Solo Leveling Season 2 Kicks Off Its Best Arc, But Is It Moving Too Fast?

Solo Leveling Season 2 is easily Winter 2025’s most popular anime. Jinwoo’s adventures continue as he strives to become stronger with each step. The first season concluded with Jinwoo becoming a Necromancer, opening room for many mysteries to be solved in the later seasons. Jinwoo is now able to control an army of Shadows, giving him unimaginable powers. His new ability, paired with insane physical attributes, makes him a force to be reckoned with. As the story continues, he keeps gaining more powerful soldiers who aid him in dire circumstances.

In the second season, he is already an S-Rank Hunter, but even then, he continues to level up. He hid his true ability all this time while waiting to see the true extent of his abilities. The System gives him all the power he needs, but Jinwoo, it will come at a price someday. Season 2 begins with the Red Gate Arc and covers the Demon Castle, Retesting Rank, Hunters Guild Gate, and Return to Demon Castle Arcs. That’s quite a lot of chapters to cover in only 13 episodes, and the anime doesn’t stop there. Solo Leveling Season 2 is now commencing its Jeju Island Arc, but is the anime moving too fast?

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Solo Leveling Is Rushing Season 2, But That’s for the Best

Compared to Season 1, which covered 45 chapters in 12 episodes, Season 2 is expected to cover 61 chapters, which is a significant difference. Since the anime’s second season has already commenced with the Jeju Island Arc in its ninth episode, we can expect the entire arc to be covered this season. For many, this is the event fans have been waiting for, with the Jeju Island Arc typically seen as the most exciting of the series, before the crucial next step. This leaves room for the “actual” story to begin in Season 3, where the mysteries about the Shadow Monarch will slowly unravel.

Ideally, the second season should have only covered Solo Leveling’s story till the Return to Demon Castle Arc while teasing the Jeju Island Arc, which begins in Chapter 90 of the manhwa. This would’ve allowed the suspense to build up for the third season while keeping a steady pace through the second season, but on the flip side, this allows fans to stay especially invested in an exciting finale before the next step in the saga.

Doing so would also mean the second season will cover the exact number of episodes as the first season. However, now the anime is excluding certain minor scenes from the manhwa as a result. They even skipped Yoo Sohyoon’s introduction. Aside from Yoo Sohyoon, the other changes don’t affect the story as much, but they still would’ve been a nice addition. The fights are shorter but well animated and choreographed.

While the rushed second season can’t be denied, the anime makes up for it by delivering high-quality animation and intense battles. Hence, Solo Leveling Season 2 keeps up the hype even with a faster pace. The decision by A-1 Pictures turned out to be right, considering the enormous hype of the season. Season 2 is clearly more popular than the first season before it even began the manhwa’s best arc – the Jeju Island Arc.

What Should You Expect from the Jeju Island Arc?

The latest episode has only shown a prologue of this arc, but the real fight will commence in the upcoming episode. Solo Leveling’s anime has been hyping up the Jeju Island Arc since its debut. The opening scene in the anime’s first season is an anime-original featuring a raid on Jeju Island three years before the current timeline. The S-Rank raid fails with several casualties, but Jongin Choi refuses to let it go.

He’s determined to set things right and reclaim Jeju Island from the monsters. In the first season’s finale, they discover that the ants are evolving and can now cover long distances. This means those devastatingly powerful monsters are learning to fly long distances, presenting a clear and imminent danger to Korea. Hence, time is crucial, and Korea must find a way to conquer the dungeon break. With Jinwoo becoming the tenth S-Rank Hunter of the country, they now have better odds at victory.

The anime will also introduce new characters as we will witness the biggest raid in the story so far. S-Rank Hunters from Japan will also join the Korean Hunters. Fans should brace themselves for intense action and tragedy as well. While this arc won’t unravel the mystery behind the System’s origins or Jinwoo’s powers as the Shadow Monarch, Solo Leveling fans will get an important clue about them, and some truly thrilling action throughout.