Review: Solo Leveling, "You Aren't E-Rank, Are You?" (Season 2, Episode 1)

As anime fans rave about how good Solo Leveling is, I decided to start the second season. Hot take: the first season didn’t leave a lasting impression on me.

Let’s see what this one has in store.

Starting off, I really liked that the first episode had a recap of the previous season. Oftentimes, it takes months or even years for new anime seasons to come out and what previously happened isn’t fresh in my memory. Thankfully, Solo Leveling gave me that reawakening.

There are few anime that pull off world-building successfully, but Solo Leveling is already off to a great start. After the hunters get trapped in a red gate, they get transported to a snowy forest full of ice elves and ice bears.

As soon as they are transported there, an ice elf instantly kills one of the hunters and shoots an ice arrow at Sung Jinwoo, which he stops with his bare hands. The stakes are high. Very high.

Now that they are deserted in this icy wasteland, the hunters have to figure out how to survive until they defeat the beast or the other hunters find a way to reach them. An A rank hunter decides to split them into two groups, making the mistake of not sticking with Sung Jinwoo. After the A ranker’s party gets ambushed by ice elves, they all get killed except for him as he flees the scene.

Meanwhile, Sung Jinwoo’s party fights off ice bears and Jinwoo even takes down the boss ice bear. However, having to hide the true potential of his power proves troublesome, resulting in him being very cautious when he uses it.

A new threat is introduced—Hwang Dongsoo, an A rank hunter, is after Jinwoo and is set on killing him because he believes that Jinwoo killed his brother.

Just how many hunters will be able to survive this icy wasteland? Will the other hunters save them or will they have to defeat the boss to escape?