Solo Leveling Episode 19 Review – I Have a Bad Feeling About This…

Something big is about to happen in Solo Leveling. The plot threads are definitely coming together in a foreboding way, so it will probably be intense. I suspect that insanely high-level dungeons like Jeju Island will start appearing all over the world. (Though I don’t know why.) At the same time, the insectoid monsters from Jeju Island will start attacking people on the mainland. That’s my prediction.

This installment seemed like the calm before the storm. Let’s review what happened in episode 19 (AKA season 2 episode 7), before the world goes to hell.

Episode 19: The 10th S-Rank Hunter

Episode Rating: 8/10

In this episode, Jinwoo went to get his Hunter Rank officially updated to S. Baek and Choi were both there to witness the event. Both were extremely awed by Jinwoo’s level of magic power. Due to a certain coincidence, a news crew was there and happened to catch Jinwoo as he came out of the assessment building. The cat is now out of the bag and everyone – including Jinah – knows about the newest S-Rank Hunter, Jinwoo Sung.

A young man named Minsung Lee was introduced in this episode. He doesn’t seem like a major character, but I thought he was worth mentioning. Minsung seems to be an idol or influencer. He was the real reason the news crew was there. He clearly has a serious attitude problem, expecting everyone to recognize him and threatening to get people fired who didn’t cooperate with his main character syndrome.

(Side note: Jinchul Woo was hot as fuck in this scene just like always.)

Jinho Yoo also reappeared in this episode, but things didn’t go according to his original plan. He couldn’t convince Jinwoo to join his guild. So, instead of staying and serving with his brother in the family guild, Jinho plans to work together with Jinwoo – wherever he may go. Jinho’s father calls this selfish, but the son adamantly insisted he would follow Jinwoo. He also decided it was time to move out from his parent’s place. I like Jinho and it’s good to see him becoming more independent.

Later, Jinho’s father falls ill with the same sickness as Jinwoo’s mother. After a period of intense sleepiness and occasional passing out, he will fall asleep one day and enter a coma. Modern science doesn’t know how to cure this illness, but the cause seems to be the inundation of magical power all over the world since dungeons started appearing. Anyone without a natural resistance to magic may fall prey to the sleeping disease. Jinho’s father feels like he’s being culled.

In order to gear up for the dungeon, Jinwoo visited an artifact store. Although even small items like daggers cost millions of yen, items from the system shop are also accepted as artifacts that can be sold for millions, too. For example, Jinwoo bought a dagger worth 2 million from the secret system shop. He was told he could sell it to the artifact store for upwards of 100 million. Meanwhile, Baek thinks about Jinwoo and realizes that he’s probably the first Hunter who can “level up” his abilities.

After making sure Jinah would be protected by some of his shadow army officials, Jinwoo set off to complete the Devil’s Castle Dungeon. The design of the dungeon and the fights within it were impressive to behold. The music this time distinctly reminded me of AOT, which isn’t surprising considering it’s the same composer (Hiroyuki Sawano). Jinwoo made good progress through a few floors of the dungeon, but began to slow down at floor 80 when he discovered his squads were being wiped out.

Before long, Jinwoo found that his men were being killed by a small unit of incredibly strong demons wearing the coolest knight armor. Jinwoo started fighting them, but they were no match for him. In fact, they were intimidated by his awesome power. Jinwoo seemed a little too delighted to have confirmation that dungeon demons can experience fear. Our hero is definitely developing a dark side. To be continued.