The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Episode 3, “Still A Long Way to Go”, available onCrunchyroll.
Summary
Quick Links
The third episode ofSolo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-saw Sung Jinwoo revisit the overwhelmingly challenging Demon Castle Dungeon where he obtains the recipe for the Holy Water of Life, a powerful potion capable of curing all ailments, including the incurable Eternal Sleep Disease that is slowly eroding away his mother’s life. Elsewhere, a series of significant events begins to unfold when a human emerges from beyond a Gate, warning of an unspeakable calamity that is set to take root in the world.
From Jinwoo gaining even more strength to the return of his father after a ten-year absence, episode 3 ofSolo Leveling Season 2had a number of significant moments that set into motion some of this season’s important story beats, not to mention battles that culminated in a satisfying bout against a demon most likely as powerful as Cerberus himself.
Shadows Yearn For the Mines
A Taste of the Comedic Potential of the Shadows
TheSolo Levelinganime has an unmistakably more serious tone than the manhwa, but after Jinwoo completed the Job-Change Quest andgained the title of Shadow Monarch, the Shadows that he enlists as his personal army bring a humorous element to anime whenever they’re on-screen in non-combat situations, particularly Jinwoo’s newest recruit, Iron, whose behavior can elicit a few chuckles, especially when other Shadows interact with him.
The third episode opens with Jinwoo and Jinho completing the 19th and final Raid needed for Jinho to be a Guildmaster. He is shocked at the Shadow army, and is briefly convinced that he’s been replaced, but after the Raid andsubsequent mining of Mana Crystals, the two celebrate at a barbecue place, where Jinho tells Jinwoo about how his older brother of 10 years came to dislike him and never spent time with him. Jinho wishes that Jinwoo could’ve been his brother instead. Jinwoo tells him then and there that he will be Jinho’s honorary older brother, which makes him shed a few tears of joy.
The Talking Magic Beast
Sung Jinwoo’s Father Appears
Just before the opening credits, there’s a scene of an unknown man on a wrecked ship-like Dungeon, advancing on an English-speaking man in full armour. The English-speaking man (James, an A-Rank Hunter) is terrified as it’s clear that the unknown man took out his allies. He can tell that they have a language barrier, so he tells James in English that he’s human and wants to go home. This man is revealed to benone other than Sung Il Hwan– the father of Sung Jinwoo and Jinah, who went missing around ten years prior to the events of the series. He is taken into custody by the Americans, who call upon S-Rank Hunter Hwang Dongsoo, fresh from his Korea trip, to talk to him in case he’s dangerous.
Sung Il Hwan claims to have been trapped in a Gate over 10 years ago, emerging from a Gate that appeared in the United States. Since he emerged from a Gate, there’s no way of knowing if he’ssome kind of “human-shaped monster”. When Hwang Dongsoo arrives, he comes with his characteristic arrogance, and Il Hwan’s cryptic musings about how little humanity actually knows about the Gates, the Dungeons and the magical energy that now permeates the world only make him bolder.
Il Hwan claims that his goal is to prevent a disaster from happening, one that not even all the Hunters in the world would be able to thwart. Dongsoo reads Il Hwan’s file and learns that he’s Jinwoo’s father, unleashing a murderous aura as he tells the “talking magic beast” that he should meet Jinwoo (whom he believes is already dead) in Hell. There’s a brief cut to Jinwoo quite literally battling demons in the hellish landscape of the Demon Castle, so Dongsoo wasn’t wrong about him being in Hell, but when we cut back to Il Hwan and Dongsoo, we’re met with the scene of firefighters rushing to douse the blazing fires around what used to be the building where Il Hwan was being held, with the Dongsoo sprawled in the wreckage. The lack of damage to the immediate surroundings led the workers to a terrifying thought: Hwang Dongsoo was defeated in a mere instant, before the catastrophic damage that comes withthe battle between two S-Class Hunters. Sung Il Hwan’s introduction at this stage completely upends the hierarchy of characters we’ve seen until now,
Jinho Gets the Opportunity He Was Hoping For
His Father Wants Him to Sign Jinwoo At All Costs
Jinho meets with his father to show him that he kept his end of their deal. Now thathe qualifies to be a Guildmaster, Jinho is eligible to lead Yoojin Construction’s new Hunter Guild, narrowly beating his brother to the punch. Jinho asks his father to hand over the company and allow him to run it, to which his father agrees, but only on the condition that Jinho prevents the White Tiger Guild from enlisting the services of Hunter Sung Jinwoo, whom he is aware has been involved in various strange Dungeon incidents, including the Double Dungeon Incident, the mysterious deaths of prisoner Hunters who were on the Association’s watch, and most recently,the Red Gate incident. He’s also aware that Jinho managed 20 Raids because of Sung Jinwoo’s help. Mr Ahn from the White Tiger Guild goes on a search for Jinwoo, together with B-Rank Hunter Park Heejin, who was one of the survivors of the Red Gate, but they’re unable to find him.
?????
????? (100th Floor)
Jinwoo Takes a Trip
Revisiting the Demon Castle Instant Dungeon
Jinwoo decides to tell Jinah he’s going on a trip for a week to give himself time to make some progress in the Demon Castle Instant Dungeon, where he fought andnarrowly killed Cerberus inSolo Levelingseason 1. Looking to complete his collection of the ingredients for the Holy Water of Life, Jinwoo spends several days working his way up the 100 floors of the Dungeon, which is a hellish version of Seoul populated by scores of demons.
His goal is to obtain 5000 demon souls, and he manages to do so with minimal struggle until he faces the Demon Castle’s first Boss, Vulcan the Avaricious, a gigantic orc-like demon who is faster than he looks and severely outmatches Jinwoo in terms of strength, at least according to the red colour of the text in the monster’s name bar in the System’s HUD. The battle against Vulcan is short but really exciting for how dynamic the animation is in this scene, adapting the manhwa to such a high degree of quality in its animated form.
Do the Undead experience fear?
– Sung Jinwoo to Metus, Guide of Souls
Jinwoo’s confidence has grown, and the way he deals with Vulcan’s immense speed and strength shows how used to dangerous situations he has become. The Vulcan fight was definitely the most exciting aspect ofSolo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-episode 3, as it combinesthe high-octane fight choreography we’ve come to expectfrom the series, with Jinwoo’s link-up with his shadows. His dramatic finisher on Vulcan earns him several new pieces of gear and various rare items, including a piece of the World Tree itself that was used to form Vulcan’s club.
When Jinwoo’s army advances onto the next boss, Metus, Guide of Souls' territory, he drops a solid Vegeta reference when he asks if the Undead can experience fear. After putting in a solid shift, Jinwoo only has one more ingredient to hunt down before he can make the Holy Water, opting to head back home for now, not knowing just how much commotion awaits. Overall, episode 3 was really exciting for how it juggled multiple important developments, while its rearranged sequence of events expertly leaves outthe current arc’s developing main storyto visit it next week, most likely.
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- is available onCrunchyroll.
Solo Leveling
Cast
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong’s popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
