It’s Official, Solo Leveling Is Over As We Know It

Solo Leveling is one of the biggest anime and manga franchises in the world at the moment, even if it began as something fairly removed from those mediums. Starting as a South Korean web novel series, Solo Leveling has since taken the world by storm in a variety of formats. One of these is now coming to an end in one region, and it’s a much bigger deal than some realize.

The manga version of Solo Leveling is about to end in Japan, though it’s theoretically just a “manga” translation of the manhwa. This is actually the reason why its success was so monumental, as it found popularity in a country that’s usually averse to manhwa, given its own market of similar works. It’s particularly ironic given some of the content in the story, but it does speak to just how big both Webtoon and Solo Leveling have gotten with international audiences.

The Solo Leveling Manga is Ending, But It’s Not Even Really a Manga

Image by D&C Media

Starting out as a novel series by South Korean writer Chugong, Solo Leveling as a whole is nearly a decade old, and it’s only grown stronger in that time. In that time, it’s been released in several formats and even more countries, with one nation having the franchise’s Webtoon/manhwa incarnation changed somewhat to fit with local comic book standards.

The Japanese Solo Leveling manga incarnation is actually just a physically revised version of the Webtoon iteration, with these changes seeing it reoriented for a panel-by-panel format. This was an absolute necessity both to work physically and to appeal to the Japanese manga market, as Webtoons are optimized for mobile devices. As a result, the 15 volumes of the manhwa were “expanded” into 25 manga volumes, as this was needed in order to contain all the material.

These aren’t the only alterations to the Japanese release, however, which is what makes the success of the manga so ironic. Most notably, the names of the characters were localized to be Japanese in the manga, with Sung Jinwoo becoming Shun Mizushino. It’s also worth bringing up that, in the original version of the story, the setting is South Korea, with a Japanese group portrayed as purely antagonistic.

This element was dropped completely in the manga version, which instead put all the action in Tokyo. Now, the series’ final manga volume is being released at the end of June, coming to a close after seven years of publication. While it might seem almost minute given the nature of the manga, it concludes another manifestation of the franchise and puts it at an overall crossroads. The manga also stands as a major exception to the market’s Japanese dominance, proving just how big Webtoons have gotten in that country.

Why Solo Leveling’s Manga is Its Most Unexpected Success

Japan’s comic book industry is inarguably dominated by native manga for a variety of demographics. While other works find popularity there, they’re comparatively niche next to the massive juggernaut that is manga. Digital comics are easily found on platforms such as Piccoma, which is where Solo Leveling first found success in the country.

On that service alone, it soon gained over 600 million views, and the e-book sales of the collected editions have done similarly. Likewise, the physical manga sales were just as immense, making it a rare exception for “manhwa” in Japan. Such popularity is almost never seen in Japan for comic book works whose origins are from outside the country, though the physical and narrative elements changed to make it work for the Japanese market certainly did a lot of heavy lifting.

Perhaps the biggest point of confusion over the manga’s popularity is that the anime is widely disliked in Japan. Solo Leveling as a whole is heavily criticized for sharing many of the worst elements of isekai anime and light novels, with Sung Jinwoo being an overpowered and somewhat boring protagonist who starts out as a loser before gaining immense abilities.

The distaste for these and other related tropes has increased in the 2020s, so seeing them in anime and manga based on Korean works is even less appealing. This explains why the Solo Leveling anime wasn’t at all a huge hit in Japan, especially since it lacked many of the elements that were altered in order to aid the manga’s potential.

In Japan, the Solo Leveling anime had mediocre to poor sales, but the manga’s sales were the exact opposite. That’s why its ending is such a big deal, and it does represent a watershed moment for the brand as a whole.

How Much Longer Will Solo Leveling Reign Supreme?

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Currently, there have been two seasons of the Solo Leveling anime adaptation, with another on the way. It’s believed that there will be around two to three more seasons and perhaps even a movie conclusion made after, but even that won’t likely be the end of this incarnation of the brand.

There’s also a rumored “six-season plan” for a pending anime of the sequel story, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok. The Webtoon version of that story isn’t even completed yet, so there’s a lot more of the story to be brought to the small screen. This is without even getting into the planned live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling, and if it’s anything like the Netflix version of One Piece, it will extend the life of the franchise even further.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and the conclusion of the brand’s manga is one manifestation of this concept. The original novel versions of Solo Leveling and Solo Leveling: Ragnarok are over, with the latter ending in 2025. Similarly, both the Webtoon and its “manga translation” are now done, so this means that the initial iterations of the brand are finished.

Even if the various other adaptations (including the video game Solo Leveling: Karma) have years of material in the tank, it’s inarguable that this is the end of an era for what began as a web novel a decade ago. Conversely, with so many doors closing in quick succession, it begs the question of how long the property can maintain its hype and importance within the industry, especially once tastes, fads and trends begin to truly change for new audiences.

Manga, anime, and light novels are seeing a decline in the popularity of isekai, and anything isekai-adjacent will certainly suffer the same fate. This means that even something as big as Solo Leveling could go from prince to pauper far sooner than expected.

One thing that it has on its side is the fact that so many adaptations are still being produced or just starting, which is not quite the case for some of the other biggest anime and manga of the past decade. The massively popular Demon Slayer ended its manga years ago, and while the anime is still being made, this creates a sort of countdown to when the brand will begin a natural fall from relevance after all the source material is adapted.

Chainsaw Man is much the same way, but with the added caveat that its anime adaptation wasn’t nearly as big as some anticipated. By having so many iterations and a sequel’s worth of the same left to adapt or begin, Solo Leveling can stave off the end of the proverbial road for much longer. Still, Japanese fans who fell in love with the “manga” and didn’t have the same love for the anime will definitely be rethinking their ties to the franchise, with one of its biggest success stories now over.

Author

Chugong

Artist

Dubu

Release Date

March 4, 2018

Chapters

190