Fans Of Korean Webtoon "Solo Leveling" Have Mixed Feelings About Its Japanese Anime

Solo Leveling is a Korean Webtoon written by Chu Gong and illustrated by Jang Su Rak and Gi Si Ryeong, and the story brings readers into a fantastical world of monsters and magic.

In a world where hunters, humans who possess magical abilities, must battle deadly monsters to protect mankind from certain annihilation, a notoriously weak hunter named Sung Jinwoo finds himself in a seemingly endless struggle for survival. One day, after narrowly surviving an overwhelmingly powerful dungeon that nearly wipes out his entire party, a mysterious program called the System chooses him as its sole player and in turn, gives him the extremely rare ability to level up in strength, possibly beyond any known limits. Follow Jinwoo’s journey as he fights against all kinds of enemies, both man and monster, to discover the secrets of the dungeons and the true source of his powers.

— Solo Leveling Wiki

Readers of the series have often praised the Webtoon for its captivating story, characters, and stunning illustrations.

And certainly, Webtoons can make for amazing animated series, especially given that they’re already centered on a visual format. So it was not too surprising for fans when the anime adaptation of Solo Leveling was announced at Crunchyroll‘s Anime Expo 2022 Industry Panel.

The upcoming anime series is being produced by A-1 Pictures (who also produced Sword Art Online and Kaguya-sama: Love is War) and directed by Shunsuke Nakashige.

The writer of Solo Leveling even shared his enthusiasm over his work getting made into an animated series.

About six years ago when I was writing the very beginning of Solo Leveling, if someone had said to me, ‘The novel you wrote will become a comic,’ I bet I’d have told them to stop pulling my leg.

But now, I’m told that it’ll be animated?!

Seriously, stop pulling my leg!… But these days, I’m feeling excited and thrilled.

Since I’m still half-doubt that this is real, I want to see Jinwoo and the other characters get animated soon and feel relieved. I’ll keep working diligently while looking forward to that day. (lol)

— Chu Gong

Unfortunately for fans, the information released about the adaptation was far from what they’d hoped. The main critique fans have had is that the setting for the Solo Leveling anime seems to be set in Japan, whereas the setting for the Webtoon is South Korea. The Japanese dub of the anime also changes the characters’ names, which, while not changed in the English or Korean dub, is still frustrating to fans.

just found out the solo leveling anime is changing the settings to japan and even changing jinwoo's name 💀 what abt majority of the arcs like the jeju island or the tokyo one 🤨

— pich⁷ 👩‍🚀 (@snowhva) July 19, 2022

Some fans argue that a Korean animation studio should have produced the series instead.

But other fans are hopeful that the adaptation might be made in an exciting way that could still keep fans’ interest.

If one thing is for sure, it’s that fans are certainly excited about the soundtrack of the Solo Leveling anime, which will be done by Hiroyuki Sawano.

You can watch the trailer for Solo Leveling here.