Solo Leveling

Episodes 1-3

These first three episodes of Solo Leveling form an interesting trilogy when viewed together—setting up the status quo, destroying it, and then establishing a new one.

The series starts by explaining the greater setting to us. We have a modern world based on our own where mysterious gates open up all across the planet. Inside these gates are monster-filled dungeons—and if the boss inside is not killed in a certain amount of time, the monsters escape into our world. Luckily, while these monsters are immune to technological weapons, certain humans have been gifted magical powers that allow them to defeat them. Because of this, life has returned to normal with “Hunter” being just another job as far as most people are concerned.

Much of this is shown to us through the daily life of Jinwoo, the weakest Hunter on record. But more than just getting an introduction to how the world works, we get to know Jinwoo. With a sick mother and a sister in private school, he works this dangerous job despite his lack of power. One cool twist here is that he's not mocked for being the weakest—rather people treat him well and are happy whenever he's assigned to the same dungeon as they are. After all, he's a mining canary of sorts. If the Hunter Association is willing to send Jinwoo in, it should be smooth sailing for everyone else.

The second episode is all about showing us what happens when things go wrong—when greed gets the better of people (including Jinwoo himself). Yet, it's here that we see Jinwoo is more than just an earnest young man. He is intelligent and driven to survive—to the point that the far more powerful and experienced Hunters naturally defer to him as the crisis continues. Yet, the fear of death eventually overwhelms most of them—causing them to abandon the injured Jinwoo to his fate.

At the end of this, we see the complexity of Jinwoo's emotional state. He knows he can't escape on his own and doesn't want those who stay when the others run to die along with him. So he does the noble thing and tells them to run. But on the inside, he's filled with impotent rage. He has every reason in the world to live and is the sole reason any of them escaped. Yet he's the one who has to die. All this makes him feel more like a real person than a character—one whose emotions fluctuate radically as he faces his death.

For episode three, everything shifts back to world-building. Jinwoo now has an entirely new set of rules to figure out—even if he has to do so the hard way. His world has been gamified. He gets quests from the system, can see status windows, and, most importantly, can level up. Whatever has happened is affecting him and him alone. How and why this came to be is a solid mystery for the series going forward. His path is different from everyone else's but it's clear he is closer to figuring out the truth behind the gates than anyone else.

All in all, these first three episodes do a lot of heavy lifting. They introduce us to the world but even more importantly introduce us to our hero—and make him complex enough to be both sympathetic and flawed. While there are certainly some ups and downs in the quality of the storytelling, it nonetheless sets up a solid base for things to come—which, let's face it, is the most important thing in the long run.

Episode 1 Rating:

Episode 2 Rating:

Episode 3 Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I love all the little anime-original scenes we get in these three episodes. Not only do they do a bit of additional world-building, but also help introduce us to characters and events that will be vitally important later.

• The violence in episode two is brutal and shows us visually the danger of the dungeons.

• It's good to know that those who ran did immediately try to get help for those still left inside.

• Poor kid. His knives just keep breaking.

Solo Leveling is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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