And a lack of extended length premiere is actually contributing to this.
Summary:
- Solo Leveling episode 5 finally kickstarts the main plot — almost halfway into the season.
- The anime is rather slow paced, but that’s not necessarily bad.
- However, this means that multiple sequel seasons would be needed to get to the best parts of the manhwa.
Jinwoo’s progression in the fifth episode of Solo Leveling (Ore dake Level Up na Ken) finally convinced many people the anime is actually good. Despite it being a little bit over-the-top, we can’t really deny he’s one of the coolest anime protagonists in recent times now.
Naturally, the source readers are happy as well — but some are also skeptical about the future of the anime. It took almost half a cour for the adaptation to cover the part that was absolutely essential for the main selling point of the series to finally reveal itself.
As such, fans are already asking for more seasons of the anime — and no, just one season won’t be enough.
Fans were cautiously optimistic about the adaptation
Solo Leveling is based on a webtoon (web manhwa) by the same name, which, in turn, is based on a novel. The webtoon is incredibly popular for its great art and a story that’s easy to get into — and so there have been calls from the fandom for an adaptation for a while.
When the adaptation was announced, fans were both hyped and skeptical at first: previous attempts at adapting popular webtoons into anime haven’t worked that well. Yes, Tower of God (Kami no Tou) was decently successful and even got a sequel announced (that we still don’t know anything about).
The two other anime adapted from popular webtoons, The God of High School and Noblesse, were mostly regarded as very subpar, especially compared to their source material.
When the staff and studio behind Solo Leveling’s adaptation were revealed, most of the concerns were forgotten. With the series getting top-tier treatment in both animation and music departments, fans were hyped for the adaptation. One thing they are still not sold on, however, is the pacing of the adaptation.
The pacing is rather slow, but that’s not bad
Now, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the pacing of Solo Leveling. It might feel rather slow — especially with how much it took us to get to the part where the main action actually starts — but it’s far better than rushing everything.
For comparison, the adaptation of The God of High School was the opposite — and many fans complained about it. To them, it felt like the anime was rushing through as much content as possible to just showcase the fights, which made it confusing to both source readers and anime watchers.
By the end of the fifth episode of Solo Leveling, only 20 chapters out of 201 have been adapted (granted, the chapters are rather long). This basically means that in order to fully adapt the source material, the anime will have to get 3 or 4 more seasons — especially with how beloved some of the later arcs are.
Thankfully, considering the fact that the anime is very popular now, sequel seasons are actually possible.