Solo Leveling Fans Need to Address the Big Purple Elephant in the Room

Following in the first season’s footsteps, Season 2 of Solo Leveling is already a huge success with near server-crashing reception to nearly every new episode that that is released. Even eight episodes in, Solo Leveling Season 2 has already blessed fans with many amazing and not to mention visually stunning fights and action sequences, and the series is only set to get better from here on out as it approaches the Jeju Island Arc. Ever since Season 1, Solo Leveling‘s anime has made many changes to the source material, often to the adaptation’s benefit; however, the same can hardly be said of the series’ latest episode, which though exceptional, has one major gripe that needs to be addressed.

Solo Leveling Season 2, Episode 8 adapted the climactic fight between Jinwoo and the boss of the Demon Castle, Demon King Baran, otherwise known as the Monarch of White Flames. While the fight was brilliantly animated and an absolute thrill to watch, fans need to address the elephant in the room, which is Baran’s comically bright color palette. Solo Leveling’s anime, for some absurd reason, chose to make Baran’s body a bright purple instead of the muted tones in the manhwa, and it makes him far less intimidating than he should have been as a result.

Solo Leveling’s Anime Ruined Season 2’s Coolest Looking Villain

Admittedly, while Baran’s colors are fairly inconsistent in the webtoon, his color palette stays fairly muted throughout, varying between shades of grey. Although he does appear to be a somewhat purple-toned grey in some panels, it’s still a far cry from the deep, saturated purple in the anime, which makes him look almost a little too cartoonish. Even Baran’s armor is far from the complementary light gold in the webtoon, with the anime opting for a richer, almost bronzey gold color that further clashes with his purple skin.

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Granted, the webnovel does not make any commitments about Baran’s appearance in terms of his color scheme, making his design in the webtoon a product entirely of Jang Sung Rak’s creativity and own subjective interpretation of the webnovel. That said, with an epithet like the Monarch of White Flames, his grayish tones coupled with his signature glowing white hair make far more sense. It would be an understatement to say that Baran, alongside Kargalgan, is one of the coolest-looking antagonists in the first half of Solo Leveling‘s story, and it is quite disappointing to see him not done justice in the anime, which has been nothing short of amazing so far.

Jinwoo’s Fight Against Baran Could Have Been Straight Out of Dark Souls

One can argue that perhaps Solo Leveling upped the saturation on Baran to help him stand out from the bleak, desolate background of the Demon Castle. However, on the flip side of that argument, the anime could have also changed the background colors to make Baran stand out instead, or even better yet, simply kept the original color scheme and opted to make the battle more gloomy and edgy.

In his original color scheme in the Solo Leveling webtoon, Baran arguably has all the makings of an antagonist straight out of Dark Souls, with his wyvern and long flowing hair even being quite strongly reminiscent of the Nameless King. With the anime’s quick pacing in Season 2, where a major battle takes place nearly every two episodes, leaning into the gloominess could have maybe helped Jinwoo’s fight against Baran stand out against the rest of the anime.

Controversial as this may sound, despite what popular anime like Demon Slayer and Dandadan may have led viewers to believe, bright colors do not necessarily equate to good animation, or rather, animation does not need bright colors to be classified as good. While these shows have no doubt blown fans away with their stunning animation and fight sequences, Solo Leveling may have missed an opportunity to do something different with Jinwoo’s fight against Baran. Sadly, the only things fans can do for now is accept it and move on, and hope that the anime does the upcoming Jeju Arc and its beloved antagonist, The Ant King, the justice he deserves, unlike what’s happened for Baran.

Solo Leveling Season 2 is available to stream on Crunchyroll.