Solo Leveling

• 1. Introduction

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  Solo Leveling, a South Korean fantasy web novel by Chugong, follows a hunter named Sung Jin-woo. Everyone in his line of work knows him as notoriously weak. One day he enters a rare and overwhelmingly powerful double dungeon, and it nearly wipes out his entire party. He survives. Soon afterward, something unseen picks him out, and his life stops following the rules that bind every other hunter. What exactly chose him, and why him? What does that power ask of him in return? And how did a web serial grow into webtoons, an anime, games and a sequel written by someone else? The answers begin with the strange world he fights in.

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• 2. Hunters and Their Ranks

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  Jin-woo begins as an E-Rank, the lowest rung of a ladder that decides everything about a hunter's life. A hunter's abilities are fixed at the moment of awakening, and they never level up. That rule is exactly what makes Jin-woo's later growth so shocking.

  At the top of the ladder stand five National Level Hunters. Thomas Andre of America ranks 1st in the world and is nicknamed the Goliath for his enormous build. Liu Zhigang of China holds 2nd place, Christopher Reed of America is 3rd, and Siddharth Bachchan of India is 4th. Bachchan never makes a physical appearance in the webtoon. Andre later becomes Jin-woo's friend after losing a fight to him, and he hands over Kamish's Wrath, described as the strongest magical weapon in the world.

  In South Korea, Go Gun-hee chairs the Korean Hunters Association, the government agency that oversees every hunter, gate and guild in the country. Four S-Rank guild masters anchor the scene. Baek Yoon-ho leads the White Tiger Guild with transformation magic, and he is the first S-Rank to notice that Jin-woo can grow. Choi Jong-in wields fire at the Hunters Guild, Lim Tae-gyu shoots arrows for the Fiend Guild, and Ma Dong-wook uses gigantification for the Fame Guild.

  Cha Hae-in is a swordswoman and the only female S-Rank in the country. A rare condition makes other hunters smell foul to her. Jin-woo is the one hunter who smells pleasant, and after he saves her three times, she falls for him. He does not return her feelings at first, but he comes around in time.

  Six people walked out of that first double dungeon alive. Two of them were Lee Joo-hee, a B-Rank healer who later retires from hunting after the trauma, and Song Chi-yul, a C-Rank hunter who teaches kumdo.

  Japan supplies a darker example. Goto Ryuji is the strongest hunter in Japan, egotistical and careless with human life. The Ant King kills him in a single blow during the 4th Jeju Island Raid. Shimizu Akari, an S-Rank healer, is the Ant King's first victim, and Hoshino Minoru is the only Japanese S-Rank to survive the meeting, thanks to Goto. Korean friends Min Byung-gyu and Lee Eunseok also die in the 4th and 3rd Jeju Island Raids. Lennart Niermann, Germany's strongest hunter at 12th in the world, offers himself as bait to save Thomas Andre. The Ant King, once Jin-woo kills it, leaves behind something far stranger than a corpse.

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• 3. The System and Home

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  The System has chosen exactly one player in the whole world, and that player is Jin-woo. Its gift is the one thing no awakened hunter has, the ability to grow stronger through leveling. He sets out to fight enemies both human and monstrous, chasing the secrets of the dungeons and the true source of his power.

  His mother, Park Kyung-hye, has been asleep for four years before the main story begins. She suffers from Eternal Slumber, an incurable and magically induced sleeping disorder. Her illness forced Jin-woo to become the family's breadwinner. While training with the System, he learns to craft a rare potion, and it cures her.

  Sung Jin-ah, his younger sister, is a civilian and an ordinary high school student. Yoo Jin-ho, a D-Rank hunter from a wealthy family, becomes Jin-woo's sworn brother. Jin-ho dresses in fancy, expensive armor, which becomes a running gag, and he rises to vice-chairman of Jin-woo's guild. He also has a crush on Jin-ah and marries her in the epilogue of the revised timeline.

