Solo Leveling is Set to Begin Its Big Hunter x Hunter-Inspired Arc

The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, available on Crunchyroll.

Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- has been a brilliant follow-up to what was a great first season for the series, which is shaping up to be one of the best anime adaptations of a Korean IP we’ve gotten in the WEBTOON and manhwa adaptation boom of the mid-to late 2010s and early 2020s, if not, ever. The series’ great production value has continued into its second season, where it has only gone from strength to strength much like its protagonist, Sung Jinwoo. During the events of season 2, episode 7, the series’ 19th overall, the newly announced S-Rank Hunter Sung Jinwoo decides to take one more week-long trip to take down the Demon Castle Instant Dungeon that first visited in the first season.

However, in his absence, the horrors of Jeju Island have finally made their way to Korean shores after being teased for so long, as far back as the first scene of the first episode of the first season. The ominous presence of an ant drone in the path of two unfortunate, unsuspecting Hunters in episode 7 was a teaser of the arc to come, which will have the Korean Hunters face the site of their greatest failure in the Jeju Island arc.

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Here’s a look at the similarities between the monstrous ants of Jeju Island in Solo Leveling and the Chimera Ant arc of Hunter x Hunter.

What Happened on Jeju Island?

Enough to Make a Grown S-Rank Cry

What we saw very briefly during the events of the seventh episode of Solo Leveling Season 2 – Arise from the Shadow- was a Chimera Ant drone, a species of magic beast that should only be on Jeju Island. After a Dungeon Break took place when an S-Rank Gate could not be cleared on Jeju Island three years prior to the end of the franchise, the area was evacuated and condemned as the giant ants that poured through the gates overwhelmed even the strongest of Hunters who tried to stand up to them.

After three attempts to take back Jeju Island, the Korean Government gave up on the idea, and bet on the threat being restricted to the island. The failed Jeju Island raids of the past have left deep scars on the minds of the Hunters who survived, some of whom retired from the profession, while others, like the White Tiger Guild’s Baek Yoonho and the Hunters Guild’s Choi Jong In, have severe PTSD from the horrors of Jeju Island.

What the Korean government failed to take into account was the possibility that the ants could one day make their way to the mainland somehow. They are capable of taking on the traits of whatever they eat, facilitating a terrifying rate of evolution among the species, which was revealed to be evolving wings in the end stages of Solo Leveling season 1, and have now learned to use them to fly to the mainland. With the finite amount of food available to the ants on Jeju Island running out, they have developed a necessity to find ways off the island to feed elsewhere, and soon, Japan will be overrun with the magic beasts, and the eastern countries will band together to take down the threat, only to be severely outmatched. Many S-Rank Hunters will lose their lives in the upcoming battle.

The Similarities to Hunter x Hunter

The Most Stressful Arc in Shōnen Returns to Stress Us Out Again

What many fans of Solo Leveling notice about the Jeju Island arc when it is finally introduced in the manhwa, which is far later than in the anime, is various unmistakable similarities to the Chimera Ant arc of Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter, a forerunner in the shonen genre for many reasons and a brilliant story overall. The concept of highly intelligent, giant ants that evolve rapidly and develop humanoid traits, and eventually, monstrous power enough to thoroughly dispatch humanity’s strongest Hunters (which is, surprise, surprise, the occupational term in both universes).

Just like in Hunter x Hunter, the Solo Leveling ants have a Queen Ant who gives birth to the Ant King, the most powerful of all the ants ever born. Many Hunters die in the ensuing conflict against the ants, whose voracious appetites saw them grow increasingly aggressive towards humans, before they began eating them in droves.

One of the best moments in both stories is the showdown between the series protagonist and a powerful ant, which in the case of Solo Leveling, is the Ant King who becomes the strongest enemy Sung Jinwoo has ever faced. This fight, during the fourth and final Jeju Island Raid, is the first time Sung Jinwoo’s overwhelming might was showcased to the world when he saves the surviving Hunters from being ripped apart by the Ant King, albeit after initially deciding to sit out the Jeju Island Raid. This enemy becomes his most loyal Shadow, Beru, in the aftermath, a highly important piece in the bolstering of the Shadow Army’s strength. Put simply, the Jeju Island arc is an important point in the narrative, and things are never quite the same in the Solo Leveling story after that.

Solo Leveling

Release Date

January 7, 2024

Directors

Shunsuke Nakashige

Writers

Noboru Kimura

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  Taito Ban

  Shun Mizushino (voice)

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  Genta Nakamura

  Kenta Morobishi (voice)