Thanks for visiting Anime Rants today! Solo Leveling is becoming more interesting to me as the episodes continue. I’m interested in the character psychology – especially that of Jinwoo – though it’s nothing mind-blowingly creative or well-written. I think it’s above average though. Without further ado, here are my reviews for Solo Leveling episodes 8, 9, and 10.

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Episode 8: This Is Frustrating

Jinwoo needs to get stronger before he can re-enter the S-rank dungeon. So, he meets with Jinho and tells him he’ll help clear the nineteen dungeons. However, Jinwoo insists that the actual dungeon clearing will be done only by him and Jinho. The other six members will be hired just to meet the requirement of eight members. Jinwoo wants it this way so he can level up mostly by himself. Jinho reluctantly agrees.

This episode revealed that there are five major Guilds in the world of Hunters. These five are the Hunters Guild, the White Tiger Guild, the Shinigami Guild, the Fame Guild, and the Knight Guild. Jong-In Choi, the man with reddish suit and glasses, is the Guild-Master of the Hunters Guild. He works with Hae-in Cha, who serves as Vice-Guild-Master.

In this episode, Choi meets with his friend, Yoon-ho Baek, who is the Guild-Master of the White Tiger Guild. He reveals that he plans to do a raid on Jeju Island in the near future. Jeju Island is the place that was taken over by monsters after a group of Hunters failed to clear the dungeon. Even S-Rank Hunters were overwhelmed by that place. Choi and Baek were in the original team of Hunters on Jeju Island, and they lost companions there. It’s especially important for them to go back to the island and conquer it.

As you may recall, five people survived the double-dungeon incident a few months ago. This episode showed us snapshots of the lives of some of the survivors. For instance, Mr. Kim has a wife and an adorable little daughter. He loves them both and continues doing low-level dungeon runs to provide for them. The man who led the group into the double-dungeon, Mr. Song, is an excellent martial artist. Even after losing an arm, he goes on practicing.

Joo-hee Lee is a survivor who sustained major psychological trauma in the double-dungeon incident. I’m very interested in character psychology, so I was happy to see Joo-Hee again. Although she’s trying to cope and keep taking Hunter jobs, her support system is not helping one bit. Her rude and controlling mother is always talking down to her and trying to convince her to return home. I applaud Joo-Hee for snapping at her mom and hanging up the phone. I hope to see her overcome this trauma and establish a better support system.

By coincidence, the five survivors of the double-dungeon incident all gather to work on clearing the same D-rank dungeon. They all need work for various reasons. The five of them are: Jinwoo, Jooh-Hee, Mr. Song, Mr. Kim, and a big man whose name I can’t remember. (We didn’t see anything about his life.) As the five are reuniting, three men in prison jumpsuits arrive, escorted by Tae-Shik Kang. The group of nine heads into the dungeon.

Note: We’ve seen Tae-Shik once before. He accompanied Chul to interview Jinwoo and see if he was having a reawakening. I like Tae-Shik’s character design, and since he’s played by Kouki Uchiyama, it follows that his voice is extremely sexy.

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Episode 9: You’ve Been Hiding Your Skills

Episode 9 was my favorite episode of Solo Leveling so far due to the high-quality action, the character psychology, and the voice-acting. I liked it quite a lot, and I think this show is finally starting to grow on me. I’m never going to call it amazing, but it’s at least moderately interesting now. In addition, the visuals are sometime stunning.

The main event of this episode was the battle with Tae-Shik Kang, who turned out to be a serial killer. I was actually surprised by this twist. Some might have seen it coming based on the stereotypes associated with the character design and voice-acting style, but I assumed Tae-Shik would be on the good side. I thought he would be the bad-boy type, who was rough but still aligned with humanistic causes. So much for that.

When it was revealed that Tae-Shik was killing people for sport, Mr. Song courageously fought him and helped defend Joo-Hee. I really like Mr. Song, as he’s brave, reliable, and sincere. I also liked Mr. Kim, but unfortunately, he did not survive this episode. He was tormented by Tae-Shik, finally dying in front of Jinwoo and company. That was genuinely sad, especially since we know he has a little child waiting for him.

I loved watching the exciting knife fight between Tae-Shik and Jinwoo. The animation was a good mixture of detailed still-frames and bit of fast movement. Eventually, Jinwoo activates his Murderous Intent skill, which allows him to win. He stabs the enemy in the chest. The blood loss and poison on the dagger kills Tae-Shik, but not before he announces that Jinwoo has also killed men before. He made sure Mr. Song and Joo-Hee could hear that.

