Arise, Solo Leveling fans! With the chaotic production monarchs of the dimensional crack slain and the gates of hiatus now closed, Aniplex has released the final trailer – and confirmed the official release date – for the beloved manwha’s long-awaited anime adaptations.
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Written by Chugong and illustrated by the late Jang Sang-rak, Solo Leveling introduces audiences to a world where humanity’s survival is threatened by the sudden appearance of ‘Dungeons’, small pocket-dimensions containing a variety of magical beasts who desire nothing more than to escape their prisons and wreak chaos.
To counter the monstrous threat, a class of awakened beings called ‘Hunters’ use their own unique abilities to fight back against – and make a tidy living off of – the various such instances that regularly appear on Earth.
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Solo Leveling centers around the ‘Weakest Hunter of Mankind’ Sung Jinwoo, a bumbling young man who only enlisted into the Hunters’ cause to pay for his sick mother’s expensive medical bills.
On the verge of death during an unexpected double-dungeon raid, a video game-esque notification screen appears before him stating that, thanks to having unwittingly completed all the requirements needed to gain entry, he was now allowed to participate in a ‘Secret Quest’ called ‘Courage of the Weak’.
By accepting the life changing quest, Sung Jinwoo becomes a player of the mysterious ‘System’ and undergoes a second awakening which grants him the ability to apply an RPG-style leveling system to his real life.
As seen in the trailer, following the completion of multiple quests, the System directs Jinwoo to solo an instant dungeon.
And though he is first terrified at the idea of taking on the dungeon’s monsters on his own, after equipping his fallen comrade’s sword, Jinwoo musters the strength to cut through his enemies and eventually slay their boss, ultimately walking away from the entire affair with the first of his signature Venom Fang daggers.
From there – and following additional training – the trailer cuts to show Jinwoo’s later foray into a C-rank dungeon.
Realizing that both he and his fellow hunter Yoo Jinho have been deceived by the dungeon’s beasts, Jinwoo once again rises to the occasion, felling the dungeon’s boss and in the process rounding out his arsenal with his second Venom Fang dagger.
Finally, the action-packed trailer concludes with a preview of Jinwoo’s intense, climactic fight with his first S-Rank dungeon boss, Cerberus.
Per the end of the trailer, Aniplex’s animated take on Jinwoo’s journey is set to begin on January 6th, 2024, with same day simulcasts, as noted above, set to be made available through Crunchyroll.
However, as of writing, the anime streaming platform has yet to disclose an official simulcast release time for the series’ first episode, ‘I’m Used to It’.
Further, in an interesting twist, it should be noted that Crunchyoll’s English sub and dub releases of Solo Leveling will be more accurate than those released to Japan.
This is due to the fact that, in the Japanese release of the series, all of the character and location names do not retain their original Korean identity, but rather have been localized in order to place the series explicitly within the Land of the Rising Sun.
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