Solo Leveling Season 2 is the biggest anime of the Winter 2025 lineup. The show follows Sung Jinwoo in a world where the appearance of gates ten years ago has changed modern society. Within the gates, lie dangerous monsters that can’t be defeated by modern weapons. With the appearance of the gates, certain people started awakening the powers to combat those monsters. They are called Hunters and they raid those dungeons to protect the people and get their hands on the treasures lying inside. Jinwoo is one of those Hunters, but it’s difficult for him to make ends meet since he’s the weakest Hunter in mankind.
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His life turns upside down when he gets a mysterious system after a near-death experience in a double dungeon. The system helps him level up and we see his journey from being an underdog to the strongest Hunter. While the manhwa heavily focuses on the main character, the novel delves deeper into side characters as well. Solo Leveling’s female lead, Cha Hae-in, in particular, suffers a lot of setbacks because of her portrayal in the manhwa. Unfortunately, the anime portrays her in the same way as the manhwa, which is quite different from the novel where her character is much more fleshed out.
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Solo Leveling Manhwa and Anime Have Considerably Changed Cha Hae-in’s Character
The manhwa relies more on the visual representation of the story while the novel focuses more on internal thoughts. Her introduction in the novel is more detailed, spotlighting her reputation as Korea’s only female S-Rank hunter and her unique sensitivity to mana. We find out about her reserved behavior and difficulty interacting with others much sooner than the manhwa. Furthermore, the novel explores her growing feelings for Jinwoo in detail.
Her perspective on their relationship and her desire to stay with Jinwoo is fleshed out more. Hae-in ending up together with Jinwoo feels anti-climatic if you consider the novel. In the manhwa, we see her depicting her feelings with expressions like blushing or looking awkward but not much with her inner monologue. Since she’s socially awkward because of her unique sensitivity, she struggles to interact with people during a guild dinner.
However, Jinwoo’s presence comforts her and her inner monologue explores her feelings for him in detail. In the manhwa, the romantic tension is lacking. Her personality is more interesting in the novel as she turns out to be different from how she is introduced. During the epilogue, Solo Leveling focuses on returning her to the person she was before awakening as a S-Rank Hunter. Most of the issue with her portrayal lies with the manhwa excluding or reducing her inner monologue.
While the manhwa brings Cha Hae-in to life with stunning visuals and action scenes, the novel provides a deeper understanding of her character, emotions, and development. Like the manhwa, the anime also only focuses on her at the surface level. Solo Leveling Season 2 has already wrapped up its second arc, so its pacing is much faster than the first season. In this case, it’s improbable that the anime will explore her character the same the novel did.