  Sung Il-hwan, their father, is an S-Rank hunter who vanished inside a dungeon ten years before the story. Everyone presumed him dead. He returns to help his son in the coming war, and the story reveals him as one of the seven humans chosen as hosts by a godlike race. He pushes his body past its limits and dies in Jin-woo's arms. Jin-woo then uses the cup of reincarnation to create a new timeline and revives him. Il-hwan keeps his memories at first, but he asks the Rulers to erase them so he will not burden his son. He lives on as a simple husband and father.

  The being that actually trained Jin-woo for this fight is named Ashborn.

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• 4. The Shadow Army

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  Ashborn is the King of the Dead and the Monarch of Shadows, as well as the strongest of the Rulers. He spent eons fighting in an ancient war and grew weary of the endless violence. He chose Jin-woo as his host in hopes of ending the bloodshed for good. When the Monarchs kill Jin-woo, Ashborn appears in the flesh, explains his past, and passes on the rest of his power. He then brings Jin-woo back to life and sinks into an eternal sleep. Jin-woo takes his place as the Shadow Monarch, an immortal necromancer with absolute rule over the dead.

  The soldiers he commands are unlike the summons of other hunters, because they can grow and speak. Their grades climb from basic and normal through elite, knight and elite knight, then commander or general, marshal, and finally Grand Marshal. Only soldiers of commander or general grade can speak.

  Bellion holds that top rank. He was born eons ago from the fruit of the World Tree, a tree so vast that its branches alone could blanket the sky. He served as Ashborn's lieutenant and became the first shadow soldier ever created from Ashborn's power.

  Igris, the Blood-Red Commander, is a knight of exceptional swordsmanship and loyalty who kneels before his master after battles. He values education and argues with Bellion over how Suho should be schooled. Ashborn once tasked him with testing a human successor in battle when the time came.

  Beru is an ant shadow extracted from the Ant King, the S-Rank beast that killed Goto Ryuji and incapacitated Cha Hae-in. He starts as a General and later becomes a Marshal. Kargalgan, also called Tusk, is a high orc shaman who guarded an A-Rank dungeon and was the first to realize Jin-woo is a Monarch. Iron began as the hunter Kim Chul, who was killed by Igris during the fight with Baruka. He is known as an idiotic shadow who copies Igris's habit of bringing heads to Jin-woo, to the knight's annoyance.

  Greed was once the American-based S-Rank hunter Hwang Dong-soo, who tortured Jin-ho for information about his brother's murder before Jin-woo killed him. Tank, an ice bear met during the Red Gate Incident, can plow through a horde of demons like bowling pins. Kaisel is the shadow of the wyvern Kaisellin, a mount once used by the Monarch Baran. Jin-woo summons Kaisel only for air travel, since the wyvern is good for flying and not for fighting.

  Soon after the events on Jeju Island, two Monarchs named Rakan and Sillad begin to investigate Jin-woo.

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• 5. Rulers and Monarchs

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  The Rulers, also called the Fragments of Brilliant Light, are winged humanoids who resemble angels. They use a telekinesis unique to them called Ruler's Authority. They want to protect humankind from annihilation, yet they use morally questionable methods. They bear indirect responsibility for the millions of human lives lost since monsters first crossed through the gates. Christopher Reed is the first of the seven human hosts to fall to the Monarchs, and Go Gun-hee later dies in battle against them as well.

  The Absolute Being created the Monarchs, an ancient race of overlords who want to wipe out humanity. Each Monarch governs a different race of monsters and takes on that race's appearance. A single Monarch can destroy a group of S-Rank or even National Level Hunters. Jin-woo is the only Monarch who fights to save people.

  Baran, the King of Demons and White Flame Monarch, is the first Monarch Jin-woo faces in the Demon Castle. On its 80th floor he meets Esil Radiru, the eldest princess of the Radiru Clan. Jin-woo defeats her effortlessly, and she spares her own life by becoming his guide. They team up to overthrow Baran.

  Legia, the King of Giants and Monarch of the Beginning, lurks as the hidden boss of the Tokyo S-Rank Gate. During the Japan Crisis, Rakan the King of Beasts joins Tarnak, King of Monstrous Humanoids, and Querehsha, Queen of Insects. Yogumunt, King of Demonic Spectres, rounds out the ancient lineup.

