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A section of Japanese fans are reportedly unhappy at A-1 Pictures being in charge of Solo Leveling‘s anime adaptation and have voiced their discontent on social media platforms.
The general discontent exists, not because of A-1 Pictures inability aptly to animate Chugong’s web novel, but due to the fact that a Japanese studio has taken up the project.
In Solo Leveling, Japan is often depicted in poor light, with minor characters and villains in both the web novel as the webtoon shown to be hailing from the land of the rising sun.
Solo Leveling also singles out Japanese culture at some instances, apparently irking the fans from the country.
“Does Sony take into account the risk of a storm of negative reviews from Japan? If it is not, it could become the seed of strange political disputes between the left and the right. Does that mean they are willing to get involved in the conflict?” a fan comment quoted by Yaraon read.
Another fan pointed out that the original story is anti-Japanese.
“Those who know him know it, but the original story is anti-Japanese. The content is that the Japanese are the bad guys and that Japan is collapsing. For some reason, the Japanese version has a Japanese protagonist, do you think they’ll get away with that?”
The disappointment over the portrayal of Japan, its people and its culture in both the Solo Leveling webtoon and the novel made them question what A-1 Pictures was thinking when they took up the project.
“I have heard that it is based on an anti-Japanese story. I wonder what is the intention of A-1 Pictures in making an anime of such a thing in Japan. Well, I don’t care because I don’t watch this kind of anime,” another comment read.
There were, however, some fans who were of the opinion that an altered version of Solo Leveling, similar to how it was distributed in Japan with a Japanese hero, would be adapted into anime by A-1 Pictures.
Crunchyroll announced at their Anime Expo panel on July 3, 2022, that Solo Leveling will be getting an anime adaptation. The anime will release on the streaming platform sometime in 2023.
A new trailer and a teaser visual were released to commemorate the announcement.
Crunchyroll describes the story of Solo Leveling as follows:
It’s been over a decade since the sudden appearance of the “gates”—the paths that connect our world with a different dimension. Since then, certain humans have awakened to supernatural powers. We call these individuals “hunters.” Hunters make their living by using their powers to conquer dungeons inside the gates. In this world of tough customers, the low-ranked hunter Jinwoo Sung is known as “the weakest hunter of all mankind.” One day, Jinwoo gets fatally injured when he runs into high-rank double dungeons hidden within a low-rank dungeon. Just then, a mysterious quest window appears in front of him. On the verge of death, Jinwoo decides to accept the quest and starts leveling up… while the others aren’t.
Source: Yaraon
Wtf man idc even it is the author’s choice and which studio gonna take this instead be glad tht it is releasing in japanese and what was so offending in the manhwa anyway it is from korea ofcourse he would only promote his own character y take it seriously man it is just a manhwa shame on you people
Try the chairman of the Japanese association planning a whole thing to kill most of Korea’s S-class hunters and accidentally killing the most powerful hunter in Japan instead
Wow, so this newcoming anime will be the most anticipated but also the most controversial, huh. It’s barely a week from the official announcement and it’s already this blew up. The fans cheering and the haters keep ranting. Is this the price for being too popular?
Next year will be crazy.
Anyone fully immersed in this manhwa won’t give a rats ass on how japan is depicted, they will be far more focused on jin-woos fight scenes. I know I didn’t care nor did I know people cared until I read this bs
What I don’t understand is why it wasn’t picked up by a Korean Animation studio and produced IN KOREAN.
Because they don’t have a tradition of animation , not sure if they even have animation studios .. it’s already rare to see a Korean manhwa adapted and those are usually made in Japan .
I share your thoughts bro
Woke crap seeping into anime , don’t even remember what it said badly about Japan .. it was not animated by Koreans because they don’t animate shit , only make pretty colorful CGI manhwas
Pretty justified imo. The japs were horribly depicted in the manhwa. First, most if not all the japanese hunters and their assoc chairman is racist against koreans. They also hatched a plan to kill their s class hunters and to backstab them after, only to pressure them for recompense and to also get land from them. They also depicted a huge chunk of japan being destroyed by a gate inhabited by giants wherein they had no choice but to basically beg the mc to save them. It’s pretty much torture and masturbation porn both at the same time. Tbh though, they could just animate a different manhwa altogether. Imo, ORV is a crapton better than SL.
Fr, orv is hella good
We gotta wait a long, real long time for orv to be animated lmao. Also, tbh I’d rather it never gets an animation than see a lousy adaptation of orv yk.
BTW, I do hope one day either return of the mount hua sect(1200+ novel chapter) or volcanic age(each novel chapter is above 3000 words) manhwa get animated, as those 2 are bangers as good as orv
Hello brothers and sisters!!!
The reason the Japanese Anime fans are angry is bcuz of the part where most of tokyo got destroyed due to a gate and the fact that their hunters association is run by greedy asshats. However, I believe they forgot to consider the original time lines that were altered before Jinwoo became the monarch, as in those time lines Korea is destroyed by Ashborn’s shadow army.
Also, those who are wondering why no Korean studios animated it, it as a previous comment said they don’t have a tradition of animation nor do any of the manhwa get animated, and if they by chance do, they are usually animated by Japanese studios.
I share your thoughts bro