Fans of the South Korean manhwa, Solo Leveling have been asking for an anime adaptation for years. Today we are here to answer one question. Is it possible?
But before we get into it, first, let’s do a quick background about what Solo leveling is. As stated Solo leveling is a South Korean manhwa that was serialized back in 2016. Originally Solo Leveling was a web novel written by Chugong, in 2014, under the name Only I Level Up. It became so popular with fans in those two short years of releasing it was quickly picked up by D&C Media Kakao and began to publish in a manhwa format, under the now popular name, Solo Leveling. The manhwa releases officially in English on Tappytoon.
Following are the 3 major reasons why Solo Leveling anime might not be possible:
Japanese Audience
Many fans of the series have pointed out that one reason the hit series hasn’t received an anime adaptation is that the series portrays Japan in a negative way.
This can be seen in both the light novel and the manhwa, and although many readers of the series may not notice it, it could be a problem if the series were animated. On top of that, seeing as how Japan is the powerhouse of anime, chances are that a Japanese studio would animate the series. The animators would most likely not be happy making a show where they portray their own country as antagonists. This also goes for the Japanese anime fans who would be new to the series.
The Animation
Another huge reason we could not be seeing a Solo Leveling anime is that it wouldn’t be easy to animate.
It may sound crazy, but it’s true. The world of Solo Leveling involves great fight scenes, many different types of creatures, and those hype moments that make the series so great. All of this would be quite difficult to transfer into animation. And many fans would turn out disappointed with the animation and the overall outcome, much like the recent Record Of Ragnarock.
Many fans want animation studios like Mappa, Ufotable, or Madhouse to pick up the series and give it a shot. What fans have to keep in mind is that adapting something like Solo Leveling could make or break these studios, based on how fans react.
Failure Of Other Webtoons
As mentioned before, Crunchyroll recently produced three popular manhwas, God Of Highschool, Tower Of God, and Noblesse. The common factor between all these anime aside from the fact that they are all manhwas is the fact that they all didn’t turn out well.
Tower Of God went missing after its decent first season. God Of Highschool’s plot was rushed and horribly packed into 12 episodes. And Noblesse skipped dozens, if not more, chapters in its anime adaptation.
With the failure of these three popular manhwa’s people are asking, would Solo Leveling even come out good. And this is leaving fans and studios scared. As mentioned before adapting Solo Leveling could make or break the studio.
So, Is Solo Leveling Anime Possible?
Seeing all these negatives you may be thinking that it isn’t possible. However, there is one way the series could come to our screens. That is, through Netflix.
As of recent the streaming giant, Netflix has been desperately trying to break into the world of anime, since the medium has become so popular and mainstream. Proof of this can be seen with their adaptations of Yasuke, Castlevania, Komi Can’t Communicate, Record of Ragnarock, and The Way of the Househusband. And it’s not only their originals either, Netflix has gained the streaming rights for several known series, such as My Hero Academia and Seven Deadly Sins.
What’s unique about Netflix is that they aren’t afraid to take chances, as seen with their depictions of several gods in Record of Ragnarock. Seeing how they picked up Record of Ragnarock they wouldn’t be scared off by Solo Leveling’s controversies.
On top of this, if Netflix were to take charge many top-notch animation studios would no longer be afraid to step up for animation. If the anime flops it gets blamed on Netflix. And if it does well and the animation is good the studio would get the credit.
Fans of Solo Leveling also agree with this as a petition has been started to get Netflix to produce the series. The petition is over on change.org and it currently has over 200k signatures. Meaning that someone over at Netflix would have had to see it by now.
Where To Read
As for now, however, there are no signs of the series being picked up anytime soon, nor are there any announcements. If you would like to read the series yourself and see what all the hype is about you can read the manhwa here.
Hopefully, one day we will get a Solo Leveling anime adaptation, until then make sure to enjoy the manual every Wednesday as it releases or read the now completed light novel.
Synopsis
Ten years ago, “the Gate” appeared and connected the real world with the realm of magic and monsters. To combat these vile beasts, ordinary people received superhuman powers and became known as “Hunters.” Twenty-year-old Sung Jin-Woo is one such Hunter, but he is known as the “World’s Weakest,” owing to his pathetic power compared to even a measly E-Rank. Still, he hunts monsters tirelessly in low-rank Gates to pay for his mother’s medical bills.
However, this miserable lifestyle changes when Jin-Woo—believing himself to be the only one left to die in a mission gone terribly wrong—awakens in a hospital three days later to find a mysterious screen floating in front of him. This “Quest Log” demands that Jin-Woo completes an unrealistic and intense training program, or face an appropriate penalty. Initially reluctant to comply because of the quest’s rigor, Jin-Woo soon finds that it may just transform him into one of the world’s most fearsome Hunters.
Well Japan had no problem make other countries like Russia, China, India and mostly America as antagonist now it’s their turn to be bad guys so they would not even make it
The difference is, japan can depict other countries as the bad guy, while in this case, it’s korea who does this to japan,
Think of it like you insulting someone, would you even tolerate if you are the one insulted?
Also try to make korea adapt something that blatantly is insulting them, it would cause too much backlash
Have you even notice that Solo Leveling won last year which manga/manwha has to be animated? And they won in Japan. So your first point is really missleading. Other than that ppl are really lookin forward to see this come alive as anime series. So the studio that will take it will win at least our hearts not to mention our money. This article is kinda sad.
Well it seems unfair that japan does not want to animate it its not like being the antagonist will trigger a war between korea and japan and the hard animation wouldn’t be hard if they do a joint animating just like they did with takt op Destiny (mappa_madhouse) all this just seems unfair
Animating is hard, look at AOT, it was a hard flop compared to its other seasons and left fans disappointed, also how tf is animating not hard? It takes a lot of time, work and effort, a single episode can take months to make and should have consistent budget,
Also why compare to takt op destiny? Afaik it took like years to make that,
Also the point is not by starting a war lol, i doubt even 500 stories that depicts japan as the bad would start a war, it just basically portrays japan badly, with them needing “help” and was portrayed rathexr pathetic, dumb and egoistic idiots while korea was seen as some kind of saint,
Basically try making a korean studio adapt a japanese manga that portrays them as pathetic and dumb, and see how people will react, I’d wager it would even be worse given that korean people tend to get much much more offended easier than people from other nationality
I don’t think Netflix can make good animation for a good manhwa like Solo leveling
I don’t Netflix can make good animation for Solo leveling
Solo leveling is currently the world’s best manhwa and all ppl over the world want it to be an anime. It could be bad for japanese just bczof they r antagonist bt not all time japan will be protagonist and also netflix can’t make a hype by doing this an anime so if author could find these suitable person who could make solo leveling as great as the manhwa,those hyped scene and all those art style etc is really great so my opinion will be if u can get those great ppl who r expert in one skill life someone is expert in editing other one in writing,creating,launching etc.that can make this manhwa a great anime
Then make korean studio create SL, since I seriously doubt a japanese one would even consider it
This may be my opinion but even if solo levelling is a korean manhwa i want japanese voice actors not korean to dub it. Thats because when you hear anime you think of japan and korean sounds weird cuz people are not used to it. We cant take any chances and ruin such a good manhwa.
BTW I DONT THINK JAPAN WAS PORTRAYED BADLY. I didnt even know people thought that way until i saw this post
The fact that ist “Solo” makes it clear that one man, one country is the most powerful…… So because of that many countries will have to be the bad guys. That’s unavoidable. And basically all the anime that is released doesn’t show taht much hatred to any country or such. So this might be a sensitive case where if the anime goes flop, then the manhwa’s popularity will plummet down. And it’s better if Korean dub is present because that makes it feel Korean. ( Japanese voice will make it more weird )
It’s not that Japan was “bad” per se, in fact, it gave a fairly realistic response: the two countries have been squabbling over territory for a while, and then Korea gets bad news about the ants. Japan essentially attempt to weaken Korea by letting the their teams go in the danger zone first and therefore have more chance of getting wiped out. That bit isn’t so bad for Japanese studios to deal with.
The bad part is then later, Japan gets completely wiped out by giants and then needs Korea’s hero to save them. THAT is what is the blocking point. National Pride.
Tog and goh were fantastic to watch as far as I’m concerned.
I was thinking that what if some studios make a collab in making this into an anime. 🤔
maybe it could be possible…
I like Japanese manga but fuck them. Find another studio not in Japan and just crush the anime world. I would love to see this l!
Manhwas don’t deserve to be in Japanese studios. Let South Korean studios produce their own work. Manhwa may provide good stories but not anime. TOG, GOH and Noblesse we’re all commercial failures and the plots we’re either rushed or missing altogether.
ToG was not a failure wtf u mean? People hated it for being a korean anime cause yall leaving in a cave can’t stand something outside japan. Despite all that old thinking ToG still did good. ToG didn’t went “ghost” like the author of this article said. ToG is something like a Naruto of korea (and I can tell u a 10x times better than Naruto and I loved naruto when I was younger) they would never animate ToG in a Naruto/Black Clover/One Piece type cause that would take a bunch of eps andToG has already a lot of material, so they decided to make something short and to end in a way that could make people look for the webtoon, so their goal was acomplished, since the anime the webtoon got even more popularity and is undeniably the most consistent/popular manwha in the webtoon app.