Warning: The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling Season 2, Episode 3!!

After successfully wrapping the Red Gate arc, Solo Leveling Season 2 is naturally progressing the story, taking Sung Jinwoo to a dungeon made by the system where he can level up his powers as monarch of shadows. However, given that Solo Leveling Season 2 is set to cover until the Jeju Island Arc, this installment is speeding up while adapting the source material by taking creative liberties and restructuring certain parts of the story. This became more evident with a major event in the Demon Castle Arc that was changed and was recently highlighted in Solo Leveling Season 2, episode 3.

While the first installment of the anime didn’t modify much from the manhwa, besides overlooking scenes that improve the characterization and mostly including original content to flesh out events that come in future arcs, one significant change gave more meaning to Sung Jinwoo’s journey from the start.

Solo Leveling’s Anime Gave Sung Jinwoo a Goal Much Earlier Than the Manhwa

Shōnen Anime Heroes Need a Great Motivation to Drive Them Forward

One early change made by Solo Leveling’s anime was in episode #7, when Jinwoo gets the key to the Demon Castle. The anime includes an original scene where Jinwoo reads in the item’s description that the recipe for the “Elixir of Life” can be found in the instant dungeon, a potion he could craft to try to cure his mother’s illness. However, this doesn’t happen in the manhwa, and Jinwoo learns about the potion much later when he finishes a quest in the Demon Castle and gets the recipe as an undisclosed reward by the system in chapter #61.

This chapter was recently adapted in Solo Leveling Season 2, episode 3, but since Jinwoo already knows about the existence of the Elixir of Life’s recipe, the anime highlights how he just acquires two of the three items needed to craft the potion and how he is closer to getting the last one once he clears the dungeon, a scene that happens later when he goes to visit his mom. This change in the anime gives Jinwoo more character depth as he sets a goal to get stronger to be able to face the instant dungeon and find the recipe.

In the manhwa, Jinwoo's only motivation till this point in the story was leveling up to see how far he can go, besides earning money for his mother’s treatment, which he gained quickly thanks to his promise with Jinho. While this ties in with Jinwoo’s mentality as once an underdog and the weakest hunter who now has infinite potential at hand, this motivation could also be seen by the audience as shallow compared to the selfless goals that most shōnen protagonists have when they start their journey.

Not Every Change Is Good in Solo Leveling Season 2

Some Scenes from the Manhwa Skipped in the Adaptation Help Develop the Characters

Even though adapting this turning point in Sung Jinwoo’s goal earlier in the anime has proven to be a great decision, since it made him more relatable from the start and helped showcase his relationship with his family, which is a major part of his character, the adaptation has also chosen to cut the darker scenes of Jinwoo for him to be more righteous and less morally gray. Although these are minor changes, it is likely to appeal to a broader audience, since viewers tend to always favor benevolent protagonists instead of antiheroes.

However, most of the skipped scenes in Solo Leveling Season 2 are comedic ones that balance the more serious tone of the story and prove how, despite Jinwoo’s stoic behavior, he is prone to humor, like in chapter #60 when he asks Igris to stop bringing him the decapitated head of his opponents as a sign of respect because Iron was copying him dragging Vulcan’s gigantic head. Likewise, some missed scenes in the anime contribute to viewers misinterpreting some of the events in the series.

An example is in the Red Gate arc, where it might seem like the other hunters died partly from lack of food, but in the manhwa they wanted to cook the frozen bears, but Kim Chul didn't agree, so their forces were depleted by hunger. Also, in episode 3, when Hwang Dongsoo interrogates Sung Il Hwan, it could be interpreted as if Jinwoo's father attacked him out of anger when he told him that his son was dead. But in the manhwa, Dongsoo throws the first punch after provoking Il Hwan and accusing him of being a magical beast to have an excuse.

Solo Leveling Season 2 is Setting Up More Changes to Give More Screen Time to ing Characters

The Prominent Focus On Sung Jinwoo Was Criticized in Solo Leveling’s Manhwa

The anime has also made several subtle additions, like teasing the Jeju Island Arc since season 1 and introducing much earlier S-Rank hunters like Cha Hae In and Choi Jong In. While this may take away the impact when they finally meet Jinwoo, it also makes the characters more relevant for the viewers before their big participation in the arc. Additionally, Solo Leveling’s producer, Sota Furuhashi, revealed in an interview on The Aniplex YouTube Channel that season 2 will give more screen time to other characters.

In Season 1, it focuses a lot on the main character's development, and, of course, that continues in Season 2, but this time, we'll also turn the spotlight on the ing characters and fill in the story a bit more as we wrap things up. So, you'll get a more 360-degree look at the world of Solo Leveling in Season 2. -Sota Furuhashi

This will help the story not revolve exclusively around Jinwoo, which was one of the most criticized aspects of the manhwa, as he overshadowed the other characters as the story progressed. Moreover, the anime is doing a great job of fleshing out the world of the series, which is something that will take more relevance once the story reaches the Jeju Island Arc.

Nevertheless, while it is impossible to completely adapt every aspect of a series in anime, since many elements are difficult to translate to another medium, Solo Leveling Season 2 has been an incredible adaptation so far and has proven that it isn’t aimed at being a copycat of its source material, but its own version that is not only enjoyable but does justice to the high points of the story that readers loved in the manhwa.

Source: Aniplex YouTube Channel