big a deal, however, for the Japanese audiences, it matters. But, the fact is that for a Korean manhwa complete with some rather controversial tones when it comes to the Japanese slant on things, there certainly seems to be a great deal of popularity. This may signal that quality rules quantity, at least in the anime arena. For obvious reasons, Japanese animation companies aren’t jumping at the chance to animate it because it portrays Japan in an inferior light. And, although many don’t feel that a Korean animation company can do the job effectively to animate it, either way, it’s still predicted to be quite controversial.
13. Release Date Expectations
As of now, there may not be as many concrete expectations for the webtoon adaptation’s actual release date. Since there hasn’t been any production company coming forward to perform the anime adaptation, however, all of the Solo Leveling fans are cheering Jin-Woo on and hoping that he’ll be hitting TV screens soon.
14. From 20 to 25 Episodes
Based upon the Solo Leveling manhwa, it’s already expected (and even planned perhaps) that the anime will include anywhere from 20 to 25 episodes from Solo Leveling Season 1. The first season could be split up into two segments with 12 episodes each and much shorter waiting times between the seasons.
15. Exciting Scenes & Weaponry
Despite all of the other webtoons available today, Solo Leveling is one of the most popular and its fans have followed the series for a really long time. They’ve seen all of the exciting scenes that they love in the manhwa and desperately want to see them in anime. From daggers like Kasaka’s Venom Fang, Knight Killer, and Demon King’s Daggers to longswords like Demon King’s Longsword with its Storm of White Flames effect, the weaponry is quite impressive.
16. Solo Leveling Trailer
D&C Media recently released a special trailer for the purpose of celebrating the promise of an anime and to tease all of the Solo Leveling anime fans. After the release, avid fans of the manhwa started seriously contemplating the anime and reaching out to the publishers and creators of the series via a variety of social media platforms. Well, there’s some good news for fans since the trailer gives hope that the anime series is definitely going to happen. And, by the looks of that trailer, it looks like the anime adaption could start anytime now. But, there’s still no official news yet from the producers’ side.
17. Change.org Signatures
It’s just a great manga and its petitioners see no reason why it shouldn’t be made into an anime series, according to Change.org. And, it would seem that 212,241 petitioners can’t be wrong. In fact, when the signatures reach 300,000, the Solo Leveling Deserves an Anime petition will become one of the top ever signed on Change.org.
18. SuperHero Era
Over the past couple of decades, a number of popular manga series have successfully been adapted as new anime series. So, naturally, fans want to know when they’ll be getting a Solo Leveling anime? Solo Leveling was created by Chu Gong and became highly popular very quickly, leaving fans literally demanding an anime adaption and a release date.
19. Not the First Series Turned Anime
Solo leveling definitely won’t be the very first manga series to get turned into an anime. The “Tower of God” webtoon has already been adapted from one of those popular series. And, that’s exactly why fans aren’t going to lose hope anytime soon for a Solo Leveling anime and continue to wait (although not very patiently) for any update about its release. Unfortunately, nothing definite is available in that area yet.
20. Video Game & Live-Action Film
So, clearly, the anime version is in the works and one of the main driving elements of this is the manhwa’s overwhelming popularity. In addition, since there are both a video game and a live-action film already in the works, it has to be just a matter of time before we’ll be watching Solo Leveling anime Season 1.
Final Thoughts
So, since Solo Leveling actually happens to be at the top of the list of series that are always being talked about by fans, it definitely deserves to have an anime. Hey, everyone knows that and it looks like it may be a possibility as early as next year. Yes, it’s a fact that fans should be getting a Solo Leveling anime adaptation whether it takes a year or two or even five years. Until that time, the Solo Leveling fans will continue to raise their voices so that it finally gets to the creators and the powers-that-be in the anime world.