Solo Leveling

Episode 10

This series has done well in giving Jinwoo reasons to push himself to his limits. At first, Jinwoo was focused on survival for himself and his family. Staying alive and healthy enough to enter dungeons (and thus pay for his mother's medical bills and sister's schooling) was goal number one. Then, when with his newfound strength day-to-day survival became less of an issue, he was given a new goal: getting strong enough to get the medicine to cure his mother.

This episode gives Jinwoo two new motivations to keep leveling up. The first is the simple fact that he's on an S-rank hunter's hit list. As powerful as Jinwoo may be, he's nowhere near strong enough to face down a true S-rank. And worse yet, S-ranks are basically above the law. Not only are they so powerful it'd be nearly impossible for anyone but another S-rank to kill them, they are the linchpin of mankind's defense against the dungeons. Losing even one would be an international incident. No one is going to step in and protect Jinwoo if an S-rank wants him or his family dead.

But that's not the only ticking clock that Jinwoo is up against. Jinwoo has a secret identity. To the world at large, he is an E-rank hunter. This allows him a large amount of freedom but it's only a matter of time till he gets found out—especially because, to get stronger, he has to do things that a normal E-rank can't do.

His deal with Jinho is a decent stop-gap solution—but even that has let five more people in on the secret. Oh sure, they may not know that he can level up but they certainly know that no mere E-rank guy is clearing C-rank dungeons. And while Jinho's money is keeping them silent for the moment, someone's bound to blab once Jinho has accomplished his goal of creating his guild and the jobs stop coming.

Then there's the fact that both Jinwoo and Jinho have already raised some red flags—both with their against-all-odds survival and flagrant use of money. While Jinwoo may be able to threaten the White Tiger Guild recruiter into silence, it's clear that it's only a matter of time until someone else puts the dots together as well.

All of this does a great job of building tension outside of direct battle against ever-stronger opponents. Jinwoo's life (along with his current lifestyle) is on the chopping block. The metaphorical axe is going to come down sooner or later and his only chance to keep himself and those he loves safe is to become strong enough to protect them. Hopefully, his looming job change will give him what he needs to weather the storm to come.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Welp, goodbye Joohee. While it feels like a bit of an anti-climax given all the time we've spent with her, it's nice to see a character in fiction who realizes they're just not cut out for a life of violence and decides to quit before it gets them killed.

• That new Hiroyuki Sawano insert song is a killer. I've been listening to it on repeat (via this clip) while writing this review.

• I love little character quirks like Jinho always wearing a helmet in the dungeons because he thinks they're cool. It brings the character to life.

• Despite being rather involved in his sister's life, Jinwoo doesn't recognize her best friend. Maybe they've never met before?

Solo Leveling is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

---

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.