'Solo Leveling' Season 1 Recap & Full Story: Things To Know Before Season 2

Underdog stories are super popular among shounen anime fans, as having an ordinary bloke proving his mettle by putting himself through hell, subverting expectations, transforming into someone exceptional, and going to the top makes for a perfect power fantasy. Although it might be argued that with the end of the ‘Big Four,’ the era of simplistic shounen narratives has come to an end, the immense popularity of the anime adaptation of Chugong’s Isekai manhwa series, Solo Leveling, proves otherwise. The first season of Solo Leveling, consisting of twelve episodes, chronicled the rise of Hunter Sung Jinwoo in an RPG-inspired fantastical world, fraught with magical beasts and portals. While the mixture of action, drama, and dark themes with typical shounen elements might feel generic, and the basic characterization might feel bland, the emotionally charged undertone, fluid animation, and dynamic fight choreography make up for most of the drawbacks. Now that the second season of the anime has started premiering, let us go through the key events that transpired in the first season.

Spoilers Ahead

The Worldbuilding And Sung Jinwoo’s Transformation

Ten years before the present timeline in Solo Leveling, malevolent mystical beasts started appearing through portals that randomly popped up in different parts of the world, and the creatures left death and destruction in their wake. At the same time, unique magical abilities awakened within a section of the world population—who came to be known as Hunters and were employed by several guilds across the world to hunt down the magical creatures by venturing into specific portals. Ranked from S to E in descending order of power ranking, the Hunters chose portals according to their strength level and collected invaluable items by slaying magical beasts and clearing portals. Higher-ranked Hunters reap benefits from raiding high-level portals and also earn big from the guilds they are members of. 

The series introduces viewers to Sung Jinwoo, an E-ranked Hunter who is extremely weak even by the standards of his power level, and somehow manages to survive while raiding higher-ranked portals. Jinwoo is the sole guardian of his sister, Jinah, as their father mysteriously disappeared when they were young, and during the emergence of the magic beasts, their mother fell into a comatose state after being afflicted by a mysterious sickness. With the responsibilities of his family on his shoulders, Jinwoo has no other option than to risk his life again and again. On one occasion, Jinwoo raids a portal with his friend, Joohee, and his mentor, Song Chiyul, along with other Hunters, and while venturing inside the portal, they come across a double dungeon. Following their instinct, the team enters a dungeon with ginormous statues and a godhead inside it, and failing to follow protocols, some of the members of the raid party get viciously murdered by the statues. A perceptive Jinwoo manages to catch on to the proper protocol of revering the godhead and manages to send Song and Junhee to safety before sacrificing himself at the hands of the statues. Jinwoo survives a near-death situation by the sudden appearance of a virtual player log, which allows him to heal himself and establish himself as an active player. Jinwoo seems to have unlocked a developer option of sorts in a gaming platform that allows him to earn experience points by venturing into portals, killing beasts, and leveling up in the process—making him the only Hunter with such abilities. The incident, later known as the Cartenon temple incident, changes the life of the amateur Hunter forever. 

Hunters Hunted

The first season of Solo Leveling amps up the stakes by presenting Hunters to be a deadlier threat compared to the monsters, as greed and malicious intentions incentivize people to stoop to heinous lows. LlllJinwoo is forced to question his personal sense of morality as he is faced with increasingly challenging questions. 

Jinwoo makes the most of his newfound skills as he gathers experience by raiding higher-level portals and levels up exponentially. On one occasion, Jinwoo befriends Woo Jinho, a D-class Hunter, son of a business tycoon—and rescues him from a pack of illainous Hunter led by a rogue one named Dongsuk. In self-defense, Jinwoo kills the rogue Hunters, and witnessing his exceptional skills first-hand, Jinho offers him to join in 19 raids, as successful completion of those will allow him to form a guild of his own. Jinwoo eventually agrees to the proposal and successfully leads numerous raids with Jinho. 

