FJ Freeman
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Episode 05
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“A Pretty Good Deal”
Okay, so a proper explanation is needed as to why I missed a week – well, like I said in the previous post, it was my birthday, and it just so happens that my birthday always carries over into a weekend-long holiday in Mexico. So you are going to have to cut me some slack! Nevertheless, let’s say it was a well-deserved break and now I’ve come back with full force to keep on reviewing Solo Leveling. And what’s more, I might even pick up Frieren – since Enzo has handed over that series to me. I can already tell some of you groaning at the thought. Oh well, deal with it. Of course, that is if I can catch up since I’m a little behind – but nothing a good marathon won’t fix. Of course, everything is up in the air, so keep your eyes peeled to RC – we’ll let you know if anything changes.
Anyway – announcements aside let’s get into the review of Solo Leveling Episode 05. At least for me, this is where the story properly picks up – Sung has gone through some stuff and now has properly had his series glow up – I like him very much with this new look as it also represents a change in character. Not only is he hotter – he has that mysterious aura about him that will make all the ladies fawn over him. Of course one of the nurses goes above and beyond to ask him for his number. He is indeed getting a lot of attention. Sung is oblivious to it still but let’s not blame him he has been working hard to get those muscles! And the system even goes as far as to acknowledge it by making him grow stronger and faster.
I think the pacing of this show where it cuts to Sung doing his thing with the dungeons and then to other characters is kinda jarring and might be putting a lot of people off this series. Since the comic does have non-stop action – the anime feels a lot slower, which is not something that is helping out Solo Leveling as most people nowadays have very little time let alone an attention span to interact with anime. I know I rather fire up my PS5 and play some Granblue Relink than have to sit down and passively consume content. Solo doesn’t get me quite as excited to sit down with it week by week as JJK did – but that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it. Just this pacing is abysmal.
Yun-Ho Baek (Touchi, Hiroki) shows up in the form of an interview – later in the episode, he is shown training not even breaking a sweat as he tears a massive gap in a very large rock. He is the master of the White Tiger guild and will become a prevalent character much later in the series. Like much -much later. We’re taking S3 stuff – maybe. Nevertheless, I find it a little jarring having to care for these side characters who are not even going to become prominent – it is important as it’s part of the worldbuilding but right now all we care about is to see Sung succeed. And that’s a little hard when the show constantly jumps from Sung to other characters who are doing their own thing. On the other hand, Jin-Ho Yu shows up again and it’s a lot easier to care for this little dude because we not only have seen him before but finally he makes his bid debut alongside Sung, and not only that as EP 06 proves he is quick to garner affection and respect for Sung.
So the big plot twist is that in this episode Sung and Yu get trapped inside the boss room when their C rankers use them as bait so that they can stash all the loot for themselves. The episode ends with a big cliffhanger with this dude that made Sung sign the contract to not have any liabilities. I don’t remember his name and will not be looking it up because he died lol. Thankfully Sung already had a nose for this type of thing and was on the defense. Let’s go to the next episode as that’s when things start going down.
Full-length images: 36.
Episode 06
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“The Real Hunt Begins”
Okay, you know what’s important right now? A freaking recap of course! Oh, what about the boss battle that is going on?! That’s not important – we need to pad it out for the whole episode. Jokes aside I was telling myself – great a freaking recap in the middle of a boss fight. I just want to know what’s going to happen to Sung!
However by the time that OP rolled around I was hooked!
The animation picked up for me here – some shots like the one at the beginning where the group who dies is exiting the gate look like some type of American cartoon – but the rest of the episode was great. Finally, Sung brings out his claws and the murderous intent comes out. Pushing further the idea that he is much more powerful than all the other rankers out there. Not only that the system pulled out an urgent quest for him and made him deliver grace on all these people who probably had done worse things to other people in the past. Anything can happen in a dungeon and no one knows what goes down inside of them. So Sung and Yu can get away with this deed by saying stuff like these people were MiA and since both of them are weak they get to hide and run away. No one bats an eye. So I think that’s why Sung went on the killing spree here. It’s hard to root for someone like this? I don’t think so because the C rankers were already planning on abandoning and killing Sung and Yu in the first place.
I like Yu especially in the comic because he’s the first person to acknowledge Sung’s power. Sung doesn’t have any remorse for killing spiders and ants – but draws the line at human blood. However, in this case, since the system wanted him to kill the people it’s all the same for him. I love how he even has things like fatigue and other stuff. I swear this boss just needs to start projecting a red circle around this attack area and the MMO inspiration would be complete.
Oh yeah and that guy that is looking over the city is the brother of the guy Sung killed at the end there – he will become an important character once he learns about the death of his brother and will be coming for Sung with murderous intent! Other than that it was a great episode that got me hooked all through since the animation finally picked up a little bit for me. Knowing A-1 I hope production goes as smoothly as ever!
Full-length images: 39.
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