I was expecting Song and Joo-Hee to react badly, but apart from initial surprise, they were fine. They both know that Jinwoo isn’t some cruel serial killer, even if he has been forced to kill in some kind of situation before. Mr. Song realized almost immediately that Jinwoo must have been through hell in the last few months. He had to make heavy choices to change so much in such a short time. This compassionate response from Mr. Song was refreshing.

Mr. Song once again showed his kindness when he covered up for Jinwoo to help keep his secret. The older man claimed that he was the one who defeated Tae-Shik. I don’t know if that really fooled Jin-Chul, who came to ask questions about the violent incident, but it did show that Jinwoo has allies. After the interview with Jin-Chul, Jinwoo and Joo-Hee spent some time together. The episode ends on that optimistic note.

Before I wrap up this episode review, I want to mention my thoughts on Jinwoo’s mental state. As I mentioned, I love character psychology. It’s extremely interesting to me seeing Jinwoo change into a different person – someone disillusioned with the world, who can essentially “turn off” his old sensibilities of kindness and empathy when necessary. I don’t think Jinwoo is becoming evil, per se, but I do agree that he should be cautious going forward in order to avoid losing himself completely.

The most interesting thing Jinwoo said in this episode was, “That’s another of my emotions, gone. I don’t even need anger in order to kill filth like you.” As the fight with Tae-Shik got ever more intense, Jinwoo went emotionally numb. This is actually a good way to survive a life-and-death situation: to shut off your chaotic feelings and act on cold efficiency alone. But it also feels strange to dissociate like this. We have to hope it won’t result in Jinwoo becoming numb when outside of combat, too.

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Episode 10: What is This, A Picnic?

The episode begins with Joo-Hee and Jinwoo hanging out in a small city park after dinner together. Joo-Hee tells Jinwoo that she’s retiring from Hunting because she’s too timid. She’ll move back in with her parents and help the family business. That was sorely disappointing to hear, since I wanted Joo-Hee to stay a Hunter and conquer her trauma. If she’s truly not happy as a Hunter, it’s fine to quit – but will she be okay working with her bitchy mother at home? I honestly hope she doesn’t go with this plan.

Jinwoo doesn’t seem sad that Joo-Hee is leaving, but to be fair, there’s a lot on his mind. Earlier that day, Jin-Chul took him aside to give him a warning: S-Rank Hunter Dong-Soo Hwang is after his life. I’m glad for the warning, but I’m worried Jinwoo isn’t taking it seriously enough. He isn’t taking any extra precautions, at least not that we’ve seen. That insane Hunter will show up one of these days and possibly use Jinwoo’s family to get to him.

Jinho Yoo begins his campaign to clear nineteen dungeons with the help of Jinwoo. He hires a team of social outcasts or those who have it harder as hunters. For instance, there’s a severe alcoholic, an obese man, and a minor. These six members will be paid big money just to sit outside the gate while Jinhoo and Jinwoo enter the dungeon alone. Their contract states that they will have to repay their earnings triple if they tell anyone about this deal.

I like this business plan. I’ve got to hand it to Jinho – he’s not only cute, but also pretty bright. Of course, additionally, he’s a goofball who is often impractical. This makes for good humor. For example, in this episode, we saw Jinho wearing an absurd suit of expensive armor that would raise his stats. The armor is so clunky he can’t even move in it. Jinwoo makes him remove it. That part made me chuckle.

The minor in the group is Song-Yi Han, a highschool girl who is good friends with Jin-Ah. She dropped out of school to make money. So far, Song-Yi lacks any significant character development. I don’t have many thoughts about her yet. However, I like her assertive, grumpy attitude. I’m hoping she turns out to be a good, hard-working Hunter. I mean, if she can make a living just sitting around outside of dungeons, good for her. It’s just that I’d love to see another female character become bad-ass.

In the second half of the episode, we saw Sang-Min Ahn and his assistant trying to recruit Jinwoo for the White Tiger Guild. Jinwoo felt threatened by Ahn’s poking around, so he intimidated the businessman until he agreed to stay quiet. Additionally, Jinwoo pulled off a monetary scam, selling three unneeded dungeon gates to Ahn at ridiculous prices. This scam was just a bit of payback for Ahn snooping around in Jinwoo’s affairs.

I thought Ahn was a fairly interesting man, although a bit aggravating with his opportunistic and sly nature. I didn’t feel bad for Ahn when he got threatened, but I was surprised Jinwoo could pull that off without the slightest ping in his conscience or twinge of uncertainty. Like Ahn said, when you are sufficiently strong, you become bold enough to try anything. To be honest, it worries me to see Jinwoo doing this kind of thing. That’s all for today.

~Thanks for reading~

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