It’s been a bit since I’ve dived into anime content, but there’s just something about Solo Leveling Season 2 that I have to talk about.
While I don’t consider myself the ultimate anime master, I will say that I have most certainly become an anime lover over the last several years or so. I’ve learned to appreciate the art behind the genre and the stories that accompany it. There are so many great anime programs that I can recommend to anyone who wants to start, and all of them would be great choices.
Solo Leveling is a new one that I’ve gotten into. Well, I was into it when it first came out last year, but with the second season wrapping up, I’ve gotten back into the popular series.
Season 2 has been so much fun – but I’ve let an opinion about Jinwoo stew for a couple of weeks now, and as someone who never knows how to keep her mouth shut, I have to talk about it.
The Second Season Has Been Epic On All Proportions
So before I get into this, I want to preface by saying that I have been enjoying the heck out of this season. In fact, it’s the most I’ve enjoyed anime in a long time.
I’m not going to lie, but after the Attack on Titan finale in 2023, I was burnt out. I think that episode genuinely put me into an anime slump, where finding the time to sit down and actively watch anime without thinking of what happened at the end of that was a chore. It’s not that I didn’t want to watch – I didn’t have the energy.
But Solo Leveling—as well as the soccer anime Blue Lock—has been a pretty consistent reappearance in my life and is one of the only anime that I regularly return to watch and keep up with.
The action in Solo Leveling has been off the charts. The voice acting has been incredible, too. Obviously, the animation is top-tier. There’s not much to complain about.
However, I know anime fans – and even though I am one, there is always something they can find that they don’t agree with. And one thing is most certainly about Jinwoo.
But Over The Last Few Weeks, I’ve Been Seeing A Lot Of Discourse About Jinwoo
In Season 2, Episode 9 of Solo Leveling, we finally see Jinwoo accomplish something that he has been working towards since the very beginning of the anime – he finally, finally cures his mother of her disease thanks to a potion that he obtained after fighting God knows how many monsters.
It’s a super happy moment, one that feels like a massive payoff for someone who has been working so incredibly hard to achieve it; who has done everything in his power to level up his strength and abilities in order to help her.
Then he cries, because why wouldn’t he? It’s his mother, the person he did all this for. Heck, I would cry, too. Anyone would if you were able to heal a person you love, miraculously, thanks to a potion you got.
Yet people are upset about this, and I am dumbfounded by it. No, that’s not even the right word. I’m disgusted.
Many fans of the series, and even professionals in the media, have said that this moment ruins Jinwoo’s “aura.” You know, the thing that makes him all badass and stand out amongst the rest is that he’s scary to everyone else and all that. It ruins his “cool” factor because he cried for his mother.
I want you to reread those lines very closely. He cried for his mother. She had a debilitating disease that was slowly killing her. Holy crap. Who would have thought?
This is the most ridiculous piece of discourse I have ever heard on the internet, and I absolutely cannot believe that people think just because he decided to cry, it makes him less of an extraordinary character, and is a moment that “ruins” his aura. I’m sorry, could you do what he does? Could you survive the amount of damage he puts on his body? Could you go into an entire hell-like landscape, kill every single creature known to man, including a creature that resembles Cerberus, and bring your mother back?
Yeah, probably not. But that’s not even the primary issue.
Regardless Of His Powers, He’s Still A Human
I think the biggest issue here is that people are just forgetting that Jinwoo, at this point, is still human. He still has human emotion, even with all his powers and everything he does; even with his moments that make him seem all-powerful – the moments that fans deem as his “aura” moments and all that.
I’m not unaware of what he becomes in the manga and what he achieves, but at the end of the day, at this rate, he’s still someone who feels things. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t help people in the dungeons. He wouldn’t keep paying for his sister’s tuition and making sure she got an education. He wouldn’t have saved his mother.
But he does do all that, because despite what everyone wants to believe, Jinwoo isn’t just this all-powerful, soulless aura-master who is able to take down literally anyone he wants without the skip of his beating heart. He has emotions and wants, and people are upset about that. Huh?
That’s like saying that every other person in anime who has any power is not able to have any sort of emotion or want. Would you say the same things about the Ackermans, two of the most badass characters in Attack on Titan? Or even Goku from Dragon Ball? What about Gojo from Jujitsu Kaisen, which is one of the best dark anime out there. Literally, any time we see him show that he cares for someone, people hop on Archive of Our Own to write about it.
Why should Jinwoo, another majorly powerful character in the world of anime, be any different?
I Think We All Need To Take A Step Back And Remember Why He Did This In The First Place
Have we all gotten lost in the sauce when it comes to Solo Leveling? Did we all kinda forget why Jinwoo even became a hunter in the first place? It was for his mother and his sister, and now his mother is healed – all of his hard work has paid off; his literal near-death experience.
Heck, not even near death – he did die; he was just brought back to life—a second life. Later in the series, without spoiling anything, death becomes his whole thing. Before that even happens, though, he’s still Jinwoo, a man who wants to do what he can to take care of his family.
Look, I’m not saying that Solo Leveling has to suddenly start have him showing emotion all the time, as if it were some Studio Ghibli movie, even though I love those films. I love a badass character as much as the next person. It’s why I mainly watch anime that has action – I eat it up every time.
I just think we all need to take a step back here and really think about what we’re saying about this character. Just because he cried because he healed his mother doesn’t take away from how incredibly terrifying he can be and how powerful he truly is. Some of the most powerful characters of all time are the ones that have complex emotions behind them, that show emotion and care for the people they care about – and I’m not only talking in anime. I’m talking about the movies/TV/books as a whole.
Now, Jinwoo is a part of that. That’s awesome to me, so I’m sorry if, for some ungodly reason, you don’t think the same.
With Solo Leveling Season 2 coming to an end – and Season 3 most likely far off – I think it’s time for a rewatch – and to actually enjoy the fights this time instead of harping on something so silly.
