English Dub Season Review: Solo Leveling Season One

Overview:

Around ten years ago, gates that connected our world to another dimension began to appear, leading to the rise of hunters who would traverse these gates to fight the magic beasts within. Sung Jinwoo, an E-Rank hunter, is the weakest of them all.

Our Take:

Let me get this out of the way first, this isn’t going to win any fancy awards. What I mean by that is this isn’t the type of series that makes you think about your life. It’s just pure action and hype and I think that’s what makes it so enjoyable. A-1 Pictures knocked this series out of the park and I hope the rumors are true that we are getting six or more seasons because I think this series deserves to get all of the story adapted.

Manhwa getting turned into anime is a fairly recent occurrence and I don’t think many (if any) have gotten a second season. I know that Tower of God is getting one soon but I was impressed with how fastly Solo Leveling got its second season announcement. I hope more manhwa get the chance because some great ones that deserve a shot.

Aleks Le has become a well-known voice actor in the last few years. The roles I knew him best for were Anos Voldigoad in The Misfit of Demon King Academy and Zenitsu from Demon Slayer which I believe those two characters alone show off how impressive his range is. When I saw they were doing a dub for Solo Leveling I thought that Jinwoo was an Aleks Le character, and I’m glad I was right. I’m confident this is the role that will put him on the map, his work on episodes eleven and twelve alone was amazing but he killed it the whole season.

The one thing that tells me this series was awesome is I can’t pick a favorite moment. Jinwoo versus the hunters was up there, especially with the use of the song “Dark Aria <LV2> (feat. XAI) by Hiroyuki Sawano. Sawano is one of the best composers in Japan, his work on Attack on Titan is masterful. Sorry for the tangent but that goes to show how great this show is I can’t find anything negative to say other than the story isn’t anything special. But that seems like such a small thing when it comes to a show like this because who doesn’t love an underdog?

I fully believe that Solo Leveling will run away with a ton of awards next year at the Crunchyroll Awards. I would like to say that if anyone from Crunchyroll is reading this right now I would love to be a judge and make that a reality. Jokes aside, you need to watch Solo Leveling especially if shows like One Punch Man appeal to you.