Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Episode 21

From even before the start of his leveling-up journey, Jinwoo has been driven by one thing: family. As South Korea's weakest hunter, he worked himself to the bone for enough money to keep a roof over his head, his mother in the coma ward, and his sister in school. Once he was able to start leveling up, this got easier but a new hope was dangled in front of him: a potential cure for his mother's illness. Since then, everything he has done has been with that goal in mind. And now, he finally gets the fruits of his labor.

The scene with Jinwoo and his mother is fantastically scored and paced. The little details exquisitely show just how much this is affecting him. The hands of a man who has killed people and fought demons tremble wildly with the fear that all he has done might have been for nothing. And when he finally gets his reward, we get a prolonged shot of him weeping at the feel of his mother's touch after four long years. In the end, the cold, fight-loving badass Jinwoo is simply a boy who loves his mother and wants nothing more than to be with her again.

However, in the afterglow of Jinwoo's proudest moment, the tragedy of him as a person is laid bare. He has given up so much to bring his mother back. He's almost completely thrown away concepts like trust, empathy, and mercy. He's a murderer several times over—and that's not counting the sentient monsters he's slaughtered. After how much he's changed and all he's done, can he just become a “normal person” again—living a happy life with his sister and mother?

It's a question that haunts Jinwoo himself. He is well aware that he, at times, feels like he no longer fits in. And, at the same time, while he wants to immerse himself in the life he has regained, there's still that other part of him that has awakened—the part that is driven to become ever stronger regardless of the consequences. Even though he feels like he should go home and be with his family—should outright ignore Gunhee's pleas to join the attack on the ants—simply feeling the power of the strongest hunters from Korea and Japan is enough to captivate his interest. He is a war with himself—with who he was and who he has become.

Jinwoo has failed to realize that his inner war is meaningless. His original reason for living—what made him become a hunter in the first place remains the same: family. With a threat like the ants—where even a single one of them could kill all normal people and all hunters under A-rank—his family is far from safe. He may have achieved his heart's greatest desire but his fight is not yet over.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Poor Esil. She got to play the heroine for a single episode and has now been immediately forgotten about. On the other hand, she's basically the queen of the demon castle now.

• What does “the dungeon will now revert to its original state…” mean? Does it mean before it was a part of whatever “game” Jinwoo is a player of? Does it mean the boss Jinwoo just killed will be resurrected along with everything else? Or does it mean something else entirely?

• Clever Gunhee, making sure to exclude mages from the fight—forcing Jinwoo to watch from the sidelines instead of fight like he wants to.

• I don't think we've ever seen Cha in a real fight against a comparable opponent. Next week should be awesome to watch!

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Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.