Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Episode 15

Two plotlines are going on in this week's Solo Leveling. One follows Jinwoo as he attempts to climb the tower and gather the materials needed to make the elixir to cure his mother. The other is a showcase of other important worldwide events that Jinwoo does not know of. Interestingly, the latter is far more important than the former.

Jinwoo faces little challenge in his tower climb. In most of his fights, he doesn't even need to summon any support—even when facing off against superior numbers. Only the first boss he encounters presents any real resistance and Jinwoo survives the encounter more-or-less unscathed.

What eventually makes him give up on climbing the tower (for the moment anyway) is simple logistics. He has a life outside of dungeons and runs out of food. It's a little reminder that, even with all his newfound powers, he is still human in the physical sense. He still needs sleep and sustenance just like anyone else. More than that, he has responsibilities that he is willing to prioritize even when his ultimate goal of saving his mother is so close at hand.

But as I mentioned before, this is the least important part of the episode. It exists to give us this week's action quota (and to be fair, said action looks fantastic). The rest of the episode focuses on progressing several other plot lines—setting up new conflicts for Jinwoo. Some of these are “political” in nature. We have Jinho and his goal of becoming a guildmaster to show his brother and father that he can be useful. White Tiger Guild continues their attempts to recruit Jinwoo despite him suddenly going missing. The other plot lines further martial threats such as the existence of the flying ant monsters (and the selfishly motivated reason to keep that fact secret) and the existence of a supremely powerful S-Rank hunter who was trapped in a gate for 10 years—and he is Jinwoo's long lost father.

The problem with this episode is not its contents but rather its structure. Like in several episodes of the first season, we constantly jump back and forth between Jinwoo fighting monsters and the other plot lines randomly. There are no themes or dialogue to predicate the change of focus—it just alternates between action and non-action and back again. Switching back and forth keeps things at a certain level of excitement. Still, it feels like we're a dog being offered a treat, only for it to get pulled away and replaced with something else time and again.

Honestly, I would not be upset if we got an entire episode without Jinwoo or any action focusing on the outside world. Fans can be trusted a bit more than they are here. They won't abandon the series because one episode lacks flashy fight scenes—especially if it sets up future fight scenes that are both flashy and have real emotional weight.

However, this is far from a bad episode—even with the questionable directorial choices. The story may not be told in the best way possible but what actually happens is interesting throughout—and that's more than can be said for many anime.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Jinwoo's spirit naming convention leaves much to be desired.

• Man, it must be so weird to be Jinwoo's sister with all the changes in him.

• I'm rather surprised Jinwoo didn't tell Jinho about the Red Gate incident (either before or after the fact). Was there any reason to hide it?

• It's nice to see what results from a fight between two S-Rankers after it was hyped up over the last two episodes.

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Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays. lmnopb03 ibas pdma osaa, eao