A New Hunter Guild is Born and Sung Jinwoo’s Latest Shadow Shows Its Might in Solo Leveling Season 2, Episode 7

The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, Episode 7, “The 10th S-Rank Hunter”, available on Crunchyroll.

In the seventh episode of Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, the series’ 19th episode overall, Sung Jinwoo’s status as the 10th ever S-Rank Hunter in Korea has finally been revealed to the public, officially putting to bed the title of “Humanity’s Weakest Weapon” that had followed him around for the longest part of his Hunter career. As the most recently discovered S-Rank, Hunter Guilds are tripping over themselves to sign Jinwoo, but he has another idea, one that will upset the delicate balance of the Korean Hunter landscape.

Now that he can finally move with S-Rank privilege, Jinwoo decides to hit the Demon Castle one last time, not knowing that a vision of Hell has made its way to Korean shores, almost as if it was in exchange for his trip to the infernal Dungeon. Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- episode 7 sets up what is going to be an absolute madness of an arc for the series, in the aftermath of yet another brilliantly adapted arc.

RELATED

Solo Leveling’s Sung Jinwoo News Gets Real-Life Announcement

Breaking news interrupted Solo Leveling Season 2 Episode 7’s broadcast in Japan.

What’s All the Commotion?

A New Hero Is Revealed

Kicking off from where the previous episode ended, the famous actor (apparently) Lee Minsung announces his recent identification as an A-Rank Hunter as part of an intricate PR strategy meant to offset some of the heat from some of his more unsavory exploits. The guy is absolutely full of himself, and it is rather satisfying to see the confusion on his face as he realizes that someone with more clout; someone of greater importance, has arrived. When Jinwoo pulls up to the Hunter Association headquarters, the press clicking away at their cameras are surprised by his intrusion, but when Chairman Go Gunhee appears to personally welcome him, the interest that they once had for Lee Minsung is diverted.

Inside, Jinwoo is met by S-Rank Hunters and Guild Masters Baek Yoonho and Choi Jong In of the White Tiger and Hunters Guilds respectively, who showed up personally to try to recruit him once his S-Rank status was revealed. The final step in Jinwoo earning his shiny new S-Rank Hunter licence is a live demonstration of his abilities. He shows them one Shadow, to which Go Gunhee tells him that he received a detailed report of his abilities from Woo Jinchul, who saw his epic battle against Kargalgan.

When he reveals an entire army, and the fact that there are about a hundred more Shadows he could summon on top of the legion he presented, everyone presented is left reeling in shock. Both Baek Yoonho and Choi Jong In, long thought to be some of the very strongest Hunters in Korea, both recognized that they are severely outmatched against someone with Jinwoo’s level of magic power. Once the test is over, the two S-Rankers try to get a minute with Jinwoo to talk about recruiting him to their respective guilds, but just like last time, he blows them off completely because he has more important things to do.

What really shows how little Jinwoo cares for his new Rank is the fact that he did all of this just so it wouldn’t be weird for him to sell high-level items like the Orb of Avarice in auctions, so not only was it merely a means to an end, but it was also once upon a time a measure of strength to which he had been painfully confined that now no longer has any real bearing on his life. When the news breaks, we get to see reactions from characters we haven’t seen since season 1, like Mr. Song Chiyul and Joohee, who beam with pride at Jinwoo’s triumph.

Jinwoo’s Balance-Shattering Decision

A New Guild is Born

What the other S-Rankers don’t realize is that Jinwoo’s disinterest in joining them is partly because he aims to establish his own Guild, pulling an Uno Reverse on Jinho, who had initially tried to recruit him for Yoojin Construction, but now finds himself being recruited to Sung Jinwoo’s “Ahjin Guild”, named after his sister, Jinah. In Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- episode 4, Chairman Go Gunhee came to see Jinwoo personally to discuss what he plans to do now that he is an S-Rank Hunter currently being coveted by every major Guild in the country, explaining the delicate balance that has been formed among the top 5 Guilds in Korea, which are kept in check by a secret sixth “Guild” or power, the Hunter Association. Jinwoo’s decision to establish a new Guild ushers in a new era in the Hunter economy of Korea, and also puts the ambitions of Yoojin Construction at a halt, to the chagrin of Jinho’s father.

However, Jinho’s father’s disdain for his youngest son’s decision to leave the family business to work with Hunter Sung Jinwoo becomes the last of his problems, as he turns out to be ailing from the same thing that has had Jinwoo’s mother in a coma for over four years: the Eternal Sleep Disease, which is now taking devastating effect. Speaking of Eternal Sleep Disease, after the commotion from his Rank announcement dies down, he starts planning for his final visit to the Demon Castle Dungeon, where he will obtain the final ingredient for the Elixir of Life. He uses work with Jinho as an excuse to leave the house for a week like the last time, and splits his Shadow Army into squadrons to protect Jinah and the town while he’s away.

There’s a funny moment when Jinwoo summons his High Orc generals from the Kargalgan fight and notices that there’s one missing, so he asks where the other guy is, to which they sheepishly point upwards to illustrate that he’s still stuck in the Dungeon’s ceiling. If there’s any hope for getting more humour in the Solo Leveling anime, it falls squarely on the Shadows in Jinwoo’s army.

No Breaths From Hell

Jinwoo Tests Tusk’s Power in the Demon Castle

Shortly after getting his new license, Jinwoo went to one of the high-end stores where S-Rankers buy their gear to get a sense of how much he could get for selling loot. He’s surprised to learn that even B-Rank equipment he bought from the System’s Store can fetch an insane price when appraised, so he sells some of the stuff he got from previous quests instead of the Orb of Avarice, which he gives to Tusk, the Shadow of Kargalgan. The combination makes him incredibly powerful, able to take on some of the demons found on Level 75 of the Demon Castle as his spells swell with the power of the artifact. Jinwoo separates his Shadow into specialized groups, sending them out into the battlefield to take down any enemies they find, but some of them struggle to deal with the intelligent enemies found on Level 80+, who strategically target their foes based on strength.

Jinwoo correctly guesses their next target to be Tank and the other magic beasts, and immediately takes down the Demon Knights, finally gaining an answer to the question he asked the last time he was in the Demon Castle: “Do magic beasts feel fear?” What was great about episode 7 was its balanced development and set up of important elements for future episodes, and the flow of its different scenes in terms of this setup, like with the focus on Jinho’s decision and family, and his father’s condition.

While Jinwoo is in the Demon Castle, the first of the ants from Jeju Island finally show up on Korean shores, a nod to one of the most anticipated arcs in the entire series and definitely one of the most important parts in terms of the development of the Solo Leveling story as a whole. With decent levels of story development, a dollop of action in the final third, a good deal of aura farming from the main man and a guaranteed banger for the next episode. It’s definitely so far, so good for Solo Leveling Season 2 thus far.

Solo Leveling

Release Date

January 7, 2024

Directors

Shunsuke Nakashige

• 

  Taito Ban

  Shun Mizushino (voice)

• 

  Genta Nakamura

  Kenta Morobishi (voice)