On another occasion, Jinwoo takes part in a raid with Junhee and Chiyul, and their raid partner turns out to be a dreaded B-rank Hunter surveillance team inspector, Kang Taeshik, who takes prisoners along on raids in exchange for a lessened sentence. However, Kang appears to be a psychopathic rogue Hunter with no regard for others’ lives, as he ends up murdering the prisoners and goes on to kill Jinwoo’s other partners as well. Jinwoo decides to step in and protect his raid partners and faces off against Kang in a vicious battle. Taeshik recognizes Jinwoo, as he had previously interrogated him after Jinwoo miraculously survived the Cartenon temple incident and realizes that he has gone through a ‘Second Awakening,’ which caused the sudden boost in Jinwoo’s powers. The bloodlusted psycho of a Hunter ends up being vanquished and killed by Jinwoo at the end, but makes Jinwoo realize that he has already started moving towards a path much like the rogue Hunter himself, as the philosophy of survival is the only basis for rationality in the world of Hunters. Ever since gaining a massive boost in power, Jinwoo has slowly found it tough to connect with his humanity. As Jinwoo manages to save Junhee and Chiyul by his heroics, a traumatized Junhee decides to quit her life as a Hunter. On the other hand, Dongsuk’s elder brother—a dreaded high-ranked Hunter, Hwang-Dong-soo—decides to take revenge upon the person who had slain his brother. 

Hunters Association and Hunters Guild

One of the top Korean guilds, the Hunters Guild comes into focus early on in the series, as guildmaster Choi laments losing Hunters in the Jeju Island massacre orchestrated by giant magical monstrosities. Cha Hae-in, a skilled S-ranked Hunter in the guild, is instructed by Choi to train novice trainees, as he seeks to take the battle to the monsters of Jeju Island—and this plot thread will be followed through in the second season. Chairman Go makes arrangements to launch another raid on Jeju Island, as Choi and other S-ranked Hunters prepare to face their worst adversaries yet. On the other hand, the Korean Hunters Association, led by chairman Go, is presented as an overseer organization, and two inspectors from the agency, Hyun Kichul and Ahn Sangnim, become suspicious of Jinwoo’s actions after taking notice of his recent raids. Jinwoo manages to trick Ahn to get him off his trail but gets himself noticed in the process. 

Job Change Quest and Transformation

Jinwoo was able to clear multiple C-ranked portals with Jinho by his side, and climbing through the levels, he was able to gain access to instance portals and S-ranked portals to power himself up to level 40, when Jinwoo is presented with a ‘Job Change Quest.’ It should be mentioned that Jinwoo finds a chance to win the Elixir of Life as one of the loot items after the successful completions of daily quests and multiple level-ups, which would allow him to heal his mother from the strange sickness known as Eternal Slumber. 

Anyway, as Jinwoo decided to undertake the job change quest, he confronted hordes of immensely strong enemies like mages, knights, and assassins, and after beating them one by one, the Hunter faced the strongest opponent yet—knight commander Igris the Bloodred. Unlike the other adversaries, Igris appeared to have much more autonomy, and after a great struggle, Jinwoo was able to defeat him through a mix of skill and luck. Unfortunately, the battle gauntlet continued even after this, as numerous armored knights began pouring into the arena where Jinwoo had faced Igris. With no health or revive potions at his disposal and no option to leave the arena, a battle-weary Jinwoo finds his old diffident self-image crippling him with self-doubt and fear of failure. Jinwoo used to be a lowly, weak Hunter with weak resolve, which is why he knows the true worth of power. Jinwoo’s continual efforts to improve himself and grow have allowed him to beat insurmountable odds, and he is no longer willing to have his past self shackle him down. However, despite that, Jinwoo appears to be moments away from taking his final breath as enemies flank him, and suddenly, just like how it happened during the Kartenon temple incident, the ‘system’ saves him as he is taken to a daily quest penalty portal that allows him to replenish his strength and other vitals. It almost seems as if the system wants him to persevere. 

A juiced-up Jinwoo ends up decimating the hordes of enemies this time around, and he is given the option to change his combat status to a necromancer. Jinwoo’s heightened level allows him to immediately assume Shadow Monarch status after he goes through a status change transformation, and his newfound ability to resurrect the slain adversaries allows Jinwoo to make an ally out of Igris the Bloodred. The rest of the slain army of knights follow their commander as all of them pledge their sword to Sung Jinwoo as the eventful first season comes to an end.

What Can We Expect From Season 2?

The upcoming second season of Solo Leveling will focus on the Jeju Island raids, which will put the S-ranked Hunters at a critical juncture as they might find themselves in much more of a troublesome situation than they could have imagined. Additionally, Jinwoo’s rise in power had brought a concerning change in his demeanor and worldview, which might push him towards a much darker path in the upcoming season. Jinwoo will inevitably be summoned by the Hunters Association, as his meteoric rise of power will not go unnoticed by the higher-ups. Additionally, Jinwoo has made quite a few enemies during his journey to become Shadow Monarch, especially the dreaded Hwang Dong Soo, who will seek vengeance for his brother’s death. All these plot points, along with Jinwoo’s family issues, like the identity of his father and his mother’s predicament, will gain significant focus in the second season. 

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