  Antares, the King of Dragons and Monarch of Destruction, is the strongest of all and the leader of the Monarchs. After Jin-woo kills three of the others, Antares invades the human world to draw him out. The Rulers kill Antares in the end, and Jin-woo defeats him again in the revised timeline.

  Woo Jin-chul, a Korean hunter, is the first human to learn about the war from Jin-woo himself. Even a fallen Monarch, however, leaves a successor waiting.

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• 6. Ragnarok and the Heirs

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  In April 2023, Kakao announced Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, and the web novel began on KakaoPage on the 10th of April 2023. Its first 104 chapters debuted that day. A writer named Daul took over from Chugong, who publicly backed the sequel. Chugong said it stirred the same emotions he felt when he began serializing the original. The web novel ended in July 2025 with 357 chapters.

  Sung Suho is the son of Jin-woo and Cha Hae-in, who marry in the revised timeline. He is 21 in the sequel and in his third year of university. He inherited some of his father's powers, but Jin-woo sealed them so the boy could live a normal life. When gates start opening around Earth again, the System chooses Suho as a Player. He must become a hunter to face a new threat linked to his missing parents.

  The threat comes from the Itarim, also called the Outer Gods, beings said to have created all existence in outer universes. The Absolute Being turns out to be one of them. After the deaths of the Monarchs and the Absolute Being, the Itarim notice the masterless world and want to claim it. The Rulers band together with Jin-woo to oppose them in a brutal war of attrition. Before leaving Earth, Jin-woo seals Suho's memories and powers. Beru later unseals them and trains the boy, while Cha Hae-in vanishes at the same moment her husband departs.

  The Monarchs have heirs who can take their place if they are slain, and the heirs pass powers down to their children. Suho himself accidentally awakened his powers as a toddler. Titles can change during succession. Ammut, a crocodile-headed reptilian humanoid about three times the size of an adult human, became Tarnak's successor as Monarch of Trials. Suho frees him from a dungeon during a raid of the Pyramid Field, and Ammut becomes his trainer.

  Gray, a descendant of Rakan and the Monarch of Fangs, is the first heir to ally with Suho. Esil Radiru, the last living demon noble, is next in line to succeed Baran as Queen of Demons and Monarch of Gluttony. Arsha, once a servant of Querehsha, now succeeds her as Monarch of Plagues and runs a nightclub with the actor Lee Min-sung. Sirka, Sillad's granddaughter, is the Queen of Snow Folk and Monarch of Nightmares. The sequel's own webtoon, developed by Redice Studio, premiered on the 31st of July 2024, with Dangdo writing and Jin drawing.

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• 7. From Page to Screen

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  On the 25th of July 2016, Chugong's novel began serialization on KakaoPage, Kakao's digital comic and fiction platform. D&C Media published it under its Papyrus label from the 4th of November 2016, in 14 volumes for the first edition and 10 for the second. Webnovel licensed it in English as Only I Level Up and released it from the 21st of December 2018 to the 24th of June 2019. Yen Press issued the second edition from the 16th of February 2021 to the 18th of July 2023.

  The webtoon arrived on KakaoPage on the 4th of March 2018, drawn by Jang Sung-rak, known as Dubu. Its first season ended on the 19th of March 2020. The second ran from the 1st of August 2020 to the 29th of December 2021 and closed with its 179th chapter. D&C Media released the first collected volume on the 26th of September 2019 and has gathered 15 volumes as of October 2025. Dubu, the CEO of Redice Studio, died on the 23rd of July 2022 after a cerebral hemorrhage. Chugong returned as writer for a side story between January and May 2023, with a new art team.

  In Japan, the webtoon launched on Kakao Japan's Piccoma service and passed 650 million cumulative readership. Piccoma named it the No. 1 webtoon in its Best of 2019. English readers found it digitally on Webnovel from the 7th of May 2020 and on Tappytoon from the 4th of June 2020. It also runs on Tapas, and Yen Press has published the collected volumes in North America since the 2nd of March 2021.

  The anime was announced at Anime Expo 2022. A-1 Pictures produced it, with Shunsuke Nakashige directing, Noboru Kimura writing the scripts and Tomoko Sudo designing the characters. A planned 2023 date slipped, and the series aired on Tokyo MX and other networks from the 7th of January to the 31st of March 2024. Early episodes screened from December 2023 in Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, India and Europe. Crunchyroll streams it, and Medialink licensed it across Southeast Asia and Oceania, excluding Australia and New Zealand.

  The second season, subtitled Arise from the Shadow, aired from the 5th of January to the 30th of March 2025. A compilation film called Solo Leveling: ReAwakening played in Japan with the first two episodes of that season from the 29th of November to the 12th of December 2024. Crunchyroll screened it in the United States and Canada on the 6th of December 2024.

  Hiroyuki Sawano composed the music. The opening theme for season one is "Level", by SawanoHiroyukinZk:Tomorrow X Together, and the ending is "Request", by Krage. Aniplex released the soundtrack in Japan and Milan Records in the United States on the 27th of March 2024, with a vinyl edition on the 4th of October 2024. Season two opens with "Reawaker", performed by Lisa with Felix of Stray Kids, and closes with "Un-Apex" by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure.

  In July 2025, Netflix was announced as producer of a live-action series, with Byeon Woo-seok starring as Sung Jin-woo. Kakao Entertainment and Sanai Pictures produce it. Netmarble announced the action role-playing game Solo Leveling: Arise in January 2022, and it released on the 8th of May 2024. Otherworld, a Cube Entertainment subsidiary, developed Solo Leveling: Unlimited, a blockchain-based digital collectible project. Netmarble announced Solo Leveling: Karma for PC and mobile in July 2025.

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• 8. Reception and Awards

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  Since 2016, the novel has drawn 2.4 million readers on KakaoPage. Eun Yoon of Fugue ranked it fifth on her list of best web novels. She called it "a stand-out in the genre, offering thrilling and enjoyable reads for fans of action-packed fantasy". Adam Symchuk of Asian Movie Pulse called it a "page turner" and finished the series in a couple of days. He found a great sense of reward in watching Jinwoo level up, and his one complaint was the wait for the next book.

  Timothy Blade of Comic Book Resources was harsher about the ending. He called it "controversial" and pointed to plot holes and inconsistencies. He described the webtoon's ending as a more rushed version of the novel's, and he argued that the reason for Jinwoo's power turned out to be as simple as wanting to protect the people he loved.

  The anime drew warm early notices. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 100% approval rating from nine reviews, with an average of 7.7/10. Writers at Anime News Network responded to the premiere. Rebecca Silverman felt the gore was not "excessive", and Nicholas Dupree praised the writing, action and score while criticizing the exposition and characters. Richard Eisenbeis admired the world-building. James Beckett praised the storytelling and called Jin-woo a "likable" enough lead, saying his "nondescript niceness" beats the edgy heroes common in these power fantasies.

  Rafael Motamayor of IGN gave the first season 8/10. He praised the animation, action, visuals, choreography, soundtrack and world-building, but he criticized tedious mechanics and a lack of "nuance" in the writing.

  The awards listings are long. In 2024, the 4th Astra TV Awards listed it for Best Anime Series, and in 2025 the 7th Global Demand Awards named it among the most in-demand anime series of 2024. The 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards listed it for categories including Anime of the Year, Best Action, Best Animation and Best Main Character for Sung Jin-woo. Hiroyuki Sawano appears for Best Score, and "Level" for Best Opening Sequence and Best Anime Song. English voice performer Aleks Le is listed too.

  The second season followed with entries at the 5th Astra TV Awards, the 15th Newtype Anime Awards and the Japan Expo Awards. In 2026, it appeared at the 53rd Saturn Awards for Best Animated Television Series or Event, and at the 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards under Best Continuing Series